Super Charge Your Rewards: Building the Bridge to Understanding

Does this sound familiar?

“But he knows this!” but without a chunk of cheese in evidence (or your hand in your treat pouch), your dog just sits there.

Does this mean that reward-based training doesn’t work?

Positive reinforcement R+ is a wonderful way to help dogs learn in a fear-free, force-free way. Food rewards can go a long way towards helping a dog see the value in doing something you’d like them to do.

And yet . . . for many dogs and handlers, what sometimes happens is that a reward (what comes *after* a behavior occurs) becomes a lure or a bribe. It looks a bit like this:

1. Cue the dog —
2. No response, dog stares at you blankly as if this is a new word in their vocabulary
3. Show the cookie (or other reward), and
4. Voila! Memory instantly restored and the dog responds correctly.

So what’s happening here? Is the dog playing you or trying to get away with something? Is this a ploy that will lead to world domination by your dog?

None of the above. This is simply the dog telling you what they understand about how you use rewards, and pointing out (with a wagging tail) where your reward based training may have hit the most common stumbling block in the training world.

Pro-trainer secret: A few simple changes can make your rewards more rewarding for your dog.