Selecting Reinforcers

[corvus]

What level of arousal do you aim for with the rewards you choose? With Kivi it's always been pretty easy to just sort of manipulate him into the level of excitement that is most helpful to what I'm trying to teach him just with my body language and how I talk to him and reward with much the same things. He's harder to rev up than calm down.

Erik is the opposite. It seems he's always very excited about training, which is nice, but not very helpful for when I'm trying to teach him something that really works better with much lower energy, like letting me do his nails, for example. He slaps his paw into my hand and waits like a coiled spring for me to reward him. I've started using massage alone instead. At least that way I can get him relaxed about it. Conversely, some rewards are way too hot for him. If you have a hot reward, how do you use it to the best of your advantage? Do you work them up to it? Or use it sparingly as a jackpot? Or something else?

[dogdude]

If you have a hot reward, how do you use it to the best of your advantage?

If your asking about technique, I create distance from it if I want calm, closer if I want more.