Looked at this way, force is an unavoidable part of training. In training the positive way, you will minimize the use of force, but you will have to use it sometimes. Used in the context of training based on positive reinforcement, the negative effects of force are for the most part minimal.
The amount of force you’ll have to use depends on many factors, such as the individual personality of your dog, your dog’s age when you are starting training, and what you want to accomplish. For instance, a submissive dog of quiet temperament who rarely leaves her house and fenced backyard and started training at 12 weeks of age will need a minimum of force in her training.
On the other hand, a large, rambunctious male dog who is just starting training at a year of age, doesn’t get enough exercise, and has to be walked on leash in a busy neighborhood will probably need more force.
The situations in which force is useful often involve distractions. If something attracts a dog more than the food, praise, or play you can offer, your dog will be distracted. If playing outside on a nice day is more attractive to your dog than the treat he’ll get when he comes inside, he won’t come in when you call him unless you force him to. If your compulsively friendly Golden Retriever wants to jump on your elderly aunt more than he wants to earn a reward by sitting, forcing him not to jump up is definitely a good idea. However, force should be used only after the dog has been trained and you are 100 percent sure he understands what you want.
The use of force in training should not be confused with anger. Trust is an important part of a good relationship with a dog. The fastest way to lose a dog’s trust is to let anger get in the way of good training. Anger is usually the result of wrongly blaming your dog for something you dislike or having unrealistic expectations.
To build a good relationship, you have to stop blaming your dog for acting like a dog—for jumping up to greet people, for running away to chase a squirrel, or for relieving his anxiety when he is left home alone by destructive chewing. Destructive behavior while an owner is away is the circumstance that probably triggers the most anger in dog owners. Any group of dog owners can exchange stories of havoc wreaked in their absence: couches chewed to a pulp, irreplaceable molding around windows destroyed, wall-towall diarrhea.
The list is endless. One of the most memorable I’ve experienced with my own dogs was returning home to find that our young Belgian Tervuren, Sabre, had pulled a large plant out of its pot and then played in the dirt—on our white carpet!
Did we punish him? No! Punishing Sabre would have accomplished nothing other than providing an outlet for our frustration. I’m sure he saw no difference between our indoor plant and the sticks he played with outside. There is no way he could have understood that we were punishing him for something he probably did hours before, so it would have not prevented a future occurrence. I’m sure that if we had yelled at him and acted angry,
Sabre would have acted afraid of us. Many people mistakenly interpret this fearful, submissive behavior as the dog knowing he has done wrong, but that’s not the case. The point of training is definitely not to make your dog afraid of you. We simply cleaned the mess up and made use of the lesson it taught us, which was that Sabre was not ready to be allowed free run of the house.
Actually, it feels good to be free of getting angry at your dog. Anger gets in the way of loving your dog, and it certainly gets in the way of thinking clearly in order to do good training. You have to learn to be tolerant of your new friend. His values are not the same as yours. He does not value the integrity of your personal possessions, so forgive his mistakes until you teach him not to be destructive. Stop blaming, and start training.
The Magic of Training the Positive Way
The magic of training with positive reinforcement and living with your dog
in a positive way is the special relationship you develop with your dog. The
communication is two-way, rather than the one-way communication of traditional
force training.
It is always exciting for me to watch a puppy who is just
starting training discover this two-way communication. It can happen in a
puppy as young as nine weeks. I start by using a treat to teach the puppy to sit.
After a couple of repetitions, the puppy figures out that he can make you give
him food by sitting in front of you. He starts to follow you around the room,
sitting in front of you, without any command or signal from you. I keep
rewarding the puppy with a treat. I want him to know he can get my attention
by sitting, as opposed to jumping up or barking. But what I really want
him to know is that he can communicate with me; I am “listening” to him.
When your training is not based on force, your dog is not inhibited from
trying new behaviors out of fear of being punished. Your dog thus becomes a
much more interesting companion. He shows you more of himself and his
intelligence. You learn more about your dog.
Training the positive way makes you and your dog equal partners in the
training. Both of you get something you want. You get the good behavior
you want, and your dog gets something he wants, as when a puppy
exchanges a sit for a treat. The idea of training the positive way is not to
dominate a subordinate species, but to communicate with an equal but different
one.
Training should be a way of making friends with your dog. Making
friends means establishing mutual understanding based on two-way communication,
mutual respect, and trust. Training in a positive way will help you
accomplish that goal. So let’s get started!
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