Negative Reinforcement?

Asarra · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:42 pm Post subject: Negative Reinforcement?

Looking for some advise. Storm does really well with treats. However, when I try to get her to do things without treats, no luck! The trainer I have been working with wants me to give her a quick pop with the choke chain to motivate her. When trying to get her to down, the trainer wants me to step on her lead. It seems mean, and Storm pouts when I use these techniques. I'm tempted to use them because I have seen them be much more effective then positive reinforcement on other dogs in class. However, I have read somewhere that weims will break down mentally when trained with too much negative reinforcement. How do I know if I'm having a lasting negative impact on her when correcting her?

versatilek9s · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject:

Keep her tail wagging. You'll learn to read your dog well enough as you train to know when to quit. Same applies for when she's bored.

IMO most problems with dogs shutting down occur when people don't read their dog right and keep at it when they think their dog "understands" what they want.

For puppies, positive reinforcement works best. Training always needs to be fun and needs to end with something the puppy is good at and enjoys.

Negative reinforcement can be used once the dog is willfully disobeying or when they fail to give you the response you want. I'll say "nope" or "uh-oh" to tell them they better work on giving me something better. For willful disobedience (which actually doesn't happen all that often) a good pop of the leash does work, but I always try and follow it up with something good to keep their tail wagging. Generally if you get the incorrect response more than once, you need to back up b/c the dog doesn't get it. There's also the problem of not paying attention. In that case you're either working their attention span for longer than they can handle or you need to actively get the dog's attention by a pop on the leash, a "watch me," or a tasty treat.

It's really important to use both positive and negative methods for dogs that "pout." If they aren't enjoying it, you still need to get the training done, but you just have to watch them closely and keep the tail wagging and ears up.

meredith

Asarra · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the advice. I think I was pushing her too much. Her body language was telling me that she wasn't having fun. I'm a little concerned that she doesn't see me as dominant and doesn't take me seriously, and the trainer was pushing me to continue. Those two things were causing me to push her a little too much. Today we trained for two brief sessions, and we made it very positive. I'm pretty sure the whole time she was having fun and she did really well. I want a happy dog as much as an obedient one!