Dog Learning

LEARNING PRINCIPLES

Training a Dog

Eddie has been reading about methods to train his dog to behave and follow commands. He wanted to make his dog more obedient, so he has been reading a lot and trying to implement what he has read.

One of the first things he read about was the use of a clicker and reinforcement theory. He read that he should use the clicker and then follow that sound immediately with a dog treat. Eddie did use the clicker a number of times, but sometimes he would make the “click” and fumble around and not give the dog a treat until a minute or so later. Some days he would give the dog a treat and then use the clicker.

Eddie also read about positive reinforcement, and he felt that it was a good idea. He decided that treats were a reinforcer, and he also decided that he would give his dog a new toy as a reinforcer. Along with the concept of positive reinforcement, Eddie read about something called schedules of reinforcement. Eddie thought that the best schedule of reinforcement was to give his dog a treat or new toy every time the dog obeyed a command such as “sit”, but after a while it became too much trouble to always give a treat so Eddie tried to just use the clicker instead.

Eddie wasn’t content with trying to teach his dog simple one-word commands such as “sit”, he wanted the dog to learn more complex behaviors such as “roll over and play dead”, so he researched the concept of shaping, but he would often get frustrated because his dog didn’t seem to perform the desired behavior which he could then reinforce.

Because of his growing frustration with the dog’s lack of progress, Eddie decided he might need to punish the dog when it engaged in undesirable behavior such as jumping on him or barking too much. Eddie would sometimes yell at his dog or swat the dog on its’ rump when it misbehaved.

Here’s what Eddie produced as a result of his efforts. His dog seemed to have a difficult time learning the commands and tricks...