The year is 1957. A gallon of gasoline only costs 24 cents.
Whammo releases the very first Frisbee toy and the television program Lassie was
in its prime. And well-known American psychologist,
BF Skinner publishes his findings on behavioral research in a book called The
Schedules of Reinforcement. Now,
we talk a lot about foundational skills here on the channel,
but when you understand what I'm about to show you next,
it's going to completely change your dog training. I'm Ken Steepe, and
welcome back to McCann dogs.
A five is pretty reliable when we're in a controlled setting and he's relatively
reliable when we're out in a distracting environment like this,
but I wanna make sure that five is reliable. 100% of the time,
regardless of the location.
You've seen us load value on Five's name by saying his name and then rewarding
right away.
You've also seen us make it a little bit more challenging by doing that same
exercise when he's distracted,
putting the treat on his nose and bringing him back in towards us.
But I want him to listen everywhere and I want him to be excited about
listening.
And that's why we need to talk about The Schedules of Reinforcement book from
1957. BF Skinner was well-known for his research in something called operant
conditioning. If your dog does something you like, even if it's accidental,
you should reward it. Then they'll be more likely to do it again.
This is actually the foundation for clicker training,
which you might be familiar with.
And we actually show this in several of our puppy training videos.
But we use the word yes,
instead of a clicker because your voice and yes is something that you'll always
have with you. We'll talk more about shaping in an upcoming video,
but what really applies to your training right now is what Skinner learned next.
In one of Skinner's experiments, he used pigeons.
He used the same technique to teach the pigeons,
how to interact with a button on a box.
And when a pigeon would peck the small disc,
they would win and grain would pour into a drawer in front of them.
But when Skinner started rewarding the pigeons on a variable ratio schedule,
meaning that a reward didn't pop out every time the pigeon pecked the disc,
sometimes it was one to one.
Sometimes the pigeon pecked multiple times before the reward came out.
But what started to happen is the pigeons became more intense with the behavior.
They were more motivated to peck more often.
Variable rewards are a powerful inducement to repeat an action.
And in fact,
what Skinner learned is that the anticipation of the reward is what motivates
the behavior. And here's why that's so important.
So many people struggle with their dog training and they mention things like my
dog only listens when I have treats or my dog only listens when he wants to.
But it's really important to take a look at what Skinner had discovered in his
book from 1957,
because when you reward and how you reward is what's going to get you past
that puppy training phase. Where it's the entire donkey and carrot routine.
Now there's really a lot to unpack with a variable ratio schedule.
And we'll actually take advantage of these kinds of things,
when we're teaching something like a nose target,
and we'll get the dog to repeat the behavior multiple times.
But I'm more interested in teaching you about the power of anticipation
for the reward,
because this is the thing that can really change any behavior for any dog owner.
We've started to work on his response to name in controlled environments on
leash. We've started to work on his response to name, come on bud, this way,
in these more distracting environments. With him on a six foot leash,
he's even graduated up to 25 foot long line. And we've began to shorten that.
But it's because we've been so focused on good timing with our rewards and
things like using our voice, using motion.
The big question is today when we make the transition from on-leash
to off-leash, is he going to have the same reliability? But before I do that,
I wanna do a couple of repetitions with him. Where I just reinforce,
remind him that every time he responds to me,
he's gonna get something out of it. Okay, buddy, as he munches on the grass,
let's go pal. Five. Good boy. Good, nice job.
So I'm going to reward him every single time. That was a pretty quick turn,
which is really nice. I'll let him get distracted again. Five good boy.
That's a nice job. Now, keep in mind that I'm gonna do this just a few times,
cuz I wanna reinforce that. Great turn. That nice behavior this way, buddy.
Come on over here,
but I'm gonna keep rewarding him until I remove the line five. Yes.
Good job buddy. So you saw,
you see how enthusiastic he is about this that's because we've front loaded so
much value on him turning every time I say his name.
Now the true test. I'm going to remove the line. Okay, pal,
because I know this is a pretty safe environment and I know that I'm getting
some great responses. Now when we talk about good boy,
I I'm actually going to reward that.
Remember when we talked about some of that operant conditioning,
he chooses to come back to me, I'm just gonna reward it.
I'm gonna reinforce that behavior. I'm more likely to get it again.
But what I'm not doing is I'm not calling with my hand in my bait pouch.
I'm not bringing that food out until I have real commitment because I want the
anticipation of reward to be the big, exciting part. Okay pal,
let's move around. The other thing, I'm going to do Five. Yes. Good boy.
You can see when I start to get some commitment, then I can go to my treat.
The other thing I'm going to do is I'm going to vary vary the rewards that I'm
giving him in my treat. In my bait pouch, I have a couple of different things.
This has to stay interesting.
In that variable ratio schedule good boy.
In that variable ratio schedule that Skinner talks about.
He would vary the amount of times that the dog would do the behavior before he'd
reward. But I'm not gonna do that at this point in his training.
I don't want him to ever think that it might not be worth it to turn.
That comes a little bit later. That's something that we're gonna work on in the,
not too distant future with great responses like this. So right now,
the way I'm gonna change up the response is I'm going to pull out different
kinds of treats five. Yeah, good boy. When I get that nice commitment on me.
Good job, buddy. Maybe I'll give him some liver if I get a great response.
But one of the most exciting things. Okay.
One of the most powerful toys for this dog and maybe for your dog too,
is changing things up to a toy reward. This,
this kind of skill when I don't need absolute precision, I just want motivation.
Sometimes a toy. I'm gonna toss this thing up there.
You might get distracted by it. Sometimes a toy is the best way to reward that.
Five. Yeah, good boy.
I get that commitment on me and I start to reward him with that toy.
But remember I'm not shaking the toy first.
I'm not telegraphing that I have something great because I want him to turn.
Yes, I, yes, that moment.
And I want him to be so excited about what might be coming at the end of this.
This is the power of what Skinner learned.
You'll get the animal to repeat the behavior with greater motivation by
taking advantage of that anticipation. Good job buddy, way to go.
Here this way five here. Good boy.
He's really distracted by something over there. This is really good.
I wanna talk about this at this point in our training,
I'm gonna take a step back to our response to name Five.
Good boy.
Now I can start to discriminate between some of the behaviors that wasn't a very
good response. So I'm just gonna pet and praise him.
But now I'm gonna move him in a way that he's likely to be more successful.
And this is why that anticipation or being really mindful of when you reward
Five. Yes, that's better. Good boy. It was a little bit better.
Certainly wasn't as motivated as the other ones.
I can maybe give him one treat that variable ratio now becomes one treat for an
okay response. Five. Yeah. Good boy.
But I can give him a toy or I can give him get it two or three or four treats.
When I get a nice, motivated, enthusiastic,
energetic response from my dog. When you're training outside with your dog,
there are a million different things competing for their attention.
So it's very important that you teach them that the anticipation of finding out
which great thing they're going to get when they get to you is better than the
possibility of some kind of engagement with that stock video squirrel over
there.
We've talked a lot about treat training today and a lot of people make some
really big mistakes when using treats in their training so that you don't make
those same mistakes. Check out that video right here.
And if you'd like some personalized coaching on teaching your dog to listen in
distracting environments, check out our online Life Skills program,
where you can work with some of our McCann Dogs,
instructors at a pace that suits you.
The link for that is in the description below on that note, I'm Ken,
this is Five. Happy Training.