I have met people who have explained to me that they tried training with treats, but it didn’t work. Their pet only sat when they had a treat in their hand, so they found themselves scrambling for a treat bag every time their dog grabbed something it shouldn’t chew on. Other people have pointed out that some animals have gained weight and thus, they believe that using treats is unhealthy. Still others say that using treats is manipulative and unfair to the animal because it tricks them into performing. These problems do happen. But the issue is not the treats, but rather how they are used. In this post I am going to explain what is happening in the above-mentioned situations and how to use treats correctly.
Treats vs. Rewards
One thing that starts people off on the wrong foot with positive reinforcement training is never having been taught the difference between a treat and a reward. To help you understand this, think of it in terms of people. What is the difference between ordering dessert after dinner and letting your two-year-old have dessert after he or she ate their veggies? The difference is that one is a treat and the other is a reward. In both situations the people could be eating one scoop of ice cream, but the context and process of delivery change what the dessert means. The context of going out to eat dinner and then getting dessert is a simple social gathering. Dessert tastes good and you are having fun. The delivery is that the waiter brings the dessert because you asked him to do so. The ice cream in this case is a treat. The context of your child not wanting to eat something they dislike and then getting desert after they do eat it is a different context. It involves learning. The delivery has also changed. The child is doing something you asked them to do (many times it is something you know your child doesn’t want to do) and then you are giving them something as a result of their “good behavior”. That is a reward. With animals it is similar. The context and delivery impact how they view what you give them. So, lets break down these common myths about positive reinforcement training keeping the difference between treats and rewards in mind as we go.
The Lure
One of the most common issues I run into is people telling me that their dogs will not obey unless the person is holding a treat. This problem arises because of a training tool gone wrong. This training tool is called luring. Luring is when you use the treat to move the animal into the desired position by manipulating the treat position and location so the animal must perform the behavior you want in order for them to reach the treat. Luring in and of itself is not a bad thing and is a commonly used training tool. However, when used incorrectly, it can cause various problems. One of them being that the treat becomes part of the behavior. When we rely on luring to get the animal into the correct position, the animal learns that they only need to perform the behavior when there is a treat present. To solve this problem, I tell people two things. First, the lure should only be used to help the animal figure out what you want. In other words, don’t start with the lure, try other things first, then add the lure if the animal is having trouble figuring out what you want. Second, if you need to start with the lure, fade the lure as soon as possible. In school we were taught to use a lure only three times per behavior. I have found that the need to lure more than three times is usually a sign that the behavior needs to be shaped or, if you are already shaping, the behavior needs to be broken down even further (shaping is the process of training small approximations and gradually increasing criteria until the complete behavior is learned).
Food Rewards and Weight Gain
Another common problem is that people believe that positive reinforcement causes weight gain and is thus unhealthy. This, once again, is only true if treats are used as the reward and if these rewards are used incorrectly. Just like with anything, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. It does seem to be true that too many treats can cause weight gain. As a result, trainers often make the treats smaller so they can use more treats without adding more food. In addition to this, the owners must compensate in the animal’s meals for the treats they ate during the day. If you work with your dog regularly, simply make sure to use healthy treats, cut them into smaller sizes, and feed less food at dinner time (take out the equivalent of what you fed them during training). If you want to make sure that your dog does not feel hungry at night, train just before each meal and compensate the meal for what you feed them during those training sessions. This way the animal still gets the same amount of food that they are used to eating in a meal, rather than having it all spread out during the day.
These solutions are common and helpful, but there is one more thing to think about in reference to how much your pet is eating during training sessions. Many times, animals get more treats in training sessions than they need. I highly recommend working with a trainer to learn how to reward your pet at the correct moments during training. Many dogs get too many “free treats”, and this not only can impact their weight, but it can impact their ability to advance in learning due to lack of being challenged by what they are learning. If you are in need of some help in learning how to properly reward your pet, email me at happyats@outlook.com or sign up for the Social Subscription here https://www.happyanimalsts.com/plans-pricing and we can set up some individual lessons to get you on the right track!
Did I Buy their Love?
I have met people who also struggle with the idea of using rewards because they believe this is a form of manipulation or trickery. This issue arises often with horse and dog owners, but it is a common one with all kinds of animals. Once again, this can be true if rewards are used incorrectly. First, let’s think about how people seem to be defining manipulation here. If someone says that rewarding an animal for performing a behavior is manipulation, then one could say that your boss is manipulating you into doing work by offering you a paycheck. Based on this definition, it appears that many people believe that animals should work for nothing. By comparison, people should also work for nothing. Now at this point you might be thinking, well I am not going to work for nothing. Okay, then I would like to pose the question, if we won’t work for nothing, why would we expect our pets to work for nothing? Now, I understand that one of the reasons we don’t work for no pay is because we have bills to pay and dogs don’t. However, even if we did not have bills to pay, if you are asked to do something, most of the time you will want to know what you will get out of the situation, right? The point is that people should not expect more of their pets than they do of themselves or other people. If our pets do something we have asked them to do, we should be willing to pay them for it in one way or another.
However, there are situations that do seem to involve bad manipulation or trickery such as when we rely completely on luring the animal into a position or location without considering their opinions and without giving them the freedom to say they need to stop. Traditional training methods use force and have a “I’ll be right behind you” mentally with removal of stressful objects or pressure being what the animal gets for performing the behavior (imagine if your boss yelled at you all day and paid you not with money but by being silent). Positive reinforcement training methods use a “I am right next to you” mentality and the handler walks through everything with the animal (imagine if your boss politely answered your questions, and paid you with money and on time for your work). The treats are then used as a reward for choosing to cross a “behavioral” line and perform the behavior. We as the handlers, trainers, and owners walk with the learner right up to that line and say “I want you to step over the line, but I am not going to pull you over. I am going to stand here and when you pick up your foot/paw and cross the line, I will do so right along with you. To help you know that I value that you chose to do that, I will also give you something you value in return.” Now keep in mind that these examples are figurative. You do not have to hold your dogs’ paw or coddle them. But the point is that learning is a process and one that is learned better through cooperation and relationship. Build the relationship and base it on trust, then train the behaviors, keeping that same relationship based on trust as the core of the teaching/learning relationship. Rather than being about avoiding pressure from what is pushing the learner, the learner (or all of us for that matter) should be focused on pursuing and achieving a goal.
Some Solutions
Many of these issues can be solved by simply remembering this: treats are free, rewards are not. If you accidentally drop a treat during training and the animal eats it, no worries! They just got a free treat! But that treat was not rewarding the behavior you are working on (if it was, this is called conditioning which is the process of associating something that animal does not like with something they do like, such as food), thus it was a treat, rather than a reward. When you train, make sure that the rewards you give your pet are actually rewarding something, and avoid luring the animal into performing the desired behavior. If you cannot get them in the correct position, and you have broken the behavior down into its smallest parts, then try a lure. But if you use a lure, make sure you only use it three times and that you give the animal the treat as soon as they get where they are supposed to be. I would also say that adding the use of a clicker will help as well. When you use a clicker, the animal will better be able to identify what they are getting the reward for, thus making the learning process go much faster and enabling you to fade out any lures very quickly.
Teaching Hard Work is not Emotional Manipulation
Lastly, I would like to make the point that asking your pet, or anyone for that matter, to work hard is not emotional manipulation unless you make it so. The animal must work hard and think through some tough problems in learning and throughout life. As the handlers, trainers, and owners we must teach our pets, rise criteria at appropriate points, and stay consistent with what we ask of them so that they can learn to the best of their ability. Learning will always be challenging and should be. It will always involve the “manipulation” of thought processes. But learning should not be a way to trick your pet into thinking you will give them something. This is why we stay consistent and always follow a click with a reward. We make our animals a promise when we train with rewards and it is our job to hold up our end of the deal. So, we must teach our animals the behaviors they need to live in this society. We must encourage hard work in them but do so with understanding and a willingness to walk with them and show them that we value what they are doing by rewarding their actions with something we know they value. And last, but not least, enjoy the process of building a relationship and walking through life with them by your side.
Comments