--- title: Training a dog with rewards and patience — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Training a dog with rewards and patience», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A dog does not understand our rules; it learns from what happens right after it does something. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Training a dog with rewards and patience # Training a dog with rewards and patience Lesson 195 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/0/) — A dog does not understand our rules; it learns from what happens right after it does something. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/1/) — If sitting brings a treat, the dog sits more; if jumping up brings attention, it jumps more. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/2/) — That is the whole secret of good training: catch the dog doing the right thing and reward it at once, so it knows exactly what earned the treat. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/4/) — Modern trainers use rewards, short clear words that the whole family shares, and lots of patience, because fear and smacking make a dog anxious, not good. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/5/) — A reward given straight after an action makes that action more likely; this is called positive reinforcement, and it works with dogs, horses, dolphins and even fish. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/6/) — A clicker makes a short sharp click that marks the exact moment the dog did the right thing, and the treat follows; zoos use clicker training so animals calmly join in health checks. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/7/) — A puppy jumps up at visitors because jumping got attention before, and even shouting can be a reward, because it is still attention; turning away and rewarding four paws on the floor works better. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/8/) — A dog pulls on the lead because pulling got it where it wanted to go; it also walks faster than us, so walking nicely beside a person takes practice and rewards. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/9/) — Old dogs can learn new tricks, and training keeps an older dog's brain busy and happy. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/10/) — Puppies chew because it is normal for them, especially while their teeth are coming through; swapping the shoe for a chew toy teaches what is allowed. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/11/) — Coming back when called, called recall, is one of the most important things a dog learns, and a dog should always be rewarded for coming back, even if it took a long time. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/12/) — In its first few months a puppy should meet many people, animals, sounds and things in a calm way; this is called socialisation, and a dog that met few things when young may be fearful later. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/13/) — Training with shouting, smacking or fear can make dogs scared or aggressive, so modern trainers use rewards because they work better and are kind. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/14/) — A dog can learn a way to ask for things, such as ringing a bell at the door to go out for a wee, and some dogs are being taught to press buttons that play recorded words. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/195-training-a-dog-with-rewards-and-patience/15/) — A dog does not understand sentences the way we do, so everyone in the family should use the same short word for each command, or the dog gets confused. - ← previous: [Reading a dog: tails, play bows, growls and staying safe](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/194-reading-a-dog-tails-play-bows-growls-and-staying-safe/) - next →: [Working dogs: guide, sniffer, sheep, rescue and helper dogs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/196-working-dogs-guide-sniffer-sheep-rescue-and-helper-dogs/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)