 Pet Talk - Pet Health by Dr. Fran Good, DVM Ketchikan, Alaska April 08, 2002
When owners tell me "Oh no, you're wrong, Fifi knows that peeing in the house is wrong. She cringes and hides whenever she does it in the house," they're telling me more about their training techniques, than they are any deep and meaningful truth about their dog. So let's get some basic stuff straight about dogs: dogs don't do shame and they don't do guilt. Those are exclusively human emotions. Aren't we the lucky ones?
So, now when he comes home, instead of eagerly and unambiguously greeting him at the door, Fifi is more cautious, putting her nose closer to the ground and side-stepping her way up to him, rolling over on her back, in as many shows of submissiveness as she can come up with, in the hopes he doesn't scare her or hurt her again. Has she learned not to pee in the house? No, I'm fairly certain she has not. Has she learned to be afraid of her owner? Most assuredly so. Negative reinforcement only works if it is focused, immediate and happens every time. And punishment never works to teach things to dogs, it only serves to make them frightened of us. There is a difference between the two - punishment and negative reinforcement - which we will go over in another episode. For now, though, let's unmistakably use dogs' own language to teach them what we want them to do. Positive reinforcement is what they understand. Let's use it. Next week: How to clean up urine...
Digital photo of Ben Fur by M.C. Kauffman.
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Last week, we started
to get a handle on what to do if Rover urinates in the house.
Unless we catch him in the act, the answer is simple: clean it
up.