What Is Science Based Reward Training?

So called "balanced trainers" will often say that trainers must have more than one tool in their toolbox when justifying the use of aversives (prong collars, choke chains, e-collars, squirt bottles...)  Science based positive trainers have many tools in their tool box but NONE of these tools hurt or scare. Balanced trainers often jump to the aversive because they think a treat isn't working or "it's faster" but they don't step back and look at the big picture.  How does a science based trainer approach differ? We look at the big picture and then break it down and then focus on changing the dog's behavior. Let's take that common unwanted behavior of jumping on people.
 
1.  What is the unwanted behavior: Jumping
2.  When does it occur: People coming in the door 
3.  What is the motivator: Attention
4.  What is the wanted behavior: Sit

What do we need to do:  Manage the environment to prevent the behavior from continuing, teach and motivate the new behavior, teach the human how not ro reinforce the unwanted behavior when reintroducing the dog to the environment.

For the jumper we manage the environment by preventing Fido from being in the environment where the jumping occurs.  When someone is coming in the door have Fido outside or in another room. Next, we teach the new wanted behavior, sit, until sit is generalized to many situations, locations and with distractions.  Before we bring Fido back in we must teach the human that  any attention is good attention to a dog and rewards the unwanted behavior.  Yelling, waving your arms, pushing Fido away can be a favorite game.  Take all of this attention away by turning sideways with your arms crossed and no eye contact.   Say "sit" once and then wait for it. It's hard not to repeat the cue but it is important that the dog makes the choice to provide that behavior and it will get faster as they connect the reward to the behavior. 

​In the beginning  this takes time so don't try to do this part while you are in a hurry.  Jumping has given Fido a lot of attention in the past so he's going to have to work thru it in his brain that jumping no longer nets him any attention.  He may even do the sit a few times and then suddenly you may have what is called an "extinction burst".  This is when Fido, after doing well, reverts back to that unwanted jumping with a little more gusto in a last ditch attempt to get that jump to reward him with the attention.  He is thinking "it worked for a long time, surely it will work again".  Now is the time to stand firm.  Practice this every day with family members first, then ask friends to work with you.  Have treats by the door and tell visitors what you are working on and what you want them to do so that Fido has the best chance at being successful in learning to make the right choices.
 
This is how reward based training works.  We identify the challenge, identify the motivator (or reward). We identify the wanted behavior. We manage the unwanted behavior by preventing the situation. We teach the wanted behavior.  We ask for the wanted behavior while ignoring the unwanted behavior. This way we avoid punishments that the dog does not understand and, according to repeated studies, reward based training helps set up solid foundations that can prevent long term problems.  It allows the dog to learn to make right choices and build self control, creating a life long family member that you enjoy spending time with rather than a dog who is submitting out of fear of the next punishment. 
 

---