Both mind and body need to be trained. All too often trainers say that reward based training doesn’t work. It is nearly always because the body is being trained but the mind is not being effectively engaged. The mind must be engaged for positive reinforcement training to be effective.
We train a dog’s mind and a desired behavior is best reinforced when the following happens.
1. The dog uses his mind to consider performing a behavior.
2. The dog offers the behavior by choice without the enticement of reward.
3. The trainer rewards the dog.
4. The dog connects the behavior to the reward.
5. The dog is inclined to want to perform the behavior again on his own without enticement.
Luring makes it difficult for the dog to connect a behavior to a reward. Luring does not effectively train a dog’s mind for the following reasons.
1. The dog may have performed the desired behavior, but luring encourages the dog to spend most of his mental energy thinking, “Food, food, food!” instead of thinking about the behavior he is performing.
2. The dog didn’t offer the behavior by choice. He was bribed by food.
3. It is hard for the dog to connect the reward to the desired behavior when most of his brain is thinking about following the food instead of performing the behavior. Lured dogs connect the reward to the following of the food.
4. The dog is not inclined to perform the desired behavior again unless the food happens to lead him in this way. Luring inclines the dog to want to follow food again.
Luring may not effectively train a dog’s mind. It may not provide the best opportunity for positive reinforcement of anything other than focusing on food. But it does give a means for building muscle memory and training a dog’s body. It is sometimes a good and necessary training tool. Sometimes, muscle memory must be built and the dog’s body must be trained to perform a behavior before expecting a dog to offer it. A dog will not offer a behavior that their body is unable to perform. Training a dog’s body to perform behaviors is where luring has its place.
Reward placement also trains a dog’s body. However, reward placement does not reinforce food focus because during reward placement, the trainer should give the food so quickly that the dog does not realize he was following or focusing on it. The dog thinks he is getting the food as a reward for the behavior already accomplished prior to the sound of the marker. When reward placement is used, the desired behavior is indeed being reinforced.
Ideally when both mind and body need training, the trainer alternates between training the mind (when the dog offers behavior) and training the body (when the trainer uses reward placement). In this ideal scenario, a training session is comprised of a constant switching back and forth between the dog offering behavior and the trainer using quick reward placement to reward the behavior.
However, there are times when reward placement fails over and over. The trainer can’t get the desired result quickly without the dog knowing that reward placement is taking place.
In these situations, the trainer needs to put positive reinforcement and training the mind on the back burner for the short term. The trainer needs to use luring to temporarily get the dog thinking about following the food. When luring is used, the trainer has more time to create the needed muscle memory before giving the reward.
Then, once the dog’s body is trained well enough that the dog follows the food quickly, the luring should stop. The trainer can go back to alternating between waiting on the dog to offer behavior and using reward placement while reinforcing the offered behavior.
Reward placement is usually a better tool than luring. It should be used when all four of the following are true.
1. The dog has offered a behavior.
2. The trainer can quickly guide the dog into a more perfect version of the offered behavior as the trainer gives the dog his food.
3. The behavior is acceptably performed but not as good as the handler would like.
4. The dog’s body still needs training.
5. The dog is unable to fix his own lack of perfection without reward placement. (We’ll discuss this more in a later chapter.)
Reward placement should not be used in the following situations.
1. If the dog won’t offer a behavior remotely close to the desire one. In this case, use luring temporarily until the dog’s body is trained well enough that the dog will offer the behavior on his own.
2. If the trainer cannot use reward placement quickly. In this situation, use luring temporarily until the dog is able to follow the food quickly into the desire position.
3. If the dog’s behavior was performed perfectly. In this case, there is nothing to fix with reward placement.
4. If reward placement needs to be faded because it is no longer needed. It is not needed when these two conditions are met. 1. The dog’s body is well-trained to perform the exercise. 2. The dog is able to easily fix a lack of perfection himself without reward placement.
Using Props to Train the Body
Our philosophy of training is to break down all exercises into the smallest teachable parts. We then have the puppy or dog focus on only one aspect of an exercise at a time. In order to accomplish this, we will sometimes use props to keep the dog’s body from developing bad habits with regard to one aspect of an exercise while we train another.
An example would be the use of a fence when teaching a dog to heel. There are many many aspects to heeling and we would overwhelm the dog to try to teach them all at once. The dog must stay straight and face the same way his handler faces. He must be in correct position from front to back. He must be in correct position from side to side. He needs to be looking at and paying attention to the handler.
We can allow the fence to keep the dog from heeling too far away from us. The fence also keeps the dog straight and facing the same direction we are facing. The only aspect of heeling the fence doesn’t do is keep the dog in correct position from front to back and to keep the puppy looking at us. Now we can focus on only two aspects of heeling and there are tricks that we’ll discuss later to enable us to focus on only one of these two aspects at a time.
Another example of a prop would be our use of a place cot. The place cot has many uses. Its initial use is to keep a puppy from creeping forward when we’re training the down/stay. It makes it impossible for the puppy to remain in a down position while at the same time not falling off the cot. When using the cot, the puppy need only focus on staying in the down position. The cot will take care of keeping the puppy from inadvertently creeping forward.
Sometimes, we also use props such as platforms or pipe squares to train straight fronts and/or finishes or to show dogs where to go to when training certain send exercises. Some people use poles held out in front or to the side to keep dogs straight while in heel or front positions.
All props are an option for building muscle memory for all sorts of tasks and behaviors. However, we never use any prop for the long term. Just like with luring, dogs can become dependent on them and stop using their minds to perform the behavior on their own. When enough muscle memory is built for a dog to be able to accomplish the task without the prop, we always fade the prop. Props like lures are a very temporary fix for us. We rarely, if ever, use them for more than a few days. They are a quick fix for a week or two at most.
Key Take Aways
1. Both mind and body need training. Training the body primarily (as luring does) will only go so far.
2. The body needs to be able to perform a behavior before the mind can comprehend offering that behavior. Luring is the most effective way to train the body.
3. If not faded in due time, luring will sabotage training of the mind because it encourages food focus rather than work focus.
4. Reward placement also trains the body. If it works, reward placement is a better choice than luring for training the body because it doesn’t affect work focus or training of the mind.
5. Props such as fences and platforms also train the body. Props are a valuable tool. However, we feel that they should be faded as soon as possible.
6. Offered behavior trains the mind. It provides the best opportunity for positive reinforcement of desired behavior to work. We’re going to discuss offered behavior more in our next chapter on shaping.
