{"id":1452,"date":"2012-06-17T22:22:13","date_gmt":"2012-06-17T11:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=1452"},"modified":"2021-08-02T17:36:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T07:06:37","slug":"reward-training-techniques-dunbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dog-behaviour\/dog-training-dog-behaviour\/reward-training-techniques-dunbar\/","title":{"rendered":"Reward Training Techniques (Dunbar)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See\u00a0index<\/a>.<\/small><\/small><\/p>\n

Dunbar described five reward training techniques:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lure Reward Training<\/span>
\nHe called these \u2018techniques that cause the behaviour\u2019 and the \u2018Plan A\u2019 of dog training \u2013 that is, it should be the first option when teaching a dog a behaviour.\u00a0 More about this method is outlined in my lure reward training<\/a> post.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All or none reward training<\/span>
\nDunbar created \u2018all or none\u2019 reward training after thinking about dogs in shelter situations.\u00a0 These dogs need to default to good behaviour, or just be \u2018good\u2019 without any verbal cues.\u00a0 In all or none reward training, you just wait for the animal to do what you want, and reward it.\u00a0 For example, if you have a dog on leash and wait long enough, they\u2019ll eventually sit.\u00a0 The term \u2018all or none\u2019 comes from the behaviour: He\u2019s either sitting, or he\u2019s not.\u00a0 Dunbar advocates this way for inattentive or \u2018crazy\u2019 dogs, and suggests it should be the \u2018Plan B\u2019 in dog training.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Black<\/a>

Life rewards: Running, playing fetch. Much better than any boring treat!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shaping (often with clickers)<\/span>
\nShaping is the process of rewarding steps towards the desired behaviour \u2013 such as, if teaching a retrieve, teaching a dog to first look at an object, then touch it with any part of its body, then touch it with its mouth, then touch it with its teeth, etc, etc.\u00a0 Most clicker training works on shaping principles, and it is often used when training wild animals \u2013 like marine mammals in zoological parks.\u00a0 Dunbar called shaping \u2018okay\u2019 as a \u2018Plan C\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Autoshaping<\/span><\/p>\n

Autoshaping (or auto self shaping training) is the process of setting up an environment in such a way that the dog trains itself.\u00a0 For example, stuffing Kongs with food teaches a dog to lie down, chew a chew toy, and not bark.\u00a0 It\u2019s the principles of Dunbar\u2019s long term confinement area<\/a> and praise of kongs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Physical Prompting<\/span><\/p>\n

Physical prompting is Dunbar\u2019s least preferred method of training.\u00a0 In his opinion, it\u2019s pretty much a \u2018no no\u2019 for the reason that \u201cit\u2019s an earned privilege to touch an animal\u201d.\u00a0 It is hard to phase out physical prompting, and effective physical prompting is a skill.\u00a0 The only physical prompting that Dunbar uses is in puppy classes, when puppies may be diverted from inappropriate behaviour by a collar grab and a treat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which reward training technique should we use?<\/span><\/p>\n

Ian’s “Plan A” is lure reward training using food, fetch, or tug.<\/p>\n

Ian’s “Plan B” is all or none training, especially for adolescent dogs.<\/p>\n

Ian’s “Plan C” is normally shaping, but may be a Plan A for complex or specific behaviours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which rewards should we use?<\/span><\/p>\n

“Ultra Mega Secondary Reinforcers” is what food and toys can become when paired with life rewards (like fetch and tug, or playing with other dogs, going for a walk, sniffing) on a frequency basis.\u00a0 These food rewards are gradually faded out and replaced with life rewards.\u00a0 The ultimate for dog training, however, is when the dog finds the behaviour self-rewarding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are several techniques that Ian Dunbar outlined for using rewards in training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[12,164,11,376,375,255,460,245,461,124,53],"class_list":["post-1452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog-training-dog-behaviour","tag-dog","tag-dog-training","tag-dogs","tag-dunbar","tag-ian-dunbar","tag-reinforcement","tag-reinforcing","tag-reward","tag-reward-training","tag-rewarding","tag-training"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1452"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4942,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions\/4942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}