Are YOU Bribing Your Dog? A Quiz

Positive reinforcement trainers often hear from our clients that they are worried about bribing their dogs. This quiz will help you understand if you are indeed bribing your dog, or if you are in fact using reinforcement. Review the questions below and answer them (honestly! even if it hurts!), and keep track of your answers so you can do the math at the bottom of this quiz and settle the matter once and for all.

Do you put a hundred thousand all-beef wieners into an envelope, put on a trench coat, meet your dog in a dark alley, and after glancing around guiltily to see if anyone is watching, give them the envelope whilst murmuring casually that you now expect the issues you’re having getting a building permit for your shoddy casino will magically disappear?

A. Yes.
B. No.

Do you put a bunch of artisanal tuna and kale treats into a bank account and then, using a shell company, transfer the treats to your dog’s shell company’s account in the Cayman Islands, whilst passing a message to your dog through a neutral intermediary (whom you’ll toss under the bus if the hammer of justice should slam down), the message being that your political rival should no longer receive any media support from your dog?

A. Yes.
B. No.

Do you give your dog a treat when they respond in the way you hope, after you give a cue?

A. No.
B. Yes.

Do you have a giant stash of treats in a treat slush fund, from which you grab handfuls upon handfuls of delicious bits of dried liver and chunks of cheddar, handing the treats over to your dog (who happens to be the president of a small, but wealthy, country) in order to get massive government contracts to manufacture medical supplies?

A. Yes.
B. No.

Have you ever “accidentally” left a knapsack full of salmon skin snackies where your dog might “accidentally” come across it, with the expectation that your dog will pad invoices on their government contracts with extraneous expenses (well your dog didn’t buy ten tennis balls, did he? He bought TEN THOUSAND wink wink) and split the extra dough with you in the form of kickbacks?

A. Yes.
B. No.

The big reveal: are you bribing your dog?

For each “A” you chose, give your dog a steak, because wowzers that is some dog. For each “B”, give yourself no points whatsoever.

If you earned no points, you are not bribing your dog. Carry on reinforcing your dog for behaviours you like, following the well-established practices of animal behaviour change, and increasing your dog’s welfare as well.

Kristi BensonMarch 5, 2021Comment