This is along the lines of what I have been doing with Noch -- great and powerful stuff! Yay!
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about positive reinforcement and training with aversive (so-called traditional training) and we both reached the conclusion that our dogs that we have now don't respond very well to aversives -- only becoming more agitated if they are used (I am a crossover trainer with a clicker dog -- when I get frustrated my behaviour can break down into anger - I'm only human! I'm working on this though!). For example if her dog when it was a puppy went a bit "bezerk" (black labrador) no aversives in the world would work (following the "any attention is fun" principle, even negative attention such as scolding) only ignoring her dog would have an effect. And then rewarding or giving affection when he was exhibiting good behaviour (all four paws on the ground etc.) to cement what is the "preferred" behaviour. Funny thing is that another dog that she babysits came to the same conclusion! Pippi is an adult dalmation and would growl at Zigge when he tried to play with her, this didn't really work and eventually she reached the same conclusion -- ignoring works! Being angry doesn't!
ALSO clicker training I find makes me feel really good! I'm always in a good mood no matter what my dog is doing. Whereas if I am concentrating on the misbehaviour that my dog is exhibiting it gets me in a bad mood and makes both me and dog feel like a failure. Personally, I prefer feeling happy!
