Jackpots

What are Jackpots?

A Jackpot is any reward that is unexpected from the dogs point of view.  It may be unexpected because they are used to doing the behavior without being rewarded.  It may be unexpected because its special either in amount of reward or quality. 

When to use a Jackpot

There are four basic times when you might jackpot your dog, they are:

1.  Maintain motivation
2.  Emphasize something
3.  Create a good association
4.  Special reward for special effort

Maintaining Motivation

When your dog is well trained, some behaviors just don't get rewarded anymore.  Its like when you were a kid, your parents rewarded you for brushing your teeth, because you were just learning.  Now that you are grown, no one is rewarding you for brushing. 

Like a slot machine, sometimes rewarding in an unexpected way keeps your dog motivated to keep doing that behavior.  Your dog may have done this behavior a thousand times without reward and wasn't expecting one.  Rewarding now and then when its not expected, keeps the dog's enthusiasm up.  It may be a long time before you reward that behavior again.

Emphasize something

If your dog is having trouble "getting" something and they have a momentary breakthrough, you will want to emphasize that moment with a special reward.  If you don't emphasize it, the dog will likely just offer the same behavior he was doing before.  If you make the reward really special the dog will think "Hey!  That was really cool.  Now what did I do to make it happen?  How can I make it happen again?"  This helps your dog focus on what he just did to get you to pay up and makes it more likely he'll do it again.

If your dog is stuck and at a plateau of learning, where the rate of reinforcement is falling low, he might feel like quitting or be making less effort because what they are getting isn't worth the effort.  Giving an unexpected jackpot will keep your dog in the game.

Create a good association

The idea here is to create a better association for the dog about something that may be yucky or neutral.  Any time you give a lot of treats for little effort from the dog, they will be scanning their environment to figure out what makes this special.

Gimme here:  When I was little I got sick and had to go to the doctor.  I didn't feel good to begin with and it was not a fun experience.  My person knew I wouldn't want to go there again, since that was only my second time being there.  So she took me twice a week for several weeks.  At first I was a little scared because I remembered how bad it was.  We sat in the waiting room and I got lots of treats for being brave and cute, and then we left.  This happened many times and I learned that this place was a great place to get treats.  Then one day she took me in the little room and put me on the table.  People came in petted me and gave me more treats.  We visited there and I got to stand on the table for treats and petting.  I like my doctor now.  He is nice to me, gives me yummy things to eat, and says I'm beautiful and smart.  He's very smart.  I'm just saying...

This is classical conditioning and is used in both desensitizing and counter-conditioning.  It can even be used to increase the value of a place the dog already likes - especially if you know that might be a distracting or sometimes stressful place.  It may not even be a particular place, but instead something in the place that is worrisome to your dog.

The idea is for the dog to recognize the environment or see the icky thing that makes them worry and instead of feeling bad, to see that thing and anticipate a big payoff - so they feel good instead.

Special reward for special effort

If your dog makes a special effort, you want to reward them in a way that recognizes that effort.  Perhaps your dog does well while you are training in a very distracting environment.  This combines both motivation and emphasis into one reward that helps the dog learn and perform.  

Its like getting a bonus at work.  If you put in extra hours and work extra hard on a project and your boss gives you a bonus for your special effort - you will certainly be more likely to put out a superhuman effort next time around.  Your dog responds in the same way.  When your dog realizes that he'll get special compensation for special effort, he'll be more likely to give his best, even in difficult situations. 

How to Jackpot for Best effect

• Your dog will think they are getting more reward if you dole out several treats one-at-a-time than if you give them a handful in one gulp.  I like to count out loud and really emphasize each one, one after another. 
• A special reward that is used infrequently will really catch your dog's attention.  For instance, Gimme loves peanut butter, so I use that.
• Rewards that have an element of pizazz are good - like getting to put their head in a bag of popcorn and get a whole big mouthful is a memorable experience.  Running from where you were working to where the treats are adds a playful moment to the experience.
• For the category of creating a good association, usually you want the treats to come one right after the other, as fast as the dog can gobble them up.