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Imagine if you and your best friend both got puppies who are littermates. And you both train your puppies the same about of time every week, use the same training rewards and follow the same training plan. Then after six months, your friend’s puppy is amazingly well trained, but your puppy does not seem to know much at all. You might think that you got the puppy who was not too bright, but that is not the case. It could all come down to what you are rewarding! We’re talking about why rewarding dogs for “average or better” will fast-track your training success and grow your dog’s skills.

 

In the episode you'll hear:

 

• How reinforcement builds behaviour and how the responses we reward will grow. • Why we need to have clear criteria to help our dogs understand what we want. • The reason to ask yourself, “what did that cookie, toy or permission just reinforce?”. • About knowing what average is for your dog’s behaviors. • How your dog is aware of your criteria even if you are not. • About using “average or better” when training a sit. • What a good sit looks like and what you’d not want to see your dog do. • Why to be aware of cheap behaviors that might get built into what you are training. • How average or better will change depending on where you are. • A little test you can do so that you can know your dog’s average or better for sit. • How our dogs can only perform as consistently as our criterion dictates. • That your dog will tell you exactly what your criteria is for what you are training. • About removing Pez dispensing from your training. • What to do for responses by your dog that are below average. • How to set your dog up for success so you can reward average or better.

 

Resources:

 

1. Podcast Episode 2: Reinforcement - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/2/ 2. Podcast Episode 11: The Power of Permission in Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/11/ 3. Podcast Episode 135: Test Your Dog’s Sit Stay Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/135/ 4. Podcast Episode 21: The 5 Critical Dog Training Layers for Confidence with Anything - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/21/ 5. Podcast Episode 27: Do Dogs Need Rules? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/27/ 6. Podcast Episode 133: Become Your Own Dog Training Coach With This Video Strategy - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/133/ 7. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/5i6DYIsK4OI