Overly Distracted by Treats

[knight.lewis]

Hi Adrienne,

 

I have a three month old mountain dog/lab mix. He picked up basic targeting very quickly. However, now any time I raise my hand to practice another command (for example, putting my hand out with a treat to work on "leave it" or giving a hand signal for "down"), he targets it. We're still working on targeting a post it note vs a hand. I'm hoping once he learns to target things other than my hand, the behavior will stop; but, in the meantime, I'm having trouble getting over this hump. Any suggestions?

 

Also, as a side note, even if we train with daily kibble vs. a high value treat, he is overly focused on the treats. He jumps around trying to anticipate what I will ask him to do before I even get a chance to start working on anything. And, once he sees the treat bag, he gets obsessed with it and is constantly trying to get to it, even when I wear it behind me.

 

Thank you,

Amy

 

P.S. LOVE your website and training exercises!

[Howler]

Hello Amy,

Welcome to the forum! It sounds like you may have either a case of overlearning here (learning a task so well and so much that the action becomes almost reflexive and happens in many circumstances (hand raised, hand down, hands open, hands closed) or perhaps, much more likely, you have a pup that is simply overly attracted to food and your hand used for targeting has come to represent food so much that he's constantly after it now. There's an easy way to overcome this and it comes with stimulus control, that is, when behaviors are well under control and not confused with other exercises. This point arrives when you progress in the training and you put the behavior of targeting on cue, and it becomes clear to the pup that only cued behaviors gain reinforcement, while non-cued ones never do.

 

In other words, add the verbal "cue" target" and then present your open hand, and reward your pup when the behavior is asked this way. Anytime your pup goes to try to target your hands without you asking for it, never reward it. On top of not rewarding, you can also add a further consequence to "unrequested targets." When your pup goes to try to target when you haven't asked for it, say "oops" put your hand behind your back or under your armpits and freeze a few seconds. Rinse and repeat several times as needed. Your pup needs to learn that only when he is asked for the behavior he gets the reward and he needs to pay close attention to what you are asking. It takes a bit of time with pup as they are so impulsive.

 

Also, make sure that always when you ask your dog to target, you are using an open hand presented as if you want to give somebody a handshake. Help your puppy associate the way you portray the hand with the targeting exercise. This should help your pup distinguish this exercise from other types of exercises such as down where the hand is presented closed initially while holding a treat and then is morphed into pointing down, and leave it where the hand is presented opened but facing the ceiling.

 

In targeting, you also want to fade using food as quickly as possible, so if you have been smearing food on your hand to encourage the behavior, make sure to stop smearing food after the first few trials and start feeding a treat from your other hand to reward a successful target.

 

If your pup is very food motivated, and even kibble makes him excited to the point of jumping around and trying to anticipate, use this enthusiasm as an important learning lesson. Access to the food is only granted once he is no longer jumping and is in a calmer state of mind. This is an important life lesson as we want him to learn that calmness pays, even for other future scenarios where he might overly excited over other distractions (guests over, the food bowl, etc) After all training is mostly that: teaching a dog to control his impulses despite distractions in his world.

 

It may take a bit to tone him down, but with some repetition and some clear exercises, he should gain this understanding and you should see a reduction in these hyper behaviors. So similar exercises apply here: pup jumps to try get to the treat bag? You hold the treat bag flat against you leg with your hand and freeze. Your pup may circle you, try more jumping. If he persists, even leave the room. You can even put the action of turning around and freezing on cue by saying "oops!" and then freezing. When your pup persists and doesn't seem to give up, you can even say 'too bad" as you leave the room. Persistent cases, may require you keep the kibble in your pocket rather than a treat bag. A treat bag can be introduced later as the pup learns better impulse control.

 

I would keep the treat bag on the side, so you have better control over it, if on your back, you pup may sneak up and perhaps be able to snatch it off or make a treat drop which would be a big no-no as it would reinforce his jumping behavior.

 

Then after you have left the room you can slowly walk back (to discourage jumping/hyper behaviors) and try again. Apply the same consequences: pup tries, to jump? Access is prevented as you turn around and even leave. Pup is not jumping? Your pup is praised and given the opportunity to train and earn the rewards.

 

Training leave it is a good life lesson for a pup who is distracted by food. Any attempts to get the food leads to the hand closing. This is an important life lesson. You can even place your treat bag in your hand, and train "leave its " with that. And then try training that with the treat bag on you. Pup tries to jump at it? Say "leave it", cover it with your hand, and turn around. When pup gives up, you can praise, turn around and ask for an easy behavior and reward that.

 

So the important points of all of this is: pup gets rewarded when behaviors are cued, non-cued behaviors are not rewarded. Pup's attempts to gain food or access to treat bag are negatively punished by holding it against the leg, withdrawal of your attention and an abrupt stop in the training process. Pups is extra pushy? You may have to temporarily leave the room. Pups gives up trying? You turn around, praise and resume training.

 

An important point here: avoid consequences that are harsh such as scolding and physically correcting the pup when he tries to grab treats. Physical corrections can lead to defensive aggression, and scaring the pup may lead to a pup that may even be reluctant to follow food in our hands when we need this motivation so to get the pup to follow our food lures in the initial stages of training such as following the food to go into down or sit. If you are food luring, you want the want the pup to be excited to follow it. So care is needed here to not excessively tone down a natural interest in following our hands and food in our hands as we need this when we are in the luring stages. This therefore requires a balancing act of not encouraging rowdy behaviors towards our hands while paying attention to not tone down a natural interest.

 

If you have a pup who is simply attracted to hand movements (many pups are, because hands are fun to follow when we move them a lot) you can find this exercise helpful:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-practice-greetings/

Notice how the dog learns to sit for rewards despite my exaggerated hand movements and stimulating sounds. This is a good impulse control exercise that may be fun to teach pups along with the the Jazz up and Settle Down exercise once your pup learns well to sit and down on cue.

 

I hope this helps!

Let me know how it works out and if you need further assistance.

Best,

Adrienne

Edited November 8, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Oh, and forgot to mention a little trick of the trade: if your dog is hyper excited about kibble, you can also tone down its value a bit by offering it when he's on a full stomach. In other words, you can try scheduling his training right after he has finished his meal. For example, you train him right after his morning meal, and if you are concerned about calories, you can take out a portion of his evening allowance of kibble so that he's simply working for part of his meals.

[bearone]

I am having exactly this same problem with my 9 month old Airedale. Just subscribed to the course. Started the targeting exercise. While he picked that up immediately he also figured out at the same time there were treats in the other hand behind my back. Consequently his focus went to that hand immediately. I will try your suggestions.

[JMFS]

I am having exactly this same problem with my 9 month old Airedale. Just subscribed to the course. Started the targeting exercise. While he picked that up immediately he also figured out at the same time there were treats in the other hand behind my back. Consequently his focus went to that hand immediately. I will try your suggestions.

 

Lol, the trouble with smart dogs is that they're smart! With the cooler weather I started wearing a hoodie and switching the pocket I keep the treats in. I also saw a treat bag that was magnified and the trainer was able to move it around on their belt to different positions. I was thinking about taking an old belt, my hot glue gun, a container, and some magnets to see what I might be able to MacGyver together. Thought I'd toss those ideas out there for you in hopes they'd help.

 

I've never seen an Airedale in person, but it was a breed I looked at before I found my first pound pup. I love the shape of Airedales' heads - definitely a unique look.