ep 80 reducing reinforcement
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Hey there. Welcome back. This is episode 80. And because I've been having so many conversations around this topic in my coaching groups and just with clients in general, I want to talk about the idea of reducing reinforcement. Usually when a client comes to me with this issue, [00:01:00] it is about maybe they're trying to start competing and they're noticing that their dog lacks focus or is a lot slower in competition, and they just have a feeling that moving reinforcement to no longer on their body is the problem.
And this is of course super common, but a lot of the times we have to go backwards a lot farther than just preparing for competition. Because some of the solutions that people bring to me that they have tried also will miss the mark. They will impact the dog's motivation. For example, I commonly hear that people are trying to train like they normally do, you know, maybe for five or 10 minutes at a time with little to no reinforcement on them at all, and then [00:02:00] only pa- paying the dog when the training session is over and they are back at their car.
And that seems like a good idea on paper, but when you start really analyzing what is happening to the behaviors that you are trying to train and maintain, you are likely going to cause more problems than you will solve. So this idea of reducing reinforcement is a false idea. I don't actually want to reduce the amount of reinforcement I provide at all My goal is that I'm able to move reinforcement.
I'm able to move reinforcement to a different endpoint. So instead of reinforcement coming after one obstacle, or two obstacles, or every three obstacles, I [00:03:00] need to be able to move my reinforcement to the very end of whatever my behavior chain is. And of course, in competition, this is inclusive of waiting in line, entering the ring, getting set up on the line, running an entire course, getting leashed back up, and walking out to reinforcement.
So we can't just start there. So because this is such a big topic, I wanted to tease apart more of the details that go into moving reinforcement. To start, we have to define the types of training that we typically engage in with our agility dogs. I try to keep it as simple as possible with three main categories.
The first one is skill training. This is generally single behaviors or maybe like a [00:04:00] wing wrap paired with a specific behavior just to add speed, but we have a singular focus, and there's a ton of reinforcement throughout. The behavior-to-reward ratio is usually one-to-one. It might even be more in favor of reinforcement, especially when something is new and we're really excited about the progress our dogs are making.
It's super common that we're actually rewarding more, we're rewarding a larger effort when we're skill training. Um, it's very easy when you're skill training, the behaviors don't last that long. One to two seconds maybe for your dog to complete a single jump behavior, and it's super easy to then reward for three to five seconds.
We can probably do that without even thinking about it. So skill training [00:05:00] rocks for the learner. The reward ratio is really high. It's easy to predict. Everyone is happy. Motivation is high here The second common type of training that we do in agility is sequencing. This is where we're starting to put multiple behaviors together, and hopefully we are starting to build some chains of behaviors that we reinforce at the end. This is, you know, short sequences of handling skills, maybe you're adding obstacles around your contacts or weave poles.
You're starting to take well-known behaviors that are no longer in that skill training phase, and you're putting them together because that is the direction of running a [00:06:00] full course. And this is where I see the problems start to occur with reducing reinforcement. This is where things get the most muddy, and the issues can be hidden behind reinforcement, uh, especially around skills that I refer to as essential skills, like focus and engagement, moving together either on leash or off leash, so connected walking.
Taking the leash off, getting lined up, getting to a starting point. If these skills are not trained to a point where the handler feels comfortable removing food from this situation, what will happen in your sequencing is that you will use food to create those behaviors, to create focus, to create connected walking, to create a [00:07:00] dog that sticks with you post leash removal.
And then you will do a short sequence, and then you will reward at the end. But you haven't moved reinforcement. You have still inserted reinforcement throughout the process. So this is kind of a muddied version of half the things that you are using, you're still rewarding them in a skills sense, and other things you are rewarding more on a sequencing schedule.
And so this is a lot more difficult to transfer into a competition reinforcement contingency because we can't bring food in to manage those first few behaviors, the ring entry, the focus, the leash removal, the lineup So generally, we don't see the problem in our sequencing [00:08:00] because everyone is happy. The rate of reinforcement is still really high, um, and the problem becomes loud and clear when you are testing things in competition because the rewards are both at the end of the entire sequence and slightly delayed.
So sequencing is where I tend to solve most of these problems. The other thing that can happen with sequencing is that our reward events tend to become too short in comparison to the amount of training that we're doing. So back to the skill training, a skill might take one or two seconds, and we can reward easily for three to five seconds, no problem.
Maybe a sequence takes 10 seconds, and we're used to rewarding in three to five-second ranges. So not only does the work increase and the [00:09:00] rewards have moved, um, to the end, they've also been cut in half, and this is where I start to see motivation really drop. So sequencing is probably the majority of what we do with our agility dogs, and it's probably one of the most confusing with regards to reinforcement.
The third type of training that we do is testing. This can be done in training or in competition, but when I do it in training, it is putting things purposefully into the competition context, especially around reinforcement not being on my body. So this is where I'm specifically testing skills and sequences and behavior chains without rewards on me.
So I have to be pretty confident that I have [00:10:00] successfully moved reinforcement without decreasing motivation. So quick recap: skill training is where everyone is happy and most comfortable. Sequencing is where things get the most muddy, and the problem is usually identified in testing. And then we can work backwards.
We can start to look at the habits that we have in sequencing and in skill training. If they can sequence and complete behaviors surrounding agility without rewards immediately, the transition, the transition to entering a ring focused and engaged for an entire course is so much easier. That's why this idea of moving reinforcement should happen earlier in their education, not when you're about to enter a trial and you kind of pull the rug out from under them and say, "Okay, well, no more food or no more toy.
Everything is left outside the ring." [00:11:00] We have to be able to do this in our sequencing training, and it's a lot easier if we identify the skills that we're using too many rewards around, or that we're still using rewards to manufacture certain skills So that's exactly how we solve it. Your action items for this week, this month, after listening to this, is to take a look at your last training video and identify what type of training session you intended it to be.
Was it a skill training session, a sequencing session, or a testing session? Assuming you're after sequencing, so your goal is to sequence behaviors, because this is a large portion of our agility practice, take note of all the rewards you give throughout the training and what they are for. [00:12:00] So notice if you are using food to line your dog up, and then you start a sequence.
Notice that. If you are using a lot of rewards around moving through the space, and then you start a sequence, notice that. Are you rewarding for essential skills like I just talked about, or for the obstacle behaviors in the middle of your sequence? Those rewards needs to be, need to be moved to the end.
So this could be like a contact obstacle in the middle of your sequence. If your dog stops on the contact and you run in and you reinforce them with food or even a little bit of tug, and then you lead back out again and continue the sequence, you have just inserted a reward into a sequence that is not sustainable.
That can't happen to them in a competition [00:13:00] And, and it be a for real competition run. So you are kind of setting up an expectation for something that can't happen to them in the long term. So again, if you want to reward that specific behavior, have at it. I do it all the time. But that ends the repetition for me, and I start a new sequence after I reward.
And that reward needs to take into account everything I ask the dog to do So that if it's a 10-second sequence, I'm rewarding for at least 20 seconds. Even if my intention is to reward that contact obstacle, I'm rewarding the entire sequence. This movement of rewards might show you that you have more training to do around those behaviors that are no longer directly being reinforced, and you should definitely do that.[00:14:00]
Pull those behaviors out and make sure that your dog knows how to have its leash removed without a cookie in your hand. Make sure that your dog knows how to stay with you, whether they're off leash or on leash, without food already being presented to them When you move reinforcement, you should also match the reward event to the amount of work you've just asked the dog to complete.
I've been talking about this non-stop for what feel- for feels like a very long time, but I'm going to keep saying it because this has such a massive impact on your dog's motivation. Now that they are moving with you to the training space, they're lining up, they're completing the sequence, that is a much longer stretch of focus that needs to be rec- rewarded accordingly.
I recently posted in my Fans of FX Agility community one [00:15:00] repetition of sequence work that I did with Sprint, and I showed the entire three-minute, um, interaction. The first 45 seconds or so, I'm just walking the sequence. Sprint is just, you know, mulling about. She's sniffing. She's not really doing anything.
She doesn't have to be focused on me. She knows that she is free to do whatever she wants. Then we transition into I'm getting some treats in my pocket, I'm getting her toy, and I ask her to mo- if she's ready and if she would like to go with me. So that was the start of the repetition. I did not feed her anything.
I did not give her a toy for this. I just said, "Okay, we're moving. Come with me." We moved to the line. She did her lineup. We completed the sequence. That whole interaction took about a minute, minute and 10 seconds, and then the rest of the video, closer to a minute and a half, is just rewarding. I'm talking to her.
[00:16:00] I'm petting her. Um, it started with a tug reward, and then it ch- changed over to a food reward, and it's this perfect example of what I am trying to drill home here. It's so important, even for a dog who is as easily motivated to do agility like Sprint. When I don't do this appropriately, I can feel the frustration in her next repetitions.
I can feel her start to go, "Mm, I really wasn't paid adequately during that last rep." So she can exhibit some frustration behaviors when my rewards do not match the effort that she's putting in. And this can definitely be true even in a skill training sense. She will show me, um, because while I think she did that quickly, I have to also consider the amount of mental and [00:17:00] physical effort that she had to use even to do that behavior that only took her half a second.
So we should always be paying attention to what the dog is telling us about our reward procedures But once you can sequence with appropriate rewards at the end, then you can start to focus more on training with rewards off of your body, which I outlined in an episode previously. So I hope that by breaking down the different types of training, you can start to get more clear on exactly what it is you're trying to accomplish when you are thinking about reducing reinforcement.
But I think 1000% you will do a better job when you reframe this as moving reinforcement. So you're taking all of the reinforcement that you're already using, move it to the end, and make sure that that reward event matches the [00:18:00] effort your dog just gave, and then you will see a much better response from your dog when there's not rewards on your body
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