This is an introduction to the basics of understanding and training your pet for a better human-animal bond. We will go over the concept of positive reinforcement and how to shape your animals behaviour without creating stress or fear in it.
We often think of training pets in the context of doing tricks or running agility races for us, but training our pets is so much more than that. It is a tool to help bring out the behaviours that we DO want our pet to show – such as sitting calmly when we ask or need them to or teaching them to cooperate with us when we need to do a procedure such as a nail trim or to groom them.
Training your pet is not about bribing or controlling your pet, but rather helping them LEARN what is acceptable behaviour to you. It is also a way to improve or change some undesirable behaviours in your pet.
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is a fancy way of saying reward your pet to reinforce a behaviour. This is the method that you do want to use when you are training your pet. You are rewarding your pet when it displays the behaviour that you want and you reward them with something you know they really like to receive from you. This is the method that strengthens the human-animal bond reduces anxiety, fear and stress in your pet.
Pets love to be rewarded with things that includes praise and affection, delicious treats and their favourite toys. Every time they display the behaviour you are looking for – you give them a reward immediately after. So if they are sitting calmly and this is what you are working on, give them a treat. Over time they will learn the association between them doing that behavior and you rewarding them.
Punishment Methods
When training your pet, we want to avoid punishment methods. This means doing something aversive to your pet when they do something that you do not want. The reason why we do not want to use these methods is because they ruin the human-animal bond and they actually create anxiety, fear and stress in your pet. They are also not going to learn what you actually prefer them to do as they would with a positive reinforcement method.
Some things that people have tried to use to train their pets using punishment methods. This includes squirt bottle, shock collars and physical abuse. These are the wrong tools for training your pet as they create stress, fear and anxiety in your pet and don’t help your pet learn what behaviours you prefer it to have. The pet is not likely to make an association between its behaviour and punishment, but rather it makes an association that you as the owner are to feared and avoided.
Training is a Learning Activity:
Overall, training using positive reinforcement is a fun learning activity for your pet and its rewarding to see them improve and progress over time. Pets, just like people, learn best when they are relaxed and comfortable in the situation and positive reinforcement methods help your pet to be more of these – therefore helping them to learn better. Your pet needs time to learn. Training involves work and effort for both you and your pet. Remember, pets learn best when they are relaxed and comfortable.
Recognizing Signs of Stress in Your Pet
So one of the important reasons why we want to be able to recognize fear and stress in our animals, especially when we are training them, is because that tells us we are doing something wrong. For our animal to be fearful or appear stressed when they interact with us means that we need to change our approach, either by making things more positive such as introducing more using treats, toys and gentle handling OR finding other ways that allows them to be more comfortable, which may include giving them a break and leaving them alone.
The other reason why we want to be able to recognize when your pet or other animal is stressed so that you can keep yourself safe when you interact with them. A stressed and fearful animal is much more likely to attack or bite you, so knowing this and recognizing the signs is one of the best ways to keep yourself safe.
It is important to be able to recognize what stress and fear looks like in your pet depending on the situation. A cat that encounters a coyote or large dog may appear stressed because it is in danger – and this is the right response for it to have in that situation in order to survive. However, when you are interacting and training your pet, you can be mindful of these signs to ensure you are not creating a negative experience for them.
We also want to be able to recognize signs of stress in dogs. Mild signs of stress in dogs include constantly licking their lips and yawning. Moderate signs include tense body, face and tucked tail and some dogs will show their belly when afraid. A very high level of stress and fear in an animal include a fearful stare, ears pointed down, attempt to bite or lunge or growling.
Socialization Period:
Socialization is about getting puppies and kittens used to people, other animals, and experiences that they will encounter frequently in their adult lives. It’s learning to accept things around them, such as people, car rides, grooming, vacuum cleaners, noises, and other household pets. This involves gently exposing puppies and kittens to new things that they will deal with regularly as adults so that they can react confidently and appropriately rather than fearfully or with anxiety. Socialization is especially important for orphaned animals because they received little, if any interaction, with their parents or siblings. During this key socialization period, any experiences that occur will have long-lasting effects on a puppy’s or kitten’s future learning and interactions with others. Unfortunately, that means negative experiences will also have lasting effects so it is critical that this time period be positive and safe for them.
Socializing puppies and kittens early within the socialization period has been shown to decrease fear, aggression, and anxiety of new people, animals, or situations. Pets not properly socialized often have an increased sensitivity to new experiences. As a result, they are often fearful of people or other animals, even within their own species. This can result in avoiding people or other animals, anxious behaviors, or even aggression towards others. These issues can make it difficult for them to live easily with others and in some cases may lead to them being re-homed or sent to animal shelters.
Balanced Approach to socialization
We want to take a balanced approach when socializing our puppy or kitten and weigh the pros and cons carefully. Make sure to socialize your puppy with healthy (ideally vaccinated) pets to prevent diseases such as parvovirus or kennel cough from getting into your pet. We are also looking to create positive experiences for them so make sure to monitor your puppy or kitten for signs of stress when you are introducing them to something new. You also want to avoid places where there are predatory wildlife that can harm your pet. Keep your pet away from sick animals to avoid the spread of diseases into your pet. Avoid dead animal and carcasses as these often carry parasites, and keep away from dangerous traffic that could harm your pet.