Help Your Dog Always Have the Right Answer

What a handler will accept as "right answers" are called "TARGET BEHAVIORS". A "target behavior" is your training goal. Since all dogs are constantly displaying behaviors, this term distinguishes the one(s) you are specifically looking for from the ones the dog is giving anyway (which we could call NON-target behaviors). Target behaviors are the ones you will deliberately and actively reward. During any training interaction, using any training method, non-target behaviors are ones that are either ignored, interrupted, or punished.

In competition obedience, the target behavior for each command is a single precise answer. For example, the response to a DOWN command needs to be rapid, after the first verbal-only or hand-signal only command, and without the dog laying on its side. Some handlers insist on a "fold-back down", in which the dog lowers the entire body at once, rather than front and rear separately.

However, in PET dog training, especially for general manners or socialization, there are often multiple acceptable right answers. If your dog misunderstands or doesn't correctly perform a command during a training session, these responses can STILL BE REWARDED!

Because these are all excellent behaviors that we want to see from our pets as often as possible, I recommend rewarding the behaviors below as heavily as you can, whenever you see them -- not just during official training sessions.

• eye contact
• approaching you
• being calm
• being quiet
  
• yawning (relaxing)
  
• pausing before exploring
  
• tolerating human touch
• ignoring or distancing from aggressive types
• yielding ("submitting") right of way to other dogs or humans
• waiting patiently
• being curious
• keeping feet on the floor
  
• any good social decision
• You'll think of more good things your dog ALREADY does! Let your dog know how good those things really are.