Identifying & Eliminating Bribes

This article focuses on behaviors that we still intend to reinforce with food, but eliminating the “show me the money” effect where our dogs refuse to follow cues if they don’t see evidence of treats. For teaching behaviors without using food check out this article on functional reinforcers. 

Bribes and reinforcers are two very distinct ways we utilize rewards. Rewards are things that elicit an approach response – stuff your dog likes. This could be food, toys, butt scritches, anything. When, why, and how these rewards are utilized is what determines if they’re bribes or reinforcers.

Correct solution: You call your dog to come. He ignores you. You walk closer to your dog, call him again, and make kissy sounds to get his attention. He looks at you and starts to trot over. You praise him as he returns to you, then give him a cookie.

My dog only does it if he knows I have food! How do I get him to stop needing bribes?

First, stop putting you and your dog in situations where you need to rely on bribes. Add structure and support to your routine to reduce how often you find yourself in situations where you’re relying on bribes. Then, you can work on modifying your training:

Identify the reason you’re bribing your dog. Here are some of the most common:

1. Your dog is experiencing conflict. Common with resource guarding, recalling away from fun things.
2. Your dog has learned that treats only happen if you already have them in your hand when you ask them to do something. 
3. Your dog has learned that if they wait, you will go and get treats (or you will get BETTER treats). 

#1 – Reduce Conflict

Some dogs have a very high “drive” – they have a deep seated desire for food, toys, chasing, pulling, possessing, eating, sniffing, hunting, etc. When working with dogs who have a lot of drive for multiple things, they can experience internal conflict over which thing to choose. If you often see your dog thinking or considering which object to choose, or deciding if dropping his toy is worth it for the treat you have on offer – that’s conflict. 

1. Determine your dog’s value system.
   • Are they consistent in how they rank things they value? What are their top 2-3 things?
2. Determine where your dog is experiencing conflict, and change the contingency.
   • Does he like chasing his toy but doesn’t like dropping it?
   • Does he want to keep playing with his friends at the park?
3. Avoid the conflict through adding structure and support, or by splitting the behavior.
   • For possessive dogs playing fetch, consider using two identical toys and throwing the second after he drops the first.
   • For recalling away from play, first practice calling all dogs to you before releasing them back to playing together.

#2 – Change Reward Timing

When we teach a new behavior with a lure, sometimes we forget an extremely important piece – fading the lure. This means removing the lure or reward from the beginning of the cue and adding it back in after our dog has completed the behavior – as reinforcement. 

For behaviors that we need our dogs to do at any moment, and that we don’t want to rely on going to the pantry first, we need to convince our dogs that food is always available to them, even if we don’t have any in our pockets. 

First, understand and accept the notion that you will never be able to hide food from an observant dog. They will always be able to tell if you have food in your pocket. Dogs can smell things at the scale of parts per trillion – that’s the equivalent of drops per 20 Olympic sized swimming pools¹. You’re not fooling anyone by putting the beef jerky in your pocket instead of your hand.

1. Identify a behavior your dog knows very well and does not rely on bribes to do. This can be anything – but often it’s something simple like “Sit!” 
2. Without any treats on your person, ask them for that behavior. 
3. As soon as they do it, say “Yes!” and immediately head to the nearest source of treats to reward heavily. 
4. Repeat the above several times throughout the day. 
5. Once you see your dog giving snappier, more excited responses – you can move onto the tougher behaviors. 
6. Ask for behaviors that are increasingly challenging for your dog to do without food obviously present.
   1. If your dog struggles to complete the behavior, encourage them with praise or otherwise make it easier for them. Do not reach for a bribe!

That’s it! Moving forward, make sure to maintain your behaviors by rewarding reliably after they’ve done them. (You don’t work for free – why should your dog?) 

Remember not to grab food before asking your dog to do things unless you want your dog to rely on the food.

# 3 – Dealing with the Cookie Arms Race

If your dog is blowing off your cues as you cycle through bribes until you produce a treat that’s high enough value – you’re digging yourself a hole. Stop digging!!

Most often this overlaps with one of the two similar bribery situations above, with the added bonus of “You got anything better?” The rewards arms race is often triggered by too much frugality with high value treats. 

Here are some strategies to combat this:

• In a single training session, use a single kind of treat. This works for highly food motivated dogs. Could be kibble or steak – but just stick with one for the session. 
• In real life situations, always err on the side of over-rewarding your dog for a job well done. This builds a strong love of following cues because your dog feels like it’s always worth it.
• When you’re reducing reinforcement, don’t reduce the quality. Instead, reduce the frequency or volume.
• If your dog blows off your cue, avoid bribing. Be prepared with structure and support and make the cue easier for them to do.

Why are bribes so bad? I don’t mind giving my dog treats for doing things!

Bribes aren’t evil, but they can be problematic. When it comes to behaviors that don’t relate to safety and you’ll always have treats when you ask for it – sure, bribe away. But for all safety related behaviors (come, stay, drop it, leave it, crate) – it’s important that your dog knows it is always worth it to respond to those cues, even if there’s no food in sight. These are behaviors that we need to be able rely on at a moment’s notice, with no preparation.

Bribes can be incredibly useful tools for situations when safety is at risk. If your dog doesn’t have a solid recall and gets loose, bribe away! Pull out all the stops – tossing toys, shaking treat bags, try to get them to chase you, ask if they want to go to the park and open up the car door. Once your dog is safely contained, then you can sit down and make a training plan for how to get your dog to come when called without pulling out the rotisserie chicken.

1. Source: K9s Talking Scents podcast with Stu Phillips. His whiskey dogs can sniff out concentrations of 6 parts per trillion. https://youtu.be/f4hsdqAt5SA?si=-AAsEOhmz9ekb-Mr ↩︎