![](\"http:\/\/puppyfood.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/20200820091930-33.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
People often disagree as to whether or not we should be canine training using the word NO.<\/p>\n
We communicate with our dogs through signals.<\/p>\n
Some of those are visual signals, a raised hand, a swing from the arm, a pointing finger.<\/p>\n
Most are verbal signals.<\/p>\n
All have one part of common. They tell the dog what we should want him to complete. With one exception. And that's the term NO.<\/p>\n
In human language the word NO is fundamentally important.<\/p>\n
It conveys the way we feel in a very clear way.<\/p>\n
By canine training using the word NO, we can express dislike, disagreement, refuse permission, and make decisions.<\/p>\n
We all know exactly what the word means, though its meaning can be complex and is often related to context and emotion.<\/p>\n
Because this word is so important to us, it is only natural that we utilize it with this dogs.<\/p>\n
It might be natural to say NO to the dogs, but could it be helpful?<\/p>\n
Force free dog trainers avoid using the word NO whatsoever.<\/p>\n
This can be confusing for almost all dog owners, who use it in all type of situations.<\/p>\n
It can feel very powerless when told not to do so.<\/p>\n
It is tempting to visualize that if you don't say NO to your pet from time to time, he'll be something like a spoilt child, without any discipline with no clear boundaries.<\/p>\n
But is this really true? And why don’t force free trainers use it? We’ll have a look at that below.<\/p>\n
First let’s look at the four ways that we use NO when emailing our dogs.<\/p>\n
We use NO as a<\/p>\n
Remember that punishment in the behavioural sense does not necessarily mean cruelty. It really means something that diminishes behaviour.<\/p>\n
So if the word NO stops your dog in his tracks, you are using it as a punisher.<\/p>\n
This only works with sensitive dogs that are very keen to please.<\/p>\n
For example, say certainly one of my Labradors is asked to get a ball that's lying on the ground to her right, and instead attempts to pick up a ball lying on the ground to her left.<\/p>\n
I can tell NO in a disapproving tone, and she will immediately stop in her tracks and change to the ball I would like her to get.<\/p>\n
I may not prefer to be honest, but things i just did was punish her.<\/p>\n
A force free trainer would have the dog on a long line and prevent her getting to the incorrect ball.<\/p>\n
They would then wait for her to determine to pick up the correct ball, and reward her for doing this.<\/p>\n
In the long run, this might be more effective because it helps make the dog think much more about what she's doing.<\/p>\n
It also probably makes for a much better relationship between dog and handler because it avoids upsetting your dog or making her believe that she has let the handler down.<\/p>\n
We often talk about event markers in dog training.<\/p>\n
We usually use an event marker to both tell the dog they got something right, and to predict he will shortly receive a reward.<\/p>\n
It can be done to make use of NO as an event marker. To tell your dog he got a problem, and to let him know he is about to be punished.<\/p>\n
Once the marker is assigned to punishment, it can temporarily be used to diminish behaviour without using punishment afterwards<\/em>.<\/p>\n However the key word here's temporarily<\/em>. As being a conventional event marker, the punishment marker soon loses its power if not regularly supported by actual punishment of some type.<\/p>\n Many, many people try canine training while using word NO in this way, and wonder why it reduces when they stop punishing.<\/p>\n This is perhaps the most popular utilisation of the word NO. We exclaim NO! Or Ah-ah! Inside a snappy, firm way and also the dog pauses to see what we should take presctiption about.<\/p>\n In that interval, we can then re-direct your dog into a preferable activity.<\/p>\n Many force free trainers would reason that we're actually still using NO as an aversive.<\/p>\n If your dog stops the behaviour, they would say, then your actions were is a type of punishment.<\/p>\n Strictly speaking they are probably right. Conventional use of an interrupter would involve the dog being shown a thing which was of a reward<\/em>.<\/p>\n Many people do this by making a kissy sound, or perhaps a waggoner's chirrup, or perhaps teaching a magic word.<\/p>\n In every case, the sound must be firmly of a nice reward in order for it to effectively interrupt the dog's behaviour.<\/p>\n It can also be easy to use NO like a No Reward Marker. This simply tells the dog he earned the wrong choice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or you could very calmly and in a totally neutral way, say ‘NO’.<\/p>\n Arguably the word NO gave him information that can help him to help make the right choice faster.<\/p>\n The use of NO like a No Reward Marker has fallen from favour.<\/p>\n Partly because it is so desperately to say NO inside a completely neutral and non threatening way.<\/p>\n One way to allow it to be more neutral is to change it with a visual cue, like a head shake or perhaps a thumbs down.<\/p>\n One from the underlying principles of force free dog training, is that the focus is moved from teaching your dog what he should not<\/em> do, to teaching the dog what he should<\/em> do.<\/p>\n Force free trainers concentrate on giving dogs cues that provide him having a specific path to follow.<\/p>\n Most of times, whenever we use NO, we are probably using it being an aversive, albeit a very mild one.<\/p>\n Trying to mix mild aversives, with positive reinforcement training can be counter-productive.<\/p>\n It’s very simple to fall back on aversives, as well as for aversives to escalate and be more serious.<\/p>\n There are also disadvantages in training with punishment, even mild punishment and you can read about these here: The downside to punishing dogs.<\/p>\n I know many people worry when they abandon that final and most mild of aversives, the word NO, they will somehow lose all treatments for their dog.<\/p>\n There isn't any evidence whatsoever to point out this will happen.<\/p>\n Of course, force free training is really a skill, and it is one which we have to learn. But arguably we could all learn faster if we allowed that last aversive to be peeled from your grasp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We humans possess a long connection to the term NO.<\/p>\n We have a tendency to make use of the word with great emphasis, which is often accompanied by powerful body language.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I don't recommend NO as an event marker as the need for associating it with punishment won't ever truly go away. There are much possible ways of teaching an Interrupter.<\/p>\n For a lot of us, the word NO may be the ‘final aversive’. The final barrier between us, and force free training.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But be aware that the use of the word NO is a powerful habit.<\/p>\n People nobody want to abandon it may end up with upset with themselves when the word 'slips out'.<\/p>\n Don't beat yourself up.<\/p>\n It is great that you would like to become nice to your dog, but no healthy dog ever<\/em> found any harm from being told NO occasionally.<\/p>\n Just start afresh tomorrow. You will get there.<\/p>\n And feel free to discuss canine training while using word NO, within the comments box below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People often disagree as to whether or not we should be canine training using the word NO. We communicate with our dogs through signals. Some of those are visual signals, a raised hand, a swing from the arm, a pointing finger. Most are verbal signals. All have one part of common. They tell the dog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-1499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dog-training","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1977,"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions\/1977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puppyfood.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}No being an interrupter<\/h2>\n
No as a No<\/em> Reward Marker<\/h2>\n
The force free approach<\/h2>\n
But does it work?<\/h2>\n
It's a tough habit to break<\/h2>\n
Kicking the habit<\/h2>\n