Day 1 & 2 -- Conditioning

A big part of why we use treats in training is not only to teach the dog what we want, but also to condition them to like what they are doing. Dogs will repeat behavior that works for them. If they are getting rewarded for behavior, they are more likely to repeat it. Unfortunately, we can also easily reinforce behaviors we don't want.

It can be something as simple as an eye glance or talking to him that can reinforce behavior we don't want.

For greetings, we prefer him to sit instead of jump on us. Sometimes people use their hands to push off the dog when they have jumped on us. But, if you watch dogs play, you'll see dogs use their paws to interact with each other and play with each other. When we use our hands with them when they jump on us, it's like we are using our paws to engage with them.

Ideally I'm catching him before he decides to jump and rewarding him for the sit. I especially need to do this when there are a lot of exciting things happening around him.

Ubu was happy to see all his friends.

We like those distractions to help us teach him to focus no matter what is going on around him.

Those treats help us reinforce that attentive behavior. But it doesn't always have to be treats. It could be praise, pets, toys, play, opening a door, going for a walk, etc.

Now that we've worn him out a bit, it's a great time to practice things like crate time, stays, and other things where we want him to be calm.

Ubu does very well in his crate but he is barking quite a bit more if he hears things that wake him up. We're working on getting him use to crating in another room so we have a greater ability to ignore his barking behavior. This is a good example of how we can easily reinforce behavior we don't want. A simple glance or talking to him is enough for him to try that barking behavior again. If barking has worked for him in the past (someone has paid attention to him or let him out of the crate), he'll keep doing it. We can fix that by completely ignoring him if he is barking to be let out of the crate. He'll keep trying for a while, he might even try harder ("This worked for me in the past, maybe if I bark louder/longer"), but eventually he will stop barking because it doesn't work for him any more.

He's a smart little guy. We just want to make sure the lessons he learns are the ones we want him to learn.