Positive Reinforcement works
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT:
When you're 5 years old and you're just starting to learn new things there's a couple of things that humans do to help set you up to succeed.
1) Your teachers don't take you to a Theme Park to learn your spellings or your times-tables for the first time. That environment would be totally wrong. It would be far too overwhelming and you would struggle to concentrate. It's unlikely that any learning would take place in that kind of environment. Maybe, when you're older & have practiced your spellings a TON of times you may be able to succeed & achieve the task even if you were being thrown upside down whilst being soaked with water but during those crucial, early learning experiences the environment HAS to be right ….
2) When you start spelling the word ‘CAT’ for the very first time you really need (& appreciate) a LOT of reinforcement …. You need the teacher to give you a star or to write "well done" when you've done a good job. Its all positive reinforcement & nice feedback to get from the Teacher as it tells you, you are doing things right.
When you're older and at University you really don't need your teacher to give you a star for spelling the word CAT. You're able to achieve more difficult tasks now and you can spell much longer words. You can even string a sentence of words together / explain their meaning / and all sorts of other things - you're more advanced now!
Moral of the story:
1) Do not be surprised if your puppy (or adult dog) doesn't come back to you when you're calling him over the (Theme) Park if you've barely practiced it frequently & often at home.
2) Do not be surprised if your puppy (or adult dog) stops listening to you if you stop the payments. A verbal "good dog" is rarely an appropriate payment. Give plenty of positive reinforcement. Be a fabulous Teacher. Make a real effort to let your dog know when they are doing a good job - they will be more likely to repeat that behaviour again in the future if there is a history of a good reward. Plus, he'll be more likely to succeed on to an advanced level if the learning is rewarding.
Positive Reinforcement works