Stopping Problems
Since your dog
doesn't know what you intend to accomplish, it will take your
training message literally. You enjoy far greater success if you
give some thought to exactly what it is you want the dog to
learn.
Rewarding compliance
maintains behavior. When you reinforce your dog for obeying your
" SIT " command, it is likely to continue to sit when you tell
it to do so. That's the definition of reinforcement; it
strengthens the preceding act and makes it more likely to recur.
But your dog often
gets a very different message than the one you intend to teach.
If he jumps up onto you and you wish to stop that, a common
approach is to punish his jump and say "Good OFF!" as you get
him off you. But that method teaches many dogs that they are
rewarded for getting off of you, and he can't get off of
you until he's on you. I've worked thousands of dogs that
have been handled this way, and years later they still jump onto
people. When you reward him for getting off you, you reward his
compliance or tolerance of your force. But many dogs learn that
they cannot earn the "Good OFF!" praise until they jump, so it
continues. They willingly tolerate a one-second reprimand to get
5 second of praise.
Using a harsher
reprimand is not the answer. A dog cannot jump on you until he's
approached you. Harsh reprimands discourage his approach, not
his jump.
Always first decide
what you want. Do you want him to get off of you (or your
visitor, sofa, bed, counter) when you tell him to, or do you
want him to not jump on you or it in the first place? If you
don't want him to jump on you, don't teach him that getting off
after he jumps up gets him rewarded.
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