Welcome back! This week, we're going to explore Interval (or time-based) Reinforcement Schedules!

There are two ways to classify reinforcement that is being delivered on an interval schedule: variable and fixed. Reinforcement on a variable interval schedule will be delivered after a random amount of time has passed. Reinforcement on a fixed interval schedule, however, will be delivered after a set amount of time has passed.

I opt to use a time-based reinforcement schedule mostly when practicing cues and behaviors such as "Stay" and loose-leash walking, but there are many more you might choose to use this schedule for!

I'm sure you've heard this somewhere before, but it's worth repeating that dogs are very good at creating/finding patterns! This fact is important to us when thinking about reinforcement schedules because we want to be mindful of whether our dogs are connecting the dots between a behavior and the reinforcement, or a pattern in the delivery of the reinforcement itself. For example, if you click + treat every 5 seconds during a walk, your dog may begin to look to you for a treat every 5 seconds, but they may not necessarily be associating the reinforcement with walking politely. Because of this, my advice is usually to move from continuous reinforcement, to fixed, to variable.

So, what does this look like in practice? For me, when teaching a dog to walk politely and maintain a loose leash, I'll typically go from a fixed interval schedule to a variable interval schedule depending on when the dog is consistently walking without pulling. When first starting out, I'm clicking and treating every 2-5 seconds, then every 10-15 seconds, and then every 30-45 seconds as we progress. Once we can walk for about a minute without any pulling, I will move to a variable reinforcement schedule. At this point, I am clicking and treating randomly because I want to continue offering positive reinforcement without becoming too predictable. I will also sometimes incorporate ratio schedules when teaching dogs to maintain a loose leash, but that's a conversation for next week! Stay tuned!

Happy Training!

-Caitlyn