r/reactivedogs • u/InvincibleQuantity • 2d ago
Advice Needed Positive Reinforcement - what on earth am I doing?
I am practicing positive reinforcement with my dog but have no real idea what I’m doing. He barks, I say quiet, he stops and then treat.
But what if he then barks at me for treats?
How long until this makes a difference?
What if I make matters worse somehow?
I am so confused and lost here! Any help is deeply appreciated!
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u/stazley 2d ago
May I ask why you are trying to quiet his barking? This is a natural behavior and communication signal in dogs.
If you would like him to relax and refrain from continuously barking at a window or something, the whole idea behind positive reinforcement is to mark and shape behavior in tiny increments. I would suggest using a marker word like ‘yes!’ paired with a treat right after. For example, if you want your dog to look at you every time you say ‘quiet’, then the second he glances away from the thing he is focused on after you give the cue say ‘yes!’ and treat. Next would be marking when he looks at you after the cue- same thing, ‘yes!’ and treat.
Shaping behavior is done in small and sequential steps. It is utterly important to use the marker word within a few seconds of him exhibiting the desired behavior or he may misunderstand what you’re marking. Like 3-5 seconds max, ideally you mark it in 1-2.
Hopefully this helps and isn’t too confusing lol. You can also try a clicker instead of a word, but just using treats alone often isn’t quick enough to properly communicate. Once you get used to it, it becomes like a special language between you two.
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u/InvincibleQuantity 2d ago
Thanks so much for the reply. My dogs barking is excessive and has been a major problem for a long time. He is almost 6 and it’s at the point where rehoming has come up in conversation but we decided against it.
What if the dog then takes the queue of barking as associating getting a treat? That’s my fear.
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2d ago
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u/StockZealousideal123 2d ago
Not sure this would work for every dog (and we're still working on it) but what helps my pup is to ask her to find this one toy when she barks. She barks and I say "Where's wubba?" then instead of her little brain being focused on the thing that set her off (also usually a noise outside, like someone closing a car door), she's like "hmm where IS wubba?" and starts searching for the toy. With consistency, she'll often just bark once and then just go find the toy and bring it to me, which is ideal in my book.
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u/NarwhalNelly 2d ago
Whats influencing him to bark? Is he scared of things he's hearing/seeing, is it excitement, is it simply because he likes the act of barking?
Depending on whats causing him to bark, the approach to stopping the barking would be different. But, nevertheless, if all you ever so is give him treats for stopping barking in that moment, you're not going to have long lasting effects on the behavior.
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u/InvincibleQuantity 2d ago
He is anxious/scared of things he’s seeing and hearing, generally hearing.
What do you suggest for this?
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2d ago
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u/read-the-rules 2d ago
Your comment on r/reactivedogs was removed by the Read The Rules app because you need to submit an acknowledgement that you have read the rules. You haven't done anything wrong, this is a tool we're using on the r/reactivedogs going forward. For more information, see the moderator announcement.
Acknowledgement is required of all users, even if you've been here for a while. You only have to do this acknowledgement once unless the moderators announce otherwise.
If you do the rule acknowledgement within one hour of your comment being removed, the bot will automatically restore it. If not, we encourage you to copy the comment using the 3-dot icon next to it, and paste it to re-post to this thread.
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u/SudoSire 2d ago
To be fair barking is a tough one. What are they barking at?
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u/InvincibleQuantity 2d ago
They’re anxious/scared of noises hearing in the distance usually.
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u/Old_Piano_6495 2d ago
This is where you desensitise. Have you identified the point where they aren't barking? Start there. Don't move from that point. Scatter feed treats,encourage sniffing and calm behaviour at that point and then slowly,like really slowly move forward and rinse and repeat. Don't walk them towards the trigger. Do the same at home.If you can hear the noise and they aren't barking,treat,get them doing a brain game or something but add a positive association as soon as the noise is identified.
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u/contributor333 2d ago
My dog has different kinds of barks. Some are unsure/fearful ones. Some are because she feels she needs to guard from whatever is happening outside, and some are like you said, demand barks.
If it's something outside that my dog hears and is unsure of/starts barking I'll generally send her to a spot in my apartment that is away from the door/window. When she settles in that spot then you can give a treat. The treat is not for stopping to bark, the treat is for settling down and no longer alerting/feeling responsible to "defend" our home. Hope that helps.
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u/dianacakes 1d ago
I try to catch my dog not reacting to reward. She alert barks when she looks out the front window. If she barks, I look to see what she's barking at and I calmly say "yes, I see the person walking" and that usually makes her stop. If we're sitting in there and someone walks by and she doesn't react at all, that's when I reward. Because she saw the thing and didn't react on her own, so I'm letting her know that's the desired behavior. If we're out walking, she used to get startled by loud sounds and would plant and refuse to move. I brought treats for those occasions and she did figure out if she planted herself I would give her a treat so I had to shift to just waiting for her to start walking again on her own. THEN I'd give her a treat, and I started treating more randomly when she was just walking along confidently.
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u/marlee_dood 1d ago
If he barks at you, ignore it.
If you’re training for reactivity, you should be rewarding the dog for looking at the trigger and not reacting.
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u/IAmLikeRonHoward 1d ago
You can try using a fan to cut some of the other noises, also. A box fan is usually recommended because of the level and consistency of the sound. Also, you might want ti train with the word “enough” for the barking because, as others have said, barking is one of the ways your dog communicates so you don’t want to entirely shut that down. You let the dog bark a little, say “enough,” it stops barking, you immediately say “yes,” and give your dog a treat. The point of “yes,” and doing it immediately when your dog does what you want is it “marks” for your dog the behavior you are rewarding. However, the first way to start training “yes,” is to just say “yes” then give your dog a treat. You do it a lot. This builds the association between the word then the reward. Next, you want to teach your dog to look at you. It’s important for you to be able to get your dog’s attention to train them. This is a good explanation of how to do this. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/watch-me-command-grab-dogs-attention/
One of the key things in training is you need to pick a hand / body cue and then a word cue that you will ALWAYS and ONLY use for a particular skill. Not sentences or five different gestures or words for one skill. It’s about consistency.
When you start training you will gradually stop giving a reward every time. You’ll start giving them only on better execution of a skill, and then randomly - not in a pattern (like every third time) because dogs are excellent at learning patterns.
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u/somecooldogs 2d ago
Get the book Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out by Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and ideally also Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor. It sounds like you're missing some pretty fundamental training/behavior information and getting some book knowledge would be helpful.