As a country we spend ridiculous sums of money on treats for our dogs. Hey, I'm a positive reinforcement trainer so I use 'em too. But I do not use them all the time. In fact, I can be a bit stingy with treats because I can can accomplish so much simply using the animal's allotted food.
I've been training marine mammals for a while now and I have never--not even once--given my guys and girls a special treat during the course of training. Why? These animals work just fine for their diets. (Sorry to all the "fix it" fish people out there.)
I had some time this morning so I counted the pieces of medium-sized kibble in 1 cup of my pups food. (Get a life, you say? Well, this IS my life!) There were just under 200 pieces of kibble in that one cup of food. For me, that is just under 200 opportunities to shape good behavior.
I have to say I cringe a bit when people refer to PR trainers as "treat" or "cookie" trainers. A better term would be primary reinforcement trainers. Every trainer has their go-to thing and I love to use food in my training. Food is a primary reinforcer, or something the animal needs to survive or thatthe animal finds intrinsically valuable. The big two among primary reinforcers are food and water. There's an argument out there about shelter and sex but that is a different discussion:)
So... back to food and water.
You can certainly use water as a way to reinforce good behavior, and
I'm sure it's been done in a lab somewhere, but it's not practical for many
training purposes. So that leaves the big one among primaries, and that's
food.
My kibble gives me
about 200 opportunities to shape good behavior. Two hundred! That's a really
big number. Can you imagine giving the equivalent in treats? If you
did, I hope you have a generous supply of cleaning materials around; you're probably going to need them.
about 200 opportunities to shape good behavior. Two hundred! That's a really
big number. Can you imagine giving the equivalent in treats? If you
did, I hope you have a generous supply of cleaning materials around; you're probably going to need them.
Basic diet is too
often overlooked as a training tool when it should be the first choice.
Get your dog working for it and you'll establish good behavioral control. Teach
them the basics with their base and save the higher value stuff for more
challenging situations. If you don't know how to effectively maximize
the use of the base diet in training then feel free to ask:)
often overlooked as a training tool when it should be the first choice.
Get your dog working for it and you'll establish good behavioral control. Teach
them the basics with their base and save the higher value stuff for more
challenging situations. If you don't know how to effectively maximize
the use of the base diet in training then feel free to ask:)
Happy
Training
Training
Chris
