I’m still trying to wrap my head around using cues as rewards for a behavior and how that can be practical for me. One thing I’ve been trying with The Princess is always adding a fun trick after she’s responded appropriately to a finish cue. Then I always mark and reward the trick (not the finish). To make this work, she can’t get the trick cue if she has not done the finish to the criteria I have set. Admittedly, my criteria for “finish” is pretty low, I really just want it fast and happy and, at this point anyway, I’m not working on straight. This all becomes part of a long behavior chain.
The great thing about this is the “trick” (she jumps up and touches my hand) is that its legal in the obedience ring (in between exercises of course:-). So, if the trick in itself is rewarding, I’m rewarding her in the ring. And that is a very good thing.
Yesterday I re-read the book In Focus by Deb Jones and Judy Keller. I attended a seminar from them years ago and it really helped me understand the role of stress in a performing dog and some strategies for relieving that stress. The book is agility focused, but I think the principles apply to the obedience ring as well.
One of their key strategies is playing a game or using a trick to increase the arousal level of the dog. You do this by jazzing the dog up with a game or play or a favorite trick, and then classically conditioning a phrase that you’ll use just as you start the FUN (something like are you ready?????). You want the dog getting excited just on the verbal cue. Once that is happening, you sandwich other cued behaviors in between the are you ready???? and the actual game. So the play/game becomes a reward for the correctly executed behavior, but the dog is already in an excited state state when you ask for the cued behavior. They say it better than me:
“Once your dog reliably responds with animation and excitement to your arousal cues, you can start adding in a work requirement. First, give your arousal cues, and then ask your dog for a well known and practiced behavior. When your dog responds correctly you can use a verbal marker (such as yes!) then play with your dog or let him chase after some treats you toss” (p. 57)
What a perfect way to increase motivation in the obedience ring too! And a little of this (discretely of course) can certainly be used between exercises. Not just as a reward for behavior, but as a motivation exercise, because if she’s happy and not stressed, she’s at least going to try to do what I ask.
The Princess Comments: Barking, I like barking. Killing squirrels would be a motivating game too… think about it!
Parallel Tails 