9.) Rewarding our dog
Now that we know how to motivate our dogs, let's get to the
rewarding part: The reward! One of the fundamental concepts
behind positive training methods is that you want your dog
to learn that it can get to a reward by voluntarily changing
its behavior. When we see the desired behavior, we reward
our dog. That sounds very simple, but there is a catch... Chances
are that by the time we pull that piece of salami out of our
pocket to feed it to our dog, he no longer realizes what he
is rewarded for. This can be avoided by "marking" the correct
behavior exactly at the moment it is displayed. The marker
becomes a signal for your dog that he did something right
and that he is about to be rewarded for it. You can mark a
correct behavior by saying a simple word (such as "yes") or
with a clicker, a mechanical device that makes a short, distinct
"click" sound when pressed. |