Reinforcement

What Is Reinforcement?

Reinforcement is a consequence that makes a behavior more likely to happen again in the future.

When a behavior produces an outcome the dog values, the dog has a reason to repeat that behavior.

In simple terms:

If a behavior works for the dog, they’re more likely to try it again.

The Dog Decides What’s Reinforcing

We don’t get to decide whether something is actually reinforcing.

The dog’s future behavior tells us.

Food may be reinforcing for one dog. Another may value a toy, praise, access to something interesting, or simply being allowed to continue moving forward.

If the behavior becomes more likely to occur again, something about what followed it reinforced that behavior.

Reinforcement Isn’t Always Intentional

Dogs can become very good at behaviors we never intended to teach.

A dog jumps on someone and receives attention.

A dog pulls toward a tree and eventually reaches the smell they wanted to investigate.

A dog barks at another dog across the street, and that dog eventually moves away.

In each case, something happened after the behavior that may make the dog more likely to try that behavior again.

Nobody had to intentionally reward it.

Ask What’s Maintaining the Behavior

When we’re trying to change an unwanted behavior, it’s useful to ask:

How did this behavior start?

But there’s another question that’s often even more important:

What is reinforcing it now?

Something may have originally caused a behavior, but something completely different may now be keeping it alive.

Finding that reinforcement can give us valuable information about how to change the behavior.

Reinforcement Is More Than Treats

Food is an extremely useful training tool, but reinforcement isn’t synonymous with food.

Access to the environment, play, movement, attention, sniffing, toys, affection, and countless other things can reinforce behavior.

Understanding what your individual dog values gives us more opportunities to reinforce the choices we want.

The Bigger Picture

Dogs repeat behaviors that work for them.

Sometimes we’re intentionally creating those behaviors.

Sometimes we’re accidentally strengthening behaviors we’d rather eliminate.

Understanding reinforcement helps us stop looking only at what happened before a behavior and start paying close attention to what happened immediately afterward.

Because what happens next may determine what your dog does next time.