The Cheese Lady Talks Cheese

Disaster happened at DOGlife HQ today…The Cheese Lady forgot the cheese!

Luckily, I have some other tools under my belt and we managed just fine.

All jokes aside…

Very recently I have picked up and carried a theme where I refer to myself The Cheese Lady.  This was started by a client and is mostly a marketing gimmick but there is some truth in it, in that, it is my go-to motivator when working with the dogs that I see.

Perhaps to the detriment of my industry, this label I’ve created, may validate those who think reward-based trainers are just cookie pushers, bribe artists, and using cheese or other food, as a form of manipulation when it comes to dog training. After all, shouldn’t the dog want to do the behaviour out of respect, loyalty, obedience and because we are the boss? Errr…not in my world sunshine….

In my world, I want to guide the dog to CHOOSE to perform or mould towards the behaviour, AND I want that dog to WANT to repeat that behaviour. I know when I try something new and then want to repeat it, it’s because I had a positive outcome when I first tried it.

Sure, if someone wanted me to do something and if I didn’t it meant I would get a pinch on my neck or a jab in my ribs, then I would also do the behaviour, but I sure as hell wouldn’t want to repeat it if I had the choice again. Instead I would try my best to avoid that device, location or person delivering it.

Now if someone offered me $50 to plonk my bum on the ground, then I would be on that ground faster than lightening and then, every time I saw that person I would plonk my bum on the ground just in case another $50 bucks was coming my way. 

So why wouldn’t we do the same for our dogs?

By providing a motivator that they (or we) want, then they are going to form positive associations with that behaviour and be likely to want to repeat it.

Don’t get me wrong and think that dog training and behaviour modification is just about cleaning out the supermarket of cheese though.  Your dog may not like cheese, it might prefer chicken, or play with you or a toy or access to something else they really like but given food is probably THE most important part of their day then chances are, it’s a pretty strong motivator that we can use to help support behavioural change and the dance we call dog training….but with that initial option of choice.

So, cheese, chicken, blueberries, carrots, toys, people, pats, praise are just a small sample of motivators that if used as prescribed by reward-based trainers, reinforce the likelihood of behaviour occurring again.

Bingo…..bum on ground!

Other factors that also need to be taken into consideration when training is the environment, the dogs past behavioural history, the distance to things they are not familiar with or are familiar with but in negative ways, the way they have been trained before, the food they eat, how they eat, who they eat with, where they sleep, what their exercise patterns look like, their medical history, their social history, pretty much their whole existence, past, present and future. Us trainers need our clients to spill the beans…good and otherwise.

So as much as I carry this label around, The Cheese Lady, (surely that client could’ve come up with something a lot more slick or badass…sigh), it is merely a marketing ploy around my favourite motivator to have a giggle and bring perspective from our dogs point of view.

It is also one of the many tools in my dog training toolkit and not to forget, a handy snack if you run out of lunch….