What do you think about punishment?
Punishment is unavoidable. It’s a naturally occurring phenomenon but it’s not the most effective way of changing behaviour. Rather than leave it to chance of what our learner will do, let’s take responsibility for teaching the behaviours that will work functionally for us both.
How to help your dog succeed with the use of reinforcement?
Testing out many reinforcement strategies, going at your dogs’ pace and changing the environment of the training session gives your dog the biggest chance of succeeding in the training.
Our role in training animals
Training animals is far bigger term than many people think. It’s about empowering them and giving them a choice. It’s more like educating them. The question is, will we make that effort to educate ourselves? And it's not about judging one another and fighting with each other on who is right. As long as we continue to educate ourselves and let others do the same, we can massively improve the welfare of all the animals we interact with.
Many times we don’t even bother trying to learn a new skill. We convince ourselves that it’s not for us. When what we could do is to find the first successive approximation and start learning through a fun and successful process.