Train N Treat: Why Do We Use Food Rewards in Training?

From Tuesday 1 Oct 2013, cheerfuldogs.com will post a "Train N Treat" column which will be available every alternate Tuesday until "the cows come home". We hope that you'll enjoy the little training secrets that Chief Cheery Officer Kiyo, will share with you. If he hasn't approved the training method, it's not going into our trainer's toolkit :)!

Today, in our dog-friendly training tip for enlightened dog lovers - Kiyo shares the secret of why food rewards can be powerful motivators.

Using food rewards to teach Kiyo impulse control

"A dog can have different motivators to help it learn, e.g. food, play, a chance to chase something, a car ride, etc. When a dog starts learning something new, we choose the reward that motivates the dog most in that situation. 

For many dogs, food is one of the strongest natural rewards. Think of it this way - when you start a new job, your strongest motivator may be the salary. As you get better at your job, your priorities may begin to shift and you could become more motivated by other factors - enjoying your colleagues' company or appreciating the staff benefits. At the highest level, when you're thoroughly enjoying what you do, you work for job satisfaction.

For CCO Kiyo, food, car rides, swimming 
are some of his favourite motivators

Similarly, a food reward to a food-motivated dog is like the initial salary - it pays well and sets the pace of learning. As the dog gets better at performing the desired behaviour, food rewards may become integrated with other rewards (e.g. a game of tug with you, a tummy rub, etc.). The behaviour eventually becomes second nature to your dog. However, just as you wouldn't appreciate not being paid a salary when performing well at work has become second nature to you, neither should you expect your dog to completely forfeit its tangible rewards. That's when you put in place a 'variable bonus' reward system - better performances earn better rewards. That way, your dog continues to work willingly and cheerfully, as you and your dog hone your skills together, as a family."

Question:

What other kinds of rewards does your dog love?

Train N Treat: Helping your Dog Cope with Something Scary

From Tuesday 1 Oct 2013, cheerfuldogs.com will post a "Train N Treat" column which will be available every alternate Tuesday until "the cows come home". We hope that you'll enjoy the little training secrets that Chief Cheery Officer Kiyo, will share with you. If he hasn't approved the training method, it's not going into our trainer's toolkit :)!

Today, in our dog-friendly training tip for enlightened dog lovers - Kiyo shares how he overcame his fear of having eye-drops dribbled into his eyes. The same "Bad = Good" game can be tweaked to help your dog cope with scary situations.

"If your dog, Fido, loves having his ears cleaned, nails trimmed, teeth brushed and even eye-drops dribbled into his eyes, you’re a very lucky owner. Hug Fido (if he loves being hugged too) and reward him for doing a great job!

But not all dogs naturally enjoy being handled in certain ways, e.g. nail trims and ear cleaning, and can become scared and stressed by it. However, we can make things easier by helping them grow accustomed to being groomed or handled The first step of the learning process is always for your dog to form a positive and rewarding association with what it's not instinctively comfortable with.

From flinching and turning away from the eye-drop bottle,
Kiyo now holds still for his daily eye-drop application

When our dog, Kiyo (in the photo), needed a cataract operation, it was a struggle to apply eye-drops, as it was clearly a no-go zone for him. Instead of escalating the conflict, we turned to an evergreen training tip and made something ‘bad’ into something ‘good’ for Kiyo. Here’s a step-by-step guide that you can re-engineer for many scary situations for your dog. But if you’re not sure, do seek help from a reputable professional dog behaviourist or trainer. Your dog will thank you for it!

Read: “Putting the ‘Good’ into Something ‘Bad'"



Postscript: In case you're wondering how a game created for applying eye-drops could be tweaked to say, help a dog that lunges, barks and spins when it sees another dog - enjoy these pictures :). Because rewards-based, positive and humane training works!

Muffin with Chief Cheery Officer (CCO) Kiyo.
After Muffin was unfortunately attacked by 2 dogs some time ago, he'd spin, bark, growl and sometimes redirect his reactivity towards his humans. The "Bad=Good" game helped Muffin re-associate positive consequences with another dog and he was able to meet and chill out with Kiyo.

Rose with Kiyo.
Just like with Muffin, Rose would lunge, bark and spin when she saw dogs, even at a distance.
The "Bad=Good" game again helped Rose be able to hang out with Kiyo.

Birthday Bash for CCO Kiyo!

Birthday Kisses!

It all began a little more than 5 years ago... a once-loved Goldie was left at the shelter, reasons unknown. One day his Buddy and Meme (roughly pronounced as "mur-mur") came, they connected, and now here we are... this is Kiyo's family!

Kiyo thanks all his friends for their birthday wishes and woofs! And Aunty Irene for her special birthday song...
"Happy Birthday to you
You will always look cool
Happy Birthday, dear Kiyo
We will always love you"

Buddy decorating the place

Presies!!! Fun one from Buddy, something intellectual from Meme,
food for the soul from Aunty Irene

Guess which is for Kiyo...
 and which is for Buddy, Meme and Chichi?

All set for the birthday pup!

I can handle flames...

Better check in with Meme for further instructions...

You don't often see Chichi, but she looks after me too!

The best of buddies

Chuckling and learning together

A gentle kiss for Chichi

A banana and carrot muffin, sir?

Yes, please!

Piece of cake... er... muffin

I have to concentrate...

Play time at last!

Bits of muffin cleverly hidden in my new Dog Spinny

We had sparklers too! 

Tee-hee! You light up my life?

A happy day!

New bedtime companion

Cool is my middle name :)!

Train N Treat: effective, humane and rewarding way to play, learn and train with your dog!

Starting Tuesday 1 Oct 2013, cheerfuldogs.com will post a "Train N Treat" column. This column will be available every alternate Tuesday until "the cows come home". We hope that you'll enjoy the little training secrets that Chief Cheery Officer Kiyo, will share with you. If he hasn't approved the training method, it's not going into our trainer's toolkit :)!

Today, we'll look at dog-friendly training for enlightened dog lovers!

“Your dog can learn without fear or pain, and so can you. Traditional training methods tend to be punitive in nature, making use of corrective techniques to make a dog behave. But dog training has since come a long way from these traditional methods – we now have a better understanding of how dogs and other animals learn. Choke collars or chains, prong or pinch collars, shock collars - these tools are unnecessary in effective dog training.

Pay attention to your dog,
if you want it to pay attention to you

Humane and dog-friendly training works by motivating a dog to do something you like, rather than punishing it for doing something you don't. While dogs share a common ancestry with wolves, they are not wolves waiting for an opportunity to take over our lives. Hence there's really no need for us to be 'alpha', 'pack leaders', or 'dominant' to our dog. What we do need to do is to understand our dog’s behaviour and communicate with it in a way that motivates it to do what we want, in a way they find rewarding.

As dog owners, we have a choice - would we like our dogs to follow us because they want to, or do we want them to obey us out of fear? The choice is clear.”

cheerfuldogs.com's Chief Cheery Officer (CCO)

Tuesday 1 October, 2013

Kiyo, Chief Cheery Officer of cheerfuldogs.com
celebrates 7 good years!

cheerfuldogs.com officially celebrates the appointment of Kiyo as the Chief Cheery Officer (CCO). Kiyo brings with him 7 years of experience in helping to bring smiles to people, and some stress relief to canine friends who may not know how to behave around other dogs.

It so happens that it's also CCO Kiyo's birthday today! He certainly hopes that his presies are commensurate with his job scope :)!

Happy Birthday, Kiyo - the most cheerful of us all!