When should I reward my dog?
It is very common to reward our dog, because that is a way that he knows that things are doing well, which will help us to reinforce positive behaviors.
Here we must be careful, because Sometimes we do not reward the animal well, and we even contribute to unwanted behaviors without realizing it.
The prize must be given immediately
The prize works by association, so as soon as we do what we want, we do it. Thus, if we are teaching it to lie down, at the moment in which your belly touches the ground, we reward it.
We do not wait a while later or do it before, because the animal will not know what we want, only that we give it an award for trying to lie down or to get up, which will teach him to lie down is very complicated.
We must avoid reinforcing behaviors that do not interest us
Let's imagine the previous scenario. We see proud how our dog touches the order and when we are going to give the reinforcement it begins to bark nervous, or gets up and jumps towards us.
If at that time we give you your reward, all we are going to get is that you believe that barking or jumping is fine, so from that moment you will wait for your gift, without understanding what is wrong if we get angry.
So, It is essential to reward it only if you are completely calm, that it would be when he grabs without doing anything else, keeping calm. At that time it is what we give your favorite treat, a toy or caress it.
This always serves that we are teaching him something or even in daily life, when we must not tell him beautiful words, give him a caress or scratch him if he is in a state of excitement that never suits us.
What do we do if it does not calm down?
In the event that it does not calm down, you never have to resort to physical punishment, much less to shout as if the dog managed to understand us.
It is best to ignore it. We will not listen to him, we will not touch it, much less we will reward it, until it calms down and is still. In this way we will make him understand that what we want of him is that he remain calm, because only in that situation can interact with us.
Several kind of prizes can be used
We already know when you have to give prizes and now we have to know which ones, being the main food.
For example, There is no dog that resists a piece of cut sausage, to a cat's granulus or a little sausage, although we can also buy special awards for them, which we will try to be healthy.
They sell healthy sweets, made of meat or fish and only with natural products, although it is not necessary that we always premiere it with food.
We can also use some of your favorite toys, of the type of a ball or one of those in the form of an animal that whistles, and give it to the same time when we want to congratulate it for something that has done well.
It is best to vary the rewards with the idea that he does not get tired immediately. Therefore, in addition to the previous ones, we can also caress it while we say words that denote that we are happy with him.
You have to go down the amount of awards as the animal learns
We should not forget that the awards must be found with the idea of reinforcing good behaviors, something that is usually done when the animal is puppy and we are educating it.
That's why, As it grows and learning, the amount of rewards must be reducedWell, we will not always be with a snack in your hand when you do something well several times a day.
At the moment in which the behavior we ask is normal in it, we can stop rewarding it so much and do it only occasionally, with a caress, a time of games or also with a little food.
This will serve the reminder that when he behaves well he receives his prize, so he will be more predisposed to do what we ask.
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