Das Pavlov-Projekt

When the author joined a service dog squad of the Dutch police in the early 1990s, training was still based on submission and punishment - as was the case almost everywhere at that time and in that scene. When he was entrusted with the task of training dogs for a newly formed special unit, in which the dogs were to act independently over long distances and out of sight of the handlers, it quickly became clear that this could not be done using conventional methods: it was the birth of the "Pavlov Project", the introduction of operant conditioning into the world of service dog training.For years, Simon Prins traveled the globe to learn from the best and was particularly influenced by Bob Bailey, whom he calls his spiritual mentor. In this book he has recorded his own personal journey into the exciting world of behavioral and learning research, allowing the reader to share in his experiences and insights, which have included temporary failures as well as great successes.In a stirring way that everyone can understand, he explains the basic principles and laws of modern dog training based on scientific facts, with which virtually anything is possible. Why operant conditioning is much more than "throwing cookies", what all has to be considered when using reinforcers, which pitfalls can get in our way during training, why data collection is so important and what the trainer's inner attitude and motivation must be, you will learn in this exciting book that convincingly brings together theory and practice.