This week I want to share a couple of counterintuitive solutions to training problems you may have encountered. First, let’s talk about what I mean by counterintuitive.
When we say something seems counterintuitive, we usually mean that on the surface, it seems to go against common sense. But often, when you have more information, you realize the thing isn’t counterintuitive at all.
Many of the training solutions that work really well, but can seem counterintuitive, come down to worrying about what you are actually reinforcing. On the surface, it may seem like you are risking reinforcing something you don’t want. But in practice, these strategies work really well. So if we are being objective, something else must be going on.
5 Tips To Get You Thinking:
1. For faster behaviors, reinforce even slow attempts.
2. For better stays, mark the stay but reinforce out of position.
3. To reduce undesired sniffing during training, put the sniffing on cue and reinforce it.
4. To reduce barking, throw food at the dog when he barks.
5. To start your shaping sessions, reinforce your dog first for just standing and looking at you.
For more explanation of these tips, listen to the full episode!
Links Mentioned:
- Episode #16
- Pet Tutor Affiliate Link (tip: to get the discount mentioned in the podcast, follow this link and type in the discount code in all caps at checkout)
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