: What arguments are there for lure-and-reward (with or without some use of a clicker) as opposed to "pure" clicker training with dogs? By "pure clicker training" I mean a programme that keeps strictly to the cue-click-reward

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

What arguments are there for lure-and-reward (with or without some use of a clicker) as opposed to "pure" clicker training with dogs?
By "pure clicker training" I mean a programme that keeps strictly to the cue-click-reward structure and does not involve any luring, for example with food. Rather, the trainer "captures" behaviours or steps in the right direction using a clicker, and the only time he uses food in the interaction with the dog during a training session is after a click and in fulfilment of the promise made by that click.

Lure and reward may or may not involve the use of a clicker to indicate that the reward is coming (classical conditioning) once a behaviour is established.

I have been reading about pure clicker training and have encountered the following arguments in its favour as opposed to lure and reward:

lure and reward is worse than a clicker at communicating specific pieces of information
even when a clicker is used with lure and reward, it communicates the fact that the reward is coming but it does not communicate specific information that the specific behaviour called for by the cue has been offered
with lure and reward dogs don't use their conscious brains so much
lure and reward can lead to a dog focusing too much on food rather than on the behaviour, which can cause it to move around once the behaviour has been offered
dogs trained using lure and reward tend to be more passive than clicker-trained dogs
clicker training is faster

Clearly there are some overlaps in these arguments.

I am interested in what counter-arguments there are: that is, what arguments can be offered in favour of lure and reward, with or without some clicker use, as opposed to pure clicker training. So far I have come across the following:

clicking intermediate stages during the shaping of a behaviour can delay the achievement of the target behaviour as a whole relative to when the whole behaviour is lured
(not much else)

What other arguments does lure and reward have going for it?

(Note: I phrased this question after reading the help file. It is intended to be "constructive subjective", "[inviting the] sharing [of] experiences over opinions" and soliciting only "opinion [that is] backed up with facts and references".)

(0)

Login to post a comment!