How do you reward something when...

...you really don't have time?

I took Nyx and Tyr out to potty and brought them in, was going to crate them, get the corgis out to potty and needed to go out to an appointment.

As we came inside, Nyx grabbed a tug and jumped on the couch. I said "out" and she did. :yikes: For the first time in three years, she just simply let go of the tug and laid there. Not only that, but she was holding full eye contact with me. Completely amazing. Somehow in the middle of my astonishment, I realized she was doing something wonderful that only took three years to teach her and doing it for the first time and needed a reward. So I released her so she could grab the tug again. She started playing and a couple minutes later I wanted to end this and continue on to get where I need to get to. So I said "out" again ~ I really wasn't expecting her to do so twice. But she did. She dropped the tug. And stared at me.

WOW. So again I released her and she started playing again.

Just out of curiosity I decided to see if she was really getting this, so I outted her a third time and she repeated dropping the tug and staring at me. Again I released her to get her toy.

This time I traded her for a piece of treat and put her in her crate. I was out of time. I so wish I'd had time to really play with her and really make her reward worth the level of difficulty in the new behavior.

I'm also wondering who this dog is and what she's done with the real Nyx.

I think you did the right thing, out of time or not. Now the tug has a higher reward because you stopped her from playing with it before she was done...and before she could make a mistake.

Yes, exactly. It's not good to push your luck when they do something once or twice well. It's good to stop right after a big success, stop before it gets hum drum or less fun and loses value or risk their not doing it another time. If one of my dogs does something really fantastically that is a new behavior or something that I feel was difficult to achieve, I reward it big time and don't try it again right away.

Yup, I agree that you did the right thing.

I remember recalling Rose after she had taken off to chase after a large truck...and she did a complete 180 and ran right back to me. I was in complete and total shock and I thought, "Crap, I have to reward her for this!!!" I had nothing on me, so I just let her jump into my car and we went for a short drive down the diveway. LOL

1. Don't cue a behavior you don't think the dog will do. This is a quick way to get poisoned cues.

2. Don't cue a behavior that still has to be reinforced every time the dog does it correctly, unless you're prepared to give reinforcement.

3. Always have stashes of treats - of varying levels of value - ready that you can use as reinforcement if you don't have time to do a behavior reward (such as tug, going for a car ride, going outside, etc.).

I dream of the day when Riley will respond to out! He would much rather play tug than let go!

ETA: And holy cow is he strong!

:lol-sign:
It took three years to get there with Nyx. And it's far from consistent. She also just learned to grip the toy and actually hold on.

And thanks for the replies everyone.