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Food for Thought

philippavallely

This month's blog is all about using food in our training, how it can help- and hinder- learning and progress.


A variety of different types of food rewards, for different occasions
A variety of different types of food rewards, for different occasions

First things first- why do we use food? Well, food is what's known as a "primary reinforcer"- defined in the Journal of Animal Behaviour Technology [Vol. 8, No. 1. 2018], in an article by Karolina Westlund as follows:


Stimuli that will effectively reinforce behaviors when presented contingent upon the behavior, and for which no previous conditioning history exists, are called unconditioned positive reinforcers, unconditioned added reinforcers, or primary reinforcers. They are not dependent on a correlation, or pairing, with other established reinforcers.


Essentially it means that we don't have to train our dogs to like food, it's a basic need for survival, so they can be motivated to do something through the use of food -although it is important to bear in mind that food is just one type of reward to be building in your arsenal! Play, engagement, touch, praise, access to environmental rewards (eg sniffing) are all part of your party bag, but we often use food to get learning started because it is a fast way to get lots of repetitions within a short session. However, this can both help and hinder training if it's not thought through. So, here's some things for you to ponder...


What types of food- what does my dog like?

The type of food is important. You might have heard people talk about high or low value food rewards- this simply means the food that your dog likes from most to least. This becomes more obvious when you are training in more interesting environments- generally dry bits of kibble are not going to cut it! Look at the images below- which would your dog find the best do you think?



We also need to observe our dogs- do they like crunchy food, or soft? Fish flavours or meat?


What types of food- how am I going to use it?

When selecting food, it's also worth thinking about delivery. If I'm working on recall, and throwing food a distance away, my dog needs to be able to see it quickly or I'll lose my speed and connection. So think light coloured treats in the grass, big sizes, smelly. If it's training where I might be delivering food rapidly to my dog's mouth, then tiny pieces that I can handle easily and my dog can swallow quickly will be good. If I'm dropping the food, do I want it to bounce, to roll or to splat? Is it going to stick to my hand if I try to throw it? Look at the images above again- which would be best for teaching "down"? How about "Stop"? What about "close hunt/ hunt there"?


You can see how the right or wrong choices just from what you put in your treat pouch can set you up for success or failure before you even start!


Using food as a "lure"

This means- usually- getting our dog to see/ smell the food in our hand and use that to generate the behaviour that we want. The golden rule to remember is THE DOG'S NOSE FOLLOW THE FOOD! So, where your hand goes, so will the dog's nose. Some examples...


The "flappy" hand!


You can see here that Bisto is 100% focused on the food in my hand, but my erratic and fast movement is sparking his arousal and prompting him to jump up, he thinks it's a game!




Toffee doesn't get as excited by my flappy hand, but you can see her movement is also influenced by mine.






Hand blocking food

As we've seen, the nose follows the food, so watch the difference here between luring the dog with my hand blocking the food, as opposed to the dog's nose being on the food...


I start trying to lure "heel" but the back of my hand is facing Toffee's nose- see how she immediately paws my hand to get at the food? She's also being pulled out of position by my hand moving around, and we have scrappy moves from both of us.



Now compare her movement- and mine- when we start off with food facing her nose, no hand block. I'm also much more able to guide her into the correct finishing position at the end as my hand is facing backwards and able to stop in place.



We can see the same here with Bisto- he immediately twists around my hand to try and get at the food, so right from the start we're in the wrong positions to get a smooth heel.




Now I'm set up better, food on his nose, look at how much calmer and fluid the movement is.



Fading the food lure

Often in class you are starting a behaviour, so we use food as a lure to initiate movement. However, when progressing that at home, you need to be thinking about when to start fading out (slowly removing) the food as a lure (you can still use food as a reward). As a general rule, once your dog is able to complete the movement 6 times in a row without hesitation, then it's time to start reducing how often you use food in your hand- otherwise your dog can quickly become dependent on the presence of food to decide if they will or won't do something! That's not to say we stop using food as a reward, we just don't use it to generate the movement.


Food on the body and the "hover hand"

As much as possible, I train with food not on me at all- in the clips above, the pot of food was on the chair behind me, not on my body. This helps my dog to

  • train in the presence of food (that they could snatch)

  • focus on me, rather than the treat pouch or treat pocket!!!


What's the hover hand? that's what I call the hand that is hovering above the treat pouch, or pocket- your dog WILL be registering that! So think about how that might affect their choices- for example, when you recall, do they look at see if your hand is ready? When they are retrieving, are they spitting the dummy out as they arrive because they saw you reach for a reward?


So, get your phone out and record yourself training, especially if you think your puppy or dog is struggling with something- you'll be surprised at what you observe yourself doing!

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