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Originally Posted by alaskayorkie  That's AWESOME. I'm watching it now from the link.
I wonder how he's motivating the dog. I can't teach anything without treats. I know some dogs who will do anything to play with a toy. But Chase is doing it with no real reward. He's not playing with the toys. He's just doing what his owner tells him to do.
Very cool. Thanks for the link, FE! |
I've come to the conclusion that Chaser, like other smart dogs with involved trainers who work almost daily training their dogs using positive reinforcement, has a developed, learned ability to physically enjoy the learning, training process, through the vehicle of his training, made so rewarding for him that his brain stimulates his body to produce a reward hormone in his system that makes him feel good.
Tibbe has it - he adores learning and working for the joy of just doing it. He did NOT start out that way, worked solely for treats at first, but now he is always pestering me to "train" and gets such joy from it that the work of learning and doing is its own reward. And just like human elastic brains, it appears that the more dogs learn under rewarding conditions, the faster and more they enjoy learning. It's like winning a game to them. And the dog learns in the process that doing what his trainer asks of him keeps the good feeling rolling so he keeps doing what the trainer requests.
Just my theory but I've seen it work in more than one dog who works and obeys just for the joy of it.