Targeting - with mouth instead

[KouVang]

Hi,

When I introduced the targeting my dog was on point and picked it up easily with her nose. Somehow she has transitioned to sometimes using her mouth and touches my hand with her teeth instead almost to a biting point. Any idea what may have caused that or should I do something else to get her to use her nose again or is the mouth ok?

 

I know if I do it really low she uses her nose but once I raise my hand a little she uses her mouth/teeth instead.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

This should be an easy fix with a bit of feedback done through differential reinforcement. In other words, reward only nose touches without teeth. If you feel the teeth, you can say "oops" and withdraw your hand and give no treat. When there are no teeth, mark it and reward. The wonderful thing about training dogs is that what you mark and reward is what you get. I would aim for nose touches only not mouth.

 

Now to answer your question as to why this may have happened there are some possibilities.

 

1) It might have happened that casually one day, your dog's "teeth touch" rather than just "nose touch" went rewarded. Because by the law of reinforcement, behaviors that are rewarded, repeat and strenghten, this behavior may have started building up and put roots.

 

2) Now, sometimes, behaviors reinforce too because of other dynamics going on, other than the familiar praise/treats/ pats that we categorize as rewards. So let's say for instance, your puppy made contact with her teeth and you moved your hand and your puppy tried to catch your hand, then the behavior may have reinforced if you have a playful pup who loves to play this way.

 

3) You may be witnessing an "extinction burst." This is quite an interesting phenomenon. This may happen if too many targets went unrewarded for some time. The puppy may be thinking along the terms of "my nose touch is no longer working, what must I do next to gain a reward? Let me try nipping a little bit." This can be compared to us humans using a vending machine. We are used to having it deliver a chocolate bar every time we put a coin in. Then, that day the chocolate bar isn't delivered, what do we do? We start shaking the vending machine in hopes of it releasing our expected goodie.

 

In such a case, it's important to ignore the extinction burst (the teeth touch) and wait to reward nose touches only. You can further help your pup succeed by quickly rewarding a barely made nose touch, so that the pup doesn't have opportunity to place the teeth on the hand.

 

4) Make sure you are delivering treats from the other hand rather than the same hand that was used for targeting. Chances are, if you feed treats with the hand used for targeting, it may become a "yummy thing to nibble on" if it smells good :p

 

5) If it happens when you are raising your hand, it could be that the nipping is an attempt to grab either in play or to gain easier access to it. As your puppy grows taller, you will find that it will become easier for her to target without you needing to bend down. I would stick to lower targets for now, if the higher ones evoke nipping.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli