10/07/2020
Why are we so reluctant to reinforce behaviour in everyday life?
I was in a village shop today and one of the customers had a puppy with her. The pup was really sweet – a medium sized scruffy thing, observing the goings on in the deli and taking it all in. Understandably, the pup was curious and wanted to sniff around. The pup’s owner called the pup in a sweet voice and encouraged her to come back. I thought “that’s great”. Unfortunately, what followed wasn’t so great. Instead of reinforcing the pup for coming back to her, she told the pup to sit and “stay there”. The puppy did in fact sit, but the woman then immediately turned her back on the pup and carried on chatting to her friend. The pup of course lost interest in her and started wandering off to the end of the lead again. This time she called the puppy back with some annoyance and said, “Now you just stay there, alright!”. This puppy was a “soft” dog and so became a little inhibited temporarily by the stern tone, but after a while, tried to wander off again. I could see the woman’s irritation start to rise and left before I ended up saying something I would regret like, “How about rewarding your dog when she does what you ask?”
This post is not to point fingers – I do understand that many people simply don’t understand how behaviour works. The same way I don’t know how a car engine works. People do the best that they can with what they know – and unfortunately the information put out to the general public about how dogs should learn to respond to us, is very often completely inaccurate and nothing more than old tales and myths.
Two of the most common questions I still get asked by clients is:
1. When can I stop using food?
2. Do I really have to take food on walks?
The scientific dog training community understands that there is overwhelming evidence for the following:
1. Dogs prefer food treats to praise – for many dogs, praise means nothing, and petting can even be aversive
2. There is no “neutral” way to train a dog – if you are not using positive reinforcement (food or toys), you are using fear. Dogs work to gain stuff they like or avoid stuff that makes them uncomfortable or afraid.
3. Training with punishment (anything from physical pain to a stern tone of voice) is aversive and causes emotional fallout e.g. stress, anxiety, depression and aggression.
4. Dogs learn better when they are not stressed
5. There is absolutely no advantage to using pain or fear to train – dogs can learn anything we need to teach them through positive reinforcement.
Yet, despite this, we still fight every day to get owners to be willing to reinforce behaviour. We still fight everyday to get people to take treats on walks, so that they can reinforce the behaviours they want to see more of. We still fight every day to get people to accept that their dog does not understand the concept of doing something “just because I say so” and that “respect” is actually a euphemism for fear.
I use the word “fight”, not because we want to take a combative stance towards dog owners or because we view them as the enemy. That is not it at all. We actually just want to help and to educate. We want the best for our clients and their dogs. I use the word fight, because in the face of the misinformation that people are bombarded with, it sometimes feels like we are at war with the “forces of darkness” (I have been watching Lord of the Rings again, so am possibly feeling a little overly-dramatic!) that want to see dogs cowering in fear or completely shut down and call that “well-trained”
So once again, this post is an appeal to everyone training a dog at the moment or raising a puppy: Please understand that there only two ways to get the behaviour you want: You can either frighten your dog so that they respond in order to avoid pain and fear or you can motivate your dog by happily reinforcing the behaviour you ask for and want to see more of. Those are your only two choices (or you could do nothing and not have a trained dog at all – that is also an option). If you choose reinforcement, it will mean taking treats on walks. It will mean being willing to use food FOREVER – not just a little while (but understand that over time you will learn to use food more efficiently and you will be able to ask for more in return). It will also mean that you will have a happy and confident dog who LOVES working with you and is eager to respond. The relationship that you form through training your dog in this way will be better than any reward you can imagine.
