This may work for your dogs but it certainly wouldn't work for mine. I choose to give my dogs lots of praise whether it is food, toys or verbal. We use them all.

I did actually laugh at myself as I was packing the van for taking 3 dogs to agility training tonight. My treat bag consisted of large pack of 10 hot dogs, 2 balls on ropes, tuggy rope, squeaky toy, spare squeaky toy incase first one broke, skueaky toy with tuggy rope attached. All were used (apart from spare) and there was no leading a donkey with a carrot.

I do not at all believe in giving praise and affection sparingly. All my dogs get affection for doing absolutely nothing and praise for the slightest achievement. Small achievements go on to be bigger achievements in my opinion.

Great post.

All of the very successful dog trainers, owners, handlers and competitors I know feel the same, that is why they are so successful!

Dog training IS easy, anyone CAN do it, as dogs are simple, they do what works, so it is easy to to get them not only to do what we want but, more importantly, LOVE to do it, because they know they are going to get positive reinforcement and rewarded with praise, body rubs, food, a game etc.


None of the successful people I know faze anything out, as if they did, their success would be fazd out!

Insistence is an interesting one. If my dog fails at something, that is a reflection on me, not my dog. I will not get cross and/or force the dog back into a position. If the dogs gets it wrong, it is a) because I have asked for too much, b) not trained the dog correctly in the first place. I am the trainer. If my dog was breaking a stay (as in your example) I would look at why that happened? Had I asked the dog to remain for longer than they were comfortable (building up the time too fast), were there distractions around that I had not proofed my dog with yet? If my dog moves, I do not want to set it up to fail again, so I might not take it back and ask for the same behaviour straight away. There are so many other factors to look at.

That sounds like the stuff that was told to me 45 years ago when my dad used to train his GSD with the police dogs at Keston. It worked to an extent although even then they had realised that in search work they needed a high value reward for the dog to ensure safety when searching for explosives.

Why should training a dog be a skill that only the few can achieve.

Maybe there is no skill in what I teach my dogs but they sure as hell enjoy the journey and the fun in learning.

Etta can't wait to work for food and is doing her search work for a squeaky latex ball as an ordinary ball is not a high enough reward.
Rune used to prefer a ball, Champa likes either, Polly was a foody, Coo a foody, George food, Saff food----she never did get the idea of playing. Saff would also work just for a fuss but she was better with food.

The gundog quartering is different---it is a reward in itself. The agility became a reward in itself for some of them.

I praise my dogs all the time just for being themselves!

rune

Jed wont really work unless I have treats. However, I have toned down the use of these, especially if it's something he knows and i'm not teaching him a new behaviour. For agility I used to have treats in my hand to guide him round and motivate him but now they stay in the treat bag until the end. Verbal or physical praise wouldnt work with Jed because he's not a dog that craves physical attention, he's more likely to move away from you if you offer strokes! And, he's not toy orientated.

I think the difference is down to the use of the clicker. Before, I used to use treats all the time to lure behaviours, improve motivation and focus and always had a handful of tasties. Now, I tend to keep the treats out of the way and use the clicker mainly, rewarding with food at my leisure instead of being in a hurry to shove some down their throat!

I use toys only occassionally with Flynn because he's quite a vigourous player and he gets too wound up. For gundog training I use praise alone as his motivation for this is so high that a stroke and soft words are all thats needed. Plus, I have to remain calm and quiet with this kind of training so as not to push him into an excited state. For general obedience and trick stuff I use the clicker and treats. I do tend to find that Flynn takes praise as a release command (although "ok" is my actual release command). So, if he's in a stay and I praise him he takes that as his cue to get up so I have to be careful when I praise him and reinforce the original command.

I dont really train Jessie but she does respond well to verbal praise. She is very sensitive to my voice and hates to think she's done something wrong so I use my voice with her more than I do the other 2.

Really interesting reading how different dogs respond and what they need during training...whats the ear 'twiddle'?

With Axel we used treats a lot at first, but now mix it up so sometimes treats and sometimes praise. It's working well for us and he enjoys both. When praising him, I'll use a high excited voice and he eans into my legs and if we're ear rubbing, he'll do a groan of happiness and push his head into your hand and lower his neck. He also likes massage and wiggles!

Henry loves it when you praise him verbally, he goes all wriggly (his bottom can nearly touch his head where he bends in the middle), and he does a little wonky smile so you can see his teeth on one side.

If you continue to praise him and we are at home, he will run to get one of his toys and start throwing it around, if he is out and on the lead he will keep stopping and looking adoringly at you

I find the verbal praise works better, if you give him a treat he won't leave your side looking for more so you can't get him to work/do what you want him to do as he is scared he's going to miss out on another sweetie.