When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [37]
This little dog enjoys a chin rub as a reinforcer.
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Play University
Learning How to Play With Your Dog
At this point you have laid in a good foundation to train a variety of behaviors. If your dog’s list of “hot” reinforcers includes lots of games and play with you, you probably are in pretty good shape. If play is not on your dog’s list of hot reinforcers, you have some more work to do. Being able to use play as a reinforcer is essential if you want reliability and consistency from your dog, anywhere, anytime.
First Things First
Why Play Comes Before Work in Dog Training
Let’s take the example of teaching a dog to walk on a loose leash. If your dog enjoys tugging on a rope toy, you have a motivator that is small and light enough to carry around with you. You can inject some excitement into walking with you by breaking out the toy and playing tug with it from time to time. Sometimes you can just show the rope toy and run or jump around a little or speak in an excited voice. Ultimately, you would like him to get so fired up on just the possibility of playing, that he charges after you wherever you go whether armed with the tug toy or not. The “finished product” motivator is walking around with you, with the possibility of a wild and crazy play session breaking out at any moment. You are the only motivator you will have on you all the time, and the chance for a fun time with you can be the best motivator for keeping your dog’s attention and getting a happy performance.
Now, think about a dog whose only motivator is food. How far is that going to get you? You will have a dog that works readily and eagerly for the food, but is cut adrift when the treats are not forthcoming. You have a dog that does three or four steps of walking, and then starts looking for a treat, then takes two more steps looking for a treat after each one, and then takes one more and stops, because he has no idea what he is doing “wrong.” The operant dog looks for reinforcers as confirmation that he is doing the right thing. If a reinforcer is not forthcoming, he assumes he is doing something “wrong.” If your dog’s only reinforcer is food, he assumes he is wrong if he is not getting a treat. If, on the other hand, you have a dog who finds playing with you reinforcing, the mere fact that you are continuing to move around and whoop like an idiot from time to time is totally reinforcing and the dog knows he is right.
See how play can turn a routine activity, like walking down the driveway on leash, into an exciting one? After a little play, I become much more interesting and he can’t take his eyes off of me.
The operant dog looks for reinforcers as confirmation that he is doing the right thing. If a reinforcer is not forthcoming, he assumes he is doing something “wrong.”
Think about this statement carefully, for it is of profound significance. The absence of reinforcement is actually punishment to an operant dog. In contrast, a dog that has been trained to heel by using leash checks thinks he is in good shape so long as he is not getting leash checks. The understanding between the handler and the dog is that, if the handler is not tugging on the leash, the dog is performing correctly. Now, if you are following the Pigs Fly system, your non-biddable dog will be offering behaviors looking for a reward. He will be trotting along at your side, trying out different things to get that clicker to go off. Depending on where you are in your training and your dog’s level of persistence, your dog may offer two steps, three steps or twenty steps and then, when he does not get a treat, he will stop and look at