typically, wrote:Imzadi83 wrote:typically, wrote:ok so just for restraining rocco on walks i want to
teach him to sit between my legs ?? but what should i call it
i already use 'between', so i can't use that.
also rocco is extremely food motivated, could
i possibly break him outta that habit ?
You could really call it anything you wanted. "Between" in a foreign language, "legs", or "hide" are the things that came to mind.
What is the problem with food? Do you mean he is too excited around food, or do you mean you want to phase out treats?i mean that he'll really only do lots of tricks for food and nothing else. i can't get him to do a lot of tricks without holding some sort of food in my hand. also, i'll try hide!
You want to phase out treats then. First start by getting the food out of your hand, put it in a pocket or use a treat pouch. When he does a behavior show him there's nothing in your hand but that's okay, he still gets one from somewhere else. Once he can handle that you can try having him do behaviors without any food on you at all. He still gets a treat, it just comes from a sealed container somewhere else like a bag in the pantry or a sealed container somewhere.
Second begin making him do more for the same amount of food, more repetitions, multiple behaviors, etc.
Third introduce reward scaling (if you haven't already). Determine what he values most and least in terms of treats and use only high value treats for exceptionally precise and polite responses or when you're training something new or upping the criteria (a sit on a walk as opposed to one in your living room).
Fourth cultivate other life rewards; petting, praise, play, access to the environment, etc. Rotate these in with the treats. Over time slowly fade out the treats entirely and put behaviors on a variable reward schedule, meaning you reward him sometimes but not others. This is like a dog version of a slot machine, as long as it eventually pays out people will sit there for a long time playing hoping they will win big. By this point you won't need treats to get him to do something, but now and can you give him one.
Despite the fact that I've labled things first, second, third, etc. does not mean this is a linear process. You can be at different stages of fading out treats with different behaviors. I'll link you some videos down below to help you as well.
Fading Out Treats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ74wVgoEzY
Reward Scaling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7XxG5KchQ8
