Category: OC in the Class Room ¤
  Author: Shirley Chong ¤
   Title: OC with a Secretary ¤

Someone wrote about a situation with an employee who wanted a large Christmas bonus. I responded:

   What she's telling you is what she'd like to get--but that's not
necessarily the same thing as what she will work for. 
   For example: I am quite sure that the resident black hog dog (aka
Bidge the Belgian Sheepdog) would adore it if I throw him ten pounds of
raw bloody meat. And I'm willing to bet that if he thought it would
influence me, he'd tell me that Jim (my sig other) gives it to him when
I'm gone (I'm not saying your secretary is lying, though...). But would
he really WORK for it? Not very effectively, I think. What do I use for
training? A lot of individual Cheerios, Rice Krispies, etc, and very
little substantial stuff.
   If I used ten pounds of meat as his reinforcer, he would curl up and
sleep the sleep of the totally satiated for many hours afterward. So I
couldn't reinforce him very often and would have to resort to doing
unpleasant things to him to motivate him to work to avoid the
unpleasantness. I get a lot more work out of him for ten pounds of
Cheerios (given one at a time) than I would from ten pounds of meat. And
yet, were you to ask him if he'd rather have ten pounds of Cheerios or
ten pounds of raw meat, which do you think he'd choose? <G>
   As for the Christmas bonus thing--I'd be inclined to get away from
that. I'd tell her frankly that the Christmas bonus is in effect a
supplement to her paycheck and I'd divide that amount by however many
pay periods she gets per year and add it to her paycheck. Although many
times people theorize that making an animal work for their living is the
most effective way to get the most work out of them, I find that with
more intelligent (and larger!) animals, it's not necessary and may even
be counterproductive. It promotes a mentality that says "figure out how
to get away with the least amount of work necessary to get what I need."
I use all sorts of truly junk food as training treats--Cheerios and Rice
Krispies aren't exactly packed with nutrition! And I'll use things like
Chee-toes, potato chips, beef jerky, etc, because that stuff does NOT
form the bulk of my dogs' diet. I make their food and I know that even
if I did no training on a given day, they would have their needs for
nutrition fulfilled.
   For positive reinforcement to work most effectively, it needs to be a
surprise. The animal shouldn't be able to predict what will get them
reinforced, what that reinforcer may be, when it will come, etc. It
should be as much a mystery as possible. I will note here that you are
not TRAINING this animal (secretary) in the nuts and bolts how-to, I
assume she already knows her job. What you're trying for now is better
attitude. In dog training terms, she's got her UD, now you're trying to
get good attitude for campaigning.
   And, this is just me--if someone told me "so-and-so gave me a $1000
bonus for Christmas" as an attempt to manipulate me, I'd smile outwardly
while thinking "the Pope will turn Pagan before I give you money again
with that attitude of yours." The art of changing the animal's
motivation is endlessly fascinating for me.

M. Shirley Chong
The Well Mannered Dog