When I’m working with students in my dog training classes, I stress that keeping the dog motivated to learn is the most important part of the job. If your dog isn’t interested in working with you, chances are they aren’t learning much of what you are trying to teach them. One unfortunate side effect of an uninterested dog is that the human trainer will often get frustrated and try lots of different things to re-engaged the dog in the learning process. We move, we cheerlead, we tease, and we can be quite vocal in our efforts to get the dog to pay attention to us. It’s probably best to take a break and rethink how you go about your training if keeping your dog’s focus is a frequent problem.
Positive trainers can have lots of success in keeping their dogs engaged. There are many dogs that can’t wait to work for their rewards. For some dogs it’s food, for others it’s a game of tug, and for still others perhaps it’s a game of fetch with their ball. There are very few things in dog training more fun for the trainer than being able to deliver lots of rewards to their dog during training. But here’s an interesting thought: can rewards be too rewarding? Can the things we use to encourage behaviour in our dogs actually overshadow the things we are trying to teach?
Playing to distraction
Many trainers like to move beyond basic food rewards when using positive reinforcement training. Most dogs find play rewarding whether that play is chasing a ball, playing tug, or just engaging with their human in a little play wrestling. Used effectively, play can be a great reward for teaching behaviours. One aspect of play that should be considered is that it can be so stimulating that it can actually get in the way of learning. Clearly the dog enjoys the game, but is the anticipation of that game becoming a distraction? At what point is your dog learning a behaviour and when are they just doing anything to get you to play?
Play is a very seductive reward to use in training. A dog that enjoys their game is very obvious about it. And, let’s face it, it’s just great watching our dog have a good time. In fact, it can be so engaging for the trainer to see their dog having fun that it may actually cloud our understanding of just how much learning is going on. We need to keep in mind that the best indicator of our training effectiveness is the behaviour that remains after the session is over.
British trainer Kay Laurence points out in her article “When is a Distraction just a cue?” that a stimulus (sometimes called a “prompt”), a distraction, and a cue may all be the same thing in different forms. We use “distractions” to test whether or not our dog can perform a trained behaviour in the presence of something they shouldn’t be paying attention to. But sometimes that distraction is unintentional. The presence of a ball is distracting to my dog if I am going to reward her with it in training. If I have the ball where she can see it, she may become preoccupied with watching the ball or trying to get it, and not focus on what I’m trying to teach her.
The allure of the lure
Many trainers use food in their training. One common form of food training is called Lure and Reward training. The basic process uses a food treat held in front of the dog as a prompt to get them to move through a desired behaviour. The key to using food lures in training is getting rid of the food without losing the behaviour. But there is potentially a more detrimental aspect to this type of training. The food itself could be a distraction!
In her book, “Click to Calm”, author and dog trainer Emma Parsons recommends the use of a presented food lure to draw a dog’s attention away from an unwanted stimulus such as another dog or scary situation. Steven Lindsay calls this “sampling” or “priming” in his Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, Procedures and Protocols. It is the overwhelming physical response to the scent of food that interrupts the dog’s thinking process and focus on the unwanted thing.
This same physiological response can work against the trainer attempting to do lure and reward training. If the food is held too close to the dog during training, it is quite possible that any learning about what behaviour they are doing is being overwhelmed by the scent of the food and the physical response that produces. Like our play scenario, the dog looks very eager and motivated to work for the food but what are they actually learning?
Enjoyment is not necessarily learning
The lesson here for me is that seeing my dog enjoy herself during training is not really a guarantee that she is learning what I am trying to teach her. And this is where my advice to my students can get me into trouble. Yes, a motivated dog is necessary in order to be effective in training them. They have to be engaged and “in the game”, so to speak. But as a trainer, I need to be careful that I am managing all of the stimuli and distractions, including the rewards they are working for, so they don’t become overwhelming.
It’s easy to get caught up in having fun with my dog. It’s great to see her having fun and I want her to enjoy our training together. But I also have to structure my training program so that I vary my rewards, my approach, and my process so that I can assess exactly how much of what I’m teaching is being absorbed. This might involve changing the rewards from time to time, working for no rewards some times, and even introducing new distractions just to see how much of what I’ve taught her has actually been learned.
Not every training session has to be the pinnacle of efficient learning. Sometimes it’s better to just go with the flow and make it into a game. There is something to be said for those “light work” days that end up just being a fun bonding experience for you and your dog. Being a good trainer sometimes means keeping a balance between the challenge of new learning and just having fun.
A dog that is eager for rewards will work hard for you. Just don’t let the anticipation of those rewards work against you.
Until next time, have fun with your dog.
The first Canine Nation ebook is now available –
“Dogs: As They Are”
Photo credits –
Obedience – sirelroka 2009 From Flickr
BALL! – WoofBC 2008 From Flickr
Treat – Clonny 2008 From Flickr
I have just discovered this website and think your articles are some of the best on the web on dog training. Of my 3 dogs, my “problem child” is my 7 month old Chihuahua, Dino. I can not get him to focus, even using food/treats as a reward. His eyes are darting everywhere during our solo training sessions. My other puppy learned to sit in one 10 minute session. Dino is starting week three and we are no closer than when we started in the basic sit command. Maybe I need to try a different approach with this tiny guy, Gotta love him:)
Hi Joan –
I have to admit I smiled when you described having difficulty getting Dino’s focus. He’s a 7 month old puppy. If you look up “lack of focus”, you will like see a picture of a 7 month old chihuahua!
There are a couple of suggestions I would have for you with Dino. First, try to work in a very boring, low distraction area. No toys laying around, no other dogs around, quiet, not a lot for him to interact with except you. Second, I would make it VERY easy for Dino to earn his rewards. Begin teaching by asking for the smallest bit of the behaviour you want and rewarding for it. Then as you have him engaged, you can SLOWLY require more before rewarding. As an example, if you are working on sit, you could reward for even looking like he wanted to put his butt down. Reward that a few times. Then wait and see if he gives you more of that “put the butt down” behaviour before rewarding. Eventually, he will give you a whole sit.
A third suggestion is to keep you sessions very short and very successful. Perhaps you could count out 10 small treats. Set up your training so that Dino is successful at least 8 out of 10 tries. Try to end on a big success and go do something fun with him. You could do 2 or 3 of these small sessions each day.
The important thing, in my view, is to keep the dog successful. Don’t make it too hard to earn the reward. Make it so much fun that Dino is almost disappointed when training time is over. Short, successful sessions that are easy and fun can make all the difference!
Hope that helps,
Eric
Hi Eric, thank you! That makes total sense!! As I posted on another of your articles, I inherited a stray puppy that climbed into my car when I stopped on a foggy road. So I have my former stray(a jack russell/spitz/italian greyhound mix..I think..that is 4 months old and catches on very quickly), Dino-7 months, and Chalupa 12 years. I never imagined I would have 3 dogs, but it is working out relatively well. I just want to give Dino every chance to be a well behaved boy and not give in to that small dog syndrome you wrote about. I agree that I may be expecting too much too soon from this little guy. I will try our sessions in the bathroom with the door closed and treat as you suggest. Thank you SO much for responding to me. It is appreciated! I am living temporarily in Italy and have found it hard to find someone who can give obedience lessons in English and also work around the rotating shifts I am on. So, I am grateful for any tips I can get.
Thanks for the interesting article. You make some great points.
Personally, I much prefer play to food, but then I don’t think dogs learn through positive reinforcement. I think all learning takes place through negative reinforcement, that is through the reduction of an unpleasant internal state.
Positive reinforcement is a clinical outgrowth of Freud’s pleasure principle, and Freud defined pleasure not as the sudden receipt of something good but the release from internal tension and stress. Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience have shown this to be true.
Also, since I believe the urge to bite is the key to canine intelligence, and provides a dog with the most satisfying release of tension and stress, it you want to think in terms of positive reinforcers (which seems the politically correct thing to do these days) you could probably make a case for play being just another form of +R.
For what it’s worth, I mentioned you in my latest blog post at PsychologyToday.com: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my-puppy-my-self/201212/is-the-urge-bite-the-key-canine-intelligence.
Hi Lee –
Thanks for reading and for the interesting and insightful comments!
With regard to the positive reinforcement/negative reinforcement idea you put forward, I do think there is something to it but I question whether it muddies the waters for the average dog owner/trainer. Here’s why: You correctly point out that a dog may be in an “unpleasant internal state” when a reinforcer is delivered. And this would strictly be true. A dog will not eat unless they are hungry. Hunger is less preferable to satiation. So by providing a food reward are you ADDING a reinforcer (+R) or are you RELIEVING a less desirable internal state (-R)? For me, the answer is that we can’t know. We simply don’t know how the dog “feels” about it. All we can do is observe behaviour changes and speculate as to the reasons why.
The same would be true of the “urge to bite” scenario you present in your well written Psychology Today article (which I enjoyed very much!). We know that biting releases dopamine into the dog’s brain but is that release of “pleasure” hormones a positive reinforcer or a negative reinforcer? By your assertion, the state of “not biting” is less preferable to biting so the dopamine release would relieve that unpleasant “not biting” state. I see the logic of your argument and even agree that there may be something to it. But does that help us in our training?
As someone who works with people training their dogs, I don’t know if it is valuable to explain the reinforcement/learning process at this detailed a level. All my clients can really do is give a reward (+R) or take something unpleasant away (-R). As I’ve just explained, giving a food treat could, by your argument, be either a +R or a -R. But does that matter to my client so long as the desired behaviour increases? Far easier, in my mind, to explain that desired behaviours should be rewarded and unwanted behaviours should be discouraged (extinction or -P).
With regards to play, it is absolutely +R as you suggest! There are several games we use as part of our training program and they have produced strong results comparable to behaviours we taught with food.
I do have difficulty with your assertion about the urge to bite as the key to canine intelligence. I play agility with my dog and she was taught to play the game and all associated behaviours on food treats. In her case, the bits of food that were used were so small that she would swallow them immeditately (no biting/chewing). She learned the game quickly and plays at the highest levels (she is a Canadian Champion).
Thanks again for the thought-provoking comments and the great article! It was definitely worth the read and was well researched and well written!
Eric
Eric Brad: “I do have difficulty with your assertion about the urge to bite as the key to canine intelligence. I play agility with my dog and she was taught to play the game and all associated behaviours on food treats. In her case, the bits of food that were used were so small that she would swallow them immeditately (no biting/chewing). She learned the game quickly and plays at the highest levels (she is a Canadian Champion).”
I can well understand your difficulty. It would definitely seem as if your dog’s ability to learn agility has no relation to her urge to bite.
Years ago, I had a play group that I took to Central Park every morning. When we’d come back home, I’d give the dogs something to chew on, usually a rawhide bone. On some days they’d spend 20 to 30 minutes quietly satisfying their oral urges. Other days they’d spend 5 minutes or less.
I wondered what the difference was, then realized that on days when we’d played tug and fetch in the park, and the dogs had been given something to satisfy their urge to bite during our play time, they spent less time chewing once we got home.
I tested this thesis, just to be sure, and it turned out that I was right.
How does that apply to your experience with agility training?
My experience is that any time you give a dog something to do that even marginally relates to the wolf’s group prey drive you’re usually going to get better performance. I would suggest that agility is: a) a group activity that, b) taps into some aspects of the wolf’s prey drive. The only thing missing was the final satisfaction of biting the “prey.”
It’s also interesting to note that the “linguistic” skills of the two famous border collies — Rico and Chaser — who knew the names of 100s of toys, weren’t being tested for their ability to differentiate between gustatory objects (types of food), but on prey objects (things they grasped with their teeth).
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my-puppy-my-self/201212/is-the-urge-bite-the-key-canine-intelligence
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against using food in training. I just think that some owners and trainers are missing out on a deeply important aspect of their dog’s working character.
Cheers,
LCK
Hi Lee –
Thanks so much for the detailed response!
I think we agree here. Chewing is a primal need for dogs and it is in their biology. As such, behaviourists would consider chewing to be a primary reinforcer as it satisfies a biological urge. In fact, reinforcement trainers who do protection work use “bite work” as reinforcement for a very important behaviour – releasing the object. When a dog successfully releases on command, they are then allowed to re-grip/bite the article. This biting/chewing has been shown to release endorphins into the canine brain and is a biological reinforcer.
I agree that the same could be said of chasing moving objects like a ball or lure. Herding is also an activity that satisfies the need to track, chase, and address prey drives. My concern is that we try to match too closely to the biological drives of wolves. Dogs are decidedly not wolves. Over 40,000 years of evolution has remapped their DNA and our selective breeding programs have had a tremendous impact on the biology of dogs.
The fact that you went to the trouble to observe and collect data about your dogs is commendable. I don’t often see dog trainers who are willing to actually test a hypothesis the way you did. Your methodology makes your conclusions much more credible that anecdotal speculation would have. There are are several biological reinforcers that we could seek to engage as trainers but not all are as easy or as predictable as food. All dogs eat. Not all dogs chew with the same intensity.
I also agree with you that not using reinforcers other than food is a great waste. That said, it is much more difficult to teach a new student of reinforcement training how to use tugging/chewing as a reinforcer that it is to show them how to deliver food rewards in a timely manner to get good results. All of the advanced dog trainers I know do, as you suggest, use play, tugging, food, and conditioned reinforcers such as verbal praise and tactile rewards with their dogs.
A smart trainer knows their dogs and what motivates them best. It would be foolish not to use the things your dog likes to help them learn.
Thanks again for a great reply!
Eric
Definitely something to think about here. I have one dog that I trained primarily using the ball as a reward. Do I think it impaired his learning? Not that I noticed. He was always in the training game and learned very quickly. But…I used to think that people who had toy crazy dogs and were not using the toy in training were missing the boat. They have a fabulous reinforcer built in!!! But…now I think there is something to holding those AMAZING toys for outside of training.. Thanks again, Eric.