Meredith: no
Me: "Meredith can you please pick up your dress up clothes."
Meredith: wanders off and ignores
Me: walks up to where Meredith is : "Meredith can you please pick up your dress up clothes."
Meredit:h I don't want to.
Me: "Meredith can you please pick up your dress up clothes."
Meredith: finally starts to pick them up.
This took a while. The protocol is to only ask for the behavior you want and praise it when you get it. Ignoring the behaviors you don't. It takes PATIENCE like crazy, and I think I have decided that I am more patient with my dogs.
The book overall I think is pretty easy to read if you understanding learning and learning theory. While she does define all the terms she uses I imagine for someone with no familiarity with what she is talking about it might be harder to understand, but enjoyed it and would like to read it again so that her verbiage can just roll off my tongue. I would like to be able to approach interaction and learning with the natural question of "What am I reinforcing?" because I think that would solve a lot of parenting problems. The basics that you get out of reading this book are:
•The principles of the "clicker training" method which is used to train a variety of different animals
•8 methods of ending undesirable habits—from furniture-clawing cats to sloppy roommates- she breaks each method down on how it can change each behavior. Pretty cool.
•The 10 laws of "shaping" behavior–for results without strain or pain through "affection training"
•Tips for house-training the dog, improving your tennis game, or dealing with an impossible teen
Answering a whining 3 year is reinforcing whining... isn't it? Ugh.
