I often reward a dog that has made an error in training. This is seriously counter intuitive, since most of us know that the way to increase a behavior is to reward it, and the way to decrease a behavior is to ignore or punish it. So why on earth would I reward a dog that has performed in a manner that I do not wish to see repeated?
To preserve attitude.
There are several instances when rewarding a mistake is a good decision. Here are a few examples:
The handler has created the problem behavior. For example, the handler routinely drifts into their dog while heeling, causing the dog to develop a habit of heeling wide. Because the dog has been trained to heel wide, it is likely that he believes heeling wide is correct. If you suddenly withhold rewards before the dog has learned the new heeling position then they are effectively being punished – which threatens attitude. Instead, retrain the handler and allow the dog to adopt the new position naturally by helping the dog, incrementally raising criteria, and rewarding in position.
The dog believes she has performed correctly. Lyra sometimes returns around the high jump with her dumbbell. She comes back around the jump at full speed, clearly believing that she has done a wonderful thing. She does not yet understand that she must always return over the jump – even when I throw poorly or she is moving at speed. Lyra has not learned the criteria – she cannot meet criteria if she does not know what they are. Under these circumstances, I reward her for the speed and enthusiasm she shows, and simultaneously I make a mental note to train the return over high jump so that she will be correct in the future.
The dog lacks confidence or shuts down easily. I am focused on keeping the dog “in the game” – if a fragile dog senses any disapproval then they tend to shut down or go into avoidance. Dogs that have shut down are impossible to train so I avoid it at all costs. That means I may reward an error to keep the dog working for me. Dogs that are lacking in confidence need to be trained in a manner that allows them to be right almost all of the time – learning problems must be broken down into tiny pieces. Of course, this is the best way to train all dogs, but with fragile dogs it is essential.
The dog misreads the handler’s cue. Here’s an example: in the process of giving a “sit” hand signal, the trainer brings their hand too high in the air, effectively giving the hand signal for “down” as their hand returns to their side. (this is quite common; watch yourself in the mirror if your dog has a habit of downing immediately after sitting). If the dog goes down, I will reward the behavior – I’d rather have the dog remain confident in their abilities (and fix the handler) than have the dog become a slow or passive workers in order to avoid mistakes.
My rule of thumb is to prioritize attitude over accuracy; it’s pretty easy to get accuracy in a dog that wants to be in the game with you. Once your dog has plenty of attitude and is as excited about work as you are, then you can begin to raise the criteria for rewards. In obedience this approach is somewhat novel because speed and attitude are not judged in competition, but some of us choose to train for it anyway. You’ll have a lot more fun and your working career will last longer.
Another example, in agility, is continuing on in spite of a run by or off course, especially in young dogs, or even celebrating it! Much of the time it is handler error, and the rest of the time it is trainer error 😉 so I just keep going, which is fun and rewarding to the dog.
Thank you for continuing to post thought provoking and helpful topics!
This is soooo GREAT ! I wish I had know they with my first Dog !!!!
I meant to say,, I wish I had known this with my first Dog !
Denise, thanks for this brilliant post. I have never heard the term “fragile” dog before, but that is a great term for the tender psyche…I have used this methodology, but never with the benefit of the analysis you’ve put into it which is really helpful. Thank you!
Hey, I do that too! Thanks for the reassurance that it’s not a nutty idea, but my dogs seem to do better when I pretend they are successful even if they’re only sorta successful. I want them to have fun even if I screwed up a training session by skipping over a step too quickly or by attempting something in a location that leaves them feeling vulnerable or too distracted to do a perfect backup. So I reward the half-vast behavior, and maybe it’s cheating because I’m changing my criteria on the fly from ”a fast back up 20 feet” to ”back up 6 feet feet near big distraction.” All I know is, it seems to be working! My dogs are pestering me to go train the entire time I’ve been reading and sending this note!They are slowly getting more talented, and who cares really, I mostly just want them to be happy! I guess I better get out there!
Love your comment on fragile dogs. Having one, I need to remember to reward more in order for him to stay in the game.
I couldn’t agree more! Personally, I need to put this more into practice. I tend to feel conflicted about my desire to keep to criteria versus my desire to keep drive. I need to just make the decision that my priority needs to always be drive and so therefore I need to always reward that first and foremost. And secondly, I need to just accept the fact that 99% of the time, the problem is handler-error not dog-error, and thus I shouldn’t withhold R+. I was proud of me that this weekend, at an agility demo, when my dog missed something, or didn’t quite execute as planned, I kept to my decision to just go with it. I have to say, my dogs had the best time ever, as did I.
I think it’s more fun for both of us to assume I’m the idiot.
Do you ever at any point, push the dog to work through a few non-rewarded attempts when you are increasing difficulty (eg farther sends, tougher angles, harder searches)? Do you try to build a frustration tolerance at some point? Or does this depend on the dog’s temperament?
Brilliant post!!! Something I live and train by! 🙂
This is great. I have rewarded attitude many times and never really understood why this would be a problem, but that to me is the beauty of being a novice trainer just figuring out what works me and my dog!
Your thoughts are worded brilliantly. I couldn’t agree more. I often use these same techniques with shelter dogs. They live with so much stress on a daily basis it’s necessary to reward as much as possible. I consider many of them “fragile” dogs – whether they stress high or stress down.
Another thing that I struggle with, even though I generally agree with the principle. But it can still be hard to hold to it, in the middle of a training session, as you’re trying to quickly weight attitude vs accuracy. If I’m not sure, I tend to fall back on still rewarding the dog for their effort, just with less enthusiasm than if they’d also been accurate.
Remember back on your earlier blog of “Happy Birthday Lyra” I asked . . . “so how do eventually stop the jumping up on you when she returns from a retrieve?”
I knew I was not going to get a reply, since you HAD stated this was not a training blog 🙂 . . . but I asked anyway. And in this latest entry you have answered my question (which I eventually sort of figured out based on your other videos). Other trainers would have probably started to . . . . . . to nip her jumping up at you, but you chose to allow her to do it to keep her enthusiasm up (I’m hoping that’s the right conclusion) and I’m guessing will eventually work on her maybe scaling that hard jumping back to a milder form of pushing off of you. 🙂
LOVE your blogs and videos!!!! Thank you Denise!
You’re right about why I didn’t’ respond:). I have started teaching Lyra the difference; it I throw my hands in the air she can jump on me and if I can put my hands behind my back or at my sides she is to come to front. If she’s within a few feet she understands the difference; over time I’ll have her come further distances to a formal front. Right now if she jumps on me when I’m asking for a formal front, I just take a step backwards after she bounces and ask her to front again. She does; I take the dumbbell and then we party.
Very nice post thanks! Jet gets really super excited about his orbee ball. He loves it, and when we train at home, he will scream at me when I have it in my hand as a reward. Since he’s very soft, I don’t ask for much precision at home yet, I’m still working on keeping that attitude. If I take the orbee ball to a park or trial area, he’s not as excited about it. In fact, he’s not really much interested in it at all, and responds better to food and our other games. I just so want to keep his enthusiasm, that the precision isn’t that important to me. And if screaming at home is a part of it, that’s okay for now. 🙂