Will work for food….only?
The Situation:
Hello Jessi,
Fibi can do - sit, roll over, shake hand, spin around, down, stay, bark (on command), beg/say please and give high 5’s. Unfortunately, she performs this trick only when there is a reward - i.e food.
Without any food (not even praise), she would not move a muscle. How can I overcome this? That is, how can I make Fibi obey my command without using any reward.
Li in Malaysia
The Answer
There are two ways to look at this situation, which incidentally is very common and frequently used as a way to discredit the use of food in training. However, dogs trained with only praise and leash corrections tend to ignore commands when off lead, and I don’t see many people blaming leashes for the problem!
The first angle is this: You have always trained your dog with food present, most likely displayed prominently in your hand. As a result, the presence of food has become part of the cue (command) to perform the behavior in the dog’s mind.
This is similar to the situation which arises when you train a dog to sit or lie down using both a hand signal and a verbal command, then find that the dog will not respond to a hand signal only or a verbal command only. When two cues are usually used together, the dog will not neccessarily recognize what is basically “half” the cue.
The other angle is: You probably always reward your dog for performing tricks when you have treats readily available. However, there have been times when you have asked him to perform when no treats were around, and of course failed to reward him.
As a result, he’s learned that the only times those behaviors are reinforced (rewarded) are when you holding food. He is not being sneaky or cunning; he’s simply learned when it’s worthwhile to perform and when it’s not. For many dogs, praise is not an adequate motivator, and it sounds like Fibi is one of them.
Niether of these situations are your fault; they simply mean that you have one more training task to complete. What you need to dog is gradually fade out the obvious presence of food, while still rewarding (at least intermittently) him for performing.
You could start by keeping treats in your pocket, and giving the command without holding food in your hand. Be sure you do reward him, though. When he trusts you to come through with the treat contained in your pocket, try placing non-perishable treats in little dishes around your house where you can get to them quickly.
Give him the command, then as soon as he obeys, click and give him a treat from one of the dishes. Then cut down to just one treat location, and try to get to the point where you can ask for the behavior in any room of the house, have him obey, click, and go get him a treat.
You final training step can be to start rewarding him only once every second or third trick, so that he becomes less dependent on the food rewards.
Follow-up
Thank you for the prompt reply. Last night, I have tried out your advice.Unfortunately, Fibi would not want to pay attention at all. First, I get her to sit, and the moment I say “shake hand”, she starts to scratch herself - not paying any attention at all.
But, when I hold a piece of food - she begins to notice my existance.
Any pointers?
Thank you, Li
Reply
Try asking her to do the very most basic of exercises (such as the sit) without showing her the food. Persist until she finally sits, even if you have to ask several times. When she finally obeys, give her a jackpot of a big handfull of treats, then end the training session so that it makes a BIG impression on her.
Repeat this later in the day. After several times, she will probably start responding to the sit command promptly, as she learns that she will be rewarded even if the treats don’t seem to be there.
Once you get a response that way, then you can go back to giving just the normal small reward and begin asking her to do other exercises.
Then the advice in the article should work.
This article written and copyrighted 2001 by Jessi Clark-White. All rights are reserved, and this article may not be duplicated in any manner without written permission from the author.
