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Typist: Bethany
The concepts and science behind what is now known as clicker and positive reinforcement training has been around for almost fifty years. I have been training my pets for just over half of that time. Yet in that long journey as a trainer, I only very recently learned about and began exclusively using positive reinforcement training techniques. Correction. I try to use only positive reinforcement training techniques. Those old negative reinforcement and aversive training techniques I used for decades have become bad habits that are hard to squelch. I have learned that it is easier to teach and old dog new tricks than an old human. And I am not really all that old! |
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Please don't misunderstand this confession of my faults as a trainer and visualize me beating my pets for disobeying. I am simply admitting that I am not a perfect trainer. Pet training is forever a learning process and one of the places I am at in this process is losing some bad habits I picked up along the way. In an effort to keep this positive reinforcement training post positive I will first proudly share that one of the most difficult aversive training habits I desperately needed to rid myself of is long gone; the leash pop. Anyone who has been training a long time might remember the leash pop, a negative training technique of a quick pop on the leash when a dog pulls while walking or to correct a broken sit. Unfortunately, this pop had become a habit for me that I literally didn't even know I was doing. Once I became aware of how I was unconsciously leash popping, I spent countless walks undoing my own bad habit with the clicker. When the leash was taut and my instinct was to pop, I stopped, waited for a loose leash and clicked. Indeed, I clicker trained myself at the same time as the dogs! Not only is this method of teaching a loose leash walk massively more effective than the pop, it was another step on my journey to be a better trainer. A 100% positive trainer.
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"Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it." |
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My pets need to work on training away a few more of my bad habits. I still catch myself correcting the pets, mostly verbally but occasionally physically. In breaking my verbal correction habit, I first began a regimen to be sure to praise after accidentally correcting. Now I find myself skipping the negative and going straight to the positive. See, I can be trained! To diminish the bad habit of physical correction I am constantly reminding myself that I would not push a child back into a sit so I should not do it to my dogs. Cat and parrot clicker training is a huge help in getting rid of my physical correction habit. Amelia and Leo cannot be physically corrected. An inability to physically correct is exactly how positive reinforcement training came to exist a half a century ago since marine mammals also cannot be physically corrected. It's funny how I once wanted to be a marine biologist. Maybe I would have started the positive reinforcement training part of my pet training journey sooner. But at least it has begun.
Do you have any bad training habits or ways you could improve as a positive reinforcement pet trainer?
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Cats can't be physically corrected into a sit.
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These five happy pets deserve the best, most positive trainer.
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Welcome to Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Rubicon Days & Tenacious Little Terrier. This month we are sharing stories of our flaws as trainers. Like every month, any and all posts or comments about positive reinforcement pet training are welcome. The blog hop is open all week, so if you are a blogger, add a post and if you are a positive pet training enthusiast, hop around by clicking the thumbnails below, learn and share. Next months Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week begins August 3rd and the theme is improving our pet training skills.
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