Exchange Rate

Even if our travel has been significantly limited in 2020, your pets continue to evaluate the exchange rate. Think of a pet's exchange rate as asking the question, "What's in it for me?" 

Anyone who has searched for a job can relate to this question. Questions prepared for the interviewer often include topics like scheduling, salary, and benefits such as sick days, vacation days, health insurance, and retirement contribution. We negotiate these things because they're important to us. 

Let's say you accept the job and exceed every goal set. At your annual review, your boss lauds your accomplishments and excellence. Next, your boss proceeds to explain that you will continue to be employed and no longer be paid. Wait, what now?  Unless you are independently wealthy and find the job intrinsically rewarding, you'll probably be searching for another job.

At least once a week someone asks me when they can stop rewarding their dog. No one ever asks me when they can stop punishing their dog. Think about that. 

The most common mistake I see pet owners make is they stop rewarding before their pet has fully learned the behavior. The dog sits on cue once or twice in the living room, so now the dog can sit on cue for any length of time, in any environment, with any distractions, at any distance from their person, right? I don’t think so. 

Unless your dog is doing a job she was bred to do, very few dogs find correctly responding to your cues intrinsically rewarding. However, there is a way to bring correctly responding to your cues closer to intrinsic rewards: give your dogs an extraordinary reward history with your cues. If you spend several months rewarding your dog every time she looks at you, your dog would very likely make a positive Pavlovian association with looking at you. Once she has, you can fade the treat rewards for attention and replace them with an opportunity to correctly respond to another cue, i.e. another opportunity to earn a reward. When your dog looks at you, ask your dog to sit, then reward your dog for sitting. Has your dog made a positive Pavlovian association with sitting? Now you can sequence attention and sitting together before asking for a third behavior, like down, which earns the reward. 

Exchange rates are fluid and change over time. You start with one behavior/one reward, then pivot to multiple behaviors/one reward. If you don’t build a strong foundation, this takes a lot longer to achieve. Keep the exchange rate in your dog’s favor, let’s train!