Do you know what your dog loves. What they really, really love?!
When training our dogs to do all things RECALL or LOOSE LEAD WALKING (settling at the pub?), you are going to need the main ingredient.... MOTIVATION.
Reward-based training is a tried and tested, scientifically proven method to use that ethically promotes, motivates and encourages desirable behaviours. But how do we know what is rewarding for our dogs? Let's look at food. Food is an important part of an animal’s life and crucial to it's survival so it's known as a primary reinforcer which is an enjoyable and necessary part of your dogs day to day. But don't be fooled! It’s not as easy as putting something edible into the mouth of the dog and hoping it works out. In fact, a lot of times it doesn't work very well as we're using the wrong stuff. This is where this little gem of an activity can help you to really ramp up your training and turn the odds into your favour.
Creating and using a hierarchy of rewards with your dog is something I swear by. It can really enlighten us and speed up learning potential in your dog. In it's simplest of forms, this is a rank order of food or toys we can use as a motivator when compared to others. For food, it gets us thinking about what your dog actually likes and how we can use the different tiers.
Remember, not everything will have the same motiving quality or saliency to it. The higher the saliency the harder the animal will work to obtain it - but this is subject to change.
How can you get your hierarchy? I keep it simple and look to establish a top three.
First gather a decent selection of different food rewards. Use things that are easy to get hold of, safe and varied for your dog. Then categorise these foods using a game of choice. Hold out a choice of two treats, one in each hand as a loosely closed fist that your dog can sniff at first. Then when happy, open up both hands and record the first treat eaten as the winner of that round and the other coming in as second. Just like a knockout football tournament, put the treats though a group stage, quarter final, semi-final and then get ready because you're off into the final!
This type of food assessment can be done as many times as you want and I would urge you to do it in as many different environments too. Your dog can change their mind, go off something or surprise us at any time. BEEF was the winner for my dog... but interestingly, cheese had been my go to "high value" reward which was eliminated and not even in my top 3. And this, is exactly the point !
Knowing what your dog likes at a given moment in time is key to improving your training relationship, giving you the tools to boost or calm behaviours and speed up learning potential. Want to give it a go? Drop me an email: jasoncortis.dt@gmail.com or 07791117869 and let’s chat about booking you in for a 1:1 session 😊
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