CLIMBING THE LEARNING LADDER

Most dogs go through three separate steps when learning trained (i.e. artificial) behaviors. When the trainer first introduces food (or any other external stimulus), the dog has absolutely no idea why it's there. At first he simply thinks. "Oh, she's feeding me. How nice!" he does not connect the food with the specific behavior he has offered. The food is simply a happy chance find and it appears out of the blue for no reason at all. In the second step, the dog begins to connect food with something he does, but he responds only when the food is actually present. He has not yet grasped the concept that he has the power to produce the food by his own behavior. It is the presence of food that causes the specific behavior that the dog offers.

The goal is to have the dog arrive at the third and final step - the step at which the connection between the food and the behavior becomes reversed, and the dog begins to understand that it is actually his behavior that produces the food. The dog must realize, "Oh, she's feeding me because I sat". Dogs do not progress automatically from one step to the next, and many a good training program has floundered due to the reluctance or the inability of the trainer to move from the second to the third step. The trainer must stop enticing the dog with food, and start withholding it until after the dog offers the behavior.

Trainers need to distinguish between these three steps and move as quickly as possible from the first through the second to the third. There are certain ways you can reinforce him for doing what you ask, such as a pat and a heartfelt, "Good boy!" at the end of an exercise successfully completed.

Therefore, a sound training program uses reinforcement instead of enticement. This is critical! Certainly you want your dog to believe that all sorts of pleasurable things will happen if he comes when you call, but that is quite different from having a dog that comes only when you wave a piece of food at him.

As teachers, we want to help our dogs understand what to do and to offer those behaviors with confidence, even if reinforcement is not immediately available. To achieve this, we need to have a plan of action that clearly communicates to our dogs the behaviors we wish them to perform. The following is a suggested plan for teaching something simple like the sit.

SET PRECISE GOALS

You should have a mental picture of exactly what you want before beginning to teach it. If the dog is going to learn how to sit it is best that he learn how to do it correctly from the start. No repeats of commands. Tell him to sit, and if he does not… give your dog a one second delay and then help him to sit. We want the dog to learn to sit on the first command only. You want the dog to maintain a happy and energetic attitude while he performs this, or any, exercise.

IDENTIFY THE COMPONENTS OF THE EXERCISE

Now that you have a picture of the ideal sit, take that picture and break it into its essential components. The best trainers break a whole exercise down into manageable chunks for the dog to master, clearly communicate what movements the dog must make in performing each chunk, and motivate the dog to joyfully offer that behavior when asked.

Once you have set your goals and broken the exercise down into manageable chunks, you can now start training.