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Post by iambored on Jan 25, 2006 19:37:39 GMT -5
I understand how to clicker train and know the method to do this, but my questions is this: once my dogs knows the trick or behavior, do I always have to reward him for doing it, or else it will become extinct? Example: Teach the dog to sit and stay so that when people come over, they dont get jumped all over. When people come over, and the dog does what it is supposed to do, do I have to treat him or give him attention forever and as long as he does that? Cant I just tend to my guests, or will the dog eventually get sick of doing it for nothing, and quit? sorry msg is so long, I have trouble explaining myself
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Post by Aussienot on Jan 25, 2006 19:55:51 GMT -5
The click is just a marker of the right behavior, and the dog learns that the mark (click) means the right thing was done and a reward will follow. Generally you use the clicker in the learning stage, and fade it out once the dog sits reliably on command.
The reward, however, is the dog's motivation to perform the behavior. The dog is not working for the click - he is working for the reward that follows the click. In the learning stage, you click/reward every sit. In the training stage, you lose the clicker and start randomly rewarding - every other sit, every third sit, every sit, every fifth sit.
And in the proofing stage, you praise every action but reward on a more random basis, and you start mixing up the rewards. You can reward less oftne, but you will never stop rewarding.
In the example you gave, if Bull sits, his reward is to be greeted and petted. As long as he sits nicely he gets petted, and then you can put him in his crate, and join your guests. If he jumps up, he get ignored or corrected and put in his crate so that you can join your guests.
But if he sits nicely and never gets his reward, yes, the sit behavior will stop, because there is no other reason for him to do it.
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Post by iambored on Jan 25, 2006 20:01:20 GMT -5
ok thanks for the clarification. I was wondering if once I start teaching him all of the behaviors, I would then be a slave running around worried about praising every little thing he does....nice to know I can reward a little more randomly once he has learned the behaviors.
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