You Don't Need To Use Food Forever!

When raising expectations of command response, eager owners often jump from “Luring”, the starting point, to “Random Reinforcement”, which is the finished behavior. This generally results in a frustrated owner and dog.  This is because there are many small steps in between.  Another common mistake owners make is not ever fading the food lure.  For these dogs the food becomes part of the behavior cue just like a word and hand signal would after repeated use.  Both fading the reward too quickly and not fading it at all create different but frustrating problems. This chart will help you know what level your dog is at and how to progress.

Lure with Food  Owner uses treat in hand to lure dog into position. The dog sees and instantly gets a treat after a click. Once your dog responds readily with food in the hand it is time to progress.

Lure without Food  Same as luring but without a treat in your hand.  Continue clicking and treating proper response but keep the treats in your pocket.  Progress when your dog’s response is good without seeing food.

Hand Signal  Slowly make the hand motion that you used to lure your dog into position more subtle. This will be the “hand signal” for the behavior.

Varied Reinforcement  Dog performs behavior several times between rewards.

Fading the Clicker  The clicker is for the teaching phase of the behavior so once your dog responds well to a cue you can stop using the clicker.  If you ever wanted to refine the behavior or further advance with it, simply go back to using the clicker.

Random Reinforcement  Your dog is now randomly rewarded with food or toys for the behavior.  Praise should always be given for a job well done but at this level your dog will be working for the chance of a reward.  Your dog understands he should do as you ask even if he doesn’t see or get a reward every time. However, if you run into a problem at any time don’t hesitate to go back to the basics - bring out your treats, clicker and go back to the beginning of this chart.