The Lottery of Reinforcement: How to Train so Your Dog Will Listen

Your dog will listen, respond, and stay engaged with you if you provide what they want. photo: AdobeStock

Let’s start by clarifying that no dog is actually stubborn. Even working dogs get this bad rap sometimes, but I am here to explain the truth behind it - and how to use this reality to your advantage.

Balto, my 10-½-month-old Husky/Shepherd working dog has certainly seemed willful and obstinate at times. But he was not actually choosing to ignore me. He was simply more interested in whatever was holding his attention at that moment. The good news is that I was able to learn how to be more interesting and more valuable to him than whatever that other thing was, returning his focus to me. You and your dog can learn this, too. 

In short, when you are exciting, interesting, and the source of everything your dog wants, you will remain the most reinforcing thing in your dog’s environment. In return, your dog will listen, respond, and stay engaged with you.

Fortunately, we humans have a multitude of options to use as reinforcers: treats, praise, affection, interactive games, squirrel chase, sniffing, saying hello to people and dogs, running in the ocean, etc. The trick is to learn which of these are most reinforcing for your individual dog and then become the gatekeeper to those reinforcers. This way your dog learns that you hold access to the good stuff and all he has to do is do what you ask first in order to get them. This is how we increase our value in our dogs’ eyes and compete with other random environmental reinforcers they may find interesting or distracting. 

All things being equal, Balto would definitely choose running through any sort of wooded area instead of responding to me. Why would he choose this? Not because he is stubborn, but because he finds the woods more interesting and valuable. 

So how did I compete? By teaching him that I am the ticket to the wooded areas and that the way he gets to go run in them is by engaging with me first. 

But running in the woods was already a highly reinforcing behavior he had engaged in almost daily without my permission, which made it a little more complicated. If your dog has already taught himself a less than desirable reinforcing behavior, how do you backtrack and retrain? 

The way to do this is beautifully described in Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell’s book, Teach Your Herding Breed to be a Great Companion Dog: From Obsessive to Outstanding. And it is simple. You first train your pup to a solid recall. Next, train your pup that the removal of the leash means “stay near human until you hear the release word.” This makes the act of removing the leash a fun game to get your pup to think, learn, and stay engaged because he’s dying to hear the release word. The reinforcement (running in the woods or whatever) is the thing that your dog is going to do anyway - but now you control it.

But how did I guarantee Balto’s return once he was off and running? In my experience, whenever I put a behavior on cue, the dog comes back to keep playing the game over and over again. Why? Because he knows that I am the lottery of reinforcement, the same psychology that gets gamblers to return to slot machines over and over. I have now added running into the woods as a way to not only get to do that, but to return, get the lottery of reinforcement, and to get to go do it again. This becomes a reinforcing loop that makes you, the human, part of a great game he loves - rather than a nonentity, fun buster, or deterrent to be avoided with more distance into the woods (yikes!). 

Here’s my version of Antoniak-Mitchell's method, which you can practice at home. 

1. Start in a low distraction environment - this is key! Your dog needs to learn the game before seeing the woods (or whatever) and choosing between staying near you or running into them. 

2. Clip two leashes to your dog’s collar: one long lightweight one and one regular. The lighter one will serve as a long line that he won’t feel and perceive as a tether. 

3. As you unclip the heavy leash, give your dog high value treats at the same time (I use baby food or liverwurst).

4. Say a release cue like “OK!” and let the dog run towards another reinforcer (a toy, a person, a treat, whatever will work in the moment) while still on the lighter leash. 

5. Then teach recall. Begin by “charging” a specific recall word, which involves saying the word and immediately giving a treat. The word Balto knows is “biscuit” so while training him, I said “biscuit” and then gave a treat. I did this over and over again, randomly throughout several days of training and then randomly in our regular life, as a refresher. Charging a recall word is the most effective way to teach your dog that good things happen when they come to you - something every dog owner should work on for their dog’s safety if for no other reason.  

6. Repeat the above steps in a variety of environments, gradually working your way up to that first run in the woods - or whatever you’ve determined is most reinforcing for your individual dog. 

And that’s how the lottery of reinforcement works. You are giving your dog what he wants most as the reward for staying engaged with you - not the woods, or a squirrel, or that dog over there. No longer a buzzkill, you’re now holding the key to all his favorite things. And what dog wouldn’t want to pay attention to that?