![]() Positive reinforcement means adding something (food, praise, toys, play, etc.) that our dogs find reinforcing or rewarding to increase the likelihood of behaviors we want. When working with dogs, there are two main kinds of reinforcement: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Any behavior that gets reinforced is more likely to be repeated, so we must be careful to try and only reinforce behaviors that we want. Your dog doesn’t understand what you’re saying, they just know that when they “yell”, you “yell”, and now everyone yells, which is a very fun reinforcing game for your dog. In that case, the dog’s barking is reinforced by the owner’s yelling. This happens in training scenarios but also in real life-like the above doorbell example. After a few repetitions, most dogs will begin to sit on their own without treats because the behavior has been reinforced. Every time they do so, they get rewarded. For example, when you’re teaching your dog to sit, you want to use rewards like treats to teach your dog how to get into the sit position. When thinking about dog behavior, it’s important to recognize that any behavior that has been reinforced is most likely to be repeated. That’s why understanding reinforcement history is so important. The dog isn’t barking to frustrate their owners, but rather they keep barking because this behavior has been repeated and reinforced. ![]() This is a common situation where many owners get stuck and frustrated by a bahevior, but the dog has no idea they have done anything wrong.Īs an unfortunate result, the next time the doorbell rings the above scenario is more than likely to repeat again and again. ![]() Then, the barking prompts the owners to start yelling, and instead of stopping-the dog just barks more! Sound familiar? If this scene resembles your house, you aren’t alone. The doorbell rings, which in many houses prompts the dog to start barking.
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