The 3 layers of dog training: Showing/teaching, Reinforcening, Proofing (how layers effect your dog training)

The 3 layers of dog training: Showing/teaching, Reinforcening, Proofing.

Showing/teaching layer:

Many times when working with our dogs we think that we are just “training” our dog. In my journey through the dog training world I have noticed that really good training invovles three 3 layers of training. I am going to  give a brief introduction about each layer and how it can benefit in training your dog.

Many times when working with our dogs we think that we are just “training” our dog. In my journey through the dog training world I have noticed that really good training invovles three 3 layers of training. I am going to  give a brief introduction about each layer and how it can benefit in training your dog.

Re enforcing layer:

During the re enforcing layer this is where you will introduce a consequence to the dog if it doesn’t perform the desired behavior. When I say consequence that can be a very “grey” term. You can take it as you want but a consequence for my dogs is purely with holding the “ultimate treat” until the desired behavior is performed.

This is a favorite layer of training as it really shows the dog what the standard is for getting the reward. When I am working with my students I hear so many times they say “it quit working if I don’t have food.” That is because you either 1) re enforced everything in this layer and had no standard for what was expected or 2) did not re enforce enough.  There needs to be a balance in rewards and consequences. If you put the time into this layer by re enforcing what you truly want from your dog and not just rewarding “because” the rest of your training becomes easy.
Proofing/generalizing

The proofing/generalizing layer is like the “parlor” trick layer. Remember when you taught your dog that awesome trick and you wanted to show everyone how cool it was? That is what this layer is all about.  This layer you will want to take your dog to a lot of different environments with a lot of different things going on. The dog needs to understand that “sit” does mean sit even if a cat walks by.

This layer is part is the H in the acronym D.A.S.H; Desire, Accuracy, Speed and Habitat. Changing a dog’s habitat will change how they perform the skills.  If you are consistent in this layer on balancing the re enforcements and consequences your dog will understand that it means what it means no matter where you are at or what is going on. During this layer, I normally introduce the three D’s to training, Distance, Duration and Distractions

Below is a short example of how the 3 layers can be used in teaching the “sit” cue. Showing/teaching layer:  Step 1: Have the dog standing in front of you. Take a piece of food and guide the dog’s nose back towards its tail. The dog naturally sits down. Step 2: You will repeat this step until you see the dog is anticipating that you are going to lure its nose back towards its tail. Step 3: Hide the treat in the opposite hand and just use your hand to lure the dog back into a sit. You are showing the dog that for you to get the reward you must be sitting on the ground. Re enforcing layer: Step 1: You will fade the lure “treat” and put it in the opposite hand and now use your empty hand to guide the dog to a sit. If the dog does it then it gets the reward. Step 2: You will keep repeating step 2 until you feel that the dog has learnt the cue “sit.”  Keep re enforcing the correct sit and applying a consequence when the dog does anything but a sit on cue. Proofing/generalizing layer: Step 1: Take your dog outside in the yard and ask for a sit. Does the dog do it consistently in the new environment? Step 2: Take your dog to the dog park while other dogs are playing? Does the dog do the sit cue correctly with other dogs running around? During this layer, you want to take your dog to as many places with as many different things going on to make sure it understands rules are rules.