One of my hobbies is dog training. You can learn a lot about psychology from dogs.

Take Baxter, my 10-year-old Cocker Spaniel-Poodle mix. Baxter isn’t the smartest dog on the block, especially next to our 3-year-old Australian Shepherd, Freddie. (But we try not to compare. Each is special in his own way.) When Baxter was young, we enrolled him in a puppy class at PetSmart. The trainer was an old school type. He believed that the best way to train a dog is to admonish him for disobeying a command with a jerk on a metal-pronged collar around his neck, thus teaching him to respect you as “the leader of the pack.” Caesar Milan is still practicing this method of dog training. (Don’t get me started.)

Baxter graduated at the bottom of his puppy class. He was the only student who didn’t master “the down” at the end of eight weeks, despite the frequent leash pops he endured. I feel bad about this now. But at the time, I thought he was being stubborn. The teacher, whose own unleashed Golden Retriever impressed me by lying immobile on his bed, said Baxter knew full well what he was supposed to do. He was just being “passive-aggressive.”

Really? I can’t presume to know a human’s hidden motives let alone a canine’s (clinical bias alert). Speculating about the underlying cause of a behavior can be an interesting intellectual exercise, but it’s not very useful. Especially when it comes to dogs. They live completely in the moment. They don’t fret or harbor resentment. And they don’t connect the present with the future. (“How could she leave me all day? I’ll show her! I’ll pee on her Manolo Blahniks!”). That’s why it’s pointless, and quite unfair, to yell at a puppy when you discover a housetraining transgression that may have occurred hours ago.

Fast forward ten years. Baxter has learned many—well, at least, a few—tricks since his school days, and he can be very clever when he really wants something. Like vegetables. Given the choice, he’ll devour broccoli and carrots before steak any day. (I tested this.) He’s found a way to break through three layers of plastic to get into my garden this summer. I keep discovering partially digested globs of green tomatoes on the living room rug and new holes in the impenetrable deer fencing–proof that an old dog can learn new tricks when he wants to.

Baxter long ago figured out what “Down!” means. And now he hits the deck in no time flat, even faster if there’s a cucumber or pepper in it for him. Dogs learn more quickly—and have more fun learning– when we reward them for their efforts.

People too, for that matter.