Reward Based Training

REWARD BASED TRAINING – Positive to the end!

What is Reward Based Training?   Put simply, it is rewarding the behaviours you want rather than punishing the ones you do not want. It is encouraging the dog to get it right as opposed to the old style of punishing him every time he gets it wrong. It is helping him to understand what is required of him and reinforcing that behaviour so that he is happy to repeat it. It is not punishing him for getting it wrong and making him worried about not getting it right next time. The only punishment needed is the removal of the expected reinforcer.

Rewards in training:  Praise – both verbal and physical, Food, Attention, Toys and play, and Life rewards such as Freedom, being allowed off lead, being allowed to sniff etc. Remember a reward is something your dog likes and wants, not necessarily something you like!

Value of Rewards: Use low grade rewards for ordinary work and higher value rewards for harder tasks.

Verbal and physical praise is all important – you always have your mouth and hands with you!

Adjust the quantity of your dog’s dinners while using food to train – particularly in the beginning when more is used. Use some of his daily ration for training. Food for training needs to be cut up very, very small and be slightly moist. i.e. meat, cheese, sausage etc.

Toys as rewards should be safe and interesting to the dog. When using a toy to reward your dog try always to interact with him when playing with it.

There are three stages of rewarding appropriate or desired behaviour:

The first is to lure the dog into position ie. holding a treat above his  nose, taking it  over the head is likely to get him to put his bottom on the floor.  Sit!  Here the reward is up front of the behaviour.  An alternative to this stage is to wait until the dog performs an appropriate behaviour and mark and reward it (capturing). Another alternative is to shape the behaviour gradually by reinforcing tiny steps towards the required behaviour (shaping)

The second stage is to reward the behaviour (the reward is not up-front) – so the behaviour happens, and is marked by a word or a clicker,  and the reward is then delivered to the dog. (the dog does not snatch the reward). This stage goes on until the dog is performing the behaviour consistently.

The verbal cue is inserted only when you are sure the dog is going to perform the behaviour perfectly.   Once he is doing that 90% of the time you can move on to stage 3.

The third stage is to reward at random. This is where you reward only the best, or fastest, or smartest. Vary the type, amount and frequency of delivery of the rewards. If you follow these stages you will not be shoving food up the dog’s nose for the rest of his life!!! It is all about moderation.

If your dog is offering a behaviour – other than one you want, either ignore it or interrupt it enough to get him back on track. Do not punish him – if he is not getting it right it is a communication hitch. Try to make your request clearer to him.

Important in training with rewards:

Observation – See what the dog is doing.  We are all very good and looking at the dogs but often we do not truly ‘see’ what is truly occurring.

Timing – the reward is delivered within three seconds of the dog performing the behaviour.

Be consistent – same cue, same hand signal, same expectations and make sure that anyone else who may be likely to train the dog does not use different words and have expectations of their own.

Always check that food rewards can be given to the dog you are working with.

©Copyright Carole Husein