THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRIBES AND REWARDS
I have dogs because I treasure canine companionship.
Prerequisite to that kind of relationship is that my dogs like me; are attentive and seek closeness because they want to, not because I can make them.
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and that’s also true for dogs. My dogs like yummy food, know that I have it and, by association, they like me. Although that makes sense and it works, many dog owners are dead-set against using food rewards. Condescendingly and with micro-expressions of disgust they look down upon us; picturing a pleading and soapy-voiced owner waving a cookie high in the air to bribe roaming Rover into coming. Although those scenes can be observed in every neighborhood and dog park, it has nothing to do with reward-based training and no decent dog pro would ever teach or recommend that.
Bribery is a common practice in the human society. The boss must first flaunt the moolah we could earn, or we wouldn’t show up for work. With our dogs, we can do better. Thanks to the science of operant conditioning, we don’t have to hinge on bribery to convince them to act as we wish; we can use rewards. There is a difference, which makes all the difference in training success and the relationship. Bribery happens before the behavior and no learning takes place, and rewards happen after the behavior and a lot of learning takes place. Bribery has a downside, and rewards only have benefits.
If you swing the bait bag in front of your pooch’s nose to get him to do as you say, you are bribing. Not only will you always have to bribe, but you have to creatively come up with newer and yummier stuff to entice your dog to listen, cause he’ll get bored with the old stuff and you, and will shift his focus to more interesting things in the environment. Like bribed-into-work humans always want a pay raise, bonuses and better benefits.
On the other hand, if you make anything your dog wants conditioned on him behaving in a way you want, you are reinforcing the good behavior. The behavior comes first; the loot after. The difference seems trivial, but it isn’t, because your dog learns that life in paradise only happens if and after he pays attention, obeys and behaves. And, because dogs are selfish opportunists, yours will think of, and offer, more and more behaviors you like. Voila! A reliably well-behaved dog.
Once that becomes your dog’s routine lifestyle, you get away with reinforcing it only once in a while. Your dog likes you not only for all the good life you make possible, but also because a nice doggie gets to go places and do stuff with his owner, and that is bonding companionship.
A friendship most people envision when they get a dog.
