Staying Pawsitive is an organization and website that is all about utilizing positive reinforcement when training dogs.
Back in the day, dog trainers thought that positive reinforcement was a form of cheating. It was a way to bribe the dogs. They thought that dogs should just respect their owners and the people around them.
However, there has been a change throughout the years leading to trainers to use positive reinforcement more. Here are two reasons why positive reinforcement is actually the better training tool to use.
Mental Workout
Positive reinforcement forces your dogs to think. It forces their minds to think about the association between a certain desired behavior and the reward and reinforcement they get afterwards. This mental workout is actually beneficial dogs.
First of all, it helps to displace the boredom of dogs. Dogs get bored a lot, and usually to unmanageable effects. They usually get rowdy and people can’t control their behavior after. This could also lead to excessive chewing and digging.
You’ll be surprised how much time positive reinforcement training can take. With only a few sessions a day, you can displace their rowdy and undesired behaviors by depleting their energy.
Clear Communications
Training in this way also helps in communicating with your dog clearly. Through this type of training, you can communicate what exactly what you want your dog to do. They understand our communications via the reward given afterward.
The more we reward them for doing something we want, the more they will be repeating those behaviors in the long run.
Let us look at the opposite way, punishment. With punishment, communications are not so clear. An example is when they poop in the house. If you were to hit them, yes they would try and stop that behavior but maybe for the wrong reasons. They could understand it as they shouldn’t poop whenever you are around.
These are only a couple of benefits of positive reinforcement in training your dogs. We hope these tips help and encourage you to train your dogs with positive reinforcement.
