Hey everyone! I am glad you are here! I decided to write a short, 3 part blog series that talks about the 4 quadrants of dog training to help you understand the fundamentals of how dogs learn! This post is just the introduction to the series so stay tuned!
Now I could get super scientific with you and sound all fancy BUT I believe in keeping things super short, sweet and simple for my clients. I mean, you are here to learn how to train your dog, not go in depth with all this science-y mumbo jumbo. Although there will be science behind it, I will make it easy! (That being said, if you are one of those people that has deeper questions about this topic, don't hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email!) So back to those 4 Quadrants....
Some people are probably thinking "Quadrants??? Whaaatt?? I thought you just give dogs treats for doing what you want!" While using treats fits into one of the four quadrants of dog training, they are just a very small part of the entire picture. Like a piece of a puzzle.
If you have studied anything about psychology, you have probably learned about operant conditioning. Operant conditioning, in short, is basically increasing or decreasing the frequency of a behavior by the use of consequences.
Most people feel as if the word "consequence" has a negative connotation but this is not always the case. A consequence is just a result of an action and can be negative OR positive. The two type of consequences I will be explaining in this series are simply: Punishment and reinforcement. I am going to break the quadrants down by explaining the 2 types of punishment and the two types of reinforcement:
2 Types of Punishment + 2 Types of Reinforcement
=
4 QUADRANTS OF DOG TRAINING
Most people already understand that using food rewards will increase behaviors in their dog, this is a great start but, like I said, it is just one piece of a puzzle! If you are ready to learn how to put the rest of the puzzle together and truly understand how your dog learns, stay tuned for part 2!
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