Veterinarian, dog trainer and animal behaviorist Ian Dunbar gives a great TED Talks speech on “Dog-friendly dog training.” Dr. Dunbar gives great examples during his speech from a dog’s point of view of how humans may come across to them when training. Dr. Dunbar hopes that his experience with animals will help educate people on the proper way of training.
The first stage that Dr. Dunbar talks about when training your dog is to teach ESL. ESL means English as a second language. A dog doesn’t speak English, but it can be conditioned to recognize commands with positive re-enforcement. Some owners will reward with treats, but the best way is to reward with a belly rub, or maybe a game of fetch.
The second stage of training is to teach the dog to want to do what we want it to do. Dr. Dunbar suggests the Premack principle. This principle of this is following a low-frequency behavior; which is one a dog doesn’t want to do, by a high-frequency behavior; which is something a dog does want to do. For example, a low-frequency behavior may be teaching the dog to sit. A dog naturally doesn’t want to sit on command, but will do a high-frequency behavior like sniffing another dogs butt. So, to get the dog to sit we give the dog something in return that it likes. This may be in the form of a treat, or a tummy rub, or letting giving it the command “sniff sniff” to say it’s okay to go sniff another dogs butt.
The third is to give the dog boundaries without using force. Let’s face it; dogs don’t know what things may be a danger to them. We must teach them without harmful punishment. The best way to do this is consistency. Work with your dog over and over again with the same commands and a calm voice. The dog will respond in a more positive way with this type of training verses hitting your dog, or yelling at it.
I found that Dr. Dunbar had some very interesting points in his speech about training dogs. Understanding your dog and its natural behaviors is the first step in great dog training. I personally find that I already use a lot of Dr. Dunbar’s techniques, but it definitely gave me a lot of insight to what my dog may be thinking when I ask it to go “poo poo.”
The first stage that Dr. Dunbar talks about when training your dog is to teach ESL. ESL means English as a second language. A dog doesn’t speak English, but it can be conditioned to recognize commands with positive re-enforcement. Some owners will reward with treats, but the best way is to reward with a belly rub, or maybe a game of fetch.
The second stage of training is to teach the dog to want to do what we want it to do. Dr. Dunbar suggests the Premack principle. This principle of this is following a low-frequency behavior; which is one a dog doesn’t want to do, by a high-frequency behavior; which is something a dog does want to do. For example, a low-frequency behavior may be teaching the dog to sit. A dog naturally doesn’t want to sit on command, but will do a high-frequency behavior like sniffing another dogs butt. So, to get the dog to sit we give the dog something in return that it likes. This may be in the form of a treat, or a tummy rub, or letting giving it the command “sniff sniff” to say it’s okay to go sniff another dogs butt.
The third is to give the dog boundaries without using force. Let’s face it; dogs don’t know what things may be a danger to them. We must teach them without harmful punishment. The best way to do this is consistency. Work with your dog over and over again with the same commands and a calm voice. The dog will respond in a more positive way with this type of training verses hitting your dog, or yelling at it.
I found that Dr. Dunbar had some very interesting points in his speech about training dogs. Understanding your dog and its natural behaviors is the first step in great dog training. I personally find that I already use a lot of Dr. Dunbar’s techniques, but it definitely gave me a lot of insight to what my dog may be thinking when I ask it to go “poo poo.”