We will be using management to prevent our puppies from doing most undesirable behaviors, including relieving themselves in our house. Management will also create opportunities for some desirable behaviors to occur. We can also boost our puppies likelihood of learning desirable habits by harnessing the simple power of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is simple. Behavior + Something Wonderful = More of that behavior.

We, the humans, ADD something (that’s the positive part) that our puppy WANTS and ENJOYS to build a desirable habit. It really is that simple and it’s very powerful. So, we can add things like: Very yummy treats, fun play, access to a desired activity, praise (verbal), and praise (physical).

To help our puppies learn the habits we want them to learn. Remember, the behaviors we want, those that make a dog our dog easy to livewith are for our convenience they are not natural or even that fun for our dogs. These things we want our puppy to do may not make any sense at all to the puppy. It’s our obligation to make it easy for our puppy to succeed, to understand our crazy rules, and to learn what we want them too and most of all, to have a GOOD reason to play along with us. Using positive reinforcement to build up strong desirable habits requires a new habit, for us humans.

We need to practice being observant of our puppy. There are lots of chances to practice being observant because puppies need constant supervision. So put that phone down, and focus fully on your puppy. We also need to time our reinforcement effectively, and practice enough that it becomes a habit for us.

We need to continue to use management to ensure those desirable behaviors are very likely to happen, so we can reinforce them with a treat, social interaction, or access to a desired activity, and then observe to see if the desired behaviors are actually happening more often and becoming habits.

Reacting to behaviors we don’t like isn’t that helpful or efficient instead we need to maintain our end of the bargain by being observant, being prepared to reinforce desirable behaviors (Success Stations!) with something our dog wants and enjoys, and then observe to see if that behavior becomes stronger.

Imagine your boss paid you for your work in acorns. How many days would you continue to show up for your job? Unless you were a squirrel, not many! Most of the things we do have reinforcements that maintain those habits, our dogs are no different. So, if we give our dog something they don’t actually want as a reinforcement for their hard work they behave similarly, the behavior we like may stop happening or happen less often. Especially if the behavior we want it’s actually natural for our dog, or inherently enjoyable. So, just because our dog eats the treat, or wags their tail, doesn’t actually mean our action had an effect on their behavior going forward. Observing for effect is a valuable, and often overlooked, skill when we are house training our puppy. Any behavior that is being reinforced by our actions WILL happen more often and sometimes more enthusiastically. That means if you have been giving your puppy a treat for laying down in the kitchen and your puppy still rarely lays down in the kitchen you have not actually reinforced the behavior you thought you were. It’s time to change treats, to one that is more yummy, and maybe change management (for example, exercise the puppy before preparing meals, baby gate the puppy in the kitchen, put down a nice bed or blanket to make the behavior more likely to happen) and see if you start seeing more voluntary laying down.

This course is NOT deigned as a basic training class, you can find FREE and detailed training Guides in our popular group Pandemic Puppy Raising Support Group Please feel free to join this FB group and make the most of it's excellent training guides.

Positive Reinforcement in House Training