What’s the difference between a bribe and a reward?
A bribe comes before the behavior. “Hey, kid. I’ll give you $5 to eat your vegetables.”
A reward (technically a reinforcer) comes after the behavior. “Because you ate all your vegetables, here’s $5.”
My point isn’t about paying a kid to eat his vegetables, so let’d not get sidetracked there. My point is that if you teach your dog by waving food in front of his face to get him to do something for you, you can’t say the dog is stubborn because he won’t do what you ask when you don’t have food. That right there is my biggest problem with bribes. I have lots of other problems with bribes, but we’ll save those for a rainy day.
I teach with food. But I do not use bribes.
I teach all my dogs and all my students (and their dogs) that food is available only after the click. We don’t have food in our hands, we don’t show it to them. We are food-less until the dog does something clickable. In this way, we’re teaching dogs to work for the click which leads to the food. The dog isn’t focused on the food, but rather on getting to the click which gives the dog access to the food.
The longer you use food to get the dog to do the behavior, the more the food itself becomes part of the whole picture for the dog. Change any of the pieces of the picture (remove the food, change positions, whatever), and the dog really doesn’t understand what you’re asking. From the dog’s perspective, you’re asking wrong!
If you want to use food to jumpstart your dog’s learning, here’s my plan. Follow this plan and you will teach your dog to work for the click, not for the food.
- You can use food in your hand three times to jumpstart the behavior — clicking and treating for each of the three correct responses.
- On repetition #4 (and subsequent reps), pretend you have food in what is really your empty hand. Click and then get the treat when the dog gets it right.
- If the dog doesn’t do the behavior, do not get food! Dogs are smart: if you teach the dog that food will come out if they just hesitate a bit, he’ll start to hesitate just so you’ll pull the food out of your pocket and put it in his face. If you pull the food out, you’re guaranteeing the dog will only do the behavior if you have food. You’re teaching him that you need food in your hand before he does the behavior.
In real life, ask your dog to do something for you before you’re going to do something he likes or wants. For example, if your dog loves walks, ask for a sit (or down, or touch, or whatever) before you clip on the leash. As soon as he does what you asked, clip the leash on and take your dog outside. Doing this throughout the day will help your dog understand that food isn’t necessary in order for him to do behaviors — but that cooperation always leads to good things.
Erica Rich says
Ok, so I found some food rewards that my new dog really likes and will work for. I keep them in a small container or in a treat pouch,, and when I have one of those things on me he will work just fine (so long as there aren’t any small animals or other dogs in his vicinity).
However, if I don’t have those items on my person or near me, he doesn’t seem to care. He watches and follows me wherever I go so he seems to know when I have the treats available and when I don’t. There are also times he’d rather not have the treats, even the ones he typically loves, like when we’re outside and there’s a squirrel or other dog or when he hears my guinea pigs.
So I suppose I have two questions: 1. Will I always have have some type of treat on my person at all times? How is that feasable for everyday life, and at what point do you get the behaviors without the rewards? and 2. How do I get his attention and reward his good behavior in the face of big distractions, like when we’re outside and when he’s in the same room with my guinea pig? I live in an apartment without a fenced in area, and I don’t have a spare room to move my guinea pigs into, so I really need to teach him to relax around these distractions.
Thanks!
Laurie Luck says
So glad you found a treat your dog loves and that you’ve been working diligently with your dog. You might be ready to move on to what I call “real life rewards.” Here’s a short article I wrote: smartdoguniversity.com/dont-have-food-to-reward-your-dog-no-worries/
Enjoy!
Tania says
Hi, I’m having some problems in getting my dog to do what I ask him to do…
When I have treats on me he will do things for me – but just if there are no other distractions, like other dogs, people he does not like or is interested in, and – the ones I hate most of all – other people with treats!.
Apparently, from my dog’s point of view, other people’s treats are ALWAYS better than mine – even if I have sausages! This really gets on my nerves. I’ve also tried asking them to not feed him, but then he goes to them sits and gives paw with puppy eyes, and there you go, he gets a treat.
If I don’t have any treats on me, he doesn’t listen at all, he ignores me point blank. like if I am not even there.
To put it plain, real example from a few days ago:
– Person at the park with treat in her hand: “Sit”
– My dog sits immediately in front of her and gives paw!
– Three seconds later, myself with treat in my hand: “Sit”
– Dog ignores me and keeps looking at the other person.
You can imagine how I feel when things like this happen.
The same exact thing happens to my partner too – so it’s not just myself.
It’s like our dog prefers to please every other person rather than us!
However, at home, he will do almost everything we ask, also without treats – except for coming when called… but that’s another story. So. I think the problem is only “not at home”.
I have also read the article “Don’t Have Food to Reward Your Dog? No Worries!” Well, he is not bothered in playing with us, unless he starts it, so I would even know how to reward him in that way.
There would be other issues I would love to discuss, but I will stick to this one for now 🙂
Any advice?
Laurie Luck says
Hi Tania, thanks for the comment. It sounds like your dog is a social butterfly! He may find the prospect of interacting with a new person much more reinforcing than food. So it sounds like distractions are your biggest obstacle at the moment. I would try a few different things.
1. To get to meet new people, your dog will need to do something small for you. It should be something simple and very easy to accomplish. If he does it, he gets to meet the other person (if they are so inclined), but if he doesn’t, you *keep moving.* Don’t give him the chance to use his doggie charms to solicit attention, petting, or treats from the new people.
2. Another thing I would do is get the food out of my hand. Food comes after the behavior, not as a promise or a bribe.
Hope this helps. Here’s a video showing how I systematically introduce distractions into a training session: http://smartdoguniversity.com/introducing-distractions-dog-training-video/