It only took Darth about 10 days to master the potty bell and sitting, and it may have happened sooner, but we did some traveling during that time.
Darth - 12 weeks old
Darth quickly learned to sit and I used shaping and operant conditioning to make that happen. Initially, I shaped the behavior: rewarding small success to reach a big goal. I would do this by saying "sit" and gently pushing his back down so he was in sitting position. Once he got the hang of that, I would say "sit" and wait for him to sit on his own. This wasn't always immediate, but that was okay, because that's what the learning process is all about. Once he would eventually sit down, he would receive a treat/praise. We practiced this for all of 10 minutes before he was consistently sitting on command. Each time, being rewarded with a small treat and praise (a 1:1 fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement). Now, since he has mastered this behavior, I reward him on a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement, sometimes giving him a treat for performing the behavior, sometimes not. Even though he easily can master this behavior, it is important to occasionally reinforce the behavior so that extinction does not occur.
Darth - 12 weeks old
I was a bit intimidated by the potty training process, but felt it necessary to dive right in. Darth was 9 weeks old when we got him and I wasn't sure he was even old enough to be potty trained. But, I decided to give it a try, as I wanted to reduce the amount of accidents in the house. This wasn't as much about me not wanting to clean up the accidents (although that was a big motivating factor), but it was about not wanting him to learn that accidents were acceptable. It is difficult to break bad habits. Darth picked up potty training surprisingly quickly ~ and that is probably due to being a really smart breed and I was very diligent about being consistent. This is an excellent example of how nature (his breed) and nurture (the consistent environment I provided) work together in psychology. Consistency is KEY when modifying behavior.
I used both classical and operant conditioning for potty training. The first few days, I would take Darth out about every hour. I would put him on his leash, ring the potty bell myself (modeling), and then take him to the same spot in the yard and tell him "go potty". I wanted him to make associations: the bell, the leash, the spot in the yard all leading up to the desired behavior of going potty outside.
On day 2, I took Darth's paw and helped him ring the bell before we went outside. He quickly picked this up. Again, taking him to the same spot in the yard and telling him to "go potty". Once he went potty, he would get praise and and immediate treat (a positive reinforcement). In these early stages, it was important that the reinforcer was given immediately after the desired behavior.
On day 3, I would put Darth's leash on and tell him to ring the bell. I would wait for him to ring the bell on his own, with either his paw or his nose. Sometimes he was quick to ring the bell, and sometimes it would take him a few moments where he was standing there waiting for me to open the door. If it was taking too long, I would help him by nudging his face to make the bell ring. We never went outside until there was some sort of interaction with the bell. This early on, I wasn't even concerned if he were going potty once outside (although that was a great bonus and something to be rewarded). I was more interested in him learning that the bell meant he wanted to go outside. At this point, Darth was on a 1:1 fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement. I eventually started laying off the treats, as just going outside was enough of a reward. He rang that bell a lot! Even though I knew he didn't have to potty, I continued to take him out every time he rang the bell, so as to reinforce the behavior.
As Darth learned that the potty bell meant time to go outside, he rang that bell quite often (I think at this point, he was training me!). After about a week of 1:1 rewards, I moved to only rewarding Darth when he rang the bell, went outside and went potty. Now, if he rings the bell and goes outside to play, he doesn't get a treat. He only gets treated when he goes potty.
Darth is still a puppy, and has only had about 5 accidents in the house (not bad at all!). My training method was to catch him doing good and rewarding that (similar how when you potty train a child, you sit them on the potty until they accidentally go and then you celebrate big time). We were able to quickly, and successfully potty train without any punishment being used.
I remember my Grandpa would rub his dogs nose in any accidents that occurred. This was a form of punishment (more specifically a positive punishment: the addition of an unpleasant stimulus in hopes of reducing a behavior). Punishment does have it's place and can be effective, however research shows that reinforcement is a much more effective form of behavior modification. Here's why...
- Punishment doesn't teach what behaviors are appropriate. It only teaches what behaviors are inappropriate.
- Punishment that occurs after the fact often is ineffective as too much time has lapsed for the subject to associate the punishment with the undesirable behavior. So, for the puppy that has an accident on the floor, and then an hour late the accident is discovered and has their nose rubbed in it, far too much time has gone on for the puppy to know what it is getting in trouble for. This same argument applies to the "wait until your Dad gets home" speech parents sometimes give (which has an entire bag of reasons why that isn't a very good behavior modification method that I don't have time to write about here).
- Punishment is often done out of anger or frustration, so it is easy to get carried away.
- Punishment can be scary ~ and we aren't able to learn effectively when we are scared for our safety.
If you are able to read thought this post and understand the terminology, great job! If not, make sure to go back to the text and review the behavior modification concepts.
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