Knowing what you value is an important part of knowing who you are.
We can observe what an individual values on several levels, from the obvious to the more subtle. An obvious example of value is money, do you value a ten dollar paper promise more than a one dollar paper promise? We can look at personal style, do you prefer or value a certain look over another?
Next I want to move to our basic needs and discuss a primary reinforcer, food. Do you value ice cream over vegetables? Do you value meat over vegetable protein? How do you choose which food type to value? Are your choices based on taste? Are your choices based on science? Perhaps you choose food based on a complex system of time and food groups with a moral imperative not to harm others. The selection of food is interesting because it points out several pitfalls to our selection apparatus.
The selection of food we most value is highly influenced by our biology. For thousands of years the environment has selected individuals within a species to value certain types of food more than others. It’s interesting that radically different species with different nutritional needs can thrive on the same family of food plants. The first example that comes to my mind is eating grass. Both sheep and humans like eating grass. Grass also makes up a large portion of many pet dog foods. Grass is highly valued by many species. While many species value eating grass, not all grass is valued the same, nor do all parts of the grass have the same value. Most animals value the grass seed much more than the leaves. Some animals can do quite well eating the leaves, but humans much prefer the seed. In fact it’s grass seed that enables humans to settle into large farming communities. It’s the beginning of agriculture that science indicates as the deciding factor that created our modern dog.
Predating our agricultural history is the hunter gather lifestyle. Punctuating the hunter gather lifestyle are times of feast and famine. The unpredictability of our ancestors food supply also plays a role in what foods we value.
Knowing the value of food and behavior associated with attaining food is of critical importance for training pet dogs. Attaining food and behaviors associated with getting food are important factor for determining a reinforcement hierarchy.
Last night I was training a terrier and it’s obvious that for this dog hunting is highly rewarding. In order to use food reward training with our bug hunting terrier the dog needs to be hungrier that the average dog. To make the extra high value food rewards more rewarding than hunting, the value of the food needs to be maintained at a high level. Eventually we can incorporate hunting patterns into the reinforcement sequence.
Wishing you the very best in dog training and in life,
Andrew Ledford