Rethinking Treat Training

Well, we've been working on our training exercises with Rewley this week. So far he knows "Sit", "come", "watch me", "let's go" and somewhat, "heel". Oh, and of course he knows "dinner time" very well. Now, I had been a big fan of the Monks of New Skete approach of praise-only training. I still think it's a better way to go, but I also realize you probably need to be an experienced dog trainer or have someone instruct you in the techniques. For us, we're not as in-tune to how to get a puppy's attention, and we're working on it. But the treats help.

I can actually relate the treat training to what I learned getting my Psychology degree. Based on the theory of operant conditioning (think Pavlov's dogs), motivation can be thought of as of as being of two kinds: intrinsic and extrinsic. With intrinsic motivation, you want to do something because you enjoy it. Like eating, for a puppy. With extrinsic motivation, you want to do something for another reason, like a prize or reward (positive reinforcement). For a puppy, this could be sitting so as to get a treat. The treat then reinforces the desired behavior (eg, sit), so the puppy will want to do the behavior in the anticipation that he may get a treat. A puppy doesn't find much intrinsic motivation in doing tricks or being obedient, so you need to use some kind of reward. But then shouldn't praise be sufficient? Sure, but for Rewley, we've noticed that he's VERY obedient when he's about to get dinner, and very excited about food, even if he's just eaten.

So the treats win for now, but they won't be used forever.