The Power of Positive Training

I'm what some people call a "cross-over trainer". I trained my first dogs using traditional dominance and "correction" techniques. For example, years ago, I trained my first dog to immediately come when called by "popping" her prong collar with a leash just after I said "come". This taught her to leap toward me as soon as I said "come" to avoid the correction. She was a well-trained dog but she was always looking for ways to "beat the system". For example, if I called her from a long distance, she'd realize that I couldn't get to her fast enough to correct her if she ignored my recall.

When K came into my life, I searched for a good local dog trainer, and I met an amazing trainer who focused on "positive training". That meant that she rewarded good behavior and she ignored (but didn't actively punish) bad behavior. I was skeptical that positive training would work, to put it mildly, but I thought it was worth giving it a try. I think that I drove that trainer nuts with all my questions about why a dog would obey if there was no punishment involved.

I quickly saw how rapidly K learned things, without any punishment in her training. She could "sit", "come", "down", and "stay" by the time she was 10 weeks old - and she'd learned it all by reward-based training.

After K died, I met Shyla - by far the most sensitive and sometimes-fearful dog who I've ever had in my life. Punishment-based training would have hurt Shyla terribly. She needed to learn to trust humans - and having her own human physically correct her would have been disasterous to the trust-building process.

Despite Shyla's extreme fear of me and almost everything else when she arrived in our home, I immediately started playing training games with her. I could do that because my "training games" involved only rewards and fun. They built a bond between us and amplified Shyla's nascent trust.

Recalls were one of the first things Shyla learned. To this day (1.5 years later), she adores playing recall training games. This photo is from this morning. You can tell that she is running to me at top speed, using the power of every muscle fiber in her body. We have a "treat party" when she gets to me after a recall.

Part of positive training is figuring out what your dog loves to do and incorporating it. Shyla loves to leap. So, we often play recall games where she leaps small obstacles to get to me (she could go around them but she never chooses to).

For fun, I've taught Shyla some "tricks", like "rest your chin on the ground". I taught this by having her lie down with a clean yogurt lid taped to the ground in front of her. When she put her head down to touch the lid (I'd previously trained her to view a yogurt lid as a target to touch with her nose) - I clicked. We did that about 10 times before I removed the lid. Because Shyla is experienced at clicker training, she mimicked the same movement without the lid present, touching the ground in front of her with her chin to earn clicks/treats. Then, I gradually required her to rest her chin on the ground for longer and longer to earn her click/treat. She knew the trick well within a week.

Now, it's one of her favorite tricks!

She "offers" this trick (without my request) all the time!

It's a nice trick for photography because her head stays still, making it easier to compose a photo.

I've also trained her to "take a bow", which I did not intend to include resting her chin on the ground. However, Shyla has embellished "taking a bow" by adding a "chin rest" to it!

I think that the most fun and exciting part of positive training is that it becomes a collaboration between the dog and the trainer. I watch for Shyla's embellishments on our favorite tricks, and then I teach her to do them on cue. It lets her, the dog, play a role in shaping what we do together. This aspect has built Shyla's confidence and exuberance to an incredible extent.

I believe that positive training was the only way to train a dog like Shyla, and I thank my lucky stars that I met my amazing trainer before I'd even met Shyla!