{"id":1689,"date":"2012-11-04T17:53:38","date_gmt":"2012-11-04T07:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=1689"},"modified":"2021-08-02T17:39:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T07:09:12","slug":"schedules-of-reinforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dog-behaviour\/dog-training-dog-behaviour\/schedules-of-reinforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Schedules of Reinforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

When training dogs, consciously or not, we undertake a pattern of delivering rewards.\u00a0 Sometimes, we give a dog a reward for every correct behaviour, sometimes the dog gets the reward for 3 times they get it right, or sometimes we mix it up and we may reward a sit-stay for 3 seconds, and then 8 seconds, then 5 seconds, and so forth.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, at some point, all the different patterns of rewards (\u201cschedules of reinforcement\u201d) have been given names and classified. First, I\u2019ll describe these schedules of reinforcement, and then the \u2018better\u2019 alternative (according to Dunbar but also according to me!).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Continuous Reinforcement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Continuous reinforcement means rewarding a dog every time a response is performed.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/em>\u00a0 Every time you call your dog, you reward them with a treat.<\/p>\n

Pros:<\/em> This often builds up a very high level of response, as the dog understands they will get a treat, and so are highly motivated to accomplish the behaviour.<\/p>\n

Cons:<\/em> It\u2019s easy to run out of treats!\u00a0 Because of the nature of the schedule, you reward everything \u2013 including \u2018sloppy\u2019 or \u2018slow responses\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fixed Schedule \u2013 Ratio or Interval<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fixed schedule means that the reward is delivered on a consistence basis, though intermittently.\u00a0 Ratio or interval refers to number of responses and time passed during response respectively.<\/p>\n

Example: <\/em>Fixed Ratio: When your dog barks at the door, you normally ignore it the first and second time, but when they bark thrice, you let them in.\u00a0Interval Ratio: This is difficult to conceptualise in dog training, as it assumes that the dog is maintaining a behaviour.\u00a0 The best example is training the stay: For every 10 seconds that the dog maintains a stay, you return and give the dog a treat.<\/p>\n

Pros:<\/em> Quick way for dog to learn. Good way to maintain behaviours. Prepares a dog to work without always getting rewarded (which is particularly useful for sports like obedience, where the dog cannot get rewarded in the ring).<\/p>\n

Cons: <\/em>Not as quick for dogs to understand as with continuous reinforcement.\u00a0 The dog\u2019s behaviour make become \u2018scalloped\u2019, with more enthused and motivated behaviours nearer to the reward (e.g. if the dog catches on that they only get rewarded for every 3rd<\/sup> sit, they will be more enthused about doing the 3rd<\/sup> one than the 1st<\/sup> and 2nd<\/sup>).\u00a0 When the intervals or ratios are too long, the dog may \u2018strike\u2019 (i.e. quit perfoming the behaviour).\u00a0 Ratios are difficult to implement in practice, as it normally hard to count and train at the same time! \u00a0Moving away from a fixed schedule often demotivates the dog (e.g. if the dog is used to being rewarded at every 3rd<\/sup> behaviour, for this to cease, often means the dog will abruptly stop performing the behaviour).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Variable schedules – ratio or interval<\/strong><\/p>\n

Variable schedules are when the animal is rewarded at changing consistency.\u00a0 Ratio refers to the number of repetitions inbetween rewards, and interval refers to the time period inbetween rewards.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/em> \u00a0Ratio: When you reward your dog for \u2018sit\u2019, you don\u2019t reward them everytime. Instead, you reward them for their first successful behaviour, then you miss a couple, and reward the 4th<\/sup> one, then you reward the 6th<\/sup> behaviour, then you reward the 9th<\/sup> behaviour, and so forth.\u00a0 (This is the principle that poker machines work on.)\u00a0 Interval: Again, if you have a dog in a stay, you could reward the dog for 5 seconds having passed, then 10 seconds, then 8 seconds, then 15 seconds, then 7 seconds, and so forth. So you are rewarding the dog based on a variable time interval schedule.<\/p>\n

Pros:<\/em> This reward schedule works well and is good for maintaining behaviours.<\/p>\n

Cons: <\/em>Too complex for any person to apply.\u00a0 It is very much a laboratory\/computer type of training<\/a>, and is too complex for people to implement.\u00a0 If you stretch the ratio too far, the dog will \u2018strike\u2019.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dunbar\u2019s Criticisms<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Dunbar\u2019s eyes, these reinforcement schedules aim to maintain behaviours, but can allow for the quality of their behaviours to diminish.\u00a0 In fact, he says,<\/p>\n

“The various schedules of reinforcement are theoretically interesting but the majority of them have limited practical application.”\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t think these schedules are of use in puppy or dog training.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dunbar\u2019s Alternative: Differential Reinforcement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead, Dunbar calls for differential reinforcement.\u00a0 In this schedule, we reward only the best 10% of responses, and the rest are ignored.\u00a0 The best of the best responses get the best rewards.\u00a0 <\/strong>He argues that this system “maintain[s] high-levels of responding and ensure[s] ongoing\u2026 improvement”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think Dunbar has been overly critical of the schedules of reinforcement.\u00a0 The truth is, we often reward dogs on \u2018differential reinforcement\u2019 anyway.\u00a0 It\u2019s very natural for us to be more rewarding to dogs when they perform the behaviours we want in the way we want.<\/p>\n

In my house, it\u2019s not uncommon for me to ask my dogs to perform behaviours around the house.\u00a0 The common one is with my young dog Myrtle, who I often ask to \u2018drop\u2019.\u00a0 If she\u2019s drops slowly, lazily, or just in an undesirable way, she gets a \u201cgood dog\u201d and is released.\u00a0 If she drops fast, enthusiastically, instantly, at a distance, and with great focus and attention, she gets a \u201cgood dog\u201d, she gets to chew on me, we run to the treat cupboard and get some food, and generally make a great fuss.\u00a0 We also have multiple levels in between, with moderate responses getting more moderate rewards.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019m exceptional in this way.\u00a0 Indeed, many positive trainers use \u2018jackpots\u2019 (\u2018awesome rewards\u2019) when a dog does something exceptional in training.\u00a0 A long time ago, I posted on \u2018mini-jackpots<\/a>\u2019, where I reward more successful attempts with more treats than average responses.<\/p>\n

I agree with Dunbar in that differential reinforcement works well, but disagree with his assertion that we are not currently implementing it.\u00a0 Most people naturally get enthused when their dog behaves well, and rewards more elaborately for these responses.\u00a0 Furthermore, the term and use of \u2018jackpotting\u2019 is common.\u00a0 For these reasons, differential reinforcement, though effective, isn\u2019t particularly novel or unique to Dunbar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The schedules of reinforcement, and Dunbar’s take on them.<\/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":[12,164,11,255,123,268],"class_list":["post-1689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog-training-dog-behaviour","tag-dog","tag-dog-training","tag-dogs","tag-reinforcement","tag-rewards","tag-schedules-of-reinforcement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689"}],"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=1689"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4960,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689\/revisions\/4960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}