How do you praise your dog? Do you always say “good dog“? If this is your standard expression for praise, there is a good likelihood that you are boring your dog. You are giving a standard, automated response. It is very predictable and becomes somewhat robotic. Soon the “good dog” response begins to lose its impact. The dog knows exactly what you are going to say. You have become highly predictable - and the dog may start to pay less attention to what you say.

There is a way to have the dog receive verbal praise and yet work harder. It is a technique that keeps the dogs attention and serves to motivate the dog to do better. That technique is to have praise indicate that to the dog ‘the degree of good’ that it has performed/achieved. If this is confusing, perhaps an example will illustrate:

* “that’s better”

* “that’s good”

* “wonderful”

* “what a clever dog”

* “perfect”

These are degrees of praise. These examples of increasing verbal praise reflects the level of achievement that the dog has done. You may want to vary the size of the food treat that the dog receives in conjunction with the verbal praise. Depending on the level of learning your dog has reached with a command, you may not want to give a food treat for a “that’s better”. You will start to give a small treat for the “that’s good”. And when the dog has done a command that is “perfect”, it may be time for a huge reward. Perhaps it is comparable to the dog having won the jackpot. The praise is profuse and the treat matches. Perfect is a good place to stop for the day.

Let’s look at this from the dog’s point of view. The dog soon learn that different praise means different things. One blatant example is that there are better food treats associated with the different sounds (words) that you utter. Besides that, you seem happier, jollier and more relaxed when you say certain sounds. This gives the dog some added incentive. The dog will try to do things to make you utter the better sounds (words). It will discriminate and identify for itself what it is that makes you say that. The dog is motivated to do better. The dog is clever and an opportunist. The dog will think that it is manipulating you into saying certain things and giving bigger treats.

Soon the dog will find that you are fairly easy to train. The dog will have figured out the exact ways to make you say those sounds and produce those great treats. Meanwhile, you can marvel at what a clever dog trainer you have become.

Catherine Forsythe

[tags]dogs, praise, degrees of good, motivation, boredom[/tags]