Understanding Your Dog: Beyond Stimulus and Response
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Training a dog involves more than just giving a command and expecting an immediate response. There’s a whole process between stimulus and response, and this is why I encourage repeated practice of the desired behavior. Training isn’t about shortcuts. It’s about consistency, patience, and understanding.
Often, I see trainers feel accomplished when their dog performs a newly learned behavior correctly two or three times in a row. They assume the dog has mastered the skill and quickly move on to something new. But when the dog starts making mistakes, frustration sets in. Some trainers may then resort to pressure, believing the dog knows the command but is choosing not to obey. But is that really what’s happening?
Consider this: Do you truly believe your dog is deliberately ignoring your SIT or HERE command? Or could it be that something in the environment is distracting them—perhaps a scent we can’t detect or a sound beyond our hearing? When a dog doesn’t “listen,” we often don’t know the exact reason. Guessing isn’t enough; we need to observe, collect data, and analyze the situation.
In addition to practicing with many repetitions and reinforcing your dog with rewards they genuinely enjoy, it’s important to understand the concept of the Matching Law. Simply put, this means that the balance in your training matters. For example, if you’ve reinforced the SIT behavior 1,000 times but the DOWN only 125 times, it’s natural that SIT will be stronger than DOWN. Training is about more than just commands and responses. It’s about repetition, generalization, reinforcement, perseverance, and ownership on the part of the trainer.
So, if your dog isn’t responding as expected, don’t place the blame on them. Instead, reflect on your training methods, review your data, and be prepared to adjust your approach. In 1961, the Brelands wrote an influential article titled Misbehavior of Organisms, where they discussed how misbehavior can occur when reinforcement alone doesn’t explain an animal’s actions. This highlights that training is simple in theory but not always easy in practice.
After over 30 years of working with animals in special operations and various complex environments, I’m still amazed by their intelligence, problem-solving abilities, and willingness to cooperate with us—even when we, as trainers, make mistakes. Mother Nature has spent millions of years honing these animals' skills, enabling them to perform complex tasks we ask of them.
So, the next time you give your dog a command, remember that they are intelligent, living beings capable of making their own choices, solving problems, and using sensory and physical abilities that we don’t always fully understand. It’s this incredible capability that makes training dogs so rewarding, even in a world filled with electronics, robots, and sensors that give predictable results.
Enjoy the journey of training, and appreciate the unique bond you share with your dog.
Often, I see trainers feel accomplished when their dog performs a newly learned behavior correctly two or three times in a row. They assume the dog has mastered the skill and quickly move on to something new. But when the dog starts making mistakes, frustration sets in. Some trainers may then resort to pressure, believing the dog knows the command but is choosing not to obey. But is that really what’s happening?
Consider this: Do you truly believe your dog is deliberately ignoring your SIT or HERE command? Or could it be that something in the environment is distracting them—perhaps a scent we can’t detect or a sound beyond our hearing? When a dog doesn’t “listen,” we often don’t know the exact reason. Guessing isn’t enough; we need to observe, collect data, and analyze the situation.
In addition to practicing with many repetitions and reinforcing your dog with rewards they genuinely enjoy, it’s important to understand the concept of the Matching Law. Simply put, this means that the balance in your training matters. For example, if you’ve reinforced the SIT behavior 1,000 times but the DOWN only 125 times, it’s natural that SIT will be stronger than DOWN. Training is about more than just commands and responses. It’s about repetition, generalization, reinforcement, perseverance, and ownership on the part of the trainer.
So, if your dog isn’t responding as expected, don’t place the blame on them. Instead, reflect on your training methods, review your data, and be prepared to adjust your approach. In 1961, the Brelands wrote an influential article titled Misbehavior of Organisms, where they discussed how misbehavior can occur when reinforcement alone doesn’t explain an animal’s actions. This highlights that training is simple in theory but not always easy in practice.
After over 30 years of working with animals in special operations and various complex environments, I’m still amazed by their intelligence, problem-solving abilities, and willingness to cooperate with us—even when we, as trainers, make mistakes. Mother Nature has spent millions of years honing these animals' skills, enabling them to perform complex tasks we ask of them.
So, the next time you give your dog a command, remember that they are intelligent, living beings capable of making their own choices, solving problems, and using sensory and physical abilities that we don’t always fully understand. It’s this incredible capability that makes training dogs so rewarding, even in a world filled with electronics, robots, and sensors that give predictable results.
Enjoy the journey of training, and appreciate the unique bond you share with your dog.