Redirection vs. reward

I don't understand the concept of redirection 100%...

I know that if a dog is showing a behavior that isn't desired such as gnawing on the couch or heeling someone's foot you can redirect them by taking them away from the couch/foot and then directing them to a toy or a kong...

That doesn't make much sense to me though??

To me it seems like the dog is doing something inappropriate and you redirect them to a treat/reward so won't the dg be more inclined to do it again the next time so that they can be redirected to a toy again?

A reward would be if my dog is chewing on the couch and I hand him a treat/toy. With redirection, I'm first going to interrupt the inappropriate chewing with a sound or movement or even with a little bit of collar pressure if need be, and then as soon as he stops I present an appropriate chew toy. So the bad behavior doesn't happen for long enough to be rewarding in itself and the appropriate redirected behavior becomes habituated.

^this. It is sort of like what you do with kids. If they are doing something inappropriate, you interrupt them and stop them. Then instead of just leaving them to their own devices once again, you give them something just as fun (or more fun) to do that will keep them stimulated and out of trouble. If a child is coloring on the walls, I'm going to interrupt that behavior and then redirect them to a coloring book or piece of paper. That doesn't reward the coloring on the walls (unless they are doing it for attention that I would otherwise not be giving them), but it does help reinforce that coloring on the walls is bad and coloring on paper is good.

Michi keep in mind that redirection is really for self-rewarding behaviors. You're not so much correcting/rewarding as you are ensuring that attempts to self-reward inappropriately do not bear fruit, while doing the same behavior appropriately is allowed to happen and therefore becomes the default.

What CP said. In addition, it's infinitely better to prevent it in the first place, so that behavior isn't practiced, hence...reinforced because it's fun and feels good. Teaching to chew on appropriate chew toys from the get go will tend to keep chewing on furniture at bay. But if you are too late and the dog is already beginning to chew on furniture or whatever and you distract, and the dog is no longer chewing on the furniture, that not chewing is what's being rewarded while being shown what TO chew on instead. But try to supervise diligently for a while so you can prevent that most satisfying occupation of chewing on your beautiful furniture. LOL.

What CP said!

I don't reward the bad behavior, I reward the dog for voluntarily ending the behavior with some prompting from me.

It's possible that if you use the same redirection/reward every time, the dog can learn a chain such as "chew sofa > redirected > treat/toy! YAY! Repeat!" but if you switch up the things you use to redirect the dog, over time the only variable that remains constant will be that NOT chewing the sofa gets the dog a wide variety of cool and interesting stuff. It takes time but in the end I think it's worth it.

When I was young in my training career (LOL), I would use a treat to lure dogs away from *whatever* in an attempt to redirect. But my trainer correctly pointed out that this was actually reinforcing the bad behavior. Even though I didn't GIVE the treat until I got the dog away from the distraction, putting the treat in front of her was a bribe and a reward.

So.... Don't do that.

But yeah, the redirection like you described is ok. Preferably you'd catch the dog BEFORE he starts really doing the bad behavior.

I think timing is important. The dog is about to or has JUST started doing the inappropriate behavior. You stop the dog immediately and redirect to a toy that the dog will enjoy. This toy is already available to the dog, it doesn't magically appear when the dog starts chewing, you just give the dog the idea to chew the toy instead of the furniture.
Essentially you make the inappropriate behavior useless and not fun by preventing it or stopping it ASAP (so supervision is important). Then you show the dog something fun to do instead. You teach the dog what he CAN do when he feels the urge to chew or whatever. Chewing the couch is a waste of time because you are always interrupted, chewing the toy is fun and satisfies the urge that caused the bad behavior in the first place.

What I would NOT do is see the dog chewing couch, grab a toy, and start playing with the dog, that I would see as very rewarding. I would stop the dog (you could use your voice, clap, call him away with his name, lead him away by the collar, anything to interrupt him) then make him come to the toy/bring him to the toy, and encourage him to use it once he's left the object he was previously chewing. Once he's settled down chewing the toy, periodically pet/praise and, if he'd like it, start playing with him with the toy (he might just want to chew without you touching his toy though).

It is of course important that the chew toy is interesting and enjoyable for the dog to chew, otherwise the dog might not redirect to it. You could still stop the couch chewing by interrupting him each time he starts, but unlike redirection the dog won't know what TO chew and might choose a new inappropriate object. So having a variety of chew toys that are rotated is really helpful for making sure you have something to redirect him to.