Tag: reward placement
Reward Placement
18th November
Mark for behavior, Reward for Position!
Reward placement is key in Spot training. The reward must be delivered so that the dog can maintain position on the spot. While that may seem entirely logical and clear, you’d be surprised at how easy it is to screw up. Fumble a cookie and the dog gets off the spot. Move your hand in the wrong direction and the dog will follow.
Reward placement can be used to our advantage though, and here’s how we do that:
We can mark the crossing of the threshold and reinforce with a cookie dropped on the Spot. This will get the dog further onto the spot.
We can mark each foot fall as the dog walks on the target area and place cookies that require them to get them further onto the spot.
When we want a sit, we can place … Read More »
Reframing Canine Understanding : Doorways
28th October
Foodbowl Exercises and Drive
Here are a couple of scenarios:
Handler makes dog sit at door and wait until released (or until handler has gone through) to exit the door.
Handler makes dog sit and wait as food is put down. Dog is then released to eat food.
These are two very common tactics for dog trainers and they have benefits but they are like half open Christmas Presents – full of promise, but quite short of the awesomeness that is a fully opened present.
We call these ‘food bowl exercises’ here at Pawsitive Vybe as a short hand term for any ‘self control’ exercise that is managed by the handler and reinforced directly by the object of the dog’s drive.
A food bowl exercise is pretty good at obtaining the target behavior, sitting in front of the food bowl or sitting at the door, … Read More »
Zig Zag for Big Leaping
7th October
Apryl Lea and Kiva demonstrate a Zig Zag for Big Leaping. This is part of the Pawsitive Vybe Disc Dog Foundation.
Reward Placement
5th July
The dog will go where the reward happens, plain and simple.
A common problem in developing a freestyle game of disc with a dog often is ‘My Dog Doesn’t like close throws.” or “My dog only wants to go long.”
When we think of reward placement and the game of disc, the problem becomes very clear: In the game of disc, the reward always happens out there.
The game of disc, for the back yard player and long time toss and fetch competitor, is longer, open field catches at 40 yards. Think about what the dog sees when they play Frisbee. What does the picture of Frisbee look like when the catch is made?
It’s the disc and stuff in the background, 20-40 yards away from the handler. The handler isn’t even in the picture at all.
So when we start working on … Read More »
The Cookie Process
19th January
One of the goals as a professional dog trainer is to have a simple, accessible philosophy that can be communicated easily and applied fairly simply by clients that are new to dog training.
One of the ways we do that as Positive Trainers is to speak very loosely and throw the words cookie, reward and reinforcement around and help our clients understand that this positive dog training stuff is simple.
“Mark for behavior, reward for position.”
“It’s simple, but not easy,” I often say to our clients as their dogs respond magically to most things that Apryl or I ask of them, “we just mark for behavior and reward for position.”
After a while this need for simplicity changes. Our clients start to dial things in, the dogs become little learning machines and the criteria required to deliver clear communication and understanding through marker … Read More »
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