What is the ABC method for dogs?

All of training comes down to A-B-C, and I’ve got a quick video to explain. ABC’s of Dog Training Antecedent: What happens immediately before (it could be a trigger, a cue, a distraction like a bunny). Behaviour: The behaviour of the dog (that we can describe). Consequence: What happened to the dog immediately after. In the video I shared last week of transitioning Tater to walking off lead, he stopped and sniffed the ground, and then ran to catch up with me and came into reinforcement zone. Let’s look at how the A-B-C of dog training can work for us, or against us, in this situation, and how knowing our ABC helps set our dogs up for success. A= The Antecedent was Tater being off-leash away from me, and me walking away growing a large distance between us, which lead to his choice of… B= The Behaviour he chose was to run to catch up to me (I didn’t call him or lure him with a cookie). C= The Consequence of Tater choosing to leave the sniffing and catch up to me (without a prompt) was that he was praised and rewarded with a cookie. To make A-B-C work for us in our training, it starts with awareness and observation. Awareness of ABC is going to exponentially increase dog training success for anyone, and grow the understanding of why a dog is behaving a certain way.

The ABC model of behaviour is a simple to remember acronym which helps professionals identify the cue an animal follows to perform a behaviour. ABC also determines the consequence which results from the behaviour. The model can be used to train new behaviours or to modify old ones. A= Antecedent: cue, signal, sign, word or condition that influence the occurrence of the behaviour. B= Behaviour: any action that can be quantified or qualified. C= Consequence: outcome that occurs immediately following the behaviour. The antecedent is what happens right before the behaviour is performed, the behaviour is the actual performance of an activity, and the consequence is what happens right after the behaviour is performed. With the ABC model it becomes obvious we need to learn more, we need to identify the A= Antecedent before we can address the behaviour and its consequences.