Archive for November, 2010
When I brought my golden Labrador Olivia home from the humane society, I looked past her rambunctiousness and didn’t mind that she chewed up every object within reach. The fact is, puppies are prone to making mischief and the only way to rid them of the habit is through scrupulous training. Chewing is a perfectly natural behavior in dogs; the trick is to convince the dog to chomp on dog chew toys rather than tennis shoes and electrical cords.
It didn’t take long to find out that Olivia was crazy about peanut butter. In order to distract her attention away from household valuables, I started smearing some peanut butter on her Kong dog toys. I only did this if she stayed away from sneakers and books for the entire day. Eventually she pieced together that this was a form of positive reinforcement. Good behavior led to peanut butter, at least in her mind, and from there the training process was simple.