Reward based training is often misunderstood and mis-characterized, especially in the competitive obedience training community. It is often described as incomplete or as missing something. Reward based trainers are often described as weak or unwilling to carry out necessary parts of dog training.
There are indeed some that consider themselves force free or positive only trainers simply because they don’t want to hurt their dogs or cause them to have any unpleasantness. It is relatively unimportant to these training if the training works or not. That is not who I am.
It is true that I don’t want to hurt my dog. However, it is also important to me that my training works. I believe that when done correctly, training with positive reinforcement works better towards accomplishing my goal of creating a well-trained dog far better than corrections.
Many balanced trainers use corrections because that they have been unable to be successful in training without them. My hope is that this book will help all trainers, no matter what training philosophy they embrace to be more successful with positive reinforcement. Most if not all trainers would agree that if positive reinforcement would always work, then there would be no need for corrections!
There could be a myriad of reasons for the failure of positive reinforcement training. Most of these reasons revolve around the fact that the trainer has been unable to get the dog’s mind off of the reward and onto the work that will earn them that reward. This book goes deep into the principles that will do just that.
“Engaging the Mind: Dog and Puppy Training” is a deep dive into the intricacies of positive reinforcement training as it relates to the 10-20 most important minutes of a dog or puppy’s day: the training session. This book is the culmination of what I’ve learned on my training journey from correction based training to taking multiple dogs to the highest levels of AKC obedience using only the positive reinforcement principles and techniques taught in this book.
My Training Journey
Like so many other trainers who now consider themselves force free or positive only crossovers, I started my training journey using corrections. I didn’t enjoy giving leash corrections. However, I didn’t know of any other way to train. The positive reinforcement training I received in these early months of training was weak and had its limits. I didn’t know how to make it any better.
I gave many many corrections to my dogs in that first year of dog training and we trudged along. I practiced almost every single day. Heeling was atrocious. Attitude was even worse. In a years time, the most advanced title I earned was an AKC Companion Dog title. Even that title was unimpressively earned. My dog was not eagerly engaged. He was not a happy working dog.
I became frustrated with dog training. I didn’t enjoy it. Neither did my dogs.
I tried eliminating the corrections but I had no instruction for how to train without them. I tried simply dropping the corrections, but that left me without a tool to fix the problems I was having. Anyone who’s tried going from a correction based training style to positive only can tell you that usually, it simply doesn’t work.
There must be a major overhaul in the positive techniques for positive reinforcement to reach its potential. If you are going to train using positive reinforcement only, the positive reinforcement needs to be good: really good. You need to be able to effectively use all positive reinforcement training tools available and you need to know when to use which one.
After my first year in dog training, I put training on the back burner and began researching dog training methods. I read well over a hundred dog training books. I watched over 50 dog training videos over and over again. I took dozens of online dog training courses.
Then, I began experimenting with what I was learning not only with my own adult dogs but also with entire litters of puppies. I began a quest to learn how to make positive reinforcement training work. I wanted success. I wanted to enjoy training. I wanted my dogs to enjoy it.
The Missing Element
What I found in almost every case where positive reinforcement does not work is that there is nearly always the same very important training element missing: engagement of the mind. Lack of engagement can be caused by many factors including the following.
- Not breaking exercises down into small enough pieces causing confusion and frustration in the dog.
- Timing issues that hinder the dog from connecting the reward to the correct behavior.
- Long term reliance on food-focused training tools such as luring and props.
To harness the power of good positive reinforcement training, the dog’s mind must be in the game. If the dog is simply following food around, the dog will struggle to associate positive reinforcement to the work. Instead, the trainer will likely be reinforcing food-focus instead of work-focus. We as trainers must shift the dog’s focus from the food itself to the work that earns the food. This shift of focus creates inward change in the dog and allows for positive reinforcement to accomplish its greatest potential.
What You Will Learn from this Book
The methods taught in this book are designed to train far more than outward behavior. The primary goal of everything taught here is to reach deep into the heart of the puppy or dog and to encourage them to become the very best version of themself from the inside out. The methods taught here focus on training both a dog’s body as well as their mind. The techniques discussed in this book also give the trainer the greatest opportunity for building the puppy up, for engaging the puppy’s mind, and for building focus, confidence, self-control, and resilience into the very core of the puppy.
This book teaches how to conduct a training session that uses in-depth, science-based, force-free methods for building a strong foundation for a puppy or dog of any age over 6 weeks. It works well for preparing puppies and dogs for any dog sport including AKC Obedience and Rally. It also builds a solid obedience foundation for therapy or service dog work or even for a well-mannered stable family pet.
The first section of this book is chock-full of educational principles and training techniques for using positive reinforcement training effectively.
The second section applies these principles and techniques to teaching behaviors that build a good solid foundation for training towards any goal. As readers learn to apply these principles to these foundational behaviors, they’ll learn and practice training skills that can be applied to the training of any other behavior for the life of the puppy.
The book focuses on training three very important behaviors. These behaviors are sitting with eye contact, the down/stay, and heeling off-leash. You’ll learn in this book how to apply effective positive reinforcement principles and techniques to training these three foundational behaviors.
Though it may not sound like training three behaviors could be a book’s worth of material, there is more training necessary than a cursory glance would indicate. We break these behaviors down into the skills necessary for the behavior. Then we break the skills down into steps. What you end up with is a throughly trained behavior down to every detail.
In addition, the reader will gain the knowledge necessary to apply the same principles to training many other behaviors for the life of the dog. Furthermore, the dog will develop skills and internal characteristics that can last a lifetime. These skills and characteristics include the following:
- The knowledge of how to play (and love) the training game.
- An increased ability to focus on a task instead of on food, toys, avoidance of correction, or the environment.
- Motivation to work for and/or please a person.
- Confidence, self-control, and resilience.
Foundational Beliefs
Our training philosophy is built on these foundational beliefs.
- The most effective and efficient training comes from breaking behaviors down into their simplest, most trainable pieces. These pieces should be individually well-trained before the pieces are put back together and the puppy is expected to perform the behavior as a whole. This practice creates clarity, understanding, and solid learning.
- It is more important to build internal qualities than to have instant outward behavioral changes.
- Transfer of focus from food to the work should occur as soon as possible. We begin this work in our very first training session.
- Positive reinforcement works best when you use training tools that encourage work focus instead of food or toy focus. These work-focused tools include marker training and shaping. We will be talking extensively about these tools throughout this book.
- Luring and other food focused techniques should be used minimally. When these techniques are used, they should be faded as quickly as possible.
- When lack of motivation is the problem, we don’t see it as the dog’s fault. Instead, we see it as an indication of something lacking in our training. We’ll change the training to better motivate the puppy to want to work instead of making him work out of fear of a correction.
- Both the puppy’s body and his mind need training.
- We believe that training should be structured and science-based while at the same time being game-based and fun.
- Dogs and puppies should be set up for success.
- A strong foundation is the key to success even at the highest levels of training. Our program spends considerably more time building a solid foundation of the basics before we begin building on that foundation. Initial results may appear slow, but once the foundation is solidly built, the progress is exponential.
Results with Puppies Using this Method
We have used the principles and techniques taught in this book to train over 150 puppies starting when they were barely 6 weeks of age. All of them could give solid eye contact while sitting, could perform a solid down/stay even under distractions, and could heel better off-leash than most dogs I’ve seen at the novice levels at competitive obedience trials. All of this was accomplished before puppies were ten to eleven weeks of age!
See the results on our YouTube channel with puppies that are between 8 and 11 weeks of age.
Results with Adult Dogs In Competitive Obedience Using this Method
I(Karen) have had considerable success in competitive obedience with the method, techniques, and principles taught in this book.
In regular obedience, I’ve earned two OTCH’s (Obedience Trial Champion), UD (Utility Dog) titles on four dogs, over a dozen High in Trial awards (highest scoring dog in the whole trial) and over a dozen High Combined awards (highest combined score out of the two classes where you compete for championship points). One of these high combined awards was at the 2022 Southeastern Regional Championship. I’ve qualified one dog three times for the Westminster Masters Obedience championship, and once for the National Obedience Championship, not to mention qualifications on numerous dogs for the Obedience Classic.
In AKC Rally Obedience, I’ve earned RACH’s (Rally Obedience Champion) on three different dogs. One of them earned 3 RACHs, over 60 High Combined awards, over 60 Triple High Combined awards, and a seventh place in the championship class at the 2024 Rally National Competition. Another RACH dog finished her RACH loosing only 6 master’s points in a total of 20 master’s runs. That’s an average score of over 99 1/2 out of 100 possible points in 20 master’s runs.
Most importantly and what I’m most proud of is the happy working attitude in my dogs in spite of the fact that none of my dogs have been by nature the high drive confident dogs that typically do well in competitive obedience. I’ve built a love of working with a person and vastly increased the focus, confidence, self-control, resilience, and motivation in over a dozen competitive obedience or Rally dogs. [The following section was taken out of the end of this chapter:
The Time in Between Training Sessions
If you’re raising a puppy, this book is not an all-inclusive puppy raising book. It does a fantastic job of teaching you to conduct a training session. However, it does not cover all the time in between the training sessions. You’ll need to add a good reinforcement-based puppy management program to the information taught in this book for a comprehensive puppy raising program.
However, as your puppy becomes more proficient with the skills learned here, you can begin incorporating these particular skills into the everyday life of your puppy. The last few chapters give tips as to just how to do this.]
