Rewarding Mistakes

[3Stars]

This is a really good article about rewarding mistakes:

http://denisefenzi.com/2012/08/28/rewarding-mistakes/

I put this in the agility forum area because this training philosophy has made ALL the difference in my agility training. When I started rewarding effort instead of results, I ended up with a faster, more enthusiastic dog who was willing to take risks. I've extended this type of rewarding into the other dogsports we do as well.

 

[k9kreationz]

I like the idea of rewarding effort and also, recall doing that a lot with Koji when he was first learning. I have since learned that my boy patterns really fast. Which means, I have to be 100% sure about rewarding a mistake, since he's likely to repeat it, again and again and again. I don't think I do it as much because he does pattern. But sometimes, you just need to give them some confidence.

Great article. Always good to remember that clicking doesn't always have to be for perfection.

 

[Justicemom]

Well I think alot of that is the art of dog training. Knowing when to reward when to withhold and when to use a NRM or corrections if you use them. It used to be called reading the dog. Great trainers are great at reading the dog almost likely they were reading their minds.

What they are doing is reading body language, attitude, focus as well as what they are teaching. Picking and chosing what to reward at any moment and changing what they are doing to get the desired response so they can reward.

Back in the days when we used alot of corrections(20+ years ago for me now) the rule was never correct a dog that was trying, never correct a dog that was confused, never correct a dog for your mistakes, only correct a dog that was willingful disobeying(rare in my experience), only correct for a lack of effort or inaction. If in doubt don't correct. Now you can flip it around to reward or don't reward. If in doubt reward if there was something you liked.

It still all follows the principles of learning it is just what side of the fence you are on.

 

[SheltieChe]

I like DF a great deal but I wish she was more in line with science so people who only have half brain like me don't have to use rosetta stone to decipher meaning of her blogs. Hopefully as she works together with her book coauthor who is Psych prof she will get the hand of it
As a baseline I do agree with DF although I do not think of things she calls mistakes as mistakes. There is criteria and there is modifying criteria rules. Dog training is a science. Now there is separate issue when many people would say they do not want to know science they just want to know how to train their dogs....
I will always give my dog benefit of doubt but I will not make it a habit. Lets say I asked dog to sit but dog did not hear me or I think dog was not paying attention to me. Yes, I will repeat my cue but if I have to do it again on separate occasion I will make a note to check/ proof my sit cues and make sure my doggie is not shaping me to be a parrot
My friend who far more coherent in dog science says/ and I agree with/ what DF calls rewarding mistakes is actually just modifying criteria. So you might decide to reward speed or enthusiasm despite "mistakes". Personally, if enthusiasm was my criteria, then I would not consider the non-criterion behavior mistakes. Just things that don't meet the criterion that I'm marking in a session.
And if I am introducing new criteria/ new behavior, it is perfectly acceptable to drop/decrease another criteria for short time. Lets say I am teaching nose touch and trying to fade the target. I might initially reward very weak movement to the floor without target as opposed to strong nose touch I normally have but I would not make a habit of it...

 

[Meldor]

Thank you for sharing this article, it was a good read!

That is something I learned with the difficulties we encountered with the weaves. I'm currently retraining and rewarding even with mistakes if I can see she is trying and enthusiastic about this obstacle. At first I thought it would really set us back but what do you know!? It's made an incredible difference with how fast she is learning and we are slowly getting to where we want to be.