Jazz will need to learn a lot of special skills for the life planned for him.  First of all, like all puppies, he needs to learn basic manners - such things as greeting people without jumping on them, staying calm for grooming and examination, learning bite inhibition (a real challenge for Jazz!), coming when he is called, and keeping off of counters and furniture.  Then there are the basic obedience skills - sit, down, stay, and walking on a loose leash.  Then there are the advanced skills he will need for his work as a Therapy Dog and a demonstration dog for Service Dog skills.  I'll talk more about these later.  (To see a list of the commands Jazz is learning, select Commands.)  First of all, my training philosophy.

Jazz is being trained using primarily Positive Reinforcement techniques.  In any learning, there are 4 possible outcomes to a behavior (in parentheses is the scientific term for each outcome):

For Jazz, most outcomes are Positive Reinforcement - he does what I ask him to do, and then gets a treat, praise or play time as a reward.  It is important for me to make sure that we set up all exercises so that he can succeed.  If he can't, that is my fault for trying to go too fast or not being clear enough about what I want.  I really like this training style because it makes me focus on what Jazz is doing right, rather than waiting to catch him doing something wrong.  I wish I had understood this style when I was raising my kids! A special training technique often called "clicker training" is based strictly on the use of Positive Reinforcement.  I'll add more information about clicker training later.

In some instances, I use Negative Punishment - if Jazz gets mouthy and bratty, I walk away from him.  He looses the chance for something good to happen (treats, praise or play).  Only rarely do I use Positive Punishment (usually a strong, growling NO!).  This is reserved for very bad transgressions.  Now that he has his adult teeth and stronger jaws, his play biting can hurt.  It is also time for him to learn other ways to cope with stress and frustration.  Since my use of Negative Punishment has not seemed to be effective, he is now starting to get some Positive Punishment when he gets starts his little "shark attacks".  All punishment does is to stop a certain behavior.  It does not tell the dog what he SHOULD be doing.  When I use punishment, I have to be very careful to immediately tell him what he should do instead (such as SIT, or grab a toy), and then praise him lavishly for that behavior.  

I haven't used Negative Reinforcement at all with Jazz.  This is the technique that most standard dog training relies on.  The dog is asked to do something.  If he doesn't, then the training collar (also called a slip collar or choke chain) is tightened until the dog performs the command.  As soon as he responds, the tight collar is loosened.  The dog learns that he will be uncomfortable until he obeys the command.  As soon as he obeys, something bad (the tight collar) is taken away.  While this can be an effective method of training, I much prefer the happy attitude of dogs trained with positive reinforcement.  There is also more room for trainer error when using positive reinforcement.  If your timing is off, the dog may take a little longer learning the skill, but he is still happily chomping down treats.  With negative reinforcement, if your timing is off, your dog is confused and frustrated because he doesn't know how to consistently turn the "bad thing" off.