Will I Give Treats Forever?
It’s not uncommon that I get asked “Will I be giving treats forever?”. It’s hard for me not to reply, “Don’t you like to get paid when you go to work?”
When I ask our dog, Boon to perform a behavior like to come to me, to stand/do her PT exercises, or to go to her pillow, Boon gets paid. I think sometimes saying I’m giving her a treat increases the misunderstanding that giving this piece of food is some kind of nice thing to do rather than a primary reinforcer to get Boon to repeat the desired behavior that I cued.
Let’s break down what positive reinforcement means. Something is a reinforcer if it makes the behavior happen again. In this case, we are delivering something positive like food or possibly a toy once a behavior is performed in order to get it to happen again. We actually don’t know if the food is a reinforcer until the next time we cue the behavior and whether our dog (or any learner) chooses to perform the behavior again. Think about this the next time you call your dog back to you and you give them a pat or say “Good boy”. The next time you call your dog, does it come to you? If no, then it’s feedback to you that an atta boy pat isn’t a reinforcer to your dog (Note there can be several factors contributing to this situation so take a look at “My Dog Isn’t Great at Coming When Called”).
Why do I use food as payment to (hopefully) reinforce a behavior?
Primary reinforcers increase behaviour by delivering things that meet our learner’s physiological needs, in the case of a dog things like food, water or sex. Food is really the easiest to deliver so that’s why I use it. I like to observe how my learner reacts to different types of food in order to see what might be low value but still a reinforcer and what might be a high value reinforcer. Whenever possible, I try to use the lowest value reinforcer possible that still gives me the intended result. That way I can reserve the higher value reinforcers for behaviors that might be more elusive or in need of higher payment.
Does this mean giving a pat and saying “Good boy” isn’t a reinforcer? Remember it’s all in the eye of the learner, some dogs seek out pats and may find them reinforcing. Secondary reinforcers increase behaviors by delivering things we have learned to value, for example, the velcro dog who loves (ie values) your attention may repeat the cued behavior if you pay by saying “Good boy” and giving a pat.
The challenge sometimes with secondary reinforcers is figuring out what our learner values. It’s kind of like thinking about intrinsic rewards for humans vs extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards can vary widely and wildly across individuals, what works for one individual may be punishing for another. It takes observation and follow through to figure out what our learner values and could operate as a secondary reinforcer. I’d argue that we tend to anthropomorphize our pets and think that they value our pats in part because we like to give them pats. Again, the proof is in the pudding and you’d need to observe to see if the pat increases the likelihood that the behavior will happen the next time it’s cued.
Let’s get back to the original question. I’d argue “Yes”, you’d have better likelihood of your learner, your dog repeating the behavior upon cue if you provide appropriate positive reinforcement. Initially when learning a cue, I’d consistently use a primary reinforcer like food to get the response to the cue to be fluent under a variety of different situations and conditions. Once the cue is fluent, you could alternate between a primary reinforcer (food) and a known secondary reinforcer (my dog likes her head to be rubbed because she has limited use of her rear legs and can’t scratch herself there). Hence I’m not completely ditching delivery of a reinforcer after the behavior is well learned but alternating between primary and secondary reinforcers.
Cheers, Tracy
