Catch Your Dog Doing Something Right

Dogs do not have any understanding of cause and effect that correlates to a human understanding of the idea. But they do have a remarkable ability to associate a consequence with an antecedent condition if the consequence happens within 1.5 seconds of the antecedent. We're going to come back to this idea many times, it is that important.

If you learn how to "mark" the behavior (which will be a focus of our training together) the reward can come later; this is not a technique that I would try to teach in a blog, I just want to acknowledge that the possibility exists.

Behavior that is rewarded is reinforced and more likely to occur again.

Catch your dog doing something right. If the dog is alive and not under anaesthesia, it is offering a behavior. Reward the desirable behaviors.