Rewards 102

Primary reinforcers
"Primary" just means something that is hardwired into the dog to want; usually related to survival needs, such as food, drink, some touch, and sexual stimulation.

Some breeds have hardwired certain drives that are primary reinforcers, such as vermin for terriers, birds for some hunting breeds, visual stimulation for sight hounds and some sporting breeds, and sheep for herding breeds.  These breeds are often highly sensitive to and easily distracted by these "special" primary reinforcers or things that are similar to them.  For example: movement is distracting to all dogs, but especially distracting to sight hounds and herding breeds.

Some secondary reinforcers can get so strong that they become primary reinforcers, such as tugging.  Dogs aren't born knowing the tugging game.  When they learn to tug it starts as a secondary reinforcer; later it can become primary.

Secondary reinforcers
"Secondary" means something starts out as neutral and had no meaning on its own, but then it is taught or "conditioned" to have value.  Secondary reinforcers depend on you teaching (conditioning) the dog to mentally "pair" it with other primary reinforcers.

For dogs, these conditioned reinforcers can include smiles, praise, attention, clapping, toys, tennis balls, Frisbees, petting and the sound of a clicker.  For humans this includes praise, smiles, thumbs-up gestures, an "A" on homework, and money.

Gimme here:  I love it when my person laughs at me, so I've learned to do a lot of funny things to make her laugh.  Any time I do something that makes her laugh, I remember and do it again and again.  She tells people that I am, "in touch with my inner-clown".   Really I just know when she is laughing, she is happy.  And when my person is happy, I'm happy because I know fun is about to erupt.  Its a great system we have going.

Some conditioned reinforcers, such as the clicker, act as both an "event marker" and a "bridge".  An event marker precisely marks a moment at which the dog is doing a behavior that earns a reward.  It then bridges the gap in time between the moment when the behavior happens and the time when the reinforcement can be given.  Even though you have a bridge, it is still important to deliver the reinforcement as soon as possible or you could also be reinforcing unwanted behavior that happens in the meantime.

Tertiary Reinforcement
"Tertiary" is a special class of reinforcement.  It is when a cue for a known behavior acts as a reward for whatever behavior came before it.  Dogs in agility are rewarded in this way, where cuing the next obstacle reinforces completion of what came before.  It is the opportunity to continue on course and get closer to the reward at the end that makes the next cue reinforcing.

A well trained dog that works for rewards will enjoy working and tertiary reinforcement is highly effective for them.  A dog that is trained with much punishment cannot benefit from tertiary reinforcement.  The idea is that:

      ·   the reward for behavior one is the cue for behavior two
      ·   the reward for behavior two is the cue for behavior three
      ·   the reward for behavior three is the cue for behavior four
      ·   the reward for behavior four is the cue for behavior five
      ·   the reward for behavior five is click/treats

There is a flip side to tertiary reinforcement that you need to know about to keep from unintentionally rewarding undesirable behaviors.

When the dog does something bad, many people will cue it to do something else and then reward the dog for doing that instead.  Since the cue for the new behavior gives the dog the opportunity to earn a reward, it acts as a reward for what the dog did moments before hearing the cue.  I call this I'll Be Bad So I Can Be Good And Get Rewarded syndrome, which is very common with extra smart dogs.

Gimme here:  Just recently I met a horse that was being trained by his person.  When they took a break from training, they came over to where we were.  I barked at the horse to tell him not to come too close (and to tell my person that the horse was close enough).  The lady with the horse asked me to sit and then gave me a treat.  I quickly realized the game possibilities and barked again.  Sure enough, she asked me to sit and then gave me another treat for doing so.   After that I barked a lot and each time she told me "sit" and then rewarded me when I did.  Boyoh was I ever training that lady to give me treats.

Unfortunately, my person knows how that game works and she doesn't want me to bark and she really doesn't want me to be rewarded for barking.  So she made the nice lady stop playing that game with me.  My person explained to her that she should only ask me to sit when I was being quiet, so I didn't play the be-bad-to-be-good game.  After that when I wasn't barking, the nice lady asked me to sit and then rewarded me when I did.  I know that game too, so I was happy to play it.  Then everyone was happy.  My person, nice lady and the horse were happy that there was no more barking; I was happy because I was getting lots of yummy treats.  What a great deal for me.  Life is good if you are trained with rewards.  I'm just saying.

Expand Your Knowledge

There are times when something a dog normally finds rewarding isn't going to be rewarding.

Examples:

      ·   Being warm is rewarding when its chilly, but not when it's
           too hot already.
      ·   Food is a common reward, but when your dog is too full it
           won't work well.
      ·   Dogs that love tennis balls, may lose interest when distracted
           by a female in season.

The same principle works for humans too.

      ·   Being admired by someone is great, but not when that
           someone is creepy.

As important as it is to know what things your dog thinks are rewarding, its also important to know when those rewards aren't rewards at all.  Examine your list of your dog's faves and think about the times when they might not work for you.