This is an article I wrote in a forum I am a member of. It was written in response to a discussion of training dogs in drive, and specifically food drive and clicker training using what some refer to as totally positive training methods.

Working a dog successfully in any drive, the dog must have fairly high levels genetically of that drive. For example try training a dog with a toy, ball etc, that has virtually no prey drive. In regards to clicker, if the value of the food reward is lower than a distraction, then the training falls apart.  Many go as far, with dogs that have low food drive, of only feeding their dog when training.. So yes if a dog is kept hungry, a dog will work in anticipation of the food. Much like dolphins in a marine park.. they are only fed when performing or training. Food isn't served to them unless they work for it. But remember these dolphins live in a very sterile environment with absolute minimal distractions.They are not kept as pets.

Don't get me wrong, I have seen wonderful things achieved with clicker training, and some of it amazes me.. But these dogs are selected for their suitability for this training method, or the owner was lucky to have a dog with genetically strong food drive. Much like working a dog in prey that has high levels of prey drive.

It all comes down to the value level of the item you are training with. If the dog receives more value running across to another dog, than focusing on a food treat, then obviously food is of lower value, so the training is less successful, under these distractions.

it amazes me how a many totally positive trainers, when working on dog to dog aggression for example, use food to redirect focus from the other dog, and gradually over time, decrease the distance between the dogs, as the dog becomes more and more focused on the food, and the trigger to respond aggressively decreases. Now many see dogs with low food drive as dogs that can't be cured of this dog aggression, so many of these dogs are being euthanized, when in all reality the value of challenging the other dog or the reactive aggressive behaviour has higher value than the food treat. This is an example of where these trainers need to understand and accept that thier methods are not 100% effective. Just because a behaviour cannot be modified with food, doesn't mean the dog is beyond help and the behaviour cannot be modified.

Another issue we 'can' have when working a dog with these totally positive methods is that many are rewarding assertive state of mind in their dogs. So from the dogs perspective it is dictating when it receives the food. My dog never sees any food as belonging to him, it is all mine. So you could say I have flattened his food drive, by only rewarding when he is in the right state of mind. A dog with high food drive, sees all food as belonging to him, and therefore in some dogs, we are actually strengthening assertive behaviour towards the owner. I have had many clients come to me after starting their training with totally positive food based training methods, with dogs that have become overly assertive, due to rewarding their dogs when in an assertive state of mind during training. These training methods have created these assertive triggers when food is around. Much like a dog with extremely high prey drive, that becomes overly demanding about throwing a ball for it. Every time someone walks out the backyard the dog picks up its ball and is triggered into an assertive state of mind and continually 'demands' we throw the ball for it, and if we don't the dog becomes more and more anxious and assertive until it gets what it wants. We need to be careful when working with any drives, especially for the family pet.

I am not suggesting clicker or any totally positive method is not useful or unsuccessful. In a lot of cases fantastic results are achieved, but we should never see these methods as the "be all and end all" for training dogs or modifying behaviour.


Just a quick example

Quarantine Dogs, the passive dog, Beagles are trained entirely on food. They don't use clickers but mark the behaviour with the handlers voice then reward. Beagles are selected for this training, and only Beagles with "EXTREMELY" high food drive. Due to the distraction levels these dogs must confront during work, the value of the food reward must  be of higher value than "ANYTHING" else. These dogs are specifically selected because of this extremely high food drive, and go through extensive testing before being selected as suitable. Dogs with lower levels of food drive would not be able to be trained to work in the high distraction areas these dogs work. So genetically high levels of drive is extremely important, when using these methods to train dogs or modify behaviourr, and the level of that drive we require, is dependant on what we are trying to achieve with our dog.