The verdict is in. Positive reinforcement is the best way to teach anyone, of any species, anything. So it stands to reason that the way to get the best response from training your dog would be the same. Positive reinforcement training in a highly effective and humane way to train your dog.
Here's the theory. If you reward behavior that you want to reinforce and ignore the behaviors you don't you can effectively train your dog. In fact, the dog tends to get the picture pretty fast.
In years gone by popular methods mostly involved punishing your dog in one way or another. These methods are ineffective at best and cruel at worst. Using this type of aversion therapy is counterproductive and will only serve to create a nervous dog. And a nervous dog is an unpredictable dog. You can not expect your dog to learn anything if he is always scared that you are going to hurt him.
Positive reinforcement works perfectly with dogs. Because dogs are naturally pack animals they automatically want to please you. The more you present yourself as the alpha, giving calm assertive leadership, the more the dog will strive to please you. Using positive reinforcement allows your dog to learn which behaviors are pleasing to you and which are not.
There are several things you can do to facilitate the training process:
*Use meaningful and varying rewards. Don't just tell him he's a good boy or give him a pat on the head. I suggest using three forms of rewards. The first two should be used most often. These are food treats and physical affection. The third can be used when the dog first learns a new command or behavior. This is to give the dog a brand new toy, or bone(preapproved by your vet).
*Make sure your dog understands why he is getting a reward. The best way to do this is with a sound marking the behavior. Most professional dog trainers use a clicker. This is a handheld device that makes soft click when pressed. For our purposes you can try saying something positive like "yes" or "good boy" immediately after the behavior is exhibited. Make sure you are consistent with the sound you use to mark the behaviors so your dog does not get confused.
*Always use the same commands to elicit the same behaviors. Do not, for instance, tell your dog "sit" sometimes and other times "sit down". The will confuse the heck out of the dog. He does not understand the intricacies of the English language, and can not understand that those are the same thing.
Rewarding your dog in a meaningful way is the key to this concept. Figure out what your dog's favorite places to be scratched are. One of my dogs likes her chest scratched and her ears rubbed and the other like his chin and back scratched. I am sure you know what your dog likes. Also make sure to give him a treat that he likes. It should be something you only give him for performing intended behaviors, so that it continues to be something special. Make sure you vary your rewards. Dogs seem to respond much more favorably when you give treats on an intermittent basis. If you do it every time it seems like they get tired of the food treat and will sometimes not perform the behavior you want because they don't really want a treat.
When using a positive reinforcement training method all you need to do is ignore the behaviors you don't want. No corrections are really required. If your dog behaves in a way you don't want him to you should immediately turn around and walk away. Completely ignore the dog as if he has the plague for a few minutes. Again, going back to pack mentality, the dog wants to please you. A response from you, even a negative one, is a reaction. Your dog is looking for attention from you. If you deny it, he will stop doing what he thinks caused you to ignore him.
Remember this advice when training your dog. You want to reward good behavior with attention and treats. The bigger the fuss you make over his successes the faster he will learn. Likewise, if you completely ignore him when he is doing something you don't like he will figure that out too.
Hopefully this article has given you some direction as to how to go about training your dog, and the proper attitude to use. Dog training can be complex and it is important to learn as much as possible. That is the best way to ensure that you create a happy healthy environment for you and your dog.
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