Positive reinforcement is widely regarded as the most effective way to
train a dog but there's more to it than just food. Three ways to add some more
rocket fuel to your training without increasing food are coming up!
Ian here with Simpawtico Dog Training, and before we talk about
positive reinforcement, please make sure you're subscribed so you never miss any
of our videos. Also follow us on all the big social networks so we can get better
acquainted. And don't forget to check the YouTube description for notes, links, and
resources about the stuff we talked about. Now, today I want to talk about one
of my favorite subjects: what I call the "positive training trifecta." Basically
these are three types of rewards you can use with your dog in your positive
reinforcement training arsenal. Those are presents, compliments, and massages. Most
of you are already doing this stuff, so the aim of this video isn't to show you
something new and revolutionary but rather to shine a spotlight on it and to
get you thinking and using it strategically. I want you to understand a
bit about what happens in your dog's brain and how you can capitalize on that
process. Once you start thinking like this and start tweaking your application,
holy smokes you'll be amazed at how fast your dog starts paying better attention
and doing what you ask. Before we get into the details though let's talk a
little bit about positive reinforcement. What the heck does that really mean? In dog
training you really only have two approaches: classical conditioning and
operant conditioning. Everything is basically some application of those two
things. Now positive reinforcement is one of the four quadrants of operant
conditioning developed by Burrhis Frederick Skinner in the 1940s.
"Reinforcement" simply means that we are increasing a behavior. We are making it
more likely to happen again in the future. The positive part means we're
adding something. Remember that "positive" and "negative"
don't mean good or bad. Dog training is based on psychology and psychology is a
science and in science "positive" and "negative" don't mean "good" or "bad," they
mean "addition" and "subtraction." So positive reinforcement means that we are
adding a desirable stimulus in order to increase a behavior. That's it. Many
people get caught up in the thinking that to increase the influence of
positive reinforcement we need to increase the value of the food that
we're using. No we don't. Layering together other kinds of rewards will
significantly increases the power of the reward system in the first place. And the
proper use of food as a training tool should always include an exit strategy
so that you can get away from it. I talked about this in my phasing
out treats video. Once you've stopped using food what do we have left?
Compliments and massages—things we've layered on top of the food from the
beginning and now the absence of the food isn't nearly as significant. So what
we're talking about today are three types of rewarding stimuli that I feel
give me the most bang for my buck when I'm working with a dog. One: presents.
Presents or anything that you pre-sent to your dog. As we mentioned food is
the most obvious and widely used kind of present. Food can expedite the training
process, it's terrific for use as both a lure and a reward, and it's unmatched
when used in classical conditioning. While food is a great tool it's also
terribly abused. Many owners use too much food and use lures way too long. We have
to phase it out quickly or we'll be using it indefinitely.
Thus food is not the only type of present we have available. Toys can and
should be used to train your dogs. We can use toys as lures and rewards for things
like Come and Heel, and Take It, Leave It and Drop It. Playing with toys is a fantastic
training opportunity. In fact this is the point behind several of my videos. You
can also present abstract things to your dogs such as opportunities, specifically
life rewards. The opportunity to run free to play with other dogs, to play fetch or
tug, to sniff the ground and pee on some weeds, and other things dogs enjoy can
be easily leveraged as training rewards. The second one is compliments.
Compliments are essentially quality, verbal feedback. Specifically we covered
this in the voice and marker training video, but suffice it to say that
accurate, timely, and efficient communication is the backbone of good
training. We mark behaviors we want, we encourage them to keep going when
they're doing it right, and we praise them enthusiastically when they're done.
Finally, massages—that tactile interaction is a
woefully under-used strategy. In my touch tactics video I discussed this in
greater detail, but in a nutshell there are several spots on your dog that are
wired up with bundles of nerves that go right to the pleasure centers in their
brain. Briefly these are the chin in the chest, just in front of the ears, the
shoulders and sides of the body, the inguinal
area, the base of the tail, and the backs of the thighs. So to make the positive
training trifecta work we simply layer all three styles of rewards on to
correct responses. "Yes! Very good, very good!"
Let's jump back into the science a little bit here. Scientific studies on
dogs' brains show that being fed, being praised, being touched, and even just a
few minutes of playing with their owners prompt a release of a number of
feel-good chemicals including serotonin, prolactin, oxytocin, dopamine, and beta
endorphin. These are all the natural "feel-good" drugs both your body and your
dog's body manufacture. These create feelings of trust, attachment, and love.
They decrease the sensitivity of pain receptors, and they produce feelings of
euphoria. These feelings and the chemical processes in the brain even have a
somewhat addictive quality to them. This is why we're drawn to our hobbies and
favorite foods and even certain people. I think you can see where this is headed.
Each of the three reward types—presents, compliments, and massages can and will
produce these chemical reactions on their own, but layering them together and
using them strategically will not only amplify the effects but make several
options suddenly available to you. This is all, as we've said in the beginning,
positive reinforcement, a component of operant conditioning. But let's take a
sidestep here for a second and talk about the other big approach in training,
classical conditioning. In the simplest terms, classical conditioning is
learning by association. Two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned
response. Two of Skinner's graduate students, Marion and Keller Breland,
continued his work and went on to become both giants in the field of applied
animal psychology, and two of the world's most respected animal trainers. They
established early on that classical conditioning is inseparable from operant
conditioning. Not only is classical conditioning integrated into the process
of operant conditioning, but we are always—ALWAYS classically conditioning
our dogs when we work with them. We are developing what's called conditioned
emotional responses to us and to practicing in general. What that means is
that deploying the positive training trifecta consistently and genuinely not
only acts as an accelerant for training purposes, but it builds a powerful
rapport and bond with your dog. It cultivates what we call "owner gravity."
When all of those feel-good chemicals flood their body on a consistent basis
they start associating all of those good feelings with you, and consequently
develop a strong attachment and drive to please you.
Over time the act of doing these things becomes self-rewarding. Doing things with
you and doing what you ask become one of their favorite hobbies. This is how you
get a dog that pays attention to you, that checks in during walks and off-
leash time, that offers behaviors without being asked, and is generally pretty
happy and agreeable most of the time. As with most of my videos this advice is
aimed for the typical pet dog owner. These may not be appropriate for working
or competition dogs, and you'll have to adapt everything for severe behavior
problems. Of course, seek help from a qualified professional in these cases. I
would say, though, that with about 99 percent of the dogs that I work with in
private sessions, in group classes, and even in the shelters this stuff works so
fast—so fast! In fact of the thousands of dogs I've
worked with I can count the ones this stuff didn't work on with one hand. And
yes, I know some of you are thinking it, this does work pretty well with
children and significant others. I've linked to all the videos I mentioned in
the YouTube description. I've also linked to some scientific articles and people
so you can learn more if you so desire. Now, questions for you: what are your
favorite highlights from this video? What are some cool insights you gained from it?
And what questions do you have? let's connect in those YouTube comments.
Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up and as always: keep learning, keep
practicing, and we'll see you next time. Thanks for watching!