A reward system is an important component of puppy training. Your puppy will learn better every time you reward her. When you ask your puppy to sit, she has no idea of what is expected of her. However, she will try to do something rather than doing nothing. When she tries to do something, you can easily mold that something into the desired behavior.

Rewards are the best means to provide positive reinforcements for desired behavior. It is crucial that you frequently set up situations in which your puppy will earn rewards for what you want her to do. Such situations will provide her sufficient practice and motivation for doing the right things.

Rewarding Undesired Behavior

The most common mistake puppy owners make is to take good behavior for granted. It is important that you constantly praise your puppy for good behavior. However, most of the good behavior goes unnoticed. Puppy owners generally forget to praise good behavior because they consider it normal and thereby it fails to catch their attention.

Can you remember how many times you have got up and praised or rewarded your puppy for not barking? Conversely, every time she barks excessively, you get up and she gets a scolding. Similarly, you never praise the puppy for chewing her toy. However, you will yell at her at the peak of your voice when you see her chewing your favorite shoes. Praise and reward are the most important part of maintaining good behavior and preventing problems.

When you reprimand your puppy for undesired behavior, you are unintentionally teaching her that good behavior can go unnoticed but her barking and mischief can draw your attention almost immediately. Most of time, she is craving your attention. When you yell at her or reprimand her, she understands that her misbehavior can draw your attention. This provides her the required motivation to misbehave.

What are Puppy Rewards?

The reward to elicit desired behavior from your puppy could be anything from a food treat; toy or a ball; verbal praise or a physical demonstration of praise and affection like patting. The most important aspect of puppy training is to give rewards for good behavior.

Many puppy owners make basic mistakes while rewarding their puppies. Rewarding is an art and you must perfect it to achieve puppy training goals without problems or difficulties. It is not necessary to offer food rewards every time. You are the leader or “alpha” for your puppy.

Most of the times, she is trying to please you. In this context, a verbal or physical display of praise from you is the best reward for her. Even if you offer food as a reward, follow it up with a pat on her back and utterances like “good girl” or “nice puppy”, coupled with appreciative gestures. 

Reward, Bribe and Lure

Before we move on to basic principles of training rewards, it is important that you understand the difference between rewards, bribe and lure in context of puppy training.

Reward is a token of praise for something good that your puppy has done. The reward comes after she has consummated the task. You offer a bribe to your puppy to do something that she has otherwise refused to do. On the other hand, you offer a lure to your puppy to coax her do something, which you believe that she will not otherwise do.

A lure can be a good bet for teaching tricks and making her do the things that make her afraid. It is important that you understand which training steps require reward, bribe or allurement. Thereafter, use any of the three methods to get desired behavior from your puppy. 

The art of puppy training lies in making training fun and rewarding for you and your puppy. Training is not a quick fix for short-term behavior problems. Conversely, it is a lifelong process of learning. It will take time before your puppy learns to assimilate with your lifestyle, schedule and behavior.

Puppies have very small attention spans. A long and rigorous training program can make her feel bored and uneasy. This will result in her becoming disinterested and all your efforts will go waste.

It will not be possible for you to maintain a longer training schedule on a continuous basis. When you adopt a new puppy, your enthusiasm is at peak and you make plans and programs for her.

As time passes, your enthusiasm reduces and slackness may begin to pervade your attitude towards the training program. This slackness will hamper the training program. If you are not able to keep pace with the training program, your puppy may even forget what she has already learned. 

It is better to have a realistic approach for puppy training. Plan a training schedule that you or your family members can comfortably maintain. Brief 10-15 minute training sessions three or four times in a day will achieve the desired results. The best solution will be to design a training program in consultation with all your family members and stick to that plan.

To make training fun and interesting, incorporate training in almost all of the daily activities of your puppy. Rather than boring her with long training sessions, train your puppy when she is doing what she loves to do the most. For example, you are getting ready for your office and your puppy is frantically following you from one room to the other.

Rather than getting annoyed by her actions, use this opportunity to reinforce what she has learned. Make her “heel” by you from living room to bedroom and then to bathroom. Make her “sit and stay” while you brush your teeth, “heel” from bathroom to kitchen, “down and stay” while you are brewing coffee, and “go fetch the ball” when you get dressed. Similarly, teach her to “sit” every time you open the door and “sit” before and after walk or play sessions. 

Schedule and consistency are necessary for introducing the puppy to living with humans. You need to maintain a fixed schedule for feeding, exercise, training, grooming, playing and sleeping. If you are erratic in your behavior and keep on changing the time for feeding and housebreaking, your puppy has more chances of becoming undisciplined and erratic in her behavior. We will have more on these issues in the forthcoming chapters.

You can train your puppy to kiss. Make a smacking noise with your lips and bring your lips close to your puppy. Encourage her to kiss you, while speaking “Kiss Me” and reward her after she does it over and even comes closer to doing it. Repeat the process many times during the day and your puppy will be able to learn to kiss you when you ask her to do so.