A well-behaved pet is a welcome addition to any family. So regardless of whether you’re a first-time pet owner or someone who’s owned many pets, you should not underestimate the importance of positive reinforcement when training cats and dogs.

Positive reinforcement is one of the most powerful and effective tools to train your pet—just like people, pets respond better to praise than criticism!  Positive reinforcement training involves giving your pet a reward such as praise or a food treat immediately following the behavior you are trying to encourage.  It is simple but must be done consistently and correctly to achieve the desired results.

Whether you’re training your dog traditional commands or encouraging your cat to use a scratching post, here are some important techniques to remember when using positive reinforcement to encourage the behavior you want!

Positive Reinforcement Training Requires...

Timing

 Timing is critical for successful positive-reinforcement training to ensure that your pet associates the reward with the desired action. That means the reward must be given immediately, within seconds of the behavior you want to encourage.   Cats in particular, tend to have short attention spans (let’s face it; cats have better things to do…) so it is important to respond quickly to desired behavior.

It also means you need to be vigilant in your training efforts! Try to thwart bad behavior before it happens and guide your pet to the correct behavior. For example, if you are house training a puppy and you see the tell “tail” signs of an accident about to happen, help your puppy get where he needs to go!

Simplicity

 Keep it simple. Commands should be uncomplicated and short. Common commands used when training dogs include sit, stay, watch me, off, come, down, heel, settle, stand and leave it. If you want to teach your dog a new trick, you will want to break it down into a series of small, simple steps. For example, to teach your dog how to shake hands, you might start by rewarding it when it lifts its paw off the ground, then rewarding your dog when it lifts its paw higher and touches your hand with its paw and finally rewarding your dog when it shakes your hand.

Consistency

 Another critical element of positive-reinforcement training is consistency. That means that the same commands should be used by every family member, and rewards must be given consistently for the desired behaviors and never for undesired behaviors.

Rewards

A variety of rewards can be used in positive-reinforcement training so you might want to try a couple of different rewards to see how your pet responds to each.   Rewards could be a food treat, a favorite toy, praise or a favorite game.  If you choose to use food, keep it small (no larger than a big pea) as you don’t want to train your pet into becoming overweight!  When training a dog, keep a variety of treats on hand so that your pet won’t become bored with the one you are using. And don’t forget! Physical rewards should always be accompanied by verbal praise.

“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe