The Power of the Spontaneous Reward.
We all desire to have an obedient dog that is incredibly attentive and responds quickly to our every command. It’s true that this can only be achieved with regular consistent training. However, there is one simple element you can add to your training that can very quickly begin producing these desired actions within your dog.
Take a moment to reminisce with me. You’re in 10th grade, last period (for me, it was unfortunately algebra), and it’s Friday at 2:30. Your teacher is still lecturing but all you can think about is hearing the bell ring signaling your escape into weekend bliss. The longer the teacher talks the more often you glance at the clock. As the second hand glides past each mark you become more and more impatient. You feel your leg start to bounce up and down rapidly. You’re fumbling your pencil around in your hands. Your attention is anywhere else but on what the teacher is saying. Finally the bell alarms. Unknowingly you instantly feel the release of a dopamine rush as you jump to gather your things and escape to freedom. As you pass through the door your attention returns to the present allowing you to regain focus on the world around you once more.
The attention span of humans can vary from person to person. In the same manner they can vary from dog to dog. Certain factors such as breed, age, training level, etc can affect the attention of dogs. According to most Veterinarians, the attention span of dogs can range from 2 seconds up to 27 seconds for a single thought.
How does understanding the attention span of dogs help us as handlers? For starters, it can help us shape our expectations for our dogs. As working dog handlers, we demand extremely high performance from our dogs daily and we tend to demand even more from our dogs during our training sessions. For many, our training sessions must come with a high level of demand especially when preparing for obtaining certifications. Additionally, understanding the dog’s attention span can allow us to truly understand just how powerful rewarding our dog truly is. Everything you experienced when the bell rang on a Friday when you were in school is likely equal to the same release of tension your dog experiences when you throw him the toy after he's been obedient to your every command for some time. Understanding this we can easily see how rewarding the dog more often would be beneficial however, let's not stop there.
Let’s go back once more… 10th grade, Friday at 2:30, teacher lecturing. Only this time your teacher is throwing out pieces of candy for every correct answer that is given. Your attention is now somehow amazingly able to remain on your teacher. Yes the bell is soon approaching however, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to solve for y and have a mini Snickers bar launched across the room in your direction.
What you now see in this equation (pun intended) would be an example of a spontaneous reward. When it comes to training your dog, rewarding spontaneously can be instrumental in shaping your dog’s behavior. Spontaneous rewarding during training can lengthen your dog’s attention span and work wonders for keeping his focus on you and the task at hand. Let’s discuss what exactly this looks like.
Take for example obedience training. You may typically train heelwork, sit, down, and stay all in one training session which is common practice for most handlers. The majority of handlers will begin with their dog in a seated heel position, conduct heelwork with multiple turns in both directions, stop to do sit and down commands, maybe integrate some distance control training, return to heelwork, then finally come to a finish where they then reward and praise their dog. Again, very common practice.
Training for a lengthy duration without reward can at times produce unwanted behaviors from your dog. Such behaviors such as nosing the grass during heelwork or breaking the stay during distance control training, etc. are often the result of boredom or anxiety. Both of which from my experience can be mitigated with proper rewarding of the dog. So just what does this look like?
Take the normal training session, as described above, and sprinkle in moments of rewarding throughout. You would begin your training with heelwork and while walking in stride with your dog you would randomly drop the toy in front of them and begin praising and playing with your dog. This may happen after 30 paces or within the first 5 paces. During the sit and down drills you would give the sit or down command and then immediately give the toy and praise to them upon them performing the requested action. Sometimes it would be after the first sit or down action or maybe after two or three command and action instances. For the distance control parts you would give the sit or down command and when the dog performed it you would randomly throw the toy to them and begin praising and playing with them. Instead of completing all the commands and then calling them to a finish for their reward every single time, you will be integrating the reward as a part of the training as a whole.
Conducting training sessions in this manner will condition your dog to be readily focused on you. Your dog will think “I know this guy has my toy, I don't know exactly when I will get it but I know it can come at any moment so I need to stick with him closely and follow every command.” Without going into the psychology of it all this is essentially the same characteristics that slot machines have on humans. It’s not the reward itself but rather the desire for the reward that keeps you focused and coming back for more. Same as with your canine partner.
Don't be stingy with the reward. Training has to be fun for your dog and fun comes in the form of reward and praise for them. Driving them harder to achieve that reward doesn't always bring about positive behavior conditioning. Throw the candy, ring the bell, and give them their weekend just as often as your 10th grade self would have wanted it.
