Clean Run - December 2014 - 55

Reduced Reward Schedules
Reducing reward schedules can also be
very stressful for your dog. It is not fair
to be a constant dispenser of rewards
in training and then suddenly withhold
all rewards in your first competitions. In
order to reduce stress for your dog, you
will need to consciously introduce your
dog to a reduced reward schedule in
training situations.

December 14 | Clean Run

One of the easiest ways to do this is to think in terms of rewarding effort rather
than behaviors. Since all new learning requires effort, your reward schedule when
teaching new behaviors should be 100%. As a behavior becomes more fluent, it is
not logical to reward every attempt if the dog does not have to put out real effort
to perform. For example, when you first teach your dog to sit, he must concentrate
to learn this behavior.
© DIANE LEWIS PHOTOGRAPHY

is that you will avoid becoming frustrated
or upset during training sessions. If you
are experiencing unpleasant emotions it
will be impossible to hide that from your
dog. Since many dogs are highly sensitive
to their trainer's moods, they may come
to associate training situations with an
unhappy trainer. You don't want your dog
to be nervous and worried while training;
you want him to be excited and enthusiastic! To avoid poisoning the experience
for your dog, you need to go into training
sessions with a positive mindset. This will
be easier to accomplish if you have a clear
and reasonable set of training expectations and a plan for achieving your goals.

Eventually, the cue of "sit" should cause an automatic response. Your dog won't have to think
much in order to respond. At this point, "sit"
should only be rewarded if it was somehow better than average. Maybe it was faster or straighter or closer. Maybe it happened in spite of a high
level of distraction in the environment. What you
are now rewarding is not "sit," but "better-thanaverage sit." As the average sit improves, your
expectations should increase. At some point, the
behavior will reach your desired level and the
reward schedule must decrease. An easy way to
do this is by moving to a new behavior or set of
behaviors. The occasional fantastic "sit" might still be rewarded, but the majority of
the dog's rewards will come for whatever new skills are being learned. By the time
you are ring ready, your reward schedule for all required ring behaviors should have
dropped dramatically.
If you are still rewarding often, then it is likely you should not be trialing yet. If your
dog cannot perform at home without classic rewards for the amount of time that
you will perform in the ring, then he is either not sufficiently fluent on the work or

55


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Clean Run - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - December 2014

Contents
Clean Run - December 2014 - Cover1
Clean Run - December 2014 - Cover2
Clean Run - December 2014 - Contents
Clean Run - December 2014 - 4
Clean Run - December 2014 - 5
Clean Run - December 2014 - 6
Clean Run - December 2014 - 7
Clean Run - December 2014 - 8
Clean Run - December 2014 - 9
Clean Run - December 2014 - 10
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Clean Run - December 2014 - 37
Clean Run - December 2014 - 38
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Clean Run - December 2014 - 48
Clean Run - December 2014 - 49
Clean Run - December 2014 - 50
Clean Run - December 2014 - 51
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Clean Run - December 2014 - 54
Clean Run - December 2014 - 55
Clean Run - December 2014 - 56
Clean Run - December 2014 - 57
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Clean Run - December 2014 - 66
Clean Run - December 2014 - Cover3
Clean Run - December 2014 - Cover4
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