We’ve all seen it. Most of us have done it. You see it at the dog park. You see it in class. You see it when someone wants the dog in the proper position before the instructor notices! That pleading voice saying: “Dani, Sit. Sit. Sit. Good sit. No, Dani, sit. Now stay, Dani stay, no-sit, stay. staaaaaaay!”
Disclaimer: This is not a post on marking, nor is it on positive reinforcement, but I’d like to take a moment to define these terms, as they are pertinent to the post.
Marking: A click, verbal indicator or any other means of pinpointing a behavior that says, “That is what I was looking for, thank you”. This needs to be followed with a pause, and a reinforcer. Every time.
Positive: Adding a stimulus (such as food, toys, aversives etc..) following a behavior
Reinforcement: A motivator used to increase behavior
From here on out, assume when I use any of these terms, I am speaking about them from a positive reinforcement standpoint, that is, rewarding your dog to increase a behavior.
Oftentimes, when we hear someone repeating a cue, nearly begging their dog to respond, we may ask them to stop cueing their dog. We then hear a response akin to something like this:
“But she KNOWS sit! She does it at home! She’s being stubborn!”
Perfect. At least the cue is known, and that gives us a starting point. However, how strong that cue is may need to be readdressed. We know this because of a “non response” when cued for a behavior. Location and environment will play into a dog’s response quite a bit, and we need to reinforce the behavior as these change.
Now that we have identified the issue, let’s see what we can do to set the dog up for success. When testing the strength of your cue, keep this simple rule in mind:
Say it Once!
If your dog is non responsive to your cue, that is where we need to begin our work. Repeating the cue will do you no favors in your training. You are decreasing the value of the cue, which can lead to the point of the dog no longer offering that behavior at all (no longer willing to “sit” on cue, for example). This is called extinction. We don’t want to get to that point!
Instead of asking this question: Why won’t my dog do xyz known behavior?
I’d like us to start asking this one: Where will my dog be successful at xyz known behavior?
If the dog willingly offers the behavior at home, then let’s take it out to the front porch. Cue your dog, mark the behavior, and reinforce. Say it once! And wait. This isn’t too big of an environment change, since the dog is used to the porch, but we can do some things to set our dog up for success. Make sure there is no one walking around outside, no other dogs, and keep distractions to a minimum. We always want to set the scene for a successful attempt! Do this all over your home! The backyard, the driveway, the mailbox. Get that cue on lockdown. Mark and reinforce every attempt-we are still learning here, after all.
Now that you’ve accomplished that task, let’s take it on the road. You pull up to our training center at The Paw Market, and you’ve made sure no other dogs are out and about. Then, you get your dog out of the car… and you give your cue again. The dog eagerly offers you the behavior, what do you do? Mark and reinforce!
Keep doing this as you move towards the gym. At the door. Mark and reinforce! In the lobby. Mark and reinforce (see the pattern?)! In the gym, in front of the agility equipment. At your start line (we aren’t in a competition, you can do this to get the behavior on lockdown). Eventually, you will be reinforcing this behavior in other ways – If your dog loves agility, they will soon realize:
“Now I get to play agility! Yay! All I have to do is a sit and I get to play on all these things?! Heck yeah!”
“I made it to the gym, but now she stopped!”
No problem. Simply reduce your criteria. Go back to the lobby and get a few successful attempts. Remember how we set the scene for success? Maybe she wasn’t ready to be successful in the gym, so let’s get back to a place where we are successful, and move forward again.
“This seems like a lot of work!”
It may be a lot of work short term, for something seemingly simple, but it is a skill for long term understanding. Above all, we want you and your dog to build a relationship based on strong communications and positive interactions. Here at Canine Fine, we don’t train for the quick fix. We want the dog and the owner to learn. We want the dog and owner to have success.
Thank you Graham Thomas for writing this blog post. Graham is owned by Dani, a sweet yet challenging sheltie.