The Premack Principle

The Premack Principle: preferred behaviors, or behaviors with a higher level of intrinsic reinforcement, can be used as rewards, or reinforcements, for less preferred behaviors. Eat your vegetables and you can have dessert...Grandma's rule! How does this apply to modern dog training? Fido sees a treat in your hand, you hold on to it until he offers you a behavior like sit, or down or some sort of disengagement.....a lesser preferred behavior gets Fido the higher level reinforcement.

Premack Principle: more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors. Use an activity Fido really enjoys to reinforce something that is ho-hum. example: You can reinforce a sit/stay with a tug session. Ball chasing for most dogs is much more reinforcing than dropping it! Teach Fido, that there is a relationship between the two: he must bring the ball to you (less desirable behavior - vegetables) before you throw the ball (more desirable behavior-dessert). Ball chasing reinforces the behavior of ball dropping and Fido will be more likely to drop the ball in order to earn your throw.

Premack Principle! It's your choice, Fido, I will throw the ball, but only after you return it to me!

Do you know what behaviors are highly reinforcing to your dog (what desserts does Fido like)?


Like Us on Facebook
Follow on Twitter