So, here's something that's been on my mind lately (dog training related of course): Conditioned Reinforcers. A conditioned reinforcer is something your dog finds reinforcing which has no intrinsic value of its own. Some things that come to mind are hand targeting, spinning, leg weaves... whatever you can think of! I look for things I can condition to be reinforcing that I can use in the ring (where toys are cookies are not allowed). A friend of mine has conditioned "Pansy wave" - her dog loves it! (Okay, so do I - it's darn cute!)
Why is this so good? When I'm in the obedience ring, I can't talk to my dog during exercises (except to give the first command). If my dog starts to get stressed, wonders why I've gone silent (never mind the whole can't breath in the ring thing), and thinks maybe she's wrong - that's just not good. If I can do a conditioned reinforcer in between exercises, I help my dog to feel good about the ring, confident and ready for the next thing. Andi particularly likes to jump to a hand target. It takes no time, the judges don't get unhappy about us wasting time in the ring and my dog is smiling when we set up for the next exercise. She knows she's right and I'm happy with her. BETTER than cookies!
Okay Jade, just to prove I was paying attention, I put in a picture with Graci's favorite conditioned reinforcer - a hug and a kiss! But how do I turn it around? :-) You'll all have to be patient with my learning curve here!
