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How many times have you heard someone say that in order to train your dog, you have to be consistent?

It's pretty popular advice but it's not entirely correct.

When it comes to rewarding your dog, you'll actually produce better motivation and real-world reliability if you are NOT consistent!

Imagine you go up to a vending machine and you put in a dollar, make your selection and then.... nothing happens.

Nothing comes out.

What do you do next? Do you put in another dollar? Or do you curse at the machine, maybe give it a good kick and then storm off in a foul mood?

Maybe, if you're really desperate, you might stick one more dollar in and try again, but if the vending machine doesn't deliver a second time, then there's no way you're putting in a third dollar, right?

When it comes to vending machines, you expect to get what you want every single time you use one. So when you don't get what you want immediately, it's incredibly frustrating. 

And even when a vending machine works properly, it's pretty boring. There's no excitement. You know exactly what you're going to get, and the whole process is a simple transaction. Where's the fun in that?

If you're not in the mood for a bag of chips or a candy bar, you're not going to pay any attention to a vending machine. You know exactly what it has to offer. It's right there, behind the glass, you can see it! And if that's not what you're looking for at the moment, then the vending machine is of little interest.

On the hand, if you had a machine that gave out a wide variety of rewards and it wasn't possible to predict exactly which reward you would receive at any given time, that would be much more exciting, wouldn't it?

Especially if the rewards varied in size and type. 

What if the machine sometimes gave out candy bars, but sometimes it gave out gold bars? Sometimes it gave out movie tickets, other times it gave out VIP tickets to sold-out concerts?

Now, it doesn't really matter whether you are in the mood for chips or candy bars because you don't know what's going to come out of this machine, you just know it's going to be good.

And, if you put in a dollar and you got something small like a sticker or a "Thank You for Playing", you might be a little disappointed, but there's still a good chance  you would want to put another dollar in to try again. Because maybe the next time is going to be the big payout. Or maybe the next time...

As long as you get rewarded frequently, and as long as you get the occasional jackpot, you're going to be motivated to keep trying, even after you get nothing several times in a row.

So, when you are training your dog, you don't want to be a vending machine. Don't give your dog the same predictable reward, immediately, every time they do what you ask. Don't show your dog what reward you are going to give them in advance. Make it a surprise.

There are so many ways you can reward your dog, and for any type of reward, there's a huge range in the value of rewards you can give. For example, with praise, you could say a curt "Thank You" or you could give a gushing, effusive "Thank you, I'm soooo proud of you, you're the best doggy in the world and I love you so much."

With food you could give a piece of kibble, or a high-value treat, or a shower of roast chicken confetti!

You could do a scratch behind the ear, a pat on the back a round of playing Tug or Fetch, a trip to the back yard, a walk, or ANYTHING that your dog enjoys. What does your dog love? Use it as a reward in training.

By breaking the direct relationship between a behavior and a predictable, consistent reward you increase your dog's motivation and you produce a dog who wants to do what you ask, even if you don't have anything on hand to reward them with, because your dog knows that you have the ability to produce all sorts of amazing rewards, even if they're not immediately obvious.