We use positive reinforcement centered training plans to modify behavior. But what does that mean, and how does that differ from other training methods? There are a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions about dog training, dog behavior, and animal behavior in general. To make a long story short, humans have been trying to use punishment as a technique for changing animal behavior for a very long time. What scientists have found, through thousands of studies of hundreds of different species, is that if you are trying to teach any organism, any new behavior, punishment - decreasing the likelihood of a behavior - is not as effective of a teacher as reinforcement - increasing the likelihood of a behavior. Animals learn faster, with more retention, and with better accuracy when we use positive reinforcement centered training plans to modify behavior.

We want to be good teachers, but we can’t refrain from ever punishing our dogs?

Sometimes we have to employ management strategies to prevent our dogs from being able to practice problem behaviors.

Those management strategies often rely on removing access to reinforcement, and when reinforcement is taken away or out of reach, that can surely act to punish behavior.

But using management strategies and taking away access to reinforcement is psychologically different for our dogs than adding something aversive, like a buzz on an e-collar or a correction on a prong collar, in an effort to get them to stop performing a behavior.

Even with the option of taking away reinforcement to punish behaviors we don’t like, the premise of our training methods is always to teach and reinforce behaviors we want to see and set our dogs up for success, so that we don’t have to rely on management strategies, and certainly so that we never have to use aversive tools to punish behaviors we find dislikable.

As Dr. Friedman puts it in her Living and Learning with Animals course, “Procedures that rely on the presence of aversive stimuli and resulting escape-avoidance behaviors have been well researched and shown to have serious disadvantages (Azrinand Holtz, 1966).”

Behavior modification that uses escape-avoidance training methods have been linked to increases in aggression, over-generalized aversion to other stimuli in the environment, escape-avoidance behavior, and increased apathetic behavior, also known as shut down behavior.

Training doesn’t have to be scary for your dog!

Quite the opposite, it should be really rewarding.

To read more about positive reinforcement and its uses in animal training, visit www.clickertraining.com.

To sign up for any of our services, you will need to create an account in our client portal system, Gingr.

To create an account, navigate to the top of this page, and hover over the "Client Portal" button. A drop down menu will appear.

Select "Create An Account."

You will be taken to the client portal where you can fill out your name, your address, your payment information, and emergency contact information.

Once you have completed this, you will be taken to a page to fill out information about your dog and your training goals.

Booking services can all be done through the client portal.

Navigate to the top of this page, and hover over the "Client Portal" button.

A drop down menu will appear. Select "Login to Your Account".

Once you are logged in to your existing account, select the picture of the dog that you wish to book for services, and then select "Start Booking".

This will bring you to the booking page where you can select the type of service you are looking to book.

For daytraining and daystays, take note that days we are full are listed in the notes section on the lefthand side of the page.

We sell packages for all of our services that reduce the cost per visit.

To purchase a package, you will need to login to an existing account in Gingr.

Navigate to the top of this page, and hover over the "Client Portal" button.

A drop down menu will appear. Select "Login to Your Account".

Once you are logged in, select the "Shop" button from the navigation bar on the lefthand side of the page. From there, select "Shop packages". This will bring up all of the packages that are for sale. Please note that package sales are non-refundable and non-transferrable.

The short answer is: We don’t know… Yet!

When we meet for you and your dog, we will discuss all of the possible reinforcers available.

Every dog is unique in what they find reinforcing. We recommend creating a comprehensive list of what your dog finds reinforcing, and ranking reinforcers to create an exchange rate for behaviors we want to reinforce. Reinforcement needs to be equal to or better than the environment that you are in and the behavior for which you are asking.

A COUPLE OF EXAMPLES:

Your dog in your home: Most dogs will perform all of their learned behaviors inside their home for mild reinforcement. In your home, kibble and attention/personal play is generally reinforcing enough to use for your training.

Your dog on a walk: When you take your dog for a walk, it’s you versus every other sight, sound, and smell in the world. On walks, we’re going to use special food, toys, and the best reward of all, sniffing! As your dog learns how to walk nicely on leash, you can use the environmental reinforcers that are all around you on walks in the form of really interesting smells for your dog.

At Urban Pawsibilities, our motto is learn together, live together.

We are here to help you develop a better dialogue with your dog because clear communication and reinforcing expectations help us both live our best lives.

Your dog‘s learning process is quite straightforward. We are going to analyze behaviors that we see, and deliberately change them through systematic reinforcement of new or alternative behaviors.

Your learning process will be more challenging. To change our dog’s behavior, we ultimately must change our own behavior.

We have to be calm and collected at the right times; and in our experience, it’s needed most at times when we are feeling frustrated and frazzled.

Our program is designed to help you develop the skills you will need to be able to teach your dog new behaviors, maintain those behaviors, and modify existing behaviors.

Throughout the process, you will learn how to read your dog’s body language and better understand your dog’s threshold for stimulation. We will also help you build a vast store of management and prevention options that you can employ between training sessions.

It is our goal that by the end of our sessions you and your dog will have learned how to communicate your needs to each other and live happier lives together because of it.