Dog Behavior, How Dogs Learn: A Dog Training Guide for Dog Owners.

Most dog trainers agree that the optimum age for formation of a dog’s temperament and learning is 8-12 weeks. Basic obedience training conducted in this period not only starts your dog off on the right paw, it conditions them for future learning.

Within this same period, socializing the puppy to other animals and “things” they may encounter in the world is essential. Examples include strange people, children, garbage trucks, the mailman, bikes, cars and other moving objects. Even a leaf blowing in the wind can terrify a pup if they haven’t experienced wind or leaves before. Puppies know nothing about the world except what we show them and our introductions will make a significant difference as to how the dog perceives and responds to new things in his environment. If a dog is not socialized during this formative period, he may have life-long difficulty when encountering new animals, people, situations or objects.  If you have a puppy, you and a professional dog trainer are their best teachers to socialize them early and effectively.

Dogs continually learn throughout their lifetimes and you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Dogs of any age can learn new behaviors and with appropriate dog training, can unlearn behaviors as well.  In older dogs, bad behaviors are already a habit and eliminating a habit is a lengthier process than learning something new.  Appropriate dog training, consistency by the owner/handler and patience will bring desired results.

Dogs do not have the ability to reason as humans do. They think in concrete terms, action = consequence, and learn through association. Dog behaviors that are rewarded are usually repeated, and behaviors that result in a negative consequence are typically avoided.  For example, if the dog sits and the owner promptly provides a treat or verbal praise, the dog will begin to sit on his own in order to receive another reward. Conversely, if a dog jumps up on you for attention and is completely ignored, he receives a negative consequence and is discouraged from repeating the behavior.  This is the essence of Positive Dog Training.

To create meaningful associations, owners should praise dog behaviors they like and ignore behaviors they don’t like.  Sounds easy right?  Not so much!  Knowing what consequence or reward to issue and the timing of it, is critical to establish associations.  Consider this example.  Your dog is in the sitting position, a behavior you want to reward.  While you are scrambling for a treat, the dog stands up.  You give the treat and say, “Good Boy!” or “Good Sit!”  In this example, you have inadvertently praised the “stand up” and not the sit.  The next time you tell your dog to “sit!” he is likely to stand up proudly waiting for his reward.  Effective dog training mandates that rewards or corrections must be issued while the dog is displaying the behavior or within two seconds thereafter.  Anything longer than a two-second delay, and the dog will not make the connection between behavior and consequence.

A human-induced, unintended association is important to understand. This means that dog owners sometimes create the wrong associations for their dog without realizing it.  For example, a lot of dog owners will come home and find that puppy has gone to the bathroom in the house.  They then drag the pup to the offending pile, rub his nose in it, say, “Bad Dog!” and throw him outside. Using what you’ve learned so far, can you identify the problem with this scenario? 

If you didn’t catch your dog in the act or respond within two seconds thereafter, he cannot make the association that going to the bathroom in the house is wrong.  What he will learn if corrected this way, is that going to the bathroom is wrong. That’s not the association we want the dog to make.

Another common error occurs when a person thinks “the dog knows he did something wrong,” because “he looks and acts so guilty.”  We come home and find the couch shredded, or our dog mummified by rolls of toilet paper and there is an expression on the dog’s face that looks like guilt or remorse. Perhaps he even slinks to the ground and cowers or rolls over and shows his belly.  None of these dog behaviors are for the reason you may think. Contrary to popular belief, dogs cannot feel guilty about something they did in the past. When you come home to a destroyed living room and your dog “looks guilty”, slinks to the ground or offers other appeasement gestures, it’s because he is reacting to YOUR body language and emotions.  You’ve probably walked in the door, saw the destruction and said something like, “What the ___”, “What have you done?” or “Bad Dog!”  While all these verbal expressions are pouring out, your dog hears your tone of voice and knows, (ut-oh, he’s angry!), watches your body tense up and knows,  (better stay out of his way), and that is the reason they look and act the way they do. They know you are angry and they don’t want to anger you further so they make themselves as small and pitiful-looking as possible.  Remember, dogs learn by association and cannot connect a past action to a consequence. They can however, clearly read your body language and tone and respond to that.  Your dog trainer can help you identify body postures, which your dog sees and reacts to daily…we bet you’re not even aware that you’re sharing them!

Here’s another example where humans inadvertently create the wrong association for their dogs.  Dogs are walking with their humans and become agitated or excited by the approach of another dog or human.  As they are jumping around and barking, the owner tries to soothe them by saying, “It’s OK buddy…good dog!...It’s OK…you’re doing fine…”  Since you now know that dogs learn by association, what have you just taught your dog?  The next time you’re walking and the dog sees another human or dog, expect him to go crazy. This is because that’s the behavior you accidentally rewarded by touching or talking to him when he was in an over-excited state. In short, you unintentionally gave praise at a time when you should have completely ignored or immediately corrected.  This is positive dog training in action…ignore the behaviors you do not like!

Now that you know how your dog learns, we hope you understand that your dog can learn or unlearn any behavior, despite his age.  Additionally, it’s important to recognize how easily humans affect dog behavior and how we can create the wrong associations without realizing it. 

Set your dog up for success by providing professional dog training, issuing a consequence (positive or negative) at the appropriate time and ensuring that you’re attending to the “right” behavior.  Your dog will thank you for the clear communication and you’ll finally have the well-behaved, well-trained dog you’ve always wanted.

The goal of all dog trainingis to provide peaceable solutions to everyday problems so that pets and their owners live harmoniously.   Paws in Training provides dog training, dog behavior evaluations, consultation and dog education services in Raleigh, Durham and Cary N.C.

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