Positive Reinforcement Rules!

We encourage the practice of Positive Reinforcement in many of our articles and posts. We often quickly reference it and realize that many of our readers might not precisely grasp what we’re referring to. We figured it would be a great idea to create a post dedicated to explaining this very important component in behavioral science and how you can utilize it when training and interacting with your dog. This page will serve as a quick reference on Positive Reinforcement principles with practical examples that just about anyone can process.

The term – Positive Reinforcement is often thrown around in dog discussions and open forums. It is of course, very commonly used with Dog Training. We often refer to it as part of Positive Training or Training with Positive Methods. We all have a good idea of what it means and implies. Yes – Treats, rewards and all that good stuff, but also much more. It’s associated with good things and gives you a nice fuzzy feeling whenever you say it. The thing is if you specifically ask someone to provide a definition of the term or explain what it actually means; you’d be surprised with some of the answers you might receive.

I’m going to do my very best to keep this article fresh, fun and insightful so that you can fully grasp the concept of positive reinforcement and how you can use it to shape your dog with modern training methods. It’s vital to know the definition and understand the role it plays when communicating with your dog. Essentially how it REALLY works. What you won’t find here is an extremely detailed thesis on the subject because we’ve got wonderful references like Wikipedia for that purpose.

Much More than Just Treats and Love!

Positive Reinforcement is about much more than offering your pup super treats and loving everything he does. Love, affection and food rewards are all primary reinforcers but are only the tip of what positive reinforcement principles are all about.

Modern positive training principles are fundamentally based around behavioral science credited to acclaimed psychologist and professor B.F. Skinner. Reinforcement and Punishment are critical components of behavior psychology, also known as Operant Conditioning.

One of the things anyone can truly appreciate about positive reinforcement dog training is that its fundamentals are based on decades of research and not from hearsay or potentially erroneous sources like much of traditional aversive-based dog training.

Operant Conditioning offers a better understanding of how you can not only teach your dog, but shape and mold desired behaviors with positive techniques.

Putting Positive and Reinforcement Together

For example offering a high value dog treat (stimulus / event) when your dog sits (behavior) nicely.

“A reinforcer is the stimulus, event, or situation whose presentation is dependent upon a response.”

There are two types of reinforcers – Positive and Negative.

1. Positive Reinforcer is something your dog desires like food, praise and play. This of course varies from subject to subject.

2. Negative Reinforcer is something your dog would like to avoid like an unpleasant sound.

There are of course, many variables at play like, for instance, the type of reinforcer. This can vary from food to praise to play. That’s why we always recommend trying different tasty treats to determine which ones are most effective and being creative when training. Remember that every dog is different. There are many factors at play. It’s very obvious that the dog in the photo above finds the blue ball extremely reinforcing. Quick play sessions with that ball can be just as powerful as a treat reward when teaching or nurturing desired behaviors. Fundamentally, once you understand that positively reinforcing dog behavior naturally produces more behavioral output, you’re on your way!

Many traditional dog training methods DO work but rely on punishment and aversives that can cause unnecessary wear and tear on your dog. The negative psychological side effects related to punishment based training are substantial. Punishment will stop a behavior in its tracks but negatively affect your dog’s temperament. This is why Reinforcement is far superior to Punishment. Smartly practicing positive reinforcement guarantees results with no detrimental side effects.

“My Super Brain is starting to hurt! Can we talk about something else?” – Halle

I highly recommend you read our series of clicker dog training articles which demonstrate and teach ways to use positive reinforcement to start training your dog RIGHT NOW! It doesn’t matter how old your furry friend is, you can begin with the basics and keep building your knowledge on modern dog training methods that work. The series covers all the variables, methods and tools you need to explore dog training with markers.

This pretty much sums up Positive Reinforcement and what it specifically means in terms of working with your dog. The entire behavior analysis equation also includes positive punishment and negative punishment which we’ll cover in a future post. There’s also different levels of reinforcers – Primary, Conditioned, Tertiary and so on which are covered in our clicker training articles.

Remember that these rules don’t apply to just dogs. All animals, including Human Beings, are susceptible to the laws of behaviorism.

The next time someone does something you enjoy, reinforce the event with something positive – a compliment or gesture. If your delivery is timed right and reinforcing enough for the other party, you’re likely to enjoy more of the same goodness in the future. It just makes sense.

Now lets take a look at how using Positive Reinforcement can help in solving some of your doggy problems.

Positive Reinforcement to the Rescue!

Here are two quick examples to give you an idea on how you can tap into the power of positive reinforcement to shape your dog’s behavior. This is a very brief overview and there are, of course, many variables at play that effect behavior output or end result. The following simply illustrates how positive reinforcement can be utilized in a practical everyday sense when communicating and teaching your dog. Please keep in mind that some problems require a lot of time and patience to overcome. As I mentioned earlier, you can only positively reinforce behavior that IS OCCURRING. You want your dog to be doing something specific before you reward with a reinforcer. Then, in the most basic sense, you build on the behavior by gradually increasing the criteria required to earn the behavior. This approach will ultimately help your dog reach the end goal using the wonderful scientific principles of behaviorism.

1. Let’s say your dog is hesitant about jumping into your car. You can start by waiting for him to approach the vehicle to mark and treat. Reinforce approaching the vehicle with high value treats. Then you can treat for sticking his nose into the vehicle. Since your properly reinforcing each action, you’re dog will naturally take the behavior a step further. You patiently keep building until the dog is hopping into the car to earn his super snack! This might require multiple mini training sessions.

2. We’ve talked about using positive reinforcement to acquaint your dog to a toothbrush in our dog teeth cleaning article. You present the toothbrush and reward for sniffing it. After a few repetitions, you reward for allowing the brush to make very quick contact with the teeth. No toothpaste or gel. We’re simply encouraging your dog to like the idea of the toothbrush. You then can brush 2 seconds at a time and treat. You slowly progress into being able to brush for a minute without issue. Now you can do IT for REAL using a cleaning product since you generally can’t give your dog food or treats for a short time before and after a cleaning.

In a nutshell, this is how you can use positive methods to train your dog. The dog is never experiencing any unnecessary anxiety or stress – that’s the key! You’re simply reinforcing offered behaviors and letting your dog learn and naturally augment his behavior output to a desired level. It’s a natural process. This isn’t ho-hum wizardry, this is science and it works.

“You mean those markers and rewards are actually shaping my behavior and I don’t even know about it? I knew that!” – Halle

There’s no stopping your dog training adventures once you truly understand what using Positive Reinforcement means and how incredibly powerful it can be in teaching your dog new things.

You must enlighten yourself and enlighten others to the world of modern dog training. A world without punishment techniques and unwarranted corrections, without false notions of doggy dominance & doggy slavery – it’s quite evident that Positive Reinforcement really does Rule!

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