When to Praise Your Dog

Two common mistakes I see dog owners make when praising their dogs:

1. People chase their dog’s mistakes yet rarely praise their dog’s good behavior. 
I often hear, “No! Stop! Off! Leave it!” A barrage of corrections letting their dog know when they’ve messed up. It’s not that these people aren’t loving and affectionate dog owners. To the contrary, they lavish affection on their pooch, but their affection carries no meaning since it’s not shared at meaningful times.

What should you do instead? Use praise and affection to communicate to your dog: “Yes, I want you to do this behavior more.”

EXAMPLE:
Let's say you have a dog who usually jumps up on people, you can play a modified game of "Hot and Cold," but instead you use the words: "Good and Eh-eh,"  to arrive at the destination, which is keeping all four feet on the floor.

• Your dog jumps up--mark that exact moment of jumping up by saying, "Eh-eh" firmly 
• At the same moment, turn with folded arms and walk away 
• Wait a 10-15 seconds, then call your dog to you excitedly to illicit this jumping response again 
• If he jumps up, repeat the above steps
• IF he jumps a little but then after your "Eh-eh" correction or on his own he puts his feet back on the floor, say, "GOOD!" And pet him. You're now letting him know that feet on the ground is what you want. 
• If you reach to pet him and he jumps back up--Your praise=excitement. Repeat the above. The goal is: Your praise=calm.
• After even five minutes, if your timing is good, you will start to see your dog's jumping start to extinguish. 
• If he manages to come to you without jumping--praise him like he's hit the jackpot. "Good!" TONS of pets and praise.
• Repeat during the day and every day, different people in the house should play this game. 
• Only when he's calm does he get affection or attention. Really notice when he does manage to keep all four on the floor and tell him, "Good!"
• Otherwise you merely say, "Eh-eh" and walk away. No more negative attention ("Off! No Fido! Stop!" and pushing him, touching him...attention, attention, attention) for his bad behavior.

Timing and consistency are everything. Sure, keep the corrections, however the praises should be used as much, if not more, because they are the behavioral road you are paving for your dog to travel.

2. Owners praise their dog at the wrong time. 

• Their dog growls at someone and they lean down and pet their dog, “Shhh! No-no. It’s okay baby.” 
• Their dog is very excited and they pet their dog to calm him down. 
• Their dog jumps up to get their attention and they say, "No!" but then pet their dog.

The message they are unintentionally sending is: “I condone your behavior. I want the behavior you’re exhibiting to continue." Sometimes clients say what they're doing works, the growling/excitement/jumping stops. Yes, for that moment, but they are building a reinforcement history for their dog to continue the unwanted behavior more, and for them to soothe him again, repeat, repeat, repeat. We're looking at extinguishing the unwanted behavior altogether.  

It's difficult with dog training to figure out when you correct, ignore or redirect an unwanted behavior. However it's very easy to remember, when you share affection you are sharing affection with their state of mind.