Yess and No training
When we look at dog training today, there is a lot of discussion between two very different methods of behavior training. One side is about using things the dog finds rewarding to teach the dog the behaviors we like. Often, we mark those behaviors with a Yes or click and deliver the reward. The other side is about suppressing or inhibiting behavior through the things the dog doesn't like. The infamous Tstk sound paired with a finger poke, popularized by Ceasar Milan, would be one version of inhibiting behavior.
The problems come, not from the idea of suppressing behavior or building a behavior. The problem lies in the extreme versions of punishment that exist - punishment that is designed to hurt the dog when using a few treats would have got the job done - it's like using a sledgehammer to pound in a nail. Extreme punishment, that is badly delivered can lead to negative fallout behaviors such as aggression, frustration and fear of random things or as one e-collar expert commented, the risk of the dog becoming immune to the punishment – this has the punisher needing to escalate the level of punishment in order to suppress the behavior.
Even just saying NO or tsk does not tell the dog what behavior to do or not to do. Which is why, I'm 100% in favor of the hell yes approach to teaching your dog the behaviors you like. My dog sits, I'm saying yess and rewarding them with some treats, or something else my dog might want, such as throwing the ball. Even when working with my human clients, I'm blurting out a yess when they do the right thing with their dog, it feels good to both the giver of the yess and the receiver.
This is not to say that teaching your dog what No means is not important, but how we apply the word No in our daily lives is important – The actual words YES and NO have no meaning to dogs until we teach them. HELL yes when my dog does the behaviors I like paired with play or food, is creating a positive association with the yes word. The word NO can also be taught in such a way that tells the Dog ‘that behavior is not right’. And it too can be paired with a consequence that the dog doesn't like BUT it doesn’t need to be a harsh punishment. For example, your dog jumps on you to get you to throw the ball, you might say No and not throw the ball. Then the dog sits, you now say YES and throw the ball.
Why you need the yess first.
The yess needs to be taught first, because you create frustration and uncertainty for a dog that doesn’t know what to do. Your dog may be panicked or nervous, or unable to control themselves, in that moment, and to say NO is like telling your friend who is afraid of snakes to just ‘knock it off’ - not at all helpful and undermines your relationship. For example, dogs that get really excited when you come home might jump - for the dog they had no idea it would be you coming through the door, it might have been a burglar, or the mailperson – it may have felt like days since the dog last saw you – We cannot say with any certainty what is going on in the dog’s mind, what we know is that they are really excited to see you when you come through the door. This excitement leads to jumping, if you just turn your back on your dog, it can cause more jumping, frantic frustration, barking, jumping on your back, pawing excessively, because they have no idea what behavior TO DO in order to get your attention. This is why you plan a practice session, so you can reward them LOTS for doing the right behavior, saying YES for keeping four paws on the floor, or offering sits. Once they have been rewarded for a minute or two, you might say ALL Done and toss some treats on the ground and walk away. NOW if your dog jumps again, you can say NOPE and continue to walk away.
NOTE: The importance of a practice - This is a session or setup time that is set aside to teach your dog the skill you wish them to learn separately from when you need it. For example, you never spend time teaching your child how to tie their shoes, when you are trying to rush them out the door to go to school. Instead, you work on that skill during a quiet moment. The same is true for teaching your dog their house skills. |
How and when to implement a yes-no?
A good way to think of this as it relates to training is like a meter chart. ¾ positive Hell YESS and ¼ a no. For the first half of a dog's life, or a new dog in your home, you should be clearly teaching the dog the behaviors you want - lots of hell-yes moments. You want to make sure your have taught the YES marker and paired it with a reward. You want to make sure you have a relationship with the dog, and that can take time. Teaching your dog to trust you and establishing some of that consistency is important.
It is helpful to make good use of management setups, so the dog can practice more hell yes opportunities. Management setups are using things like baby gates, crate and leashes to prevent the dog from doing or learning what you don't want while you teach them what you do like.
To give you an idea of what this might look like - puppies between 9-16 weeks can be extremely bity and when they get tired or overstimulated, they turn into crazy cujo. When our puppy would become extremely bity and wild, we did not yell, screech like another puppy, or pinch his muzzle closed. Instead, we would say calmly, nope, pick him up and place him in his puppy pen, for 3 seconds. BUT, we had already taught him that when he offered a SIT, we said YES and out he would come. This was done at the age of 10 weeks,
What a No reward marker might look like?
One of the key factors of teaching your dog what NO means, is first to think about what is should mean. Which is stop that and do this instead. If you have done it right, you might begin to implement the No cue later with other things that the dog does that you don't like. For example, I don't teach an OFF cue if a dog jumps on people, or a LEAVE IT cue - this is because they mean the same thing as a NO which is STOP that behavior. Here is a video of me working on teaching a young dog not to SHAKE A PAW but to use his nose and do NOSE TOUCH instead.
Why this is important?
I like doing this because I can get better quicker results in my training, but also I can use my No reward marker for other things, such as when my dog is asking for another cookie and he's already had three, or when he wants to go say Hi to a random stranger.
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