BusyDog

Cookie Power!

Allison Bryant
912 Four Mile Church Rd.
Ball Ground, GA 30107
Ally ‘at’ busydog. com
Article first appeared in November 2003, Aussie Times

I recently got a new puppy. I am quite fond of her. I am training this puppy by positive reinforcement only. She never is punished/corrected for doing the wrong thing during a training session. She is only rewarded for doing the right thing. She learned all the agility obstacles (at puppy height) by the time she was four months. Plus, I could send her to any obstacle from 15 feet away.

I credit her progress to the power of the cookie. When I use the term ‘cookie’ I mean anything that the dog finds rewarding. This could be a treat. It could be a toy. Pokemon’s favorite reward is a rolled up newspaper. He likes to attack it and shred it.

Why am I writing an article about cookies? How complicated can they be? Cookies are (or should be) an integral part of your training program. They may not seem that important, but they are. Why do we give our dogs cookies? The reason is: To reward the dog for doing something right. The more important question (in my mind) is HOW should we give our dogs cookies? Timing and ‘value’ are two very important characteristics of cookies. If you have a cookie that a dog values highly (ie. Liver), he will be more interested in trying to figure out what you want. If you have regular old kibble, the dog will be blasé and not try as hard to figure out what you want. Often, he will find sniffing the ground more rewarding than the boring cookie and wander off. Make it worth your dog’s while to work with you. Pay him the big bucks (liver, steak) when he does stellar performances. When a dog finds something rewarding, he tends to repeat it.

In addition, the timing of the cookie reward is critical. If you time your reward right (and make it consistent) you can reduce your training time significantly. Often I see people training their dog and using ‘late’ rewards. The dog will do the correct performance (for instance, finally get his contact) and the owner will continue on doing the rest of the course. Then the owner meanders over to his bait bag and gives the dog a cookie. What has the dog learned in this situation? Did he associate the correct contact performance with the cookie? No. Did he associate finishing the course and walking calmly over to the bait bag with getting a reward? Yes. Did that training session increase the dog’s probability of performing the contacts correctly in the future? Probably not!

Dogs are not like people, they can’t mull over actions that happened in the past like we can. They don’t think “If I had just gotten that contact early in the course, I’d be eating mommy’s left over fajitas now.” Instant gratification is a huge factor in their learning process. If the cookie reward comes a minute or so after the desired performance, the dog will have no clue what caused the cookie to happen. (They can’t remember that long.) Instead, if the dog gets his contact and you squeal “Yeah what a good dog!” and cram a cookie in his face, he will think “Hmmm, there is something really good about the bottom of the a-frame!”

I want my dogs to think I’m fascinating. (Why? Because then they pay more attention to me. ) I want them to enjoy working with me. I also want to take advantage of a dog’s tendency to be a little gambler. If they think they might be able to win a cookie from me, they are interested. They never know when I might reward them with a cookie. If I can keep them guessing all the time, they think I am fascinating.

Start developing a puppy’s drive and motivation early. They are never too young to learn how to play with you. I like to sit on the ground with a puppy and play with a toy. I drag it around like it’s a little mouse or snake. I play peek-a-boo with it behind my back. I try to make the toy fun and let the puppy develop a love for the toy. Once that happens, I can use the toy as one of my many rewards. The puppy also learns that you can be as entertaining as her littermates.

When I train a puppy, one of the first things I teach them is two-on-two-off contacts. Why? Two reasons….1. I use this to teach the dog the ‘learning game’ and 2. What a dog learns first, he learns best. I don’t want the dog to learn how to do contacts improperly (this is a secondary benefit.)

The learning game is basically: “Look, I have a cookie… If you do what I want, I will give you a cookie.” The dog is free to make mistakes and not comply. However, he doesn’t get the cookie. (Remember, I have rewards that are very enticing to the dog, so non-compliance is a remote thought in the dog’s mind.) If the dog guesses and makes a mistake, he doesn’t get a cookie, but he gets encouragement to keep trying (sometimes, I will give him a 1/2 cookie for a good effort.)

I want the dog to work for the cookie. I want the dog to think, to guess, to work through a problem and come up with solutions. There are no wrong answers here. There are some answers that are better than others and the best ones, earn a cookie

For me and my dogs, this is a good training method. However, it hinges on one thing…the power of the cookie (ie. The value of the motivator). You must have a very good motivator (cookie) to keep the dog wanting to guess.

For example, if I offer you 25 cents to go wash my car, you aren’t going to leap up to do it. However, if I offer you $1000 to do it, you will ask when and where.

The same principle is true for dogs. If you offer them their daily kibble as a reward, they won’t be too gung-ho about performing (although some dogs are quite piggy and you can get away with this.) However, if you pull out the liver when it’s time to train weaves, you will get a much different response. You will probably get some pretty intense desire to work.

When you are training difficult tasks, or trying to get the dog to offer behaviors, you really need to bring out the big guns. You need something that your dog really values. (Please don’t say your dog should do it ‘just because he loves you’. You don’t go to work every day unless you get paid right? I don’t.) I always save leftovers from dinner and use it in training. I always use different treats. Never use the same ones for each training session. I like cheesecake, but I don’t want to eat it every day!

Liver, steak, chicken, cat food, peanut butter,…the list of yummy treats goes on. Dogs love most kinds of food that they don’t get often. So mix it up. You should see an improvement in their attitude, speed and willingness to keep trying.