Your Dog’s Reinforcement is so Much More Than Treats

When we talk about reinforcement, the first thing that comes up is treats, but there are so many more ways to reinforce your dog. Think about toys or your time to be with your dog, a car ride, play time with other dogs, a swim or just simply going out the door for a walk.

When you know what makes your dog happy, you know what reinforces him and you can use this to learn your dog what you want! What they desire is what they can get.

These days we give our dogs a lot of freedom from the start, and we expect them to make only good choices. 

In the meantime, your dog finds reinforcement from inappropriate places and easily learns bad habits. Just a couple examples; your dog pulls on the leash, chews on the furniture, jumps up on people, eats everything they can reach.

When those bad habits are born, it changes your emotional state and you now decide to train your dog and want to unlearn those bad habits.

To make sure you understand correctly, reinforcement doesn’t stop behaviour, only punishment can do that. Instead, it encourages a new behaviour.

 That’s why we don’t focus on all the things we don’t like from our dog but look past that and find all the things we do like to see and grow from there. Training with reinforcement is a different way of looking to your dog, it’s focussing on your path where you want to go, instead of all the challenges you come across.

Dogs do what is reinforcing and it is up to us to control the access to the reinforcement.  

In our training style, we help you show your dog to make correct choices and form good habits through that. You grow the freedom your dog gets as they make more and more good choices. Instead of punishment, you are curious why your dog made a poor choice and how you can help your dog understand they need to make a different choice. This builds your dog in a confident dog!

Focussing on reinforcement allowed me to build a relationship together with dogs, with my kids, and with everyone around me. I am now focused on being the best I can be and have fun during the process. I learned to surrender with any outcomes whenever they happen and be in a place of great humility.  

Every day I have grace for myself, and my dog and I observe and ask myself; what does my dog need from me today?

Want to learn more about your dog’s behaviours? Check out our Dog Mastery program!

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