Reinforcement Definition: An event, a circumstance, or a condition that increases the likelihood that a given response will recur in a situation like that in which the reinforcing condition originally occurred.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT IN YOUR DAILY LIFE
Think back to a time where you were given something that was rewarding; such as a bonus at work, a sticker in class for good behaviour, praise or money from your parents on good grades.
Now what did you do after?
Did you get the bonus from work then start slacking off? Or did you work harder to get a bigger bonus next year?
After you got a sticker in class did you go and smack the kid next to you? Or did you continue being good in order to get another sticker maybe the next day?
When you got money for every A on your report card did you stop studying so hard? Or did you continue studying in order to get all A's next year?
Rewarding a behaviour is the quickest way to have the behaviour repeat itself. I have alot of clients who tell me that they can't stop their dog from jumping on the counter and grabbing food off of it. The majority of the time the dog is counter surfing because it is REWARDING to find food up there, therefor accidentally reinforcing his counter surfing. Another reason is when the dog jumps up, you yell at the dog to get off, if dogs are lacking social interaction in their home this yelling is the closest interaction they get so therefor it is REWARDING to jump up. The accidental reinforcement being your interaction with the dog.
We as humans tend to think our dogs know exactly what we want and they're just being bratty or difficult on purpose, this is so far from the case. If you give a command and your dog doesn't do it, it's not because he is purposely trying to push your buttons, he's clearly not understanding what you want from him. Some dogs if you have used aversive methods, are actually afraid to make the wrong choice because if it's not what you want they are going to be yelled at or get a leash correction, so therefor they don't do anything and the owners complain,"my dog refuses to sit on command because he's dominant, or, he knows I want him to so he won't."
It's in human nature that when we get frustrated we end up repeating ourselves and raising our voices, so as we're repeating words (that our dogs don't understand) and yelling the poor dog is throwing us dozens of signals to calm us down, such as sniffing the ground, looking away, yawning and we take these as our dog is ignoring us and the cycle goes on and on.
Poor dogs right?
Throw away the scary voices and choke collars and try reinforcing your dog today just by a simple treat for a good behaviour, you'll start noticing a change for the better! And your dog will love you for it.
I highly recommend The Other End of the Leash by Patricia Mcconnell. Such a wonderful book on why we do what we do around our dogs.
Senin, 21 Maret 2011
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