What is it?

According to Premack some behaviours are more probable than others. It uses classical conditioning by pairing high probability behaviours with low probability behaviours to make the low probability behaviour more desirable and therefore increase it’s probability.  It is also known as grandma’s rule, e.g. if you eat your tea (low probability), you get your pudding (high probability).

This is very useful in dog training and often we use it without thinking. What is great about premack it enables us to use environmental rewards in training.

So here are some high probability behaviours

Sniffing, running, jumping, eating, chasing, playing, swimming

Here are some low probability behaviours

Sitting , Waiting patiently, Focus, Walking to Heel

Think about what you could pair to make your low probability behaviours increase?

The popular ones are sitting for lead on and got for a walk and sitting for food in a bowl, here are some others

• Walking to Heel followed by Swimming
• Waiting patiently followed by Running/Movement
• Walking to Heel Followed by Sniffing
• Focus followed by Chasing
• Sitting followed by Playing

Copyright Jane Ardern 2018