Lesson: What to watch for in viral training videos

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Video Lesson
What to watch for in viral training videos

A viral training video from a dog trainer popped up in my Facebook feed last week. They were working on teaching a puppy how to calmly greet a stranger. It’s a common skill people ask to work on, even with older dogs.

But this video had many things going on, so I shared a clip of it to my Instagram stories and asked people to weigh in on what training quadrants they observed. Here are the results from the poll:

You can see the results were across the board. Only 14% of people accurately identified that Positive Punishment was being used in the viral clip. But more concerning is that 43% thought it was only positive reinforcement. Maybe that’s because our followers know I’m a positive reinforcement (R+) trainer, and thought I’d only post R+ content? I’m not sure.

Why does this matter? Because the training quadrant we use can have a big impact on:

• our dog’s ability to learn, and their pace of learning

• the type of relationship we have with our dog

• the way we compare our progress to other people’s progress

Watch the 3 minute video below for:

• a look at the viral training clip for anyone who missed it in our stories

• the signs that pointed to positive punishment as the primary quadrant in the clip

• an explanation of what the skill in the video - calmly greeting a stranger - would look like in each of the four quadrants

• an explanation of how a pure positive reinforcement trainer, like myself, would have taught the skill

If you’re one of many who struggle with overly excited greetings, I hope my explanation will help you think differently about how to work on it. Have questions? Reply to this email.

Video Lesson

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