From: Valaria_Vorlop@mindlink.bc.ca (Valaria Vorlop)
Subject: Re: Too much praise?!?
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 17:17:06 GMT

> I've just started reading the Bauman book (recommended in the FAQ) and came
> to the chapter on giving praise. She says it's possible to give to much
> paise - "Some people will praise their dogs for just being alive" (or
> something like that). Does this mean that I reserve phases like "Good Boy",
> etc. only for lessons or does it mean that I shouldn't be as affectionate
> with my dog in general? It seems it would make a dog like lesson time more
> if you are only affectionate during a lesson, but that seems alittle tough
> (and I could never get my wife not to be affectionate all the time, making
> the dog "like" her much more than me, thereby, making lessons difficult).


My favorite training book :)

Mostly it depends on the dog. Some dogs will take all the affection you can
give and still beg desperately for more. If you have a dog like this, you
probably can't praise it too much...it will ALWAYS be eager to do
*anything* to please you and even if your wife spends the entire day
praising it, it will still be ready for more from you. Other dogs, usually
more dominant dogs, have the ability to ignore praise and affection if
something is more interesting to them. With a dog that shows any signs of
this, you will want to make him WORK for praise and affection. This doesn't
have to be as complicated as it may sound, something as simple as always
asking the dog to 'sit' before giving it attention is a good practice, or
to do a trick before it gets a cookie, etc. This not only reinforces your
position as leader, but makes praise and attention a valuable comodity
since the dog can't take it for granted.

*Ignoring* a dog that tends to be dominant or can do without praise can do
wonders for it's attitude since it will be so grateful when you finally
decide to give it some attention. If your dog turns out to be the type that
needs only a limited amount of attention and you find that your wife 'uses
up' his quota, you might be able to make a compromise with your wife. Ask
her to ignore the dog for an hour or so before you want to conduct a
training session...possibly put the dog in his crate for this hour.

Sometimes when people constantly praise their dogs "just for being alive"
the dog will start to think it is boss in the family or over certain
members of the family. Not only will it start taking the praise for granted
but it may come to believe it has a *right* to be praised. For this reason,
it is a very good idea if you can ask you wife to also give the dog some
sort of command which it must obey before she pays attention to him since a
dog that thinks it's boss is a serious problem.

You may feel sort of artificial at first, rationing out praise this way,
but it will eventually become natural. It's not so much a matter of
limiting the amount of praise you give your dog, but of making sure the
praise *counts*, so that a verbal reward IS rewarding to your dog...if he
thinks there is an unlimited supply which he'll get no matter what he does,
why should he put out an extra effort to please you? It's never too soon to
start with your puppy, though of course you won't be as demanding of him at
this point and you will want use very gentle training methods. You just
have to learn to read your dog: if he responds to attention or praise with
enthusiasm, you are doing really well, but if he wanders away or ignores
you while you praise him (taking into account that he's still a puppy and
easily distracted), you should start making him earn the attention.



--
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Valaria_Vorlop@mindlink.bc.ca   *For YEARS I wondered what ceiling wax was.*
or:      a4080@mindlink.bc.ca   ********************************************
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