I not only found play as a great motivator for my dog Cookie, I found it useful in my puppy class.
talking to the top mule trainer in the country, the same one who did videos and seminars. I was. Not wanting to contradict this guru of mule training, I asked him to explain what he meant.
Brad told me that“ stubbornness” is created when people use the wrong approach to training. The trainer had discovered mules often don’ t want to do things unless they can see the value in complying and that trying to force compliance resulted in resistance.
After I hung up the phone, I realized that it wasn’ t my dog Cookie who needed training, it was me. I worked to change my approach and made sure I let Cookie choose to work with me, rather than trying to force her. I also discovered that Cookie loved play as a reward during training, and coupled that with using the Premack Principle, which suggests more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors. Some trainers describe this as,“ For the dog to get what he wants, he must first do what you want.” Cookie’ s“ stubborn streak” disappeared, and she became motivated to train with me. What Brad said about“ stubbornness” was correct. Just like mules, dogs should not be coerced, threatened, forced, or punished into compliance. With Cookie, strategically using play gave her motivation to train with me and respond to my cues.
After addressing Cookie’ s behavior issues, I soon found myself with a lot of Jack Russell Terrier owners as clients. I noticed a pattern in many of my clients with“ problem dogs.” The owners had watched the sitcom“ Frasier” and seen the Jack Russell named Eddie on the show. These owners wanted a dog just like Eddie: a cute dog full of antics that would be entertaining to own. What they found they had was an out-of-control dog that frustrated them.
At that time, I had recently read an article in Dog Fancy magazine about Eddie, whose real name was Moose. Ironically, Moose’ s first owners had found this dog doing many of the same behaviors my clients were complaining about. Moose’ s first owner was so
frustrated she gave the dog away to Mathilde de Cagny, who worked for Birds and Animals Unlimited.
I decided to call up Mathilde to find out if she could tell me what about her initial training helped with Moose’ s motivation to train and follow cues. Mathilde said when she first brought Moose home, she put him in the trailer and left him there while she went to work. When she got home, she found him up on the counter. She said to him,“ So, you like to jump.” She then took out a treat. Moose immediately jumped, trying to snatch the treat.
Mathilde recognized that Moose enjoyed the process of jumping, so she began to pair Moose’ s jump with the word jump. She then went on to shape the behavior she wanted, which was to say the word“ jump” and only reward the dog when he complied with the jump cue. This became the first verbal cue Moose learned to follow. Mathilde went on to leverage that initial training to create the welltrained dog people saw on“ Frasier.”
At that time I wrote an article for True Grit magazine, explaining how Mathilde’ s secret to success was using the Premack Principle. But it bothered me this dog was not motivated to work for a treat with his previous owners, no matter how high of value the treat. Yet somehow Mathilde had managed to change the dog’ s motivations around working for food. I wondered if she found a different way to employ the Premack Principle. Nothing came to mind until years later when I was reading about intrinsic motivation.
I like the following Google definition for intrinsic motivation:“ Intrinsic motivation is the drive to do something because it’ s interesting, enjoyable, or satisfying, rather than for some external reward. It’ s based on internal factors like natural interests, values, and passions.” If Mathilde had only tried using treats during training, Moose wouldn’ t have been motivated to follow her cues. His original owners had that issue. But the pairing of a treat with an intrinsic behavior gave the treat a different value. I recently wrote an article for the Chronicle of the Dog( WINTER 2023) called“ Adding Power to the Premack” to better explain this kind of training approach.
At first Leah races the fence because she is excited to see me, but then she transitions to intrinsically motivated jumping. Leah is totally enjoying the action of jumping, and even can’ t resist doing a small one after I ask her to stop and settle.
20 Better Training Through Education Photo: Peggy Swager