TRAINING
WITH TEMPERAMENT THEORY
Rewards and Intermittent Reinforcement
From the Dog's Point of View
by
Val Maurer
Introduction and Acknowledgements
Training:
Training
Using Temperament Theory
Obedience and Temperament Theory
Agility and Temperament Theory
Herding and Temperament Theory: Action Dogs
The Temperament Theory and Rescue Work
Reference:
Bibliography
Glossary
Living
With Border Collies
Hug Therapy
United States
Border Collie Club
Border Collie Society of
America
Questions?
Comments?
Suggestions?
Tell us what you
think!
Confused about how a piece of food or a tennis ball can be called so many things in training? Just exactly why do trainers use the words "lure, reward, treat, praise, encouragement, intermittent reinforcement, and bonus time?"
Wystan, my West Highland White (HA!) Terrier, is a Grand Master in understanding and using these words, so I asked him to explain them. We negotiated for just how many cookies, walks, and tummy rubs I had to give him before we agreed on terms, but he finally decided to share his secrets.
Wystan."I can't BELIEVE I've agreed to write this article -- what's wrong with you people? Don't you EVER pay attention to what your dogs are saying?!
"Here's the secret: use whatever it takes to get your dog constantly interested in doing what you want to do.
"How many times have I heard people say, "My dog won't work for food," as they had the discriminating pooch a cheapo dog biscuit? DUH. Would YOU want to work for someone if all they ever gave you in return was a stale baloney sandwich, or a pair of old socks?
"I have trained my people to use Lorna Doone cookies as a basic training tool. I've even got my male person buying me kippered steak at ten bucks a pound for bonus times. So the first lesson you guys gotta learn is to sweeten the pot!
"So you're using prime rib as a training tool and your dog still isn't interested in food that much? Do what I do to Max (one of those black-and-white barbarian do-- er, Border Collies): when I want his interest, I steal his Frisbee and wave it around right out of his reach. That sure makes doing what I say the most important thing in the world.
"Now here's where that Intermittent Reinforcement lingo comes in. After I've stolen Max's Frisbee enough times to get him as my personal slave, I stop making the Frisbee so important by ignoring it or making it disappear (I hide it in my crate -- he wouldn't DARE look in there for it) and only making it reappear when he starts to lse interest in being my slave.
"Need another example of intermittent reinforcement? I've got plenty of examples, since I'm always interested in making personal slaves out of Border Collies! So here's an example using food: Nicky is a drooling, slobbering fool when he sees Bil-Jac. He's such an idiot around this stuff that I like to make him look even more foolish than he's doing to himself.
NEED PICTURE
Wystan and Nicky"in jail""I started by leaving half my supper in my bowl. I backed off a few paces and he gobbled it up before the humans could stop him. It was great fun -- we both got in trouble! And that's my goal: see, I adore getting in trouble and Nicky hates himself when he disappoints our male person. So I got double-joy out of this little escapade, and decided that jerking Nicky's chain during suppertime would be part of our daily ritual.
"Every night for about a week, I left Nicky a big portion of my supper. He'd gobble up his own food, looking at me the whole time. Jeez, he was SO easy, I almost felt sorry for him. (But I remembered who I am and I got over it fast.) Man, it was cool! By the end of the week, I was ruling suppertime. Nicky got even more stupid and slobbery when the Bil-Jac bag came out of the fridge, which made our female person even more pissed off at him; both humans gave up on trying to keep him out of my bowl, which added to Nicky's lust for my food; and, best of all, my humans fell for all of this and put extra goodies in my food to entice me to eat -- life couldn't get any better than this!
"Then Nicky got used to our new evening ritual and started behaving like a sensible Border Collie again. He was still interested, just not as much as I wanted. So I ate ALL my food for the next few nights. Drove him crazy! It was hilarious watching him check out my bowl, licking and biting at it till he almost cracked it -- which got him in trouble with the humans again! I pretended to be a good boy who'd gotten my appetite back, and had no interet in what Nicky was doing to my bowl. I'd saunter away to my crate for a good laugh and a nap while the humans were still frantically trying to get my bowl away from Nicky.
"All good things come to an end if you don't work at them now and then. About a month later, Nicky was just starting to lose hope about finding food in my bowl ever again. So I left him one tiny piece. He got just as stupid over that crumb as he had that first time I left him half my food! What a hoot! He even added something new to get in trouble about by flipping my bowl over to check for crumbs underneath. This gave me another good chuckle at his expense, while I walked to my crate for a well-deserved nap.
"I've kept him drooling, slobbering, clumsy, and occasionally yelled at for suppertime for years now, just by leaving him a crumb now and then. And when I really want to confuse him and get him as hyped-up as he was the first time, I take one bite of food, then back off and watch him leap for my bowl in what I call the bonus time.
"Well, that's all the info I negotiated for. If you want ot hear more of my secrets, you'll have to work at it by sending me lots and lots of interesting toys and food.
"Signed,
"Wystan the Opportunistic Troublemaker"
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