Curbing Reward or Treat
Desire
Hello Jessie,
Fibi can do - sit, roll over, shake hand, spin around, down,
stay, bark (on command), beg/say please and give high 5’s.
Unfortunately, she performs this trick only when there is a
reward - i.e food.
Without any food (not even praise), she would not move a
muscle. How can I overcome this? That is, how can I make Fibi
obey my command without using any reward.
Li in Malaysia
The Answer
There are two ways to look at this situation, which
incidentally is very common and frequently used as a way to
discredit the use of food in training. However, dogs trained
with only praise and leash corrections tend to ignore commands
when off lead, and I don’t see many people blaming leashes for
the problem!
The first angle is this: You have always trained your dog
with food present, most likely displayed prominently in your
hand. As a result, the presence of food has become part of the
cue (command) to perform the behaviour in the dog’s mind.
This is similar to the situation which arises when you train
a dog to sit or lie down using both a hand signal and a verbal
command, then find that the dog will not respond to a hand
signal only or a verbal command only. When two cues are usually
used together, the dog will not necessarily recognize what is
basically “half” the cue.
The other angle is: You probably always reward your dog for
performing tricks when you have treats readily available.
However, there have been times when you have asked him to
perform when no treats were around, and of course failed to
reward him.
As a result, he’s learned that the only times those
behaviours are reinforced (rewarded) are when you holding food.
He is not being sneaky or cunning; he’s simply learned when
it’s worthwhile to perform and when it’s not. For many dogs,
praise is not an adequate motivator, and it sounds like Fibi is
one of them.
Neither of these situations are your fault; they simply mean
that you have one more training task to complete. What you need
to dog is gradually fade out the obvious presence of food,
while still rewarding (at least intermittently) him for
performing.
You could start by keeping treats in your pocket, and giving
the command without holding food in your hand. Be sure you do
reward him, though. When he trusts you to come through with the
treat contained in your pocket, try placing non-perishable
treats in little dishes around your house where you can get to
them quickly.
Give him the command, then as soon as he obeys, click and
give him a treat from one of the dishes. Then cut down to just
one treat location, and try to get to the point where you can
ask for the behaviour in any room of the house, have him obey,
click, and go get him a treat.
You final training step can be to start rewarding him only
once every second or third trick, so that he becomes less
dependent on the food rewards.
Follow-up:
Thank you for the prompt reply. Last night, I have tried out
your advice. Unfortunately, Fibi would not want to pay
attention at all. First, I get her to sit, and the moment I say
“shake hand”, she starts to scratch herself - not paying any
attention at all.
But, when I hold a piece of food - she begins to notice my
existence.
Any pointers?
Thank you, Li
Reply:
Try asking her to do the very most basic of exercises (such
as the sit) without showing her the food. Persist until she
finally sits, even if you have to ask several times. When she
finally obeys, give her a jackpot of a big handful of treats,
then end the training session so that it makes a BIG impression
on her.
Repeat this later in the day. After several times, she will
probably start responding to the sit command promptly, as she
learns that she will be rewarded even if the treats don’t seem
to be there.
Once you get a response that way, then you can go back to
giving just the normal small reward and begin asking her to do
other exercises.
Then the advice in the article should work.
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