I train dogs and puppies (and parrots and other animals) and teach others how to train their pets using positive reinforcement. That means teaching behaviors by building contingencies between those behaviors with consequences the learner values. And food is the most common form or positive reinforcement used in teaching new behaviors. Small pieces packed with savory flavor and scent. Most often ‘people food’. But occasionally clients are reluctant to use ‘people food’ in training. I thought it would be worth addressing why ‘people food’ is good for dog training in this blog post.
When I hear an objection to using ‘people food’, it falls into two categories: dog health and dog behavior.
Let’s look at both.
Behavior Arguments
Clients may tell me they do not want to use human food because that will encourage their dog to do begging behaviors while they are eating or it will encourage their dog to do more ‘counter surfing’ (meaning putting paws and bodies up onto counters in search of yummy food).
Here is the thing about that argument. If reinforced, those behaviors will continue no matter what food you use in training. Remember that your pet is constantly learning from every waking moment. If you occasionally give your dog attention or even a nibble of your meal (whether accidentally by something you dropped or handing it to your dog), your dog will learn to stay by your chair at meal time. If barking at you or pawing at you happens just before that food delivery, well then, you have just taught your dog that those behaviors WORK to get that consequence. Uh oh!
If you are ‘pretty good’ at keeping smelly food from your counter top ‘most’ of the time, that is not good enough. Trust me, your dog will know when there is an opportunity. If you have not taught your dog a rock solid ‘leave it’ when it comes to counters, your dog will more than likely go for the food. That can be tricky for many people because it would require absolute consistency and practice. Management in the form of keeping food out of reach, preventing access to the counters, or teaching your dog to go to a place or having something else to do is often a needed plan for many households.
Health Arguments
Clients may be concerned that using ‘people food’ could cause their dog to gain weight or may be trouble if their dog has a sensitive stomach or food allergies.
To address those concerns I turned to Dr. Lisa White, DVM, my veterinary behaviorist with Veterinary Behavior Management Solutions, LLC.
When it comes to your dog’s sensitivity to foods, “If your dog has a very sensitive stomach, look for ingredient labels that are similar to your dog’s diet. It can be helpful to start with the protein source in your dog’s diet,” Dr. White said.
“Some ‘human’ whole foods are much healthier than (some) processed treats,” she added. “And variety
of different treats can be a good form of enrichment.”
As for calories, yes, those can definitely add up. They can whether or not you use ‘people food’ or ‘dog food’. “We just adjust the amount of the regular diet fed so that the dog’s total calorie intake stays steady. Or talk to your vet about some lower calorie suggestions,” she suggested. “Even dogs with food allergies can use food reinforcers, even those on hydrolyzed diets. The prescription food companies make hydrolyzed treats or canned version of the diet can be used or baked into smaller treats.”
If you are unsure about what foods are safe or toxic for dogs, check out this post by the ASPCA.
Ok, so now that I got that out of the way, here are a few dog training tips on using food effectively.
- Know what your dog thinks is REALLY AWESOME. The key words there are ‘YOUR DOG’, not you. So many times my clients have treats that THEY think their dog loves; however, their dog is much more attentive to what I have in my treat pouch.Not sure what your dog would prefer over another treat? Test it prior to your lesson. Give your dog a choice between several items and see which he chooses. Many dogs place string cheese (or other cheese), chicken, or meat in that high value category. The majority of dogs think my treat recipes are pretty high up there too. However, each animal may have different preferences.
- Ideally your treats should be in very small pieces (like the size of a pea) but very big in flavor. For tiny dogs or puppies, I use even less – often just a pinch of something. You can also swipe your finer along some soft cheese like Laughing Cow and let your dog lick the film on your finger. Or you can use a thick liquid base (like squeezable cheese) in a squeeze tube for your dog to lick.
- The more difficult the learning environment or task, the more important that treat value becomes. Whenever you have a lot of other competing reinforcers, if you much lower valuer reinforcers, your dog may very likely choose to focus on his other choices. Of course there are other factors involved too like how well your dog understands the behavior you are teaching or your dog’s history of paying attention to you vs the environment. But, as a general rule, make sure you are using reinforcers that can compete with the environment you are working in and the lesson.
- When you are doing classical conditioning training (in other words, teaching your dog to have a different reflexive responsive to something or simplified, a different emotional response), the higher the value of food the better. In this kind of work, you are teaching your dog to, for example, go from seeing a person as a predictor of elevated heartrate/barking/lunging to seeing a stranger as a predictor of salivation for yummy food/relaxed body muscles. For this reason, you do not want to skimp on the value of the food because you are teaching an association between a previously negative stimulus with whatever it is you are using.
- Understand that there is a difference between using food as a bribe and using food as a reinforcer. A bribe is something offered BEFORE the behavior occurs to influence the likelihood of the behavior occurring. A reinforcer is a consequence to behavior that increases the probability of the behavior re-occurring and strengthening. I may use a lure initially to get the behavior (because I have to ‘get’ the behavior in order to reinforce it) but I will remove that lure quickly. making sure that when you are training with food as positive reinforcement, that you are using food that your dog will value the most.
- Use a high enough rate of reinforcement to keep your dog wanting more.
If you take away nothing else, remember this. In order for you to be the most effective in teaching your dog with positive reinforcement, you have got to use what YOUR DOG values. And typically, foods that your dog values the most are ‘human foods.’
