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Location: Middlesex
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 834
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Originally Posted by
Swifty
No click or reward is needed, except good boy or good girl............ I guess the good boy or good girl is the same as the click, but dogs should not work for food
A click is marker that tells the dog that is what you want him to do . Its exact, is especially good for marking something ( a behaviour) that is difficult to catch or is over quickly .
You then reinforce the marker , it doesn't have to be with food , it can be anything that the dog likes . Reinforcement encourages the dog to want to do it again .
"good boy" can used be a Marker , it can be also be used to tell a dog the exercise if over , a Release but then it gets confusing for the dog because if you use "good boy" as a marker or release , you need to say or do something else as the reward or reinforcer . They're separate things .
what is "praise " to a dog . A couple of words mean nothing to the dog , he has to learn what they mean just as he has to learn what Sit means, by association .
Usually when you use praise , you tend to use a happy jolly excited tone and make a fuss of the dog. Dogs learn that happy tones and relaxed body language means everything is ok and that cross harsher tones and tense body language means something bad might happen. So if he gets a good boy and a fuss , which he may enjoy and find rewarding .
Nervous dogs can also feel relief when they are praised because they know they are not in trouble , relief is very rewarding and a reinforcer.
I don't agree that dogs shouldn't work for food.
Dogs in the wild or feral will work for food , they hunt for prey , they scavange .
I like my dogs to work for food .
It satisfies their work ethic and also you could look at it this way , why should they have treats and food for doing nothing. Why shouldn't they earn then?