Todays blog post is going to start with a story:
I have a lovely golden retriever as a client. This dog, like most Goldens, will eat just about everything you put in front of her. We were out in public working on ignoring people, and only saying hello to people when prompted, because like many Goldens she wanted to assault any she saw with her love. We were using treats that she regularly got at home, and in the house they would be high value. But outside, they were not a high value reward for this dog. So what did we do? We switched to dried beef spleen treats, increased the rate of reinforcement, and immediately had her doing what we wanted. After just a few repetitions with the beef spleen treats, we started to fade the treats out and going to meet someone became the primary reward. Her owners will keep practicing this until she behaves how we want every time she meets someone!
There are a few important lessons in this story.
The Dog Decides the Reward
We may want our dog to take rewards that are convenient for us, like kibble or “regular” treats we buy , but for many dogs this will only be a good reinforcement in low distraction or home environments. When we are asking a dog to overcome a natural desire or personality trait, or to work in a busy environment, we may need to adjust our reward. For many dogs rewards such are cheese, fresh cooked meat, or a specialty treat such as the beef spleen will become reinforcing, whereas kibble is just not, even if they eat it.
Every dog will be different in what works for them. Some dogs work best for food, some for toys, and on occasion I have worked with a dog who prefers praise and scratches above all other things!
There are also many cases where we use what the dog wants as a reward. In this dogs case, she REALLY wanted to see the people. We used the food reward to get the behavior we wanted to set her up for success, but quickly started using greeting people as her reward because thats what she wanted the most!
You Should Always Be Evaluating Your Training Plan
Another important lesson here is that you should always be watching your dog, and evaluating your training plan. As soon as we realized our plan was not succeeding, instead of trying again with the same set up, we changed something. If the treats were not enough we would have added more distance or perhaps moved to a new location. As the trainer, you should always be making sure the plan is progressing and you do not get stuck in a loop of something thats not working.
Rate Of Reinforcement Matters
As humans, we have a preconceived idea that we are in charge, and that giving dogs food rewards is “spoiling” them and we tend to be stingy in how much we dole out. Being stingy can have a huge detrimental effect on your training plan. I like to tell people you are better off starting with too many treats than too little. The food is feedback telling your dog they are doing the right thing, and it helps your dog learn to stay engaged. Without this feedback, they may go do their own thing and pay less attention to you. This is also why it is important to try different treat options, and be sure to deduct those calories from you dogs regular meals!
A Reward Is Not Always Reinforcement
Lets take a quick look at the definitions of rewards and reinforcement:
Reinforcement: the action or process of reinforcing or strengthening; the process of establishing a pattern of behavior
Reward: a thing given in recognition of service or effort
We want to do the former- strengthen the behavior. While recognition is nice, it is not going to be what trains our dogs. Think to a time you got a reward— Was being named employee of the month a better motivator than the time you got a gift card for your efforts at work? For some people it might be. For others, bring on the gift cards!
The biggest takeaway is a reward is not reinforcement unless it changes the dogs behavior!
What rewards work for your dog? Have you noticed you need to change up your rewards for different circumstances? Share in the comments below!!