Humans also use this system: we respond when a phone rings, we get up when we hear the alarm or exercise when our coach tells us.
- In this Animal Expert article we will show you how it works.
- What you need and what are the benefits of training to do good stimuli control.
- Read on and learn with us!.
The control of stimuli is fundamental in the formation of dogs. All dog obedience orders (verbal or physical) must become stimuli that control certain behaviors of your dog. For example, if you ask your dog to sit down, you should sit down, not go to bed.
On the other hand, many situations of daily life also act as unconscious stimuli that control the behavior of your dog. For example, if your dog is on the mat, you shouldn’t urinate. On the contrary, if you’re on the street, you can do it.
Karen Pryor suggests in her book “Don’t Kill Him” that you can tell if your dog’s behavior is under the control of a stimulus if she meets four properties:
Below you can see some examples of applying stimuli control in canine training.
When using food to train a dog, it is common to guide it with food. For example, to sit the dog, place the food slightly on the dog’s head and back:
These procedures are very useful because they allow you to form simple behaviors in a short time. However, many coaches drive with food several times, until it becomes part of the stimulus that controls behavior. For example, trainers believe that food-trained dogs only react when there is food.
The mistake is to use food as part of the stimulus at all times. To avoid this problem, it is sufficient for the food to stop being part of the stimulus after a few repetitions. Please note that food should be used as a backrest and not as a background. Learn more about positive reinforcement in our article.
This should be our main objective: for the dog to associate an instruction with specific words or gestures. Dogs can usually be easier to remember when they look at physical gestures, but you can use what works best.
The first time you teach the order you must use the food so that the dog “receives its reward” for completing what we asked, but as in the previous case, at some point you will have to stop using this booster to reward you. with kind words or caresses.
Having a good control of the stimuli that influence the behavior of our dog is very important for your safety. To be sure that our dog will obey us in an exceptional situation offers us safety and confidence. Training is also important to mentally stimulate our dog and make him feel useful. Basically, it’s another way to enrich your daily life.
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If you would like to read similar articles on dog stimuli control, we recommend that you visit our Advanced Education section.