A good dog is one who feels safe and successful.

• At Bridges we invite our animals to be partners in learning. They are not just trainees to be molded to our will. They are participants. We do not force them to do anything they are not willing to do. Instead we teach, encourage and motivate by making the work fun and rewarding.




• Good training does everything possible to ensure that the learner feels safe. For this reason we at Bridges do not resort to aversives or corrections of any kind during training sessions--even mild ones. We have made this choice because we have learned through experience that the power of reinforcement not only far outweighs the power of coercion, but coercion has serious fallout and can impede real learning.

  

2.

Positive Reinforcement is simple and it works.

• Like your monthly paycheck, reinforcement is what keeps an animal motivated. Behaviors that are rewarded (i.e. the ones that pay off for the animal) get stronger over time while behaviors that are not reinforced tend to get weaker over time.


• Having tried coercive, punishment based methods of animal training in the past, we can safely say that absolutely nothing compares to the results you can achieve with positive reinforcement. Beyond compliance, you get a dog who actually loves to work for you.



• We at Bridges believe that animals are capable of experiencing joy and that positive reinforcement is what unlocks that joy.

  

A thinking dog is a good dog.

• Good training is guided by the science of learning and an understanding of behaviorism.




• At Bridges we believe that as long as our expectations are realistic, it's better to let an animal figure out the right answer on her own, as opposed to any kind of prompting, luring or physical manipulation.

  

• At Bridges we use something called a marker signal, either a click or a verbal marker, such as YES! in order to let the animal know precisely when she has done something right and has earned a reward. This facilitates crystal clear communication.




• When a dog does make a mistake, in most cases the four most effective strategies for dealing with it are:

  
  
  1. Remove reinforcement. When the problem behavior no longer pays off for the dog, it will get weaker. This makes the problem behavior no longer pay off for the dog and it will get weaker.
  
  
  2. Manage the environment. Setting things up so the dog can't do the behavior in the first place also keeps the problem behavior from being reinforced.
  
  
  3. Train something incompatible. Replace a problem behavior with one you can reward instead, such as a sit instead of jumping up, or go-to-your-mat instead of running out the front door.
  
  
  4. Learn to listen to your dog. Often the behaviors we humans find so aggravating are perfectly normal and natural for a dog to do. Often many of the things dogs do are a direct result of our own lack of understanding of what they are trying to communicate to us. At Bridges we strive to bridge this gap between the two species by teaching humans how to listen to their dogs and dogs how to listen to their humans.



• At Bridges we believe there is almost always a creative solution to even the most difficult problems.