 Barked: Mon Jan 28, '08 8:46am PST |
 | |  | | Here is how I wean off treats. I don't do it until a behavior is 80-90% reliable and proofed. It is a copy paste from another thread, so....
IMHO, if you are using R+ training and your dog will not work without food, You have not finished proofing the behavior or you have not properly applied the concepts.
I'll skip the proofing because the answer for that is obvious: more work with new distractions/locations/spectators.
So how do you all wean off of food reinforcement?
I do several things. I use VRSs. Never a set schedule, dogs catch on to that. With variable, they never know when the treat comes.
I raise the criteria and only reward the behaviors that meet that criteria. I may decide I will only reinforce faster, straighter or neater. Of course we only raise one criteria at a time.
The third thing I do is to work my dogs off the clicker and onto a verbal reinforcer. This is because click = treat. The verbal reinforcer does not mean treat every time.
I leave food around the house in every room I spend time with my dogs. I ask for the behavior at random times/places, then use my verbal reinforcer, act giddy, clapping my hands and walk cheerfully to the nearest food dish and reinforce.
As the dog understands that, I then start walking to a food source in a different room, still acting full of glee, and reinforce from there.
As the dog is accepting a longer wait between behavior and reinforcement, I start working in other reinforces, like praise (which is why I act all happy happy while walking to the food) and pets instead of reinforcement and reinforce randomly. |  |  | |  |
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