Email it     Talk about it     Print it

Patience Rewarded

Advice from Animal Expert Dr. Grey Stafford

I once had someone tell me that they love the idea of only using positive reinforcement with their dog and refraining from punishment, but that it was just too impractical.  After all, they said, the reinforcement way of training pets often seems to take forever and dogs only live about a dozen years, give or take. 

Given that we live in a world of instant access to results such as ready to eat meals, shopping online, and on the spot financing, I suppose it's no wonder that we don’t have a lot of patience when it comes to solving behavior problems with our pets.  Understandably, we want things to improve now, not later.

It's Never Too Late
But no matter what age or stage of development your pet may be, it's never too late to start training without punishment. However, in the interest of full disclosure, the sooner you start using reinforcement and give up on punishment, the easier and faster things will improve.  Plus, training with praise, toys, attention and treats instead of threats, corrections and pain is fun for you and your pet.  And, best of all, it doesn’t take forever.  It simply takes a little planning and prevention.

Plan Ahead to Reinforce
First, reinforcing animals for displaying desirable behavior takes planning.  That is to say, it requires you to think about and to decide when, where and how you intend to say “thank you” for calm, cooperative and successful behaviors like sit, stay, lie down, come, heel, as well as, sleep through the night, go potty in appropriate places, chew your toys not the couch, don’t bite the neighbor’s kid and so on… 

Pets only do what we teach them, so know what you want them to do and reward them for doing it.

Plan Ahead to Prevent Mistakes
Second, reinforcement training will lead to faster, longer lasting results if we prevent disasters ahead of time.  For example, if you have a teething puppy, don’t leave your good shoes on the floor—they're just too tempting for a young pup looking to sooth its gums.  Most pet mistakes are the result of OUR failure to prevent them.  And once a pet makes a behavior mistake, It's way too easy for us to fall into the old habit of resorting to punishment, especially since there’s nothing good to reinforce!

So, prevent mistakes by controlling your pets' access to areas of the home or yard where they may get into trouble. This is particularly important while you are away and they are left unsupervised.

Dr. Grey

Learn more about Dr. Grey Stafford

The information presented and the opinions expressed are those of the content provider. KTVK-TV and KASW-TV do not endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information by the content provider. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, or information shall be at your sole risk.