5 Tips For Good Dog Behavior. Excerpt from Dog Fancy Magazine. By Gary Wilkes. Here are some tips for changing the way your dog behaves, even if it is from one …
5 Tips For Good Dog Behavior
Excerpt from Dog Fancy Magazine By Gary Wilkes Here are some tips for changing the way your dog behaves, even if it is from one good behavior to another 1 Identify the positive consequence that maintains the behavior For instance, the reinforcement for begging is usually food Your first step is to trigger the behavior a few times and closely observe your dogs reaction and what you do immediately after the behavior Jot notes or videotape the sequence 2 Create a wrong answer signal On television quiz shows, the incorrect answer is usually associated with a loud buzzer For training we can use the same principle To create a wrong behavior signal, or WBS, pick a word like wrong or uh uh and use it when your dog offers an unacceptable behavior After saying uh uh, make sure you have a short time-out and ignore the dog about fifteen seconds 3 Initiate the usually unacceptable behavior Suppose that your dog likes to paw your arm while you read the newspaper At first it was cute, but now the pawing interferes with you reading the paper Start by opening up the paper At the instant the dog starts to raise his paw, say uh uh get up and leave the room for a minute
Repeat the sequence until Fido is confused as you sit down and unfold the newspaper 4 When the confusion appears, ask your dog for a previous learned but acceptable behavior, such as sit or down On the first few repetitions, he probably will fail to give you the correct behavior; give the WBS and call a time out On the first correct response, use some excited praise and give your dog a small food treat Continue this process until the dog automatically offers the acceptable behavior when you open your newspaper If on any repetition he reverts to pawing or fails to offer the acceptable behavior, give the WBS and call a time-out 5 Maintain the new rules Make sure you dont offer any reinforcement for the recurrence of the old behavior, or you may have to repeat the whole procedure
