Overview

Vary the reinforcement. Once your pup responds well to a command in a particular situation it is no longer necessary to reinforce her every time. You need to act more like a slot machine when doling out reinforcements. This means that you sometimes will give nothing; sometimes you will praise your pup; other times you will give a treat or a game of fetch; and occasionally you will give a jackpot.

Puppies and dogs love to play a game of chance, especially if there is a possibility of a fabulous pay-off (a jackpot). A jackpot is a larger than normal and better than normal treat. When a pup receives a jackpot early in training he is learning that there is a possibility for tremendous rewards when the command is obeyed.

Good Toy, Bad Toy (Discrimination training) by Terry Ryan

Puppies decide which objects are toys and which are not toys by experimenting with the objects that they discover. The decisions puppies make are often not consistent with the decisions we would like them to make. We need to teach them which items are toys and which are not. This game will help you with that process.

Start with several legal puppy toys on the ground. When your puppy investigates one of the toys, reinforce him by:

• Throwing the toy and making it exciting;
• Or Click and treat.

After a couple of reinforcements, introduce an illegal toy. If your puppy investigates the illegal toy, ignore him. If he investigates a legal toy, reinforce him as above.

If necessary, make the illegal toy aversive by spraying it with a bad smelling/tasting substance, or throwing a shaker can to startle your pup. If you startle your pup be sure to encourage it to go to the good toy by waving the toy.

Assignments

• Teach your puppy about appropriate toys and inappropriate toys. Don't just leave it to chance that your pup will know the difference.
  
• Vary the reinforcement for the following behaviors:
  • Touching the end of a stick;
  • Making eye-contact away from a treat; and
  • Sit.
• Add a cue to the following behaviors:
  • Walking off-leash at your side;
  • Waving its paw
• Start shaping the recall behavior--see the Come When Called hand-out.

Hand-outs

• Come When Called
• Leash Walking