Criteria

How it works

Vague criteria is one of the most common reasons training stalls, because the dog can only work out what is being paid from what actually gets paid. If a handler sometimes reinforces a fast sit, sometimes a straight sit, and sometimes any sit at all, the dog receives contradictory information and progress slows. Criteria are also raised one at a time: asking for a longer duration and a greater distance in the same session usually produces failure at both.

What it looks like

A handler decides that this session pays only a sit that happens within two seconds of the cue. A slow sit gets nothing, and no other aspect of the sit is judged. By the end of the session the dog is consistently faster.

Commonly confused with

The three D's

The three Ds name the three dimensions a criterion is usually raised along: duration, distance and distraction. Criteria is the broader idea of what is being paid at all, which includes the shape of the behavior itself.

Related terms