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Week 4: Meeting Needs

• Using the Premack Principle Wisely
• What are YOUR Dog’s Unmet Needs?
• Training: On/Off Switch with the Premack Principle
• Training: Speed Training for Loose Leash Walking

[vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/126983905″]

USING THE PREMACK PRINCIPLE WISELY

Even though access to any high probably activity will reinforce any low probability behavior, we should be careful when we are trying to teach the dog a new behavior to replace one we don’t like. I think it’s easier to avoid frustration and craziness by choosing consequences that serve the dog’s original purpose. Use the reinforcer for the behavior that you’re trying to get rid of to reinforce the new behavior.

So yes, we can use toys to reinforce a dog for standing when you walk in instead of jumping up. Playing with the toy is a high probability activity and it will reinforce the lower probability behavior of standing. But if your dog was jumping up to get information about your day by sniffing your face, then the toy doesn’t meet his needs, it just redirects him to do something else. Permission to sniff and gather information is the main reinforcer to use here. I talk about this as a “functional reward” in the Ahimsa Dog Training Manual.

If you can find a high probability activity that is also a functional reward for the behavior that you want to change, use permission to do that activity as the reinforcer.

To recap: Look under the behavior to find the basic need or want that it satisfies. Use that to help you decide how and whether to use the Premack principle in a given situation. For example, with a dog who runs up to another dog to play, the need is to approach the other dog. Running directly at the other dog is not usually something we can allow, because it’s rude in dog language and the arousal level is too high, so the most obvious use of Premack’s principle doesn’t work.

But running is just one way to get closer. So while running there would probably be even more reinforcing, you can teach your dog that when he is on leash, approaching other dogs only happens in a polite arc at a slow pace that keeps the leash loose. Approaching the other dogs is the functional reward. Permission to do so can be granted if and only if your dog shows relaxed body language.

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