Training Framework Part 1 – Obedience 

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses: 

·         Developing a framework for obedience that you are comfortable with. 

·         The importance of having a solid foundation before progressing onto more advanced skills. 

·         Compartmentalizing behaviors that can then be called upon or strung together in different orders, rather than pattern training behaviors. 

·         Learning theory, understanding conditioning theory (both operant – positive/additive and negative/subtractive consequences – and classical – learning through association). 

·         The five schedules of reinforcement – fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval, and random. 

Key Takeaways: 

·         Having a framework, and a conceptual understanding, for training allows you to go back a few steps in training if needed as you understand the training progression. 

·         Once you have a framework, then look at what behaviors you need to plug in and train within the framework. 

·         Tangible rewards are meaningful. We can manage those tangible rewards so it is a variable reward, but don’t take away rewards for only praise. 

·         The dog needs to learn there’s not just a reward for doing a behavior, but there is also a consequence for not doing the behavior. 

·         You must teach the dog how to resolve the behavior of non-compliance. 

·         Both motivation and compulsion, used properly, are key elements to the training progression. 

“You’ve got a framework, within that framework you’ve got your training progressions. Your framework gives you the big view, the macro view. The progressions give you the micro view of all the individual things that you have to train. And then together you have to look at that and compartmentalize your training.” —  Jerry Bradshaw 

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com 

Contact Jerry: 

Website: https://controlledaggressionpodcast.com/ 

Tarheel Canine Training: http://www.tarheelcanine.com/ 

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/tarheelcanine 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tarheelcanine 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TarheelCanineTraining 

Protection Sports Website: http://psak9.org/ 

Train Hard, train smart, be safe. 

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie 

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.