Positive reinforcement. What is it & why we use it. Part 1

Our club is very clear on the approach we take to training any behaviour. Whether it be on the agility course or in our obedience classes, we only advocate the use positive reinforcement. That's easy to say and on the surface may seem fairly obvious what we mean by it. However, it's not always as straight forward to get right as you might first think. I therefore thought it might be interesting to spend a bit of time and a few posts looking into exactly what positive reinforcement means, why it is supremely effective when done correctly and what it requires from you as a trainer.

So let's get on with it?

In part one we'll take look at the fundamentals and principles of PR and why it’s so important if you want to build the best relationship you can have between you and your dog.

What is it anyway?

Positive reinforcement is a training approach that uses rewards - or more accurately, reinforcements - to encourage desired behaviours. It is based on the principle that dogs are more likely to repeat behaviours that are reinforcing to them.

Seems simple, yes? And it can be. Teach a dog to sit by reinforcing the behaviour with a treat each time they sit and very soon you will have a dog who wants to sit every time you ask.

But beware, the principle of reinforcing behaviour, if not applied correctly, can quickly bite you on the backside and you can end up inadvertently reinforcing behaviours you don’t wish the dog to repeat.

However, before we get into understanding how to avoid that particular pitfall in part 2, let’s ask ourselves an important question: Why, as a dog trainer - and if you have a dog do not be fooled, you are a dog trainer - would you choose to use positive reinforcement as opposed to other techniques you might see or hear about from well meaning friends or the internet?

Our answer is simple. Why would you not?

Let's use an example.

Imagine yourself as a child turning up for your first ever math class. The teacher picks on you to answer a question. You've never done any math before, so you guess the answer and get it wrong. The teacher's reaction to this is to yell loudly in your face and tell you how stupid you are. They ask you the question again. How do you suddenly feel now? You’re under pressure. You start to panic and you feel highly anxious. Adrenalin would course through your body making you want to be anywhere but there or worse, fight back at the person who is doing the shouting. You still don't know the answer so you say anything and get it wrong again. This time the teacher leans forward and gives you a slap round the head, jabs a finger in your face and tells you that you are useless and that you better do better next time. Then he turns his back on you and ignores you.

If that was you, how eager would you be to return to that class? How would you feel if that teacher ever asked you a question again. I know I wouldn't be particularly eager to go back for more of the same, so why would you think it would be any different for a dog placed in a similar scenario?

For instance, you ask a dog for a down, but the behaviour hasn't been correctly reinforced and understood, so they either do nothing or they give you what they think you might want and sit down. What should we do?

Should we ask for the down over and over again like some dog training machine gun until they guess right?

Should we yell 'No' at the dog and ask for the command again just more aggressively this time because they clearly didn't hear you correctly the first time.

Maybe we should bend down, pick up the dogs front paws and force then into a down?

Or perhaps we should turn our back on the dog and start explaining to anyone who will listen that you have no idea why the dog didn't do a down because it knows what it should be doing and that it is just being deliberately stubborn, adding, 'he's always like this when the weather's hot' or 'I don't know what's got into him today' or even 'There must be a smell that's putting him off.' All those things put you in the lovely position or absolving any responsibility for the training when the dog 'fails' at your next request.

Hopefully, you answered no to all those options. Although, I'm betting we've all done some version of the latter at some point.

What we should do is take the dog's response to not going immediately into a down as feedback. The dog isn't being stubborn or bad, he is telling you that he doesn't have enough understanding of what you're asking him to do in the current environment he is in. Why? Because we haven't layered the understanding sufficiently to build that clarity and confidence. And we're going to get into layering in a future post, but for now back to our various scenarios.

In the case where we have the yelling, abusive teacher, don't get me wrong, there's a small chance you might go away and learn some maths, but what would be your motivation for doing so? Because you found the lesson fun and inspiring or because you're terrified that the same thing will happen next time and you want to avoid more violence and aggression? Probably the latter.

However, what if that same teacher, rather than humiliating you for getting the answer wrong, praised your effort, gave you some clear feedback on the correct way to solve the problem and continued to build you understanding through enjoyable games. If the learning was made super fun, and all your successes were praised, no matter how small then I know I would be queuing at the door for the next lesson.

So let's summarise what this all tell us?

1. Positive reinforcement concentrates on encouraging and reinforcing behaviours you want to see in your dog. It promotes a proactive approach to training, allowing the dog to understand what is expected of them.

2. It builds trust and strengthens the bond you have: You are creating a positive and trusting relationship with your dog.

3. It will promote a positive emotional state in your best friend, reducing fear and stress, and creating an enjoyable training experience, which most importantly, the dog will choose to repeat.

So that’s it for part one. Nice and easy intro to a big subject.

In part two we will look at a few examples of how you can be the best teacher for your dog, why positive reinforcement should be a way of life for you and your dog and not just at training sessions and, slightly more controversially, why I think we should all get rid of the word 'No' from our dog training vocabulary.

See you next time.