How excited do you get when you say “today is payday”?!
A common question of new clients is “when do you think we’ll be able to stop (feeding as) reinforcement?”. It’s understandable, I mean we don’t want to have to give a treat every time we ask something of our dogs.
The short answer I give with a smile is “never”. I pause for just a second to let it sink in a little, then I go on with explanation of process in lessening rate of reward and keeping reliable obedience. A- reinforce every time until it is clear and dog understands what you want. B- combine commands, increase criteria per reward. C- randomize quality of reward (keep them guessing when the good stuff is coming – anticipation!).
Once our bank accounts start looking decent, the frequency we need to be paid at work lessens. Think about your dog training this way: When you are first teaching your pup what you want you pay every single time – like our first job, when we are uneducated & unexperienced getting paid every week. As you are clear in your instruction and your dog understands what to do and performs well, you combine tasks & raise criteria – now that we have experience, we get paid better but every two weeks. Now your dog is an adult & performs awesome, rate of reward might be just one good cookie after a walk – we are now educated, experienced adults that are paid well but only monthly.
There are studies out there about the extinction of reward where performance of known behavior suffers with no reward, not surprising huh? How well would you perform at work with inadequate or no pay? I’m not saying you have to treat every five steps on a walk forever (the walk in itself becomes the reward!), or every time your dog sits for you, but be fair and reward your dog when it’s deserved if you want him to continue to perform reliably.
It’s not just rewarding tho, the same is true of corrections.
On a first walk with one of my “reactive” clients, as the owner was continually leash correcting the dog’s slightest change of position, he says “…I’d like to get to where I don’t always have to correct Buddy.”
I said “So stop.” I paused, my dramatic pause, then continued “Buddy’s almost 8yrs, trust those years of work you’ve put in. Let him correct himself & just correct when it’s necessary. He’ll enjoy the walk more. Start occassionally rewarding his good walking, too.” We walked another half mile from that point without Buddy needing one correction.
Rewarding and correcting are necessary in life. We all need reminding sometimes.
All dogs want to please their leader. As their leaders we need to be clear and consistent in what we expect, and reward when we get it! Think about how happy you get when you are rewarded fairly for what’s expected of you, and reward your buddy fairly!
