Dogs make the most amazing companions in life. They tend to be much loving and loyal to their masters. They are not like human beings since their brains work a little bit different. The way they interact with and perceive the social environment around them is also quite different. This is where effective communication and interaction is vital. In order to effectively communicate with them, we need to train them.
However, training your dog may be one of the most challenging aspects of receiving a new canine into your home. But wait! Have you ever given a thought of the psychology behind dog training? Trust me it will make the whole process of dog training into a walk in a dog park!
Now hold on your hat as I take you through some of the most amazing ways of training your dog. Teaching your canine friend how to behave is just one of the benefits from knowing how the minds of others work. You never know, if you’re good at it, dog training could be the start of a career in psychology or maybe you could create a new superstar dog.
Negative Reinforcement
You might be thinking this reinforcement to be an undesirable consequence for instance pain. Trust me you are definitely wrong on this! Simply, this entails removal of a nasty stimulus. This psychology principle works by encouraging good behaviors in your puppy.
To start, house-train your new puppy using pee pads. Place the dog in unoccupied but warm and safe room. Do it when at home to avoid any mishaps. The dog may start complaining or barking due to loneliness. Nevertheless, avoid tending the dog the moment they start whining. Begin with slight increases for instance 10-20 minutes of loneliness.
Next, you can take away the unpleasant stimulus and socialize with the puppy. Over time, increase the boosts of interaction. As time goes by, your dog will know the routine of loneliness varies. They will thus adapt the idea of being alone at home without barking.
Classical Conditioning
The science behind this associates a stimulus with a definite response. This means that the response takes place involuntary provided the stimulus exists. The next time you are taking your dog for a nature walk, try this approach. It will cheer up your companion to relieve themselves while on a walk. You need to ring a bell each time they do acceptably relieve themselves outdoors. Within a short time, the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus. This means your dog will relieve itself involuntary upon ringing the bell. Try to condition the bell once you are done with your walk.
Justify Maslow’s Basic Needs
According to this psychological principle, needs are presented in the hierarchical form. Fulfillment of appetite, pleasure, and thirst are some of the basic needs both in animals and human beings. Basic needs can, therefore, be harnessed as rewards for training your dog. Pet your dog the moment they perform simple habits, for instance, sitting down voluntarily.
Next, you can start to pet them only upon command. This method works magic since you strengthen your canine acceptable behavior by fulfilling their basic needs. In addition, you will be conditioning your pet to relish both the reward and approach.
Complement Primary Reinforcement
It may become challenging to carry on with a single enforcement approach. Undesirable effects such as begging are evident when you only use primary reinforcers without supplementation. Your dog may even start to think it’s the boss due to unceasing attention and petting. Instead, you can start to complement the reinforcement with praise. After a number of efforts with the secondary reinforcement, the pet will associate both the praise and food for accomplishing the ideal trick. The technique works on kids as well.
In conclusion, this is just but some of the best ways to train your dog using the psychology learnings. Use them to cultivate good and desirable behaviors in a dog. The good thing is that they all work!