This candy is not for eating!

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A thoughtful person gave my friend Melissa a package of candy for her daughter Emma, and Melissa kept them for Sunday morning.  Emma is just 3, and sometimes the morning church service gets a bit long, so Emma enjoys earning (silent) reinforcement with games during the sermon.  She might repeat a key phrase the pastor used, cite a sermon point, or remain sitting quietly rather than kicking in the pew — her target behaviors vary according to her juvenile abilities and the need of the moment.

So Melissa thought that the candy could add some value to that day’s service.  I sit in the pew right in front of them, and before the service began, Emma was pleased to show me what she had.  “Look, Laura!  I get to earn these!”

Melissa opened the box.  “Would you like to try one now?”  (This is called “reinforcer sampling,” and it can prime the pump for a reluctant subject.  Emma was not a reluctant subject, but parents have the right to hand out candy for free, too!)  Emma promptly turned to me.  “Laura, would you like to share my candy?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Emma gave me the first piece, and I popped it into my mouth.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

UGH.  It was vile.  It was deeply sour, some sort of faux fruit goo, and I hated it.  (I adore chocolate and related confections.  I dislike artificial fruit flavorings, and I really dislike sour candy.)  I couldn’t exactly spit it out into the church pew, so I chewed just enough of it that it wouldn’t choke me and then swallowed it to get it out of my mouth.

Beside me, Emma was screwing up her face in a most atrocious fashion.  “Mama,” she declared, “this candy is not for eating!”

Now, what if Melissa had not offered a free sample before beginning the day’s training (which is really what the sermon activities are), and she had rewarded Emma’s excellent behavior with a particularly nasty “treat”?

Emma’s reinforcement history is strong enough that it would have overridden the single bad experience; Emma’s been working for all varieties of reinforcers for most of her short life.  A single aversive would not have disrupted a lifelong habit.  But if the reinforcement history were not so strong, as with a novice subject, that could have been a devastating punishment which really set back training.

Very often, I arrive at a client’s home for a first session and find an unopened package of treats waiting on the counter.  Often, the owner will even ask me, “What do you think of these?” as they hold them up for inspection.  While I usually offer a quick comment, the truth is, it doesn’t matter much what I think of the treats — it matters what their dog thinks!  And sometimes we discover that the dog isn’t impressed by soybeans and high fructose corn syrup, and we have to raid the fridge for some real food.

This is most often true where I am working with anxious or aggressive dogs, where I need to counteract the very powerful emotions already well-established in the dog.  It’s critical that I bring a bartering chip which I know is valuable to the dog, rather than just hoping that he likes what was in the pet aisle.

Of course, we’re not always talking about food.  My Rottweiler, Inky, loves balls of all varieties.  Even though she is physically disabled, she’ll still chase a tennis ball and then fall on it to catch it.  My Doberman Shakespeare, however, finds balls utterly ridiculous.  “Did you not want that anymore?  Is that why you threw it over there?”

Moral of the story — test your potential reinforcers before starting training, so that you know how your training subject feels about it.

It’s true for humans and non-food reinforcers, too:  one attendee at ClickerExpo, pleased by something I’d done with my dog, “rewarded” me with a hug and a pat on the back.  I’m not a hugging person, so to speak, and I was disturbed to be suddenly in physical contact with a stranger!  A thumbs-up, though seemingly less enthusiastic, would have been much more reinforcing to me.

Emma doesn’t generally mind sitting quietly when she knows it’s coming — “Pavlov is always on your shoulder,” as Bob Bailey says, and opportunities have counter-conditioned the potential frustration and boredom a toddler might experience.  Recently our church has a special event where Emma’s parents had other duties, and she sat with me for the longer-than-usual service.  Emma earned one stroke of the pen at a time to complete a picture on her hand and made it happily through the service, no food in sight.  That line drawing was worth far, far more than that foul candy!