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How to predict and prevent all the things that go wrong in adolescence — the many behavior and temperament problems that are created in puppyhood yet seldom manifest themselves until much later — housesoiling, destructive chewing, excessive barking, separation anxiety, fearfulness, dog-human and dog-dog aggression.

There are huge holes in basic puppy husbandry that lead to a drastic decrease in the quality of life for far too many dogs and their owners or for many dogs, loss of life itself. Puppy prevention of behavior problems and aggression towards people is as easy as it is enjoyable. Whereas raising a dog to be dog-dog friendly throughout adulthood can be a challenge and requires oodles of classical conditioning during puppyhood and adolescence (when the dog is still friendly), there are simply no excuses for dogs to grow up to become fearful or aggressive towards people. However, we are simply not doing one tenth of the training, one hundredth of the socialization, or one thousandth of the classical conditioning.

We are wasting a golden opportunity by missing the socialization window. Puppies need to be raised with safe socialization and handling, housetraining, chewtoy-training and basic manners programs up and running from the outset (starting with neonatal handling).

Good habits are just as hard to break as bad habits. Many prospective puppy owners would much rather pay premium prices for housetrained, chewtoy-trained, well-socialized and well-mannered puppies, rather than getting peeing-pooping, destructively chewing, shy/fearful and unruly puppies at bargain basement prices.

Learning Theory was laboratory-generated from studies in which computers trained captive rats and pigeons using food and shock, which of course is a very different situation than when people train dogs off-leash and at a distance, i.e., with many distractions and with many options.

These days, many trainers are trying to emulate computers and indeed, a great deal of consequential feedback is given in the form of quantum clicks and kibble and jerks and shocks, wherein instructiveness depends almost entirely on precise timing and consistency. Now, of course, we can never match the tireless consistency or impeccable timing of a computer but when we use our voice as feedback, we may easily transcend many of the constraints of being a computer, radically increase the speed and effectiveness of learning and revitalize the spirit and soul of dog training in the process.

Binary verbal feedback is both instructive and analogue. In addition to communicating whether behaviors are desirable or not, analogue feedback communicates how well the dog did, or the relative seriousness or potential danger of non-compliance. Moreover, instructive feedback communicates how the dog may get back on track a.s.a.p. A Specific Redirect acts like punishment (by decreasing or eliminating undesired behavior) but also immediately prompts the desired behavior. Verbal feedback is by far the very best means to correct unwanted behavior and achieve absolute compliance — without using aversive stimuli, without causing fear or pain and without even raising our voice.

When training animals and educating people, the notion of non-aversive punishment is essential. What are you going to do when your dog is about to run across the street? What are you going to do when your child is about to push a paper clip into an electrical outlet? Effective feedback needs to be binary. Decreasing and eliminating undesirable and/or dangerous behavior is a necessary facet of training. However, the process does not have to be unpleasant and therefore, should not be unpleasant.

How to quickly and easily teach reliable, off-leash verbal control at a distance, within distractions and without the continued use of training aids.

How to phase out food lures within less than a dozen trials and replace them with hand-signals. How to use hand-signals to teach the meaning of verbal commands.

How to phase out food rewards and replace them with life rewards, so that response-reliability does not become contingent on you having food in your hand or food pouch.

How to turn distractions that normally work against training into high-level life rewards that work for training.

How to use interactive games such as tug and fetch to motivate your dog to the max.

How to convert behavior and training problems into ultra-mega life rewards, i.e., how to use hyperactivity, barking, jumping-up, pulling on leash and (my favorite “problem”), running away, as extremely effective rewards.

How to teach your dog to be self-motivating so that desirable behaviors are internally reinforced. How to make science-based training fun.

Since luring allows us to predict precisely when the dog will perform desired behavior, lure-reward training enables us: to begin to associate the verbal cue with the required behavior from the very first trial, to teach hand-signals within a dozen trials, to implement a differential reinforcement from the second trial, and to teach the verbal cues for several behaviors at the same time. Furthermore, phasing out food lures (and food rewards) is quicker than phasing out (hand, leash, or collar) physical prompts.