Positive reinforcement is the foundation of our training philosophy here at Wilde Acres and is an excellent place to start your dog training education.
Positive reinforcement is a piece of operant conditioning that refers to the addition of a pleasant stimulus right after a behavior. It makes a behavior more likely to occur in the future.
Proper use of positive reinforcement requires excellent timing.
A lot of the mistakes that happen while using positive reinforcement come down to errors in timing. If you train with me, you will often hear me saying things like ”Word Comma Action” and “finish the word before you start to move.”
If you are using an auditory marker like “yes” or a clicker to let the dog know he did the right thing, the auditory stimulus must occur before the handler presents the food or other pleasant stimulus.
I see professional trainers doing this incorrectly all the time! I watch them deliver food while simultaneously saying a marker. This will not achieve classical conditioning. Classical conditioning only occurs when the stimulus is followed by the primary reinforcer, not when they are combined.
Imagine if elevators started to chime when their doors were halfway closed. You would not be able to anticipate them and they would close on you all the time.
The marker tells the dog that the reward will appear soon. Then the physical movement (such as a hand going into a pocket or disappearing into a bag of food) doesn’t become the reward signal. In order for positive reinforcement to occur in a more complex environment, you must be creative to find ways to make the reward you have seem better than anything the dog may access in his environment. This means using higher value rewards, and making engagement sessions last longer.
It’s like a five-course meal versus a breath mint.
Positive reinforcement is also a great way to build your relationship and convince your dog that training is fun!
