Rewards/Reinforcers

It’s all about the rewards we use when training.

So, what rewards should you use? As many as possible! Variating rewards strengthens many aspects of your training program.

- When animals only ever get one specific item for a reward and only ever get it in training sessions, you can make the argument that they are being coerced into participating as if they don’t, they will never get the yummy thing you’re offering. Also, it’s boring! What a snooze fest only getting the same thing!

- By changing what reward you use it session, you increase the animal’s natural curiosity and therefore engagement in the session and with you. This leads to much higher rates of success.

- By having multiple rewards in one session, you can allow the animal to choose what reward they want, guaranteeing the best one is available for them, therefore creating the strongest reinforcer for the behavior possible.

- Tastes change! Sometimes as a little treat I like chocolate, sometimes chips, sometimes a fizzy drink. Our animals are just the same, on any given day they may be wanting one thing more than another and this allows you to cater to that.

Primary or secondary rewards. Which to use? What’s the difference?

Primary rewards are inherently valuable and essential for survival. Secondary rewards are learned and gain value through association.

For primary think the food-based rewards you typically see keepers using. Because food is already an innate need we are all born with. Eg, blood for a cat, cheese for a dingo, sunflower seeds for a galah.

When it comes to secondary, think of working dogs at the airport. You often see them being given a toy as their reward rather than a treat. During their training they have been taught that this means “yes you did the job”. It’s an extra step in training to establish a secondary reward but can be helpful with more tactile individuals/dietary restricted individuals.

How should you deliver the reward? Its often helpful to have a few different options up your sleeve, and reward delivery can vary depending on the behaviour.

The standard is of course simply handing your animal the reward and often works well. If they’re a potential risk you your fingers you can also use cutlery such as tongs, spoons or forks.

If it’s a liquid reward drinking from a syringe can be beneficial, you know exactly how much you’re giving and it often holds the animals focus really well on the syringe so you can work freely. Plus, it helps strengthen a positive relationship with syringes should you ever need to administer oral liquid medication!

Recently the Cheetah team used the genius idea of a frozen bloodsicle for an anesthetic injection. We typically fast animals before GA’s as this reduces the chance they will vomit while asleep, however we still need a reward often for them to participate in the injection. So a frozen treat is ideal as they can lick away and get the yummy taste without taking in too much food/liquid.

A second person can also be helpful, especially for larger animals. For example having one person feed a giraffe every time they hear the other trainer bridge for the correct behaviour that could be happening at the back of the giraffe.