positive reinforcement training

[Beckysmom]

Despite my thread on ecollars which are not positive reinforcement--but which I only was interested in to stop a worse evil of being run over by a truck, I am a great fan of positive reinforcement training. I wanted to report that not only did it work well with a pup from early development, but that I now see that it is working exceptionally well with my big boy rescue dog.

In fact, we are making great progress even with the truck chasing problem using positive reinforcement of counterbehavior when truck comes. (My former pup was taught that car coming meant go to side of road and sit, and I am working with the big guy on that now. Or in this case, that truck or car means go to "mom" for a really terrific treat.) We are doing less well with the cat problem, partly because we got off to a very bad start with dog and cat when dog first arrived. Partly because aI have yet to be able to get the cat comfortable enough to give positives to the dog when he is around.

I'd like to encourage everyone who is training (all of us who have dogs) to consider the postive reinforcement approach before going to corrections and aversives. Also to specifically consider clicker training.

[Carina43]

YES YES YES.
I agree completely. I don't use a clicker but a marker word "yes!" when they get it right.
Even my big hard headed rescue Dutch responds quicker when I figure out a more clever way of teaching him than hauling on his collar and giving corrections.
Yay for progress.

[Birdie'sMom]

Birdie just started a new training class where they use "X' in the same way that you would use a clicker. I haven't seen a difference in the obedience department - not that it's not working, I just don't see it working any faster than training without it. BUT, it makes teaching tricks much easier because you can mark the exact behavior that you want them to do. It's so much fun!:)

[Muckdogs]

Glad to see the positive reinforcement is working. The method certainly works, if you have the patience to stick with it. The results wil be far longer lasting than compulsion. Probably, the cat problem will not be so easily resolved, due to the dog reacting in prey drive to the stimulus of the cat's fleeing. It is hard to counter drive reactions, as they are not a "behavior" as in the learned sense, they are more instinctual. Can be done, but it is much more challegnging. I didn't want to spend a lot of time dealing with your exact situaiton, so I expedited and used the ecollar, which cured the issue.