Saturdays Pet Peeve: The notion that training with food is bribery. From a trainers website: ...food-bribery dog training is short-term, the dog isnt taught to respect the human and starts to bite as a result of its owners training with food. This is just another relic of outdated training (and nonsensical reasoning). Using food or toys or other desired outcomes as positive reinforcement simply makes sense and works. Food can be used as a positive outcome of desired behavior, which is then randomized. If used before the desired behavior, a food or toy lure simply helps to move the dog into the desired position or location, which then is positively reinforced; the lure itself should be faded or transitioned into a hand signal or verbal cue which would be presented before the behavior, and the desired behavior would then be rewarded. Alternatively a spontaneous behavior can be captured and reinforced. In addition to its use as reinforcement, food is indispensable as a counter-conditioning tool for fearful dogs. It can transform scary situations into more positive contexts by associating them with something good. Please remember that fear or anxiety do not respond to rewards and cant be turned on and off by the dog. A bit of reassuring and tasty popcorn makes fearful dogs feel much better during thunderstorms (and you can positively reinforce your own training skills by eating some yourself).
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 11:07:30 +0000