How a Dog Learns

Video Transcript

"I'm Carlos Puentes with K-9 Solutions Dog Training in Miami Florida and today we're going to talk about dog training myths from my new book "Who's Training Whom?". There's a lot of misconceptions about how a dog can learn, there's only one way a dog can learn no matter what anybody says. A.-you catch him doing something good and you positively reinforce the behavior, right when the dog is doing it or right before he's about to do it. or B.- you catch your dog doing something wrong and you negatively reinforce the behavior, right when the dog is doing it or right before. No other way that the dog will learn. So, that's myth number three. Come home from work, or from where ever you are at, put you dogs nose into it and he'll learn, not gonna happen. It has to be right when he's doing it or right before. Future threats, future rewards for a dog don't work. You can say, "I'm going to give you a doggy ice cream if you behave when I come back home" he's still going to misbehave. So, that's the way they learn, from repitition, you want to make sure that you get something good out of it, when he's doing something good or something to communicate you're not happy with him and I'm going to put your nose in it when I come back home is not enough reason for him to stop."