Did I reward Jake?

In my prior post I discussed the scenario that I was encountering daily with Jake. He was fascinated with my feet. I concluded the post with a question regarding whether my technique was rewarding Jake.

I suppose one might conclude that Jake was being rewarded for his behavior, and there may be a reasonable argument to make for that. However, it might also be consideed redirection to give Jake the toy in place of my slippered foot. Technically, I believe that what is actually occurring is that I am creating a replacement behavior. I am asking Jake to play with the toy rather than with my foot, while attempting to extinguish his infatuation with my foot by not giving him attention for it. Though there may be a fine line between a reward and a redirect, consider this: if I were to give Jake a treat for the behavior there would be little redirection and more reward.  However, in this case Jake is being offered a toy. This action gives him a behavior to perform which provides the same function as the foot biting for him.  It gives him positive attention to play with a toy with me.

I am pleased to inform you that Jake has successfully changed this behavior. He now brings me a toy (usually his monkey) to play with and does not try to bite my feet any longer. How long did this take? Not very long at all; probably a week or two at most. Though I did not do an official intervention with him, I employed the principles I am learning in class in order to help him with this behavior.