Hello there and welcome to the first in what will hopefully be a long line of blog posts! This post is intended to help owners of dogs which are not too keen on food-based rewards, to find alternative rewards which will motivate their dog and help to speed up the learning process. I decided on this topic after I posed the question of "what to write for my first blog entry?" on my Facebook, almost immediately the suggestion came back: "Rewarding a dog who really is not interested in food." This suggestion brought me back to my starting days; before I began to work as a behaviourist I got what is undoubtedly the best guide to dog behaviour there is- a puppy. Jez was a Springerdor (a cross between Labrador and Springer Spaniel), now anyone who owns a lab will know that they will sell their souls for a piece of cheese, so basic training was easy enough and he was happy to learn anything for a bit of Stilton. Roll on the adolescent months and Jez started to develop the all too common behavioural problem of chasing. Now since chasing is an internally rewarding behaviour, food wasn't tempting enough; when he saw something which triggered his prey-drive (squirrels, rabbits, sheep) he would shut down his other senses and become oblivious to my commands, Stilton and - I suspect- even my presence! The internally rewarding buzz of chasing was more important. So I began studying, but the problem is that most books on dog training don't give you many reward alternatives, simply food. This is where I began reading about behaviour and I suddenly understood why nothing I was doing was working; the food wasn't high value enough to compete with the internal reward of chasing, so the solution was not to compete with that drive, but to find an outlet for it that I could control. For me and Jez, this outlet was a tennis ball. A tool I have not stopped appreciating to this day! Several weeks of training later and Jez played fetch instead of chasing. I also took the opportunity to teach him a reliable 'Stop' command just in-case. Jez taught me more invaluable lessons about rewards in those few weeks, than any book on training ever had thus far:
The list of things which dogs find rewarding include, but are not limited to:
It is important to state at this point that- like us humans- dogs are all individuals and have different ideas of what a "reward" is; I once worked with a dog who loved the vacuum! Being hoovered was great fun as far as she was concerned. The best reward for your dog is whatever he thinks it is. So bearing the list above in mind there are many rewards other than food which we can use to motivate our dogs. If we're dealing with disruptive behaviours we can usually use the functional reward which I'll get to in a bit, but first let's make sure food really is ruled out... It is true that some dogs prefer toys, games and attention to food rewards - this is particularly true of dogs with a high drive in my experience; most of the Collies and Springers I've worked with tend to prefer a ball or frisbee to treats- however, as food is a primary reinforcer (the dog needs it to live) most dogs can still be motivated by food. Other than a preference for toys, there are some reasons that our dogs may turn their noses up at food and it is important to have your dog checked by a vet to rule out any medical reasons. Another common reason could be anxiety which can also cause a dog to reject food as they're built to travel light when in a potentially threatening situation. Providing that none of the above are a contributing factor, there are some things you can do to make food treats more appealing:
The final note I have to add is on functional rewards; the functional reward can be described as what your dog gets out of the behaviour they're performing. Say for instance you have a dog which jumps up at you for attention- the functional reward would be your attention. Now lets say you've decided that behaviour is irksome and you'd rather it stop but treats aren't an option- you would simply withdraw your affection and wait out the jumping up for a more desirable behaviour, such as a sit, the second your dog plonks his butt on the floor you lavish him with your attention and praise, thus using the functional reward to reward your desired behaviour. I use this example for simplicity but the basic rules of functional rewards can be applied to most problematic behaviours- once you've deciphered what the functional reward is to your dog. So in summery; when working with a dog who isn't keen on food, here are the rules to abide by:
I hope I have given you some ideas to play with and perhaps some tools to help make training your non-foodies easier, if you've any thoughts or questions- please write them in the comments below. |
Copyright Michaela Gledhill
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