It’s a way of rewarding your dog’s ideal behavior and ultimately encouraging to him or her to continue it as they seek out additional positive reinforcement. As long as you focus your training on praise, rather punishment, utilizing Skinner’s instructional techniques are sure to create less stress and strain during the training process. The best forms of positive enforcement are delicious snacks, throwing a fetch toy or a nice scratch on the head. Just make sure that it is something your dog will thoroughly enjoy. If you decide to use dog treats, make sure that it isn’t large enough to fill your dog’s stomach. Otherwise it may not be much of a motivator in the future. Ideally, you want you dog to enjoy the treat, but ultimately still wanting more of it.
You should continue to give your dog positive reinforcement each time he or she does the appropriate behavior. Once it is clear that your dog understands the connection between the behavior and the treat then you should slowly decrease the amount of positive reinforcement you give your dog. So be patient and avoid utilizing negative reinforcement tools, as they can be truly detrimental to your dog’s well being, especially if he or she doesn’t understand the connection between the behavior and the negative reinforcer.