Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Life, Dog Musings, Dog Training | Posted on 24-08-2010
Tags: clicker training, dog, Dog Training, gambling, intermittent reinforcement, positive reinforcement, variable reinforcement
When we’re teaching or shaping a new dog behavior, many of use the click/treat strategy that marks the behavior (click or verbal marker like YES!) just before we reward the behavior (with food or a toy). Dogs need to know every time they get it right … at first. Later, we introduce more intermittent reinforcements, where the dog doesn’t know which correct response will earn a reward. We’re told that a variable reinforcement pattern is the MOST motivating one out there.
