Choice or Lure?

When I started positive training, the most popular style was luring. And luring does work. But now, another style is gaining traction - Choice training.

Luring is all about showing the dog a behavior without physically making them do it. It was the very first step away from the traditional way. Luring is a wonderful tool. It is the process of showing a dog a desirable reward to elicit the correct response. For example, putting a treat over the dog's head to make them sit. Shaking the cookie jar and then calling the dog.

 One of the biggest pitfalls that we can have is relying on luring way longer than is necessary or even helpful. By continuing to lure long after the dog knows the behavior, we're teaching them a reliance on that reward. Whenever luring is being used, the goal should be to reward the behavior to create value for the action, and then immediately taking the lure out of the picture. When the lure is not removed from the behavior is when luring causes trouble. We often get the dog that says "Show me the goods, and I'll do what you say." If the dog finds that something else is more rewarding than your "goods", they will have no reason to do as you ask.

That is the very reason that many people ask "Positive is great, but sometimes you just have to use some punishment or they won't do as you ask, right?" With just lure based training, I'd have to answer, yes that's true. With just luring, pretty soon a squirrel is more fun to chase than getting a treat. A smell becomes more interesting than paying attention to you. Because what treat is going to compete with chasing and smelling? But I'd have to say that luring isn't the only tool we have.

Choice training is the most freeing and fun training method you can imagine. Instead of trying to control the choices our dogs make - we let them choose. That sounds silly right? Who would let their dog choose, and expect to like the behavior you end up with? I would.

Choice training is the process of allowing the dog to make choices, while the handler simply controls the consequences. Controlling the rewards your dog gets when making choices puts the power in the dog's paws to choose, and relieves us of a constant battle for control. I don't have to make my dog behave. What a relief! My dog will choose to behave.

For example, Lyric and I train in a field across the street from our home. She knows that the criteria is to wait on the sidewalk, and then walk by my side. It's her choice if she wants to wait on the sidewalk. If she doesn't, I'm not going to yell at her, I'll simply take away the chance to perform that behavior - I'll put her back inside. If she chooses to wait, I'll let her come to me and begin our walk across the street. If she decides that I'm way too slow and runs towards the field, I calmly walk her back to the sidewalk and start again.

See, there's no battle. There's no leash pops, no yelling, no frustration. I'm not going to ask her to do something she hasn't been trained to do. And I'm not going to expect less than what I help her to understand. I don't want a behavior just to have it - for instance, I don't want her to perform a perfect heel across the street just to get us to the field. I want her to really understand it.

Now, why does this choice training make the big difference between having a semi-trained dog, or an amazingly well behaved dog?

Welcome to the power of choice - and to the power of Dopamine release. That feel good chemical happens at what scientists refer to as a "choice point". Meaning that when my dog chooses something, even before they get the treat, they feel the dopamine release of pleasure. Pretty soon, the choice - in and of itself - is going to be enough to make your dog behave.

All that we have to do is stack the choices. We start at easy steps, building a drive to make the right choice. By the time you reach a complicated behavior, your dog has chosen to do what you want so many times that they connect that dopamine release with doing what you ask. You become their addiction because you give them the choices.

So perhaps it's not one or the other...not only luring or only choice...but a beautiful combination. And I can honestly say - it does work. When I see dogs choosing behaviors that I love of their own accord - well that's honestly the most exciting thing to see in training. And what's even more astounding? When you see a dog make a choice that they've never encountered before - and they choose you. And when people ask "wow! How did you get the dog to do that?!" All you say is "I didn't. They chose."