From theory to practice

You know how the game works now. You are aware of how easy it is to punish or reward the wrong behaviours accidentally. You understand why we use a combination of reinforcement and extinction to control and modify a puppy’s behaviour. You are almost ready to put all this theory into practice.
The beauty of this elegant system is that it can be applied to absolutely anything your puppy does. It can be used to teach your dog to carry out new behaviours on your command, to fix problem behaviours that have been accidentally created in the past, or simply to have a go at teaching your dog a few tricks. Most of all, the system is fun – for both of you.

As a human being, you have enormous control over the resources available to your puppy. Use it! Save titbits to give him later when he is resting quietly in his basket. Use his food to teach nice manners. Make the things he wants to do, such as playing with other dogs, or even simply going through a door, dependent on the thing you want him to do.


It isn’t as difficult as it sounds, because once you have got the hang of it, the game of consequences will become second nature. You will soon learn to wait for silence before letting your puppy out of his crate, or to wait for him to sit before you open a door for him to pass through. Making little changes in your behaviour to generate changes in his will come naturally. And don’t worry if your puppy’s behaviour isn’t perfect right now. Whilst it is always easier to establish good habits if bad habits are avoided, bad habits can often be resolved, as we’ll discover in Part Three.


We have spent quite a substantial amount of time looking at how puppies learn new behaviours, and in the chapters that follow you will be able to observe the practical applications of this knowledge – both in creating learned behaviours, such as teaching your puppy to toilet outdoors rather than on your carpets, and in reducing some of those annoying instinctive puppy behaviours, such as grabbing and biting at people’s hands and feet.


Perhaps, most importantly, this knowledge will help you avoid falling into the trap of inadvertently creating problems in your puppy where no problems existed to begin with. You will be able to avoid having to cope with a whining or fussy puppy that cannot bear to be left alone. You will be able to teach your puppy new and interesting skills and to establish good foundations on which to raise a model canine citizen.