Basic Principles of Animal Training

Some people make training dogs (or any animal) seem like such a difficult thing. It's really not! I work on the principles of Operant Conditioning:

• If the animal performs a behaviour, and something good happens as a result, it's likely to do it again.
• If nothing good happens as a result, it's less likely to do it again.
• If something bad happens as a result, it's quite unlikely to do it again.. BUT punishment has its own set of complex side-effects. I'll write more about that in another post.

Pretty straightforward, huh? The only tricky bit is working out exactly what your particular animal perceives as a good thing. It could be something as obvious as a food reward, or a favourite toy.. but sometimes it's a little more complicated.

For example, take a barking dog. You see it everywhere - the dog is barking, the owner's shouting at it, the dog continues barking and all chaos ensues. Rewind. WHY is the dog barking? It could be fear, excitement, stress, aggression, or even just wanting attention. In which situation will shouting at the dog solve the problem? None of them. So the trick is reading the dog to decide why it's performing that behaviour, and in the context of that motivation, decide what the dog would perceive as a good thing.

Sometimes, as in the case of fear and stress, it's necessary to remove the source before the dog can learn because it has entered an entirely emotion-driven state. This is an unfortunate position to get into, as the dog can perceive the removal of the scary/stressful thing as a reward for its behaviour, so perhaps in future it would be wise to avoid such situations until you can introduce them in a more controlled manner. The same could be said for aggression and excitement, depending on the level being exhibited.

Always be aware of what triggers your animal's behaviour, and ensure that you have given the animal the tools to cope with these situations before it gets "thrown in at the deep end". It makes life easier for everyone!

Assuming the situation you and your animal find yourselves in is a controlled, unemotional one, the rules are simple. If it's doing the right thing, reward it. If it's not doing the right thing, don't reward it. This creates a totally positive experience for the animal, encouraging it to try harder to earn its rewards. And who doesn't want an animal that actively wants to do the right thing?