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Behavioral Terminology: What are they talking about?

You hear dog trainers tossing around training terms that don’t make sense to you? Here’s a look into decoding the lingo.

The definitions are generally accepted among behaviorists (which is where this terminology is standardized): Whether a given act is reinforcement or punishment is defined by what the dog does in the future. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of it, it's the dog ...

I am not the trainer for everyone; no one trainer is. Some will pooh-pooh my ideas, some will love them, some will get angry about them. I get results and I've never harmed a dog.

To teach come: I use a variety of methods depending on the dog. I do not ever call a dog out of a stay command for at least the first year following training. To that end, I frequently use ...

Teaching a dog to touch his nose to your hand on command is a simple, highly effective training protocol that has many practical uses:

• It can teach a touch sensitive or hand shy dog to welcome physical contact instead of avoiding it.
• It can help a reactive dog to direct his attention to the handler, thereby interrupting fixation.
• It can establish a bond between an anti-social dog to a human handler because it is a ...

Dogs are capable of learning words and phrases. Consistency is the key to teaching anything new, whether it be a word, obedience command, or trick. Below are some commonly used words for different situations. Use any word you prefer, just make sure that everyone in the household uses the same vocabulary.

The easiest way for a dog to learn a word or phrase is to attach it to the action. For instance, say SIT when ...