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  • Welcome back!

    We decided to spruce things up and fix some things under the hood. If you notice any issues, feel free to contact us as we're sure there are a few things here or there that we might have missed in our upgrade.

Thank you GlasgowDT!

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
This is AWESOME advice!
I think Denna may be in for a very fun and rewarding holiday season. :)

From his blog:

"See Mark And Reward Training (SMART) achieves several things in its purity. Put simply, Kathy asks you to train your eye to notice, acknowledge the good your dog is already doing, and reinforce it. How amazing. You can do this anywhere, too.

This week Bonnie’s mums;
*counted 50 healthy, high value treats out each, and each day
*looked for opportunities to reward Bonnie for good behaviour, either requested or already offered
*marked the behaviour using a clicker they had already spent a session learning how to use (you can use a verbal marker too)
*reinforced Bonnie for a variety of behaviour throughout the days/week

This yields powerful, and almost immediate benefits.

Firstly it’s just fun. Julie and Margaret have made a competition out of it, seeing who can reinforce the most behaviours, the winner has dinner bought for them at the end of the week. Bonnie is having a whale of a time and is learning fast what works for her and what doesn’t. (three guesses to the kind of choices Bonnie makes more of these days…) It’s transferable in the environment, respectful, ethical, builds trust and confidence in our dogs and the most wonderful side effect of all? It will change the way you view your animal; you will start to see that your dog is really well behaved a lot of the time."

https://glasgowdogtrainer.wordpress.com/2017/12/07/a-very-bonnie-christmas-part-2/
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Yes, yes, yes! This is how I work with my pups from day one. Simply paying attention and rewarding the behaviors you like really helps prevent most problem behaviors from developing.

Thanks for sharing.
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
We're going to be babysitting a 5-month old female black lab puppy for a week over Christmas (pending a meet&greet, which I expect will go well)... I think we might put this to use for her, too... keep the house happy and humming along peacefully.