The Supply list for the positive reinforcement training parts of our puppy raising is short, but will need frequent reevaluation and replenishment.  

1. Clicker: Any mechanical type (button or box) you will need 1 clicker for each adult family member, and a spare to keep by your potty door success station.  

2. Training Treats: of differing "value" to the puppy, from kibble to meat (for kibble fed dogs) and meat to kibble (for non kibble fed dogs)

3. Reward Toys: toys only used for training, of very high value to the puppy.  

4. Praise: of decreasing value as a reinforcement the older a puppy gets.  Breed is also relevant for how reinforcing praise can be, with herding breeds finding it very valuable and primitive or guarding breeds typically the least.

In order to be reinforcing your puppy must want and enjoy these items, at the moment you need them and you must see a change in behavior (ie "more" of the behavior you are teaching).   Tip: The puppy decides what it wants and enjoys at any given moment, just like people do.  

• So using treats when you puppy is full may not actually reinforce going potty outside.
  
  
• Using patting and touching, when your puppy finds these scary or upsetting, won’t reinforce behavior either, even though we may intend our pets kindly.  
  
  
• Your puppy may be sensitive to sounds, so loud verbal praise and clapping, might actually frighten your puppy and that certainly won’t reinforce potty outside, it could actually punish your puppy.  
  
  

So, always use observation to judge if your reward has actually had the effect you hoped for, if not, be confident to change and try something else!  

Good Treat Ideas: 

🔹Kibble

🔹Freeze dried meat.

🔹Bits of fresh cooked meat

🔹Cheese (shreds, shards, cream)

🔹Canned Dog Food, Commercial Treats

🔹Cheerios

🔹Cat food kibbles

🔹Baby food

Reward Toys:  Reward toys are special toys that we teach our puppy to enjoy playing with, together with us.   Learning to accept toys as a reward requires teaching on our part, and some puppies may naturally love toys, and other puppies may not.   We may have to experiment to find toys our puppy likes, and further, we will need to invest some time in teaching our puppy that playing with us is actually rewarding, and then we need to have a reward toy at the ready, and of course use it at the appropriate time.   

Examples of reward toys.

🔹Flirt toys (reinforces through chasing/tugging) and requires a LOT of room.

🔹Tug Toys (high quality tugs, soft, and with fur on them are popular) reinforces through tug, needs less room than a flirt. 

🔹Bouncy Balls and other fetch toys. Reinforces through chasing, requires room.  

The biggest drawback of reward toys is the foundation training involved, the space needed, and the small number of reps possible.   

5. Praise:  Young puppies under 12 weeks value praise more than older puppies.  So, use those early weeks to your advantage!   There are two main ways to praise your puppy.  Puppies like different types of praise at different ages and in different circumstances.  

Verbal praise: Verbal praise AKA “Happy Talk” is often overlooked, but simply verbally praising your puppy is powerful.   You have to judge your own puppy, my puppies love verbal praise unless it’s too loud, then they don’t like it.   Verbal praise is happy talk, clapping, happy dances, and any other non physical contact way we express to our puppy who much we love what it did.   Be warned, some breeds may not care if we are happy with them, it’s not in their DNA to care.   But we can always TEACH puppies to value praise more by pairing it with something yummy.  

Physical Praise:  Some puppies may enjoy being patted or petted, be careful though, because very often puppies don’t enjoy having their heads tapped any more than children do.    Again, we can teach puppies to value physical play MORE by pairing it with TOY play.  

Timing is important and is harder than it sounds.  Good timing takes practice and observation of effect on behavior.

1. If using a clicker CLICK the moment the behavior you are looking for occurs, then feed a treat.  One click = One Treat, always.

 2. If using toy play, use a verbal marker (I use the word Click, or the word Right) and then play with the toy with the puppy for a short bit.  

3. If using praise, mark the moment the desired behavior occurs with a verbal marker (I use Good or Right) and then offer verbal praise, or physical praise.  For most dogs verbal praise is least offensive, for some dogs jumping up on you is a great physical praise.