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antipodi
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Joined: 25 Jan 2006
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Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:30 am
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 Training your dog..Giving Rewards
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Training your dog..Giving Rewards
Want your pet to learn? One of the best ways is to reward it when it does what you want...With a treat ..But dont always hand out treats like a vending machine ..sometimes good praise will suffice..
It's always appropriate to make an animal glad it did something you asked it to do, the trick is to vary the reinforcements you give."
The best way to reward pets is a common question many ask.
Not only do animals tire of rewards given too often, they also come to expect a treat every time they perform a particular task and that, too, can be counter-productive. For instance, someone likes Icecream and someone likes chocolate, but if we got these treats all the time, it wouldn't work because we'd be satiated...
So, instead of being like a vending machine, dispensing a treat with every quarter, be like a slot machine, giving the pay-off randomly.
While some people are too generous with rewards -- especially food or pats on the head -- others object to the whole idea of reinforcements,They want their animal to do whatever they say just because they said it. My advice to them is to get a stuffed dog."
It is also wrong how many people use punishment as a training tool. It is not the way to train a pet to do something. You end up with an animal that is scared of you and it will possibly bite.
There are times when it's appropriate to physically correct a dog but if you have a good relationship with your dog it doesn't take much to get the message across. Simply startling the dog -- by clapping your hands, throwing a bean bag (not at the dog!) or dropping a book to the floor -- and then immediately redirecting its attention to what you want it to do is enough.
The trick, is in the timing. Good corrections occur within less than a half second of the misbehavior, so most of us need to speed up our reaction time."
It also means learning to pay close attention and to anticipate your pet's next move. For example One dog, a working border collie called Cool Hand Luke. At home on the farm, when Luke goes right, instead of left,the trainer startles him with a loud "AH!" just as he starts his turn, not after he's taken a stride or two in the wrong direction. Then she repeats his left turn signal (in this case, a whistle) and lets him keep working sheep (the best possible reward for a Border collie) if he goes the correct direction.
Learning to keep your cool is important. "Getting angry at misbehavior may be tempting, but it doesn't tell your pet what it should be doing. So work on correcting your pet as quickly as you can, without getting angry."
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Antipodi
May one day man and Animals live together in harmony and peace
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