Course Details
The goal of Cookie Jar Games is to help your dog want to choose delayed reinforcement over immediate reinforcement.
Cookie Jar Games use a 'dog's choice' approach and creative antecedent arrangements to set up easy and pleasant experiences to make delay a good deal for your dog. The dogs learn to separate their behaviors from access to the reinforcers. Without stress and by their own choice, dogs learn to expect good things and trust that the reinforcement will be made available when it is cued by you. Check out the sample lecture for a look at the system and what it can do for you.
We have an active Study Group with not one but two expert Teaching Assistants!
Does your dog work better if you have his favorite toy in your hand? Does your dog demonstrate impulse control only when you are holding cookies? Do you have a great recall only when there is nothing better to do? Do you have trouble competing because the reinforcement is too far away? All these issues will be addressed in Cookie Jar Games!
Any dog of any age, size, or breed can play and learn from this program. All pet dogs and sport dogs can play. Different handlers will choose different concentrations of study, beginning all together with foundation relationship and impulse-control work.
You will not need a lot of space to begin this program. It's a terrific indoor project. Depending on your choice of goal activity, you might need more space later in the program. But there will always be games for small spaces.
There is fascinating science and a variety of reinforcement choices for the handler to learn. And the dog's learning is all fun and games! You will have fun learning to train smart with your dog's reinforcement hierarchy in mind. We'll pay a lot of attention to setting up for success as we train!
How does it work? The reward at the end, along with all the work it takes to get there, becomes more appealing than the immediate release and gratification of disconnecting right now. Much is known these days about how to create interest in later better reinforcement, the power and value of delay. And we can use delay to raise the reinforcement value of individual rewards as well. So what the dog decides is "better" reinforcement will change as we go. It is truly a fascinating process!
Dogs are not hardwired to choose delay. There are many humans, too, who are predisposed to value the immediate, smaller benefit over the delayed or the longterm, larger benefit. There are many studies showing the difference in behavior choices among people with different “discount rates,” as they are called. There have also been many studies which demonstrate how powerful the call of “now” can be. From humans to birds and mice, so much good information is available about choices based on perceived rewards. As the saying goes, we do tend to find a bird in the hand worth two in the bush.
Dogs? Everyone values larger benefit, and anyone can learn to prefer the delay over the immediate when the end value is high enough to be more desirable. Even in the face of a strong temptation, animals (and we are all animals) who have trouble with impulse control can change behavior choice patterns and prefer to wait rather than jump in. That concept is central to Cookie Jar Games.
This is a dog's choice program which starts with fun simple relationship building and impulse-control games. Some of these you might know and some of these you have never seen played this way! The program progresses all the way to very good choices in the midst of very tempting opportunities! Every game we'll play is a win-win game.
Gratification is hardwired. Delayed gratification is learned. In Cookie Jar Games you will learn win-win games to guide your dog's learning to choices you both will love!
Teaching Approach
This is a "concepts" class rather than a rote skills class. Different dog-handler teams might need different coaching advice to be successful with the same game. Different learning styles in dogs and handlers can be accommodated in order to help everyone make progress. This class does challenging work in fun and creative ways. There is a conversational teaching style in place here, and the discussions tend to be inviting and supportive.
This class will have multiple lectures released throughout the week. There will always be a lecture on the first day of each week, and additional lectures may be released at any time. Please subscribe to the "Class announcements" thread if you wish to be notified each time a new lecture is published.
Instructor: Julie DanielsJulie Daniels (she/her) won her first award for writing in the fourth grade, and she was training dogs long before that. Today Julie Daniels is one of the foremost names in dog agility in the United States. She was one of the early champions of the sport and helped many clubs throughout the country...(Click here for full bio and to view Julie's upcoming courses)
