Dog Training – Motivation (again) Part III


By Candy Clemente

Furry Visions Dog Training



Okay, I promise to stop. But thoughts rumble around in my head at odd hours of the night and I have to put them on paper (or cyberspace).

The discussion continues on reward training. Some people think that you are going to have to wear a bait bag forever if you train your dog with “cookies”. Let’s take a trip back in time, back to kindergarten……remember when you did something especially well, your teacher would come by and stick a bright shiny gold star on your shirt and you couldn’t wait to get home and show your Mom and she would get all excited? Remember that good feeling of being special? By the time you reached grade school you didn’t need that gold star anymore, that beautiful “A” on your essay gave you the same feeling with a lot less fanfare.

Once you know what is expected of you, you don’t need a gold star anymore, the good grade suffices. But getting to that point was made easier when you got the extra “cookie”. It is the same when training your dog. In the beginning, he needs that extra incentive to communicate to him that he is doing a good job, he is pleasing you. You are shaping his entire future, so don’t be stingy, give him his gold stars when he does a good job. By the time he is in “high school” a “good boy” will give him the same satisfaction because of all those bright shiny gold stars he earned in kindergarten.