In many articles I have used the word “criteria”. This word refers to what the learner needs to accomplish to get the click to go off and receive their reward. Understanding the criteria for training behavior is extremely important for training a behavior. Without understanding what criteria we need to set for the learner to accomplish their task, we will not be able to communicate to them when they need to try again and when they have accomplished what we are looking for. In this article I will explain how to choose criteria for effective behavior training.
Choosing Criteria
When picking criteria, you need to know what behavior you want your dog to perform. You want to do this because criteria are found by breaking a complete behavior down into its individual parts. So first, find the end behavior that you want to teach your dog and write it down. For example, when you want your dog to stop walking under your feet while you are cooking dinner, pick a behavior you do want your dog to do, such as going and laying down on its bed. Next, you will need to break that behavior down into its parts. Think about how many individual movements make up the complete behavior (look at the mat, step towards it, put one paw on the mat, put two paws on the mat, put three paws on the mat, put four paws on the mat, lay down on the mat, etc.). Each of these movements then becomes a criterion; in other words, your dog must complete each step before it can get a click and a treat.
When picking criteria, you need to ask yourself two questions, “can I state this behavior in five words or less?” and “can my dog complete this behavior in one movement?” The first question is to keep things short and simple. Every criterion should be written down in five words or less, for example, “place paw on mat.” The second question is to keep the behavior within your dog’s range of accomplishment. For example, you could fit “go to mat” in five words or less. However, there are many movements that make up the “go to mat” behavior and your dog can make a lot of mistakes in accomplishing this if your dog is not first taught how to accomplish each movement that makes up the end behavior. If you have more than one criterion, you also need to remember to train each criterion completely before moving on. Think of each criterion as a prerequisite for the next criterion; each one must be learned before moving on to the next. Each criterion must build on the one before it. Your dog cannot step onto the mat without first walking towards it, so the two build on each other. By fully training each criterion before moving onto the next, you will help protect the behavior from breaking down due to your dog not fully understanding what it must do, making that behavior much more reliable.
Criteria in All Training
Criteria are always present even if you do not need to shape the behavior or don’t want to (shaping is breaking the behavior down into multiple criteria and training them one criterion at a time). Even if you only end up with one criterion (as would be the case with capturing), always determine what you want your animal to accomplish before you ask them to accomplish it. This way you will know what you are looking for and when it has been completed successfully. Each time you train your dog a behavior, set criteria first. Then, as always, have fun training!
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