Mindful Leadership incorporates science based methods to teach dogs.

The laws of psychology and behavioral science, including learning, encompass all social mammals. The differences lay in species-specific rituals and communication.

Positive reinforcement and other non-punitive methods have become more accessible since the last 15 years or so. Even so, many dog owners still stick with old-school corrective methods; possibly because scientific concepts explained in dog books or by trainers are often more complicated than they need to be.

This is unfortunate, because these methods are kind, easy, very effective and functional, which means that everyone can apply them, and every dog responds to them, regardless of size, age or behavior problem.

Trini, a Spanish Water Dog, taught only with positive methods, in a perfect down-stay.



Mindful Leaders apply three of scientist Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Laws, namely positive reinforcement, negative punishment and extinction.

In plain English, positive reinforcement means reward. Reward training, including food, does not raise a dog to alpha status. Psychologically speaking, the giver has the power, not the receiver. I use the terms reward, positive reinforcement and motivator interchangeably, although I am aware that behaviorism discriminates between them.

Applied correctly, rewarding is a powerful way to let your dog know that you like what he does at the moment, and because to gain pleasure is a driving force for action, the pooch’ll do it again and again.

Behaviors reinforced will be repeated in frequency and intensity. Done right, your dog will learn a variety of things you desire, and will offer them consistently every time he has his senses set on something he wants. And that is exactly what you want.

Key to success is to determine what the dog’s currency is; what she finds rewarding. That is not always food. What the dog wants at the moment is dynamic – it changes from dog to dog and several times each day. To control the motivator is reward training done right. Identifying the dog’s motivator correctly takes skill at first, but is easy once it becomes a habit. It calls for an owner who is engaged with his/her dog. But controlling a resource that is not important to the dog is wasting your time.

So, reward based training doesn’t mean to be a walking food dispenser, or to bribe and lure with treats. Reward based training is neither permissive nor treat dependent.

Positive reinforcement trainer often use a clicker. Read more about it.


Negative punishment sounds nasty, but simply means that if the dog acts in ways we don’t like, or doesn’t heed to our requests, what she wants at the moment, the motivator, is removed or withheld. That is the only acceptable form of punishment. A time-out falls into that category; pooch wants inclusion into the social group but is obnoxious, so she is removed for a short period of time as a consequence, and allowed to join back in when she offers the behavior we desire.

Both science based methods are a consequence to the dog’s behavior and do not instill or increase fear or stress in the dog. Both have a great impact on the dog and increase social co-operative bonding, especially if dog is allowed to free learn


Extinction, another behavioral science law, means that if a behavior is ignored; does not receive any feedback and there is no consequence, it will disappear.

So pay attention what you pay attention to, and don’t forget that stimuli from the environment can, in fact often are, a consequence (for the dog) and maintain the behavior, regardless how you feel about it. That's simply how science works.



Skinner's Laws of Operant Conditioning are valuable tools in teaching our dogs and in shaping their actions to our liking. Having said that, they should not be used exclusively. Skinner stated that mammals (as used for experiments) should be treated as if they were mindless. Diametrically opposed to dominance trainers, who see the dog as a pack animal in need of an alpha who always has to be on top and controlling, science in its true form sees the dog as a mere stimulus-response machine. Every dog owner knows that a dog is much more than that. Treating him as a laboratory experiment is as flawed as treating him as a wild animal.

The companion pet dog lives neither in nature nor in a lab, and the environment, associations and observational learning he is exposed to impact behavior.


Dominance trainers often claim their methods are also based on science. Correct they are. But Positive Punishment and Negative Reinforcement are Skinner’s Laws mindful leaders won’t use, because both involve fear and pain and thereby increase stress. Not what we want if we aim for trust and respect. Indeed, Skinner found in his scientific studies that punishing is not as effective as rewarding, and in addition can cause secondary behavior problems.

Training with rewards teaches the dog what we want. Punitive training corrects what we don’t want.

Here is the million-dollar question! How many undesired behaviors you think your dog can come up with? You need to punish every single one separately, because your dog is detail specific, not a generalizer. You punish till your dog shuts down and stops to offer anything, which, to the untrained eye, can be misconstrued as good behavior.

In addition, your dog learns to fear you, which inhibits learning.

And, because she associates you with things that scare or hurt her, she will only obey when you are around, because she has never learned what to do – only what not to do.

Just because someone uses science in training does not automatically mean good news for the dog.


Can you use all scientific laws of Operant Conditioning in combination? Reward good behavior and punish bad ones? That is an approach taken by many trainers that jump on the “positive” bandwagon. The answer is: NO. Reward and punishment training are NOT compatible.

To reward sometimes and punish at others makes the worst of all relationships; one that is psychologically as damaging as a human/human relationship in which the spouse is showered with gifts sometimes, and punched in the face at others. The confused canine will be equally stressed and fearful, will not trust you and behave erratically.

Each time your dog feels threatened, his survival instincts will be strengthened and his reactive behaviors conditioned. Trained fear biters react to more and more non-hazardous situations due to a more and more conditioned fear response.



In Operant Conditioning behavior is conditioned by consequences.

In Classical Conditioning behavior is conditioned by cause and effect. Scientist Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning deals with involuntary responses to stimuli = the association between a stimulus/action (and subsequent event) and response that is not under a dog’s conscious control. Examples are outside and voiding, doorbell and barking.

Your voice, or a certain touch, can be a classical conditioned feel good trigger if your dog associates it with being cared for and protected. You can then use it to bring about calm and relaxed emotions in frightening for the dog situations.

The opposite is true if the dog associates your voice with fear. He will stress out whenever he hears it. Or only heel in association with the clicking sound of a choke collar.

Food rewards given in Classical Conditioning should always be in combination with voice and touch. Once conditioning, the dog will respond to each one separately and food is no longer needed.



Scientist Badura’s Social Learning states that social animals learn by observation. That is also true for mixed species social groups, like humans and dogs. Young and impressionable canines learn from older and more experienced dogs and from their human leaders.

Pay attention who your dog’s teachers are. The pupil can only rise to the level of the teacher. Read what to look for in a science based trainer