Excerpt from The Dog Tricks and Training Workbook

Timing

With humans, we can explain the connection between a behavior and its consequenced, even if they are separated in time. We can reward a child with dessert for having cleaned his room earliear. With dogs, we can't explain the connection between the behavior and the consequence. This is why the consequence has to be immediate in order for the dog to link it to the behavior.

During the learning process, your dog may be squirming and trying a variety of different movements and gestures. You need to let him know immediately immediately know if each thing he did was a success (treat) or non-success (no treat). You have to make sure he understands exactly what it was that he did to earn that treat. The key to helping him understand the goal behavior, is to give the treat at the exact moment he performed the behavior correctly.

For example, if your dog sits, and then scratches his neck, and then you give him the treat, you’ve just rewarded him for scratching his neck! You have to get that treat in his mouth the instant his rear hits the floor.

Beginning trainers often make the mistake of rewarding too late. Their dog performs the behavior, and then the trainer reaches into his pocket and fishes out a treat. This imprecise timing lessens your dog’s ability to understand how he earned the reward. Instead, be ready with a treat already in your hand, and release it the instant your dog performs correctly.

The key to teaching any trick is to reward success at the instant the dog performed correctly. The correct timing of the treat is the crux of teaching your dog.

Excerpted from page 118 of The Dog Tricks and Training Workbook

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Kyra SundanceⳠworld-acclaimed acrobatic Stunt Dog Team performed on The Tonight Show, Ellen, and ET. They starred in DisneyⳠUnderdog stage show, and in a command performance for the King of Morocco.