Lures, bribes and rewards

Lures, bribes and rewards
March 13, 9:41 AMDog Behavior & Training ExaminerDebbie JacobsPrevious
View all » When using food or other motivator to train a dog it's important to understand how they can be used differently and the effect that will ultimately have on the dog's performance.

Luring: In order for a dog to learn to perform a behavior a trainer must come up with ways to get the dog to perform it. The use of lures can be helpful for this. Instead of physically manipulating a dog with direct contact, which can be distracting to a dog, using food or something else the dog is interested in, to get the behavior is helpful. An easy behavior to teach using a lure is 'spin'. By holding a treat in one hand and getting the dog to follow it around so their body turns in a circle, is an example of luring. It may require that the behavior is broken down; the dog is given the food treat when it turns a quarter of the way around, if it will not follow the lure through the complete motion early in the exercise.

As the dog learns to perform the behavior the lure is then 'faded'. The hand which once held the treat continues to be used to guide the dog around, but no longer holds a treat. After the dog completes the behavior he receives a treat from the trainer's other hand. Rather than luring the dog around, the hand which once held the treat becomes the 'cue' to perform the spin. This hand motion can be slowly altered so that the dog learns to respond to a smaller hand movement.

Bribes: While bribes can also be used to solicit behaviors from dogs and can work like a lure, their use should be limited. The consistent use of bribes to get behaviors rarely succeeds in teaching dogs to perform behaviors on cue in the face of other competing motivations. A bribe is a lure gone bad. While it may work in some instances it opens the door to the dog choosing something other than what is being offered in exchange for the desired behavior. Dogs may be more likely to go through this door when they have been bribed to perform behaviors.

Rewards: A reward is anything of value to a dog which he receives after performing a behavior. A reward may be; a food treat, a scratch behind the ear, praise, the toss of a ball, the chance to play with a toy, or the opportunity to do whatever the dog might want to do at the time; go out the door, chase a squirrel, or eat their dinner. Rewards always follow the desired behavior and must be of equal or higher value to the dog in relation to the alternatives the dog is facing. With practice and as a dog becomes proficient at a behavior, the reward does not always need to be provided, or can be dependent on the quality of the performance. The value of the reward can change, a word of praise replacing a piece of hot dog.

Rewards are powerful and effective for training because they turn the preceding behavior and the opportunity to perform it, into a rewarding experience for the dog. This occurs whether the trainer has a hot dog in their hand or not.