According to the Humane Society and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, positive reinforcement for dogs is one of the most powerful tools for shaping or changing your furry friend’s behavior. Positive-reinforcement training, sometimes called force-free training, involves rewarding your pup for correct actions and not punishing it for incorrect actions. It’s an effective and humane way to communicate with your dog and teach it right from wrong. Incentives can range from praise, treats, toys, or in SkyShepherd’s case, a friendly Safe Tone that rewards your dog for staying or returning to its Safe Zone. In this blog, we’ll outline the benefits of positive reinforcement for dogs and how it ties in with our patented containment technology. As a bonus, we’ve included trainer tips from Chad R. James, one of the inventors of SkyShepherd, who has nearly 50 years of experience in the field of advanced technology to improve the relationship between canines and humans.
Why Positive Reinforcement for Dogs and the Safe Tone are Best for Containment
1. Rewards for Doing the Right Thing
Dogs are brilliant and aim to please. Rewarding your pup for doing the right thing will teach it good behaviors vs. bad behaviors. Positive reinforcement happens with SkyShepherd’s electronic Safe Tone sound. While training, you condition your dog to associate the Safe Tone with pleasant sensations by praising it whenever the sound goes off. While it’s in its Safe Zone, the Safe Tone periodically sounds. It also sounds whenever your dog returns from the alert zones, just after the vibration from the First Alert Zone ceases. Overall, the sound of the Safe Tone acts as a positive marker, serving as extra confirmation that your canine has done the right thing, which reinforces the desired behavior.
Chad’s Tips:
- Keep it fun, but don’t overdo it, as it may become a distraction.
- It’s ok to provide treats as a type of reward during the teaching process, as long as they don’t become a distraction.
- Praise and affection should be used throughout the whole training process and are very important to strengthen your bond/trust while making learning more permanent.
- This continued use of praise/affection primes the dog for learning by promoting a safe, secure, and relaxed environment—a powerful behavioral learning tool.
2. Non-Aversive Stimulus with Positive Reinforcement is Humane and Effective
SkyShepherd’s non-aversive approach (no pain, fear, or fright) teaches a dog where it should be based upon innocuous, positive reinforcement markers (the Safe Tone), providing the dog a sense of a safe, secure, and relaxed environment. Most of the other devices offer aversive stimulus (very high levels of e-stim) which creates alternative behaviors that generally get in the way of teaching/learning.
Rest assured that none of SkyShepherd’s feedback system is harmful, and all SkyShepherd feedback is user-selectable since you know your furry friend the best. SkyShepherd’s unique, dynamic feedback always uses the lowest level of feedback necessary to guide your dog at its level of excitement. How does SkyShepherd do that? Through progressive feedback:
· Positive reinforcement is primary, reinforcing good behavior at all times with the Safe Tone.
· A First Alert zone provides a variable-intensity vibration followed by a tone.
· A Second Alert zone offers variable levels of low e-stim and a different tone.
· An Out Zone uses moderate static feedback and a tone to turn your dog back to its Safe Zone.
· Lastly, if your dog should ever find itself outside the boundary, SkyShepherd’s “Shepherding” feature helps to guide your dog back to its boundary to receive the reward of the Safe Tone.
Chad’s Tips:
- Teach your dog to recognize the Safe Tone in all areas of the Safe Zone since the Safe Tone must become a trusted source of safety, security, and relaxation for your dog no matter where they are within the boundary.
3. Safety Signal Learning with Positive Reinforcement
The Safe Tone automatically reinforces what you’ve taught your dog during training. Your pup will be mentally stimulated while walking the boundary with you during training, as well as when SkyShepherd works autonomously to teach and remind your dog where it should be. The positive reinforcement Safe Tone tells your dog it has done the right thing, so your dog’s learning is constantly being reinforced. This means our GPS dog fence collar allows for gentler, innocuous feedback compared to other systems providing faster, more relaxed learning within any new boundaries. SkyShepherd will keep your canine alert, confident, and on its best behavior.
Chad’s Tips:
- It’s crucial to minimize any and all distractions early in the teaching process so that you and your dog can focus, and your dog learns to associate the Safe Tone with the same feelings it gets when you give it praise.
Putting It All Together
Ultimately, SkyShepherd’s patented technology utilizing positive reinforcement for dogs will keep your canine happy, safe, and more relaxed. It’s a triple win! If you’re on the hunt for a GPS dog fence collar unlike any other, you’ll be able to try out SkyShepherd soon and experience the difference!
