Essentially, we can use anything that your dog values, and give them access to this to increase the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring again. This is what treats, toys, play, access to other dogs, petting, going in the garden to bark at the birds etc all do. This can all be considered as ‘reinforcers’ – things that increase the chances of a behaviour occurring again.
Reinforcers are very dependent on your dog – what do they like? What do they value? Play with you? Treats – what sort of treats? Play with another dog? Play with a toy? It can be so many things! We often use food as its convenient to carry and most dogs will enjoy it (depending on what it is).
Reinforcers could be – treats, saying hi to a dog/person, going to sniff, scent marking, chasing a bird, going outside, running after a toy, taking a chew, getting their food bowl/food toy – and so on….
What can go wrong?
Consider: Is your dog making conscious decisions?
You will know this by the behaviour you are seeing and whether the dog is responding to you. If the dog is lunging, barking, dragging, jumping, growling, whining etc – these are not behaviours under conscious control and therefore they cannot be reinforced. The dog is unable to learn and so reinforcers will not increase this behaviour.
If your dog is calm, responsive, thinking and offering behaviour – this can be reinforced to encourage the behaviour to happen again.
Consider: is the reinforcer causing an issue?
Sometimes, the presence of the reinforcer – the ball, a rustly bag of treats, a piece of food etc causes the dog to become emotionally triggered and behaviour stops being under conscious control as the gets excited, barks, jumps up, whines etc.
If the reinforcer appears first, then learning doesnt take place as we expect. Often having food/a toy in your hand causes the dog to anticipate what is about to happen which can lead to behaviour showing frustration – the dog stares at you, starts to whine or huff, then jumps up at you or escalate further still into lead chewing, grabbing your clothes or shoes etc.
In this instance, have the reinforcer out of sight. Put it behind your back, put it on the worktop, keep it in your pocket etc. Make sure you don’t reach for it until AFTER you have marked the behaviour i.e. used your clicker and clicked, or used your marker word…
Top tips
- Don’t have treats in a plastic bag or use them from a commercial bag of treats – these tend to make rustly noises which cause the dog to anticipate. Put your treats in a pot with no lid, put them in a pile on the table, or keep them in a training treat bag
- Use your marker word or clicker to ‘mark’ the behaviour which you want the dog to repeat – at the moment that it happens… THEN – reach your hand towards the pot/bag of treats, take one and pass it to the dog – slowly and calmly
DON’T give a treat when the dog is looking at you expectantly, or even when the dog is thinking about the treat – this can very quickly lead to frustration as the dog anticipates the food is coming but not quickly enough.
Here’s a great video to explain more
