Canine Nation on Pet Life Radio (PetLifeRadio.com)

Giving your dog a reward will certainly encourage them to perform behaviors for you. But what do they find most rewarding? Do you reward them often enough? Do you know how the mechanics of rewards affect your dog’s behavior? You might be surprised at how it all works. The science of behavior provides us with some pretty clear guidelines for when and how to reward behavior. It is our dogs who will provide the best feedback on how valuable they find those rewards. Rewarding often enough and for the right behaviors is only part of the process. Knowing what our dogs want to work for gives us a much greater chance of success!

The clash of cultures is growing within the dog training world. Traditional compulsion based training is being re-branded to appeal to 21st century dog owners. Newer methods for living with and teaching dogs based on science and rewards is gaining popularity. Differences between proponents of these approaches to training can be confrontational and not entirely factual. Change can be difficult. And our knowledge of dogs and how to work with them is changing. It could be that dogs and their owners are getting caught in the crossfire of debates on dog training philosophies. Can we make the transition to newer and better ways to train with less conflict and more insight? I wonder.

My dogs are silly sometimes. I’m quite proud of that. And I’m delighted that I get to be silly with them too. There is nothing quite like getting down on the floor and rolling around with my black dogs! With a little training and practice, we have created many fun and safe games that we play together. It’s a great way to teach them the rules and reward them with fun. And I never have to yell at them to 'knock it off!'

I hear the word dominant used a lot when people talk about dogs. Unfortunately it’s a mostly inaccurate term that is used incorrectly. And that often results in some pretty rough treatment for some dogs. Do you think you have a dominant dog? You might want to think again. In fact, you might want to take a step back and make sure of what you mean when you say dominant. It’s time we took a closer look and found a different way to talk about unwanted behavior.

Most dog owners are proud of their dogs when they are behaving themselves. But it never surprises me how often dog owners blame their dogs for their own failures as trainers. We find it all too easy to blame their dogs for when then see them misbehaving. Do we have a right to put responsibility for bad behavior on our dogs? I don’t know but I’m sure we have a responsibility to teach them so we never have to make that call. Is it the owner or is it the dog? I’m pretty sure I know who is at fault.

Sometimes all we need to do to help our dogs be better is to interrupt their bad behavior and show them something better. Working with our dogs doesn’t have to be a fight. A friendly reminder can go a long way!

Training our dogs is important. But maybe more important is how we manage them. Sometimes management is needed while we train and other management is a lifelong project. It could be managing their environment, their access to spaces or objects, it could even by the situations we put them in. How we manage our dogs can mean the difference between a "good dog" and a dog that we are constantly yelling at. Management can be simple but it takes planning and thought. In the end, it’s all to make our dogs and ourselves successful.

While debates rage on whether or not using positive training with your dog is a good idea or not, those of us who use it every day are enjoying what it brings to our lives. Many of our dogs have developed very clever and creative ways to get our attention or to earn their rewards. Some have even learned to outfox us and make us laugh. And there is nothing wrong with a little playfulness and joy. Dog training is not all about serious obedience and performance, after all

Could it be that there is a Tyranny of Small Dogs? Tyranny not because the dogs themselves are doing anything wrong. Quite the opposite; small dogs seem to have a tremendous capacity to lull us humans into thinking that we don’t have to work with them like we would a larger breed. Somehow we expect them to be great little dogs just because they are small and cute and we get to cuddle them. And that could be working against them if we are not giving them the training and structure they need.

Our culture is full of images of courageous, loyal, smart, and lovable dogs. Many of those dogs are just fictional ideals, the sort of perfect dog we all wish we could have. Perhaps our idealism goes even further than that if we also attribute the best in human qualities to our dogs. And that’s where we need to be careful. If we put to much expectation on our dogs, do we lose sight of their own qualities that make them so remarkable? Perhaps we should love our dogs for who and what they are and not risk being disappointed if they do not live up to our unrealistic expectations.

How can dogs be stupid and smart at the same time? How can they have less intelligence than humans and still control our households? For all our intelligence, we humans certainly find our reasons to claim to be both inferior and superior to our canine companions when it suits us.

Owning a dog is wonderful and rewarding but it is also a big responsibility. Training and management are not simple tasks as some would have us believe. But with the right teachers, it isn’t all that difficult to learn to do it well. Could we be doing a better job of teaching people about training their dogs?

Getting results can be about good, good enough, or GREAT! It matters how we train. Ask Olympic athletes Usain Bolt and Oscar Pistorius. How you teach your dog can make all the difference in the world.

You know that horrible moment when you are at the park with your dog friends and you call your dog and they ignore you? Yeah, me too. It’s a mystery why dogs sometimes choose not to do what we ask. Sometimes there are very good reasons why they don’t respond. But other times, well, it’s just a mystery.

Many think that Behavioral Science treats organisms like machines, manipulating behavior and bending others to their will. But it’s not simple. In fact, there is another side to Operant and Classical Conditioning. What you can learn about your dog while you are changing his behavior might just surprise and delight you. You might just discover that the science can show you your dog’s personality in wonderful detail!