Dog training uses two stages: continuous rewards while learning new behaviors, then random rewards on a variable schedule. Mixing regular meals with occasional treats and rare jackpots keeps motivation high while using less food overall, based on the same psychology that makes slot machines compelling.
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If your dog figures out one day you've completely phased out the rewards, they'll eventually stop doing that thing. However, continuously reinforcing eventually loses reinforcement. So either way, you end up with a dog that doesn't do the things you've trained them. So here is the best thing I've ever learned as a dog trainer for long-term results. We're going to be looking at two things: when you should be rewarding and what you should be rewarding with. So when you're first ever teaching your dog something you do reward every single time. But then what? Because we do not want to lose that motivation. So studies have shown something called a variable ratio creates the highest motivation, not in just dogs but people. And this is exactly how slot machines work and why they are so addictive. So now for the rest of the dog's life, we are going to reward on a completely random schedule. 2 in a row, then after 2, and then after 3, and then— well, I'll get to these in a minute. But we're completely randomizing when we reward the dog. One tip: if you're teaching something like stay, you can't reward after a certain amount of reps, so we reward after a certain amount of time, and you randomize that. After 2 seconds, then 3 seconds, and then 1 second, then 10 seconds. Because if you're always making it harder and harder for the dog, you're going to lose that drive as well. So that's when. Now, what do we reward the dog with? Just like a slot machine, we are going to randomize the rewards. I like to have about 75% of the rewards be their normal meals, and then some treats. But occasionally we're going to throw in random jackpots, and that gets so much drive from dogs and also people. And in the long term, you end up using less food and toys, but you have more drive than ever.
