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Exploring the Effectiveness and Ethics of Reward-Based Training Methods for Dogs

The companion animal, Canis lupus familiaris, provides important physical and mental health benefits to humans. Consequently, understanding how best to train and manage this most popular of pets is of considerable practical and ethical importance.

Therefore, when searching for interventions to prevent or modify negative behavior in pet dogs, pet owners need to bear in mind that the most expedient solution may not be the most effective.

Furthermore, although the utility of reward-based methods seems clear, pet owners often erroneously believe that positive reinforcement can only be achieved using food treats, making reward delivery at best less rich and at worst an entirely joyless experience for the canine.

Two dog training myths that persist in the dog ownership community and popular dog training media are that prong collars and electronic containment fences offer humane solutions to preventing and controlling dog behaviour problems. A scientific approach to above-average intelligence and highly social pack-prey animals suggests that these issues are indeed problems and that reward-based training techniques hold the key to helping dogs adjust to their life with humans, without compromising the physical or mental welfare of these dogs.

This exploration aims to discuss the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of reward-based methods as well as the ethical considerations concerning the use of reward-based and punishment-based methods, in terms of both welfare and humaneness, when training dogs and preventing unwanted behaviors, as well as ensuring that highly motivated animals are both happy and healthy.

Background

Dog-human coevolution has left dog breeds in possession of an incredibly diverse set of physical and mental features. They are often referred to as “the closest companion” to humans and, therefore, they have accompanied humans for centuries. They have been employed in a wide range of applications, including hunting, herding, guarding, and rescuing, as well as being a source of food, raw materials such as fur, and even ornamental objects.

Along with the diverse applications, dogs have been trained using a variety of different training methods and have been restrained using a diversity of restraining methods as well. However, the effectiveness and ethics of different training methods still lack adequate research. An optimal training method for dogs should be effective at training outcomes while maintaining dogs’ mental and physiological well-being and equality.

Reduced training time and a greater probability of acquired behaviours might be the most important criteria for evaluating dog training methods because training typically takes place during the few years of a dog’s life in which it is still in adolescence and before it faces many domestic problems such as aggressive behaviour, separation anxiety, and fear; crucially, these cannot be resolved in the absence of at least some training. Is a particular training method likely to succeed?

What can a dog owner expect of a specific training treatment when training their own dog, especially when adopting a dog from a shelter? Pet dog training has traditionally focused on employing the least aversive restraints or punishment, even though the process of extinction may not be all that aversive if employing positive reinforcement is also taken into account.

It has long been known that dogs are reward-seekers, meaning they are highly motivated by the prospect of receiving an item or a response of approval or praise from their owner. They appear to adopt a cooperative and harmonious relationship with their human families that enables regular interaction and the construction of a mutually beneficial relationship.

Definition

Many of us who share our lives with cats and use reward-based training want to help them thrive and have a great life. One of the ways we help our cats is by changing their behaviour, usually so that they are less fearful or less aggressive, but sometimes so that they are willing to interact with us. As we work towards this end, many of us find ourselves asking what’s going on in the brain: Why does reward-based training decrease anxiety?

Why does the research suggest that positive reinforcement training is so effective? If we have a behaviour that we’d like to change, why are we more successful if we modify it using rewards rather than punish it after it happens? In writing this book, I wanted to create a resource to help each of us answer these questions and learn to be the best trainers we can possibly be – enhancing the quality of life of the animals in our care and the bond we share.

Before we delve into the application of the reward-based training principles presented to our cat populations, let’s talk about what “reward-based training” is and how it works, and spend some time discussing its relationship to science-based knowledge.

The training principles presented are those individual components demonstrated by studies describing sessions with successfully trained animals. Because we can encourage our animals’ willingness to interact with us in every context with every session, irrespective of how easy or difficult their “homework” is, these components matter. So too, the benefits obtained with trained animals – reinforcing use.

Historical Development

During the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of reward-based training, particularly using food, became controversial in some dog training circles. Teaching a retriever to retrieve on command was popular, but an untrained retriever would occasionally drop a bird and eat it. It was argued that training should have nothing to do with the activity of eating, as it was naturally reinforcing.

Dog training has always enjoyed great popularity in society. Historically, there were many more pet dogs that needed training than working dogs. In the late 1960s and 1970s, huge numbers of servicemen stationed in Vietnam adopted strong-stomached stray dogs.

Several of these men experimented with showing the dogs how to do novel and unusual things using food to the exclusion of forceful training. This led to improved morale generally. After the war, the focus changed to the scientific and mathematical explanation.

It is perhaps instructive to try to work out why the use of food to train pet dogs caused such an extreme emotional reaction in some people. Animal trainers, ornithologists, and animal behaviorists had been feeding dogs to encourage their animals to allow close scientific observation for years. Trainers had years of success using different types of reinforcement.

Almost every pet dog owner has found success at puppy training classes using a black bag, cheese, or other non-conventional titbits. However, for some reason, in some quarters, the successful use of food was seen as dangerous by some. The important conclusion would seem to be that dog trainers generally agree with their critics in pinpointing that the use of a promised reward is the key to higher-level rewards. It is not the reward itself but the promise of a high-level reward.

With patience and creativity, dogs can be taught to perform amazing feats of strength, accuracy, and trust, and rapid learning to this promise. The dog must understand exactly what it has done in the moment that it is matched with the immediate expectation of the reward.

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