Matching law Archives - eileenanddogs

Category: Matching law

Dog Food Toys, Rates of Reinforcement, and the Matching Law

Posted on March 28, 2023May 20, 2023 by Eileen Anderson

Three dog stuffable food toys: a blue Westpaw Toppl, a red Kong, and a Greenish-yellow Westpaw Tux

Can you tell which one of the food toys in the photo above likely offers the highest rate of reinforcement when full? Your dog knows!

Lewis taught me this lesson. He is happy to lick and munch on a Kong (center) stuffed with frozen food when there’s nothing else going on. But if he’s excited in the car, he will ignore a Kong full of the same food. It’s not high enough value in that situation, but the same food in a “Toppl” toy (left) is.

You Have to Stop! Interrupting Unwelcome Puppy Play Toward an Older Dog

Posted on April 8, 2022June 18, 2022 by Eileen Anderson

A tan and black dog lies on the grass holding a ball and a brown and white puppy runs toward her

Or: The Magic Buffalo Tug

In my post about the challenges of living with and training Lewis, I mentioned that the worst problem we faced was his hassling Clara to play. We’ve made some progress.

When he first came, his most frequent behavior toward her was humping. I remember telling Marge Rogers I had removed him or called him away dozens of times in a day. The humping diminished, thankfully. He does it far less frequently and less intensely and will happily dismount when I call him away.

But the next phase was tougher.

Clara’s Intermediate Trick Dog Title: Three-Minute & Three-Month Behaviors

Posted on December 10, 2021May 25, 2023 by Eileen Anderson

Hurray for Clara: we got her Intermediate Trick title from Do More With Your Dog this week. It got me thinking (surprise!). We had the beginnings of a lot of the tricks already from previous work. Am I achieving my goal of widening her palette of behaviors?

Clara’s Stand Disaster and Why She Still Hops

Posted on September 24, 2021December 4, 2021 by Eileen Anderson

tan dog with black muzzle stands on all four feet on a mat — **This calm stand happened during a time when we weren’t working on it**, **of course**

I considered titling this post “Eileen’s Stand Disaster,” but I thought that might be too confusing. Clara was the one standing, but the disaster part was definitely on me.

Thousands of people worldwide have used Susan’ Garrett’s fun method for teaching the stand and gotten fabulous results. I wasn’t one of them, but I blame myself, not the method.

The method is to have the dog in heel position in a sit, and to use a hand target above the dog’s head

Clara’s Tricks: Treat on Nose, Carpet Roll, & Paws in Box

Posted on September 5, 2021December 4, 2021 by Eileen Anderson

**Yes, Clara has a piece of kibble on her head**

Clara and I are learning so much! Here is a quick trick update with a couple of videos.

Treat on the Nose Trick

We are taking the treat on the nose exercise nice and slow. I can now put a piece of flat kibble on the top of Clara’s head for a second or two. I’ll work up to an actual dog biscuit.

There are lots of aspects to the trick.

Doesn’t Intermittent Reinforcement Create a Stronger Behavior?

Posted on September 11, 2018September 7, 2021 by Eileen Anderson

This article was first published by Clean Run – The Magazine for Dog Agility Enthusiasts, in August 2017. I changed the title after publication in this version. Please see the note about that at the end of the article.

Three dogs looking through a fence. Continuously reinforcement. A recall trained via variable reinforcement probably won't get their attention. — **If I’ve trained recall on a variable ratio reinforcement schedule, how likely are my dogs to come away from the fascinating distraction behind the fence?**

Do I have to carry around treats or toys forever?

This is a common question from trainers who are new to positive reinforcement techniques. And most of us have heard the following typical answer.

How Long Does It Take To Change a Habit?

Posted on November 9, 2017July 18, 2019 by Eileen Anderson

Changing a habit often takes longer than we think. Habits, AKA reinforced behaviors, die hard.

Here’s what happened when I changed the location of my dogs’ eating areas for the first time in about five years. Continue reading “How Long Does It Take To Change a Habit?”