The Value of Reinforcements

The one thing I hear the most as a trainer is, “my dog just won’t listen to me”.

During the first class of my manners courses, I always talk about what reinforcements are. I try to stress to my students that it really doesn’t matter what we (the humans) want to give our dogs, but what they (the dog) deem worth working for.

I stress the importance of playing around with things like food and toys to see what your dog likes to work for.

Take my own dog, for example, Tazie, a Chihuahua / Corgi Mix, that was always been rather picky over the years about what he wants. Some days he will work all day for just plain training treats in chicken or liver treats. Then there are the times when something else has his attention and I need to pull out cheese, then you have the days where he only wants to play with a toy and fetch and tug games are the best things in the world.

When talking about writing this post with one of my very best friends and fellow trainer, she reminded me of a commercial a year or so back from Trident gum where the babysitter was so happy that the parents were paying her in gum. That’s what we have to keep in mind, what do our dogs value?

Several years back when I first started training, I worked with a Vizsla named Buffett. He had a huge play drive and was ball obsessed. I could have a t-bone steak in one hand and a tennis ball in the other and he wouldn’t think twice about grabbing the ball. I was able to use the ball and a game of fetch as a reward for him doing what I asked. Your reinforcement doesn’t have to food based, remember it’s what your dog wants not what you want to give her. I’ve worked with dogs that couldn’t care less about food or toys but would get so happy when their owners would lean down and scratch behind an ear for a sit or a down. There are other dogs that will move mountains just to hear their owner’s happy voice praising their behavior.

Next time you take your dog out somewhere be prepared, take along some super yummy treats (and we are not talking this morning’s leftover kibble), or your dog's favorite toy, and don’t forget your baby talk voice. When your dog’s attention is taken away from you, baby talk her and pull out the yummies, make yourself more interesting than everything else.

Comments

Positive Changes of Dog Training

In the last century dog training has been under going an evolution of sorts. It wasn’t so long ago that the lexicon of dog training included words like punishment, compulsion and Intimidation. The tools of the trade where things designed to inflict pain and cruelty as a way of training dogs to do or not do things the handlers wanted. Dogs were punished with ear pinches and the like, if they didn’t perform the desired behaviors. The idea of training a dog was to break the dog of some bad habit it had. One of the forefathers of scientific study into dog behavior was Edward Thorndike (1874-1949). He studied the effect of positive reinforcement on dog behavior. Thorndike called his study the Law of Effect. His study put forth the idea that the key to understanding how to train dogs was to understand canine behavior. Behaviors that produce an effect that is desirable are ones that a dog is more likely to repeat, whereas behaviors...

The Kona Diaries - Secondary Fear Stage and Vet Visits

This morning I had a plan. I was going to take Kona to Hollywood Feed for some social interactions. Since spending all this time at home with the COVID-19 Shutdown, she has regressed a lot on her social skills. My intention was to do some filming of her while we were out, however that was quickly abandoned. At first, she did pretty well, she walked with me and would every now and then forge ahead of me but would come back to heel when I asked. Not once did she try to take anything off the shelves though. I was very proud. As we made a loop around to the front counter she caught sight of this sign spinning in the air and she just lost it. She never once barked at it but she crouched down and her legs were shaking. We have definitely had a setback. After a nap to try and get some relief from a migraine that had started making me feel sick, I went out with the pups and found a huge blood smear on my patio at first I thought Ko...

And just like that the wold fell apart

But my dogs still needed training!!! Within a couple weeks everything has ground to a halt and I went from doing 25-30 appointments a week, to not having left the house in two weeks. This time, it was not because of my depression or a mental breakdown it was because of a world wide virus that is spreading across the world like wild fire. So I jumped into to brining my students into online dog training but I failed to realize that this was going to showcase a big fear that I have been hiding. That I couldn’t do it anymore. This pup right here was my soul pup. Trainers often talk about that one dog that taught them so much about being a trainer. Well that was Tazie for me. This little dog put me though the wringer of emotions and taught me everything from how to teach basics to how to care for a dog with a neurological problem. We had a wild journey that took us from Atlanta, Ga to Rochester, Ny to Birmingham, Al and finally to Jonesboro, Ar. He ...

Conversations with a Dog Trainer

Search This Blog