Have you seen the “Pet Shaming” posts? They focus on a picture of a pet with a little sign around their neck sharing a humorous misdeed, like “I unrolled all the toilet paper.” They’re cute, they’re funny and they will probably not help correct the misbehavior. Today we’ll be talking about shaping behavior with positive reinforcement training for pets. Let’s face it, as adults we usually prefer when someone tells us what a great job we’re doing than when someone gets angry and tells us what we’re doing wrong. Why not try the same treatment on our pets?
Positive Reinforcement Training For Pets
1. Praise Your Pet. When you see your dog doing a behavior you would like reinforced, like sitting at your feet instead of jumping on the couch, praise him. This can be done verbally-“What a good boy!” along with petting and attention, or you can provide a small treat. The key is to praise in the moment. Catch him being good and tell him so immediately.
2. Be Consistent. If you’re a parent, you’ve probably realized telling a child something one time isn’t enough. (“Junior, we use a fork instead of our hands.”) The same thing works with pets. (“We can’t jump on the couch.” Remove. Repeat.) Over time pets will begin to remember these instructions.
3. Give Treats. Keep a variety of small food treats on hand to share when you catch your pet being good. Don’t give too much! Make sure it’s a smaller treat that will tempt them to repeat the pattern and earn more treats. This can be used as a supplement along with verbal praise and attention.
4. Give Simple Commands. Have you noticed that “Set the table, please,” works better on the kids than saying, “It’s time for dinner so please go set the table now. We’ll need forks, spoons, plates, napkins and glasses. Get the plastic ones today please.” If your children are like mine, this is going to get lost somewhere in translation. The same is true with pets. Try a simple command like, “Stay,” rather than, “Rio, I need you to stay right here at the door. Don’t move, just stay.”
5. Be excited. When you praise your pet, don’t use a normal or monotone voice. Instead, use your “perky” voice. Let your pet know you’re excited they did a good job!
Do you have any tried and true pet training strategies?
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The grand prize winner will receive a professional photoshoot for you and your pet that will be featured on RealSimple.com! Their website also is a great resource for celebrating National Pet Month and learning about all the great new items Purina has to offer.
I must admit, those pet shaming posts tend to make me chuckle, but I would never think of doing that to my dog. Maybe it’s because I am a mom or I just don’t want to make fun of my sweet pup!
I agree with everything in this post. Our pets do better with positive reinforcement. Very similar to raising kids! I reward my pets with treats every time they showed good behavior!
You are so right. Training pets can be compared with training young children. I agree with simple commands. My dog easily recognizes single word commands – stay. eat. fetch. His favorite phrase is “good boy” followed by a treat. 🙂
Our dog knows only one trick – being cute. Haha. I think as long as he does not chew up my house, I’m fine with that. Oh and of course they should know where to pee and poop. Treats are always a part of their daily lives.
Excellent training tips. Staying positive is really beneficial to trainer and pet.
We use praise also! I also used little training treats when I was housetraining my puppy – they worked really well!
This is good info. Pets need to be trained and praising is helpful I am sure.
those are great tips. animals can be hard sometimes. will be sharing this with a few friends with new animals.
Haha your baby is so cute! I love all he animal pictures and praising them is such a good idea. I only have a bird so I will have to see if I can participate.
These are some great tips! I love your pics too!
Positive reinforcements work really well I find. Especially with my 3 spoiled pups! This is such a great post !
It’s not something that’s so complicated to do. It’s so easy to praise your pet and show them some love and reassurance. I think these are lovely ideas.
I know pets do not register numbers of words like we do.
It truly is best to use one-word commands if possible, keeping it short, as you mention.
These are great tips! I will try this with my dog. 😀
I’m an owner of 7 dogs. And I can say that the tipis you gave a tremendous and would be very useful. A consistent reinforcement to someone pet could get a positive effect to them .
I remember having to train my dog when she was just a little puppy. It’s super difficult to keep positive at times but it’s so worth it
I’ve had two cats that liked to were known to occasionally undo the toilet paper. Things like that happen for a reason, in the case of one he wanted attention. They were always humorous but I’d never hang a sign around their neck.
I also have a hard time training my pet. These are great tips that I should remember. Consistency is vital.
What a brilliant tips, I really need this to my cat (bella). This is also a great way to encourage them.
I really need this! I have a dog, a cat, and 11 chickens. I spend a lot of time bonding, but not training. It’s nice to know it can be both at once. Positive reinforcement!
Great tips on pet training! I have a dog and this post was a good reminder to give positive reinforcement too!
This is such great advice. Both my cats respond very positively to positive reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement training is so important for any pet. Treats and attention are two thinks I use for my dog. Purina’s Pet Praising sweepstakes is something I will have to share with my sisters. Thanks for sharing the tips and the sweepstakes.
What awesome tips! We have two cats and they have to sit before they get treats. They actually do it too!
It’s definitely important to introduce a positive reinforcement training program with pets. I have a pitbull, and we take our training very seriously!
We are in the process of training a dog and we definitely do the positive reinforcement with her. Positive reinforcement is always better than anything else. They’re more motivated to please you.
My dog responds so well to praise. He’s hard headed so he tries me though. I’m going to have to start snapping so I can take some Pet Praising pictures.
These sound like some great tips, Sal definitely responds to praise oh and treats, anything for a treat!
This is an excellent post! I’ve seen too many people yelling at – or even worse, hitting – their animals to “train” them. It doesn’t work. It only makes them afraid of you.
Positive reinforcement is the only way to train any pet. If you yell or punish, you just make them afraid of you. Love it!
Those are all great tips! Our pet is such a good girl. She knows right from wrong, but we do have to scold her from time to time when she wants to be mischievous. She knows though and I think she sometimes just wants to test the waters. haha!
I remember when Max was a puppy and we had the hardest time breaking him from biting our shoes. We tried the spray and it didn’t work. We remained consistent with our positive reinforcement and he finally stopped nipping at our shoes.
I think consistency is a big part of it with pets. Eventually they get the hang of it…you just have to be patient with them.
Praise and treats always worked well with our dog, Cookie. He was such a good boy and loved getting treats 🙂