Criteria for Behaviors

We are using the sit behavior to discuss the concept of generalization, discrimination, criteria and conditions as it applies to dog training.  Dogs can have their own funny ideas about what sit means - many dogs have the idea that sit only applies in front of the owner looking up at them. (see "direction" under conditions)

• Distinct (criteria of the behavior) - Depending on your goals, you may have different criteria for how the sit is actually done. Those who train for competitive obedience goals want the dog to sit squarely with his weight evenly balanced front to back, side to side. They also want the dog to perform the sit by tucking their bum up under them, not rocking back into a sit. Sloppy sits and rock back sits are probably okay for most pet dogs.
• Dispatch (speed) - The time it takes the dog to respond to your cue is also important. If your dog always sits when cued, but it takes him 3 minutes to respond, this is going to be frustrating, to say the least.
• Distance - When you teach sit, you want your dog to sit in response to your cue regardless of how far away you are from the dog.
• Duration - Ideally you want the dog to remain seated until you tell him to do something else. A sit is not particularly useful if the dog sits and immediately pops up and runs off.
• Delay (time between giving the cue and beginning of the behavior) - This can be really evident in a stay or wait type behavior. If you give the cue and then don't leave immediately, does your dog understand that the cue still applies? This kind of understanding has to be specifically trained for.
• Determination (commitment/confidence) – When your dog has determination, he is committed and confident in the behavior. Its as if the dog views any other factors as part of a game that he's determined to win. This is the end result of challenge proofing (as opposed to correction proofing), his attitude will be cheeky, cocky even, gritting his teeth and saying, "No-no-no, you can't fool me."

In clicker training we only work on one criterion at a time. To begin with we would teach the dog "how" to sit and not expect the dog to sit far away or hold it for a long time and response can be slow. As we introduce the other criteria one at a time, we know that the already learned criteria may slip. Such as when working on speedy sits, we will still accept and reward a few sloppy sits. We gradually increase the dog's understanding to include in its understanding for sit all of the criteria we need and want.

After we have trained the dog to perform the behavior reliably as far as the distinct criteria, then and only then do we add a cue.  Just like the old Zenith television advertisements, "the quality goes in before the name goes on".  If you put the cue on a behavior before the distinct criteria are reliable, your dog most likely won't know exactly how to perform the behavior, even though it seems he does.  Then under stress or during distraction, he'll revert to some other form of the behavior.  So don't add the name until the quality is there.

If you have already named a substandard behavior, the best approach is to give the quality behavior a new cue.  For instance if you gave the cue "sit" to a sloppy puppy sit and now you've decided you want to do rally or obedience.  Train the dog to give you the balanced sit you want and give it a new name, such as "platz", "perch", or "squat"