Episode 62: Maintaining Value for Reinforcers
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[00:00:00] If you train, compete, or teach dog agility, you're in the right place. Hey there, I'm Megan Foster, creator of Fostering Excellence and Agility. Join me as I share key insights on all things related to dog agility and help find your team's path to excellence and unlock your best year yet. Let's get started.
Hey there. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I want to talk about something that maybe you have observed or have experienced, and you're not quite sure how it happens or how you can avoid it and ultimately repair it.
What I wanna talk about is dogs that value work or doing the obstacles [00:01:00] more than they value the food and the toys that we have to offer them. And I'm not saying that we don't want them to value the work we absolutely do. We want them to hold value for moving their bodies and completing the obstacles and running full courses with us.
And while that may hold more value than stopping for a piece of food or even having a nice toy play session, we don't want our reinforcers to lose value overall. So what it looks like when we're starting to lose value for the food and the toys that we have to offer is when the dog cannot be bothered to stop moving, to take the reward.
I generally see this start with food. So then, uh, trainers will stop using food around agility and [00:02:00] training sessions, and then it can continue to escalate to even toys where. The dog is really not interested in stopping to play or isn't interested in grabbing the toy off the ground. They are only interested in continuing to move their bodies and do more sequence work.
This can also look like dogs that are resetting themselves. Without any cues or prompting from the handler. And additionally, it can be dogs that are grabbing obstacles at random without cues or prompting from their handler.
So why is this potentially problematic? Anytime I'm talking about a common issue or common misunderstandings or things that can go wrong, I always want to emphasize that if these things are not causing [00:03:00] your communication and your teamwork and your progress a problem, then you don't have to change anything.
But my job is to bring awareness to potential problems and problems that people are currently facing and try to help solve those problems. So this is problematic when we lose the ability to effectively reinforce our dogs. If the dog is only interested in accessing more equipment, we have essentially lost the ability to maintain, build, and change the dog's behavior.
So my goal here is to give you some examples of how to avoid. This from developing in your team and also how you can go about correcting some habits that are maybe I [00:04:00] impacting your dog's value of the food and toy reinforcers and how to fix it and continue developing powerful reinforcers for your team.
So the first way that we are going to avoid this habit from developing is to have consistency with our reinforcers. The more you use them, the more powerful they become. So instead of leaning in the direction of, oh, my dog's just not that food motivated. I actually would encourage you to use food more consistently and more often, and pair that with behaviors that are a little bit more low arousal so that your dog is capable of eating the food and valuing the food in that context, because the more consistently you use the food, the more valuable it will [00:05:00] become.
This is the same for any type of reinforcer. So if your dog is also struggling to engage with the toy at like they normally would, then this is the same concept. The more consistently that we use them, the more powerful they become. The second thing that I want you to do is have increased clarity over reinforcement.
Location specific reward markers provide a lot of information for the dog, and again, because the more we use them, the more powerful they become. Those behaviors attach to those specific reward markers also become as valuable as the obstacles. In that same vein, when we use arousal specific reward markers that match the arousal level of the task that we're having them do, they will hold more [00:06:00] value.
A really great example here is my sprints running dog walk. If I'm training the running dog walk and I offer her a piece of kibble. The running dog walk is going to be way more valuable than just eating one piece of kibble from my hand, right? Completing the obstacle means she gets to run her fastest and in full extension, versus collecting the reward is boring.
And it happens to be just a piece of kibble, but that's not how I reward her running dog walk. Usually after she meets criteria and completes the obstacle following the dog walk, she runs to me, takes a toy outta my hand, and continues running usually for. At least a lap around the dog walk itself. So in this case, the reward of running and getting the toy and running around [00:07:00] with the toy and then coming back to tug is of similar arousal level and therefore similar value to running the dog walk.
So when we are choosing which reinforcer and which reinforcer delivery to use, if we are matching that arousal level. We will be building more value for the reward itself and also maintaining value in comparison to the obstacles or sequencing that we're doing.
Next, we have to have consistently clean loops. Anytime a consequence is delivered, whether it is giving the reward or withholding the reward, there needs to be information for the dog. So instead of just continuing to move right into the sequence. Again, without stopping for a reward or not a reward, we want to clearly end that [00:08:00] repetition, reset for a new repetition and try again.
So where I see dogs start to value the obstacles more often is in these situations where. Either the handling is a little bit wrong or the dog takes the wrong obstacle, and the handler doesn't stop to give information. They just keep the dog in motion and send the dog into the sequence again.
So there really is no way for the dog to know. What we're trying to change about the behavior, what part of the behavior was correct, what part of the behavior was incorrect. They just know that they get to keep running no matter what is happening. So by developing really clear start and end points and providing information, regardless of what that information is, can help the dog learn to finish a sequence or a repetition of an obstacle and orientate to the handler for information.
This is going [00:09:00] to mean that they are better at looking for their reinforcers, or if the reinforcement is being withheld. They're looking for the information to know what to do next, like a transport behavior or a downtime behavior.
And finally, we also want to be aware of our reward habits. So especially when I'm doing sequencing and coursework where both my physical cues and my verbal cues are very important to my dogs, I am more likely to reward them. Just for their effort rather than their precision. This is really important for motivation and continuing to build desire for the game itself, but also I'm continuing to insert my rewards consistently and maintaining their value, even in comparison to running longer and longer [00:10:00] coursework.
The only time I am. Withholding rewards in sequencing is if I would rather not see that behavior happen again. So, for example, I do not reward dogs for breaking commitment, even if my handling wasn't exactly perfect. If they committed to an obstacle, I expect them to maintain commitment to that obstacle and complete that obstacle, versus if I send my dog off course.
I usually reward and assume that they were following my handling, especially if that wrong course for that sequence could be something I ask for in the very next sequence or in a different part of the course. This avoids the dog feeling punished for following the handling and feeling the need to seek out their own source of reinforcement with the other [00:11:00] obstacles.
I know I might have used always and never throughout this, just know that everything comes with exceptions and nuance and when I use always and never, I am talking about when everything is ideal and we're talking about best practices. So please don't come for me. If you can think of exceptions or times where these guidelines don't make sense because of course there are.
So when we are trying to maintain value for our reinforcement, it really comes down to being clear and consistent. If we want our dogs to value the reinforcers that we have available to them, they need to be valuable.
Our reinforcers need to have a wide range of both value and arousal level so that the reward that we are providing matches [00:12:00] the effort that the dog is putting out.
In addition to the value, we're also going to look at the delivery type to make sure that the behavior of collecting that reward. Matches up with the behavior of the obstacles or sequencing that we're doing. This way the reinforcers maintain relevancy throughout your training.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, I really appreciate some feedback. You can leave me a review, engage on social media or share this with a friend. I hope you'll be back to listen to my next episode. In the meantime, you can find all of my offers on my website, fx agility.com. Happy training.
