Do this instead!

Paying dogs with food is often compared to a pay check. Analogies such as this are meant to illustrate a point and are never perfect. In this case, I feel this analogy is driving some people away from positive reinforcement because many, many people hate their jobs. Many hate very well paying jobs. It just doesn’t sound appealing to anyone who has had a nasty job.

A great salary is nice, but most can related to having jobs that sucked. The drudgery of going to a nasty job is exhausting. Money, the “pay check” becomes a means to an end. We become bound to a job because the money is holding us hostage.

We shouldn’t be surprised if words like “job” and “pay check” feel really negative to many. Such is a legitimate, daily reality for many people in this world. People are exploited by employers and corporations through unrealistic quotas. Money does fix poor work environments. We live in a world where fast deliveries have created jobs where workers are peeing in bottles. I have read that females are wearing diapers. (Not easy to pee in a bottle as a woman). 

No matter the pay: The boss is an ass. The job sucks.

There is a second problem with the idea of a job. Jobs are given AFTER one has learned specific job related tasks. You ought to already know the skills required prior to being hired. Tasks are given. Do it, get paid. Don’t, get fired The word “job” encompasses many things, but they all presume skills have already been mostly learned.

Yet, after a long hard day, many work on charity endeavours. Others do art, gardening, home renovations. And many enjoy doing sports. People PAY TO DO many of these activities. How much money does a middle age sports fanatic pay to play sports, watch sports, buy supplies for sports? No one is paying these people to do all of this “work”. They WANT to do it. They are motivated from within to do physically or mentally challenging tasks and pay for the privilege to do so. Note, not one is paying any of these people to do tasks, or work. Hmmm, very interesting.

On one hand there are jobs that must be paid. On the other, there are many strenuous tasks that one will pay for the privilege to do. Something has to account for this difference of attitude, performance and drive. It ain’t the size of the pay check. Let’s look at sports and see where the magic comes from.

As children learn sports, good coaches are bellowing from the sidelines, “Like that! Good job with how you’re holding the stick! You hit the puck! Great job!” But, let’s get real, it’s not just children. Watch a fitness class and the coaches are doing the exact same thing. “Nice effort! Look at that sit up. Great squat posture!” People of all ages eat up all of that positivity.

The key is to recognize that good coaches use many, tiny, small, bits of positive feedback. For humans, social rewards, such as praise, do and can work. Dogs aren’t people. They are not born, hardwired to please humans or really give a crap about what a human thinks.  We use food because dogs do care about food.  Through food use, animals can learn to enjoy doing what their humans teach them to do.

It’s the SPEED, and FREQUENCY of positive feedback, and NOT THE SIZE OF THE PRIZE. In fact, excessively high value rewards can destroy performance. However, many little tiny bits of positive feedback creates an overall positive experience. This turns into LOVE OF THE ACTIVITY. Something magical happens. Students start to practice on their own and try to exceed expectations. Performance improves. A very positive cycle of behaviour change happens.

Researchers have known this to be true with animals for many decades. Sports psychology takes full advantage of this research because:

IT WORKS.

Let me be clear, I am NOT suggesting that we do this in order to take good behaviour for granted and “stop paying.” Rather, this is how you create strong, powerful, reliable behaviours. The dog is happy to do the skill without first looking at human hands to ponder, “What’s in it for me…ya got something? Do I like it? Do I want it?”

Novice owners, seeing a really skilled trainer are often aghast when they first see many fast reps. Some look horrified and mutter, “So much food!!! OMG.”

Experienced trainers know frequent positive feedback means that less food is used overall. I personally break each Zukes Mini treat into four pieces. Three Zukes equal TWELVE REPS AND TWELVE REWARDS for a total of approximately 6 calories. (Side note, I am not sponsored by Zukes. It is a brand that I use regularly because of its small size and semi-soft texture.)

Individuals who have been told that food use will ,”make their dog fat,” try to pay less often and end up feeding more food. One cube of cheese, is about 16 calories. Over time, these people feed more, and often for much longer periods of time. Using positive reinforcement WELL already addresses caloric intake. Healthy eating is good. This toxic culture of “fear of food” and body shaming needs to go take a flying leap. Healthy is good. Shaming and fear of food is not. Food should be fuel, not a phobia.

Even if you derp up occasionally by rewarding a few wrong things, performance improves because many small bits of positive feedback creates love of the task. A couple nonsense rewards, here and there, add a bit more love to the mix. Dogs that love the task work harder and try harder. Try to work with clean mechanics, but perfection is not a requirement. Basically, you can even fork up a little, and it works.

Remember that each repetition is a step in the right direction. More repetitions with positive feedback means more steps forward in the right direction. Each time the dog practices doing the right thing, they get better and faster at doing things right. More reps – more success.

If you find you have an emotional negative reaction to “so much food”, and the professional is using many teeny, tiny bits to do rapid sets of good…nice job…like that…woo hoo…YES!, they are using so much food to create strong behaviours that the dog wants to do. Dogs that love working with their people are less likely to be distracted by temptations. They just aren’t as temping any longer. Since they love working with their people, they are less easily distracted It’s a win…win….win…for the dog which means a win for the humans also.

You never want your dog obeying only because they cannot quit and get a “new job.” Coach them instead. Take a lesson from good coaches, and the generations of middle age people paying to do all the things they actually were taught to love. Don’t make it a job. Make it your dog’s sport of preference. If you have great coaches from your childhood who created “love of a skill”, take a time to thank them with a comment!

Yvette offers private teaching sessions in London, Ontario CANADA. To contact Yvette for classes, text 519-268-7886.