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Cathy Perkins is a dog lover who is allowed to live with her two dogs, Tillie and Pierrot in the beautiful foothills of North Carolina.

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19th December 2005

Dog Training Advice - More Reward Training

Here is the next in a series of dog training articles. For a review
of the top five dog training methods, click here.

Coming when called is a vital skill that every dog must
learn, both for its own safety and that of those around it.

A disobedient dog that refuses to come when called could
easily be hit by a car, get into a fight with another dog,
or suffer a variety of other bad experiences. A well
trained dog that comes when called can safely be taken out
to play in the local park, at the beach, on the hiking
trail, or anywhere else the owner and dog may wish to go.

Basic training to come when called is relatively easy and
straightforward, and involves providing praise, treats and
other perks when the dog does as his owner wants. After
these basic come when called training exercises are
mastered, there are a number of fun exercises that can be
introduced to challenge the dog and pique its interest.

Making training into a fun game is one of the best ways to
motivate both dog and handler alike. It is easy for
training sessions to become routine and boring, and it is
important to keep them from degenerating into this state.

Before beginning any food based training exercise, it is
important to make sure that the dog is properly motivated
and ready to respond to treat based training. Testing the
dog is simply a matter of taking a piece of his regular
food and waving it in front of the dogÂs nose. If the dog
shows great enthusiasm for the food, it is ready to start
the training. If not, it is best to wait until the dog is
in a more receptive mood.

The treats that work best for treat based training games
like hide and seek are cut up quarter inch or smaller
pieces of chicken, cheese or liver. In other words,
something your dog will love. It is best to use very small
pieces to avoid overfeeding the dog during he training
sessions.

One great game for you and another family member or friend
to play with your dog is simply back and forth recall. This
is a great exercise for teaching your dog to come whenever
it is called by a member of the family. Dogs often learn to
only respond to one person, and this can be a problem when
other people are watching the dog. That is one reason why
professional dog trainers always insist on working with the
owner as well as the dog. A well trained dog must learn to
respond to whoever is in charge, not just the owner or
usual handler.

In the back and forth recall game, two or more people stand
approximately ten yards apart, in a safe place like a
fenced in yard. One person calls the dog and asks him to
sit and say until another person asks the dog to come. When
the dog responds to the command to come, it is rewarded
with a treat. Most dogs respond wonderfully to this
exercise and love playing this game. When playing the back
and forth recall game, it is important that only the person
who called the dog be allowed to give the dog a treat.

After the dog has mastered the back and forth recall game,
the humans in the game can start to spread further out,
thus turning the back and forth recall game into a fun game
of hide and seek. The hide and seek game starts with two
or more people in the center room of the house. Every time
they call the dog to come, they spread out further away
from where they started. As the game continues, one person
will be at one end of the house, while another may be at
the opposite end.

What makes the hide and seek game so much fun for the dog
is that he must seek out the person to get the treat,
instead of simply running up to a person in plain sight.
This type of seeking behavior appeals to many of the dogÂs
natural instincts. After all, dogs are naturally hunting
animals, and seeking out food is second nature to them.

Training your dog the reward training way

Reward training is often seen as the most modern method of
training a dog, but reward training is probably much older
than other methods of dog training. It is possible that
reward training for dogs has been around as long as there
have been dogs to train. Early humans probably used some
informal kind of reward training when taming the wolf pups
that eventually evolved into modern dogs.

Many principles of modern reward training date back
decades. However, what is called reward training today has
only enjoyed is remarkable popularity for the past 10 or 15
years.

Some reward training enthusiasts are less enthusiastic
about other methods of dog training, such as the
traditional leash and collar method. However, the best
approach to training any individual dog is often a
combination of leash/collar training and reward training.

In addition, a training method that works perfectly for one
dog may be totally inappropriate for another, and vice
versa. Some dogs respond wonderfully to reward training
and not at all to leash and collar training, while others
respond to leash/collar training and are not at all
motivated by reward training. Most dogs fall somewhere in
the middle of these two extremes.

Clicker training is one of the most popular forms of reward
training these days. While clicker training is not the
answer for every dog, it can be a remarkably effective
method of training many dogs. In clicker training, the dog
is taught to associate a clicking sound with a reward, like
a treat. The trainer clicks the clicker when the dog does
something good, followed immediately by a treat.
Eventually, the dog learns to respond to the clicker alone.

Most reward training uses some sort of food reward, or a
reward that is associated with getting food. In most
cases, complex behaviors can only be taught using this kind
of positive reinforcement, and you will find that the
people who train dogs for movies and television use reward
training almost exclusively.

Reward training is used in all forms of dog training,
including police work and military applications. Most
scent detection, tracking and police dogs are trained using
some form of reward training. Reward training is also a
very effective way to teach many basic obedience commands.

Reward training often incorporates the use of a lure in
order to get the dog into the position desired by the
trainer. The lure is used to get the dog to perform the
desired behavior on his or her own and of his or her own
free will.

It makes a great deal of sense to get the dog to perform
the desired behavior without any physical intervention on
the part of the handler. Getting the dog to perform a
behavior without being touched is important.

After the dog has performed the desired behavior, it is
given a reward, also called a positive reinforcement.
Treats are often used as reinforcers, but praise, such as
Âgood dogÂ or a pat on the head, can also be effective
rewards.

Making a dog that has been reward trained a reliable dog is
important, especially when the dog has an important job,
like police work or drug detection, to do. For that reason
it is important to get the dog accustomed to working around
distractions, and to properly socialize the animal to both
people and other animals.

Many dog trainers make the mistake of only training the dog
inside the house or back yard, and only when the handler is
there. In order to become a reliably trained companion,
the dog must be taken outside the confines of its safety
zone and introduced to novel situations.

It is also important to teach the dog to pay attention to
the handler at all times. Having the attention of the dog
means having control of the dog. Reward training is very
effective at getting the respect and the attention of the
dog when used properly.