Are You Ending Your Training Sessions On A Positive Note-Or Are You Actually Training Bad Habits?

With the new year, many people vow to do better at training their dogs.  They might consult a trainer, read a training book, watch a video or consult the internet for training advice.  If they do, they will probably see the advice to always end their training session “on a positive note”.  For many trainers this has morphed into doing whatever you can to make sure the dog does something, anything, to earn a reward.  Earning a reward is the primary consideration even if it means dropping their standards of obedience.  It may be during a training session or even a walk in the park.  But are you really doing the best for your dog?  Or in your effort to be positive are you actually training bad habits?

I am not talking about trainers who simplify something they are trying to teach a dog.  Most skilled trainers do this so the dog can learn.  What I am referring to is trainers/owners/handlers whose dogs know perfectly well what the trainer/owner/handler is asking them to do but the dog chooses to ignore them and misbehave or be disobedient.  The trainer/owner/handler then tries desperately to cajole the dog to obey the command and finally when the dog complies, they right away praise the dog and give them a reward whether it be a treat, a toy or just playtime because they are “ending on a positive note”.  There is seldom consequences for the misbehavior and eventually most dogs learn they can push boundaries because they are allowed to do so.

Here’s an example of what I am talking about.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people lament that their dogs ran off on them while they were exercising them off lead.  One minute they were being great dogs returning every time they were called and earning a treat for it and the next they were off chasing a squirrel or a deer or something more interesting than the bag of treats they have already mostly consumed.  The person walking the dog calls desperately after the dog and goes on a major search.  Finally when the dog has had enough of the chasing he hears the human’s call and comes running back and is rewarded because the dog finally decided to do what the person waking the dog asked of them 20 minutes earlier.  No rebuke for taking off.  They finish the walk and in the owner’s mind they have ended on a positive note.

As a trainer it is really easy to fall into this training trap.  You are relieved that your dog finally came back and of course you want them to replicate this behavior: the coming back part–not the running off part.  But by not addressing the running off part and rewarding the coming back part are you on the path to training/reinforcing bad habits?

This is one example.  Every time your dog decides to ignore a command and work their own program, you have to consider the best way to deal with it and avoid signaling to them that their behavior is acceptable and unintentionally training bad habits.

Come back tomorrow to read about an issue I was having with Freighter ignoring me to do his own thing and how I dealt with it.  Oh and Storm tried to pull the same thing and I used the same method I used on Freighter to get her to straighten up.