One of the things I say frequently about dogs and their owners is , “You can’t tell someone how to raise their child and you can’t tell them how to raise their dog.”  Like politics or religion, a discussion about how to train or raise a dog can invoke strong emotions and strong opinions across a pretty wide spectrum.  Everyone seems to have their preferred authorities and philosophies.  You can express your own point of view but there is very real resistance to passing judgement on whose methods are more “right” or more “wrong” in polite society.

Most dog owners love their dogs very much and try to act in the best interests of keeping their dogs safe, well-adjusted, and happy.  For some owners, that idea seems to contradict the use of shock collars, prong collars, and training methods based on “discipline” like the Koehler Method and Cesar Millan.  For other owners, the idea seems to contradict the “food bribery”, “coddling”, and lack of “leadership” that positive trainers use with their dogs.  And just like religion, it can be just as hard to know which approach works best for dogs as it would be to know for certain that there was one god, many gods, or none at all watching over us in the heavens.  At a certain point, you just have to take it on faith.

The Black Box

In a very real way, we are playing a “guessing game” when it comes to what our dogs think.  B.F. Skinner called it the “black box” into which we cannot see to know for certain.  All we have to rely on is our dog’s behaviour and the changes in that behaviour as we do things.  Our own human subjectivity and biases make the interpretation of that behaviour something less than precise.  It seems the only way to know what we know about dogs comes about through trial and observation.

What we can observe from our dog’s behaviour is whether or not they are more or less likely to do (or not do) a particular behaviour.  Whether that behaviour is barking at the mail carrier or sitting when we cue them, an observant owner can usually tell if their dog is performing more or less of the behaviour as things in the environment change.  Skinner called this “reinforcement” (increasing behaviour) and “punishment” (decreasing behaviour).  In effect, this should tell us whether changes we make in training our dogs are producing the desired effect by increasing or decreasing the targeted behaviour.

A Willingness To See

In his musical adventure “The Point”, songwrite Harry Nilsson introduces his protagonist, Oblio, to “The Rock Man” who tells him, “The thing is: you see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.”  He goes on to ask Oblio, “Did you ever see Paris?”  Oblio says no.  ”Did you ever see New Delhi?”  Oblio again says no.  And the Rock man replies “Well, that’s it.  You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.”  Perhaps it might be a bit deep for a children’s story but I find a lot of truth in it.  We are all free to ignore facts even if they are staring us in the face.

In researching this column each week, I come across some pretty interesting blog posts and articles.  I truly believe that they are published by dog trainers who believe in what they are saying and have a genuine desire to make life better for dogs and their owners.  What I find both stunning and perplexing are the lengths to which some people will go to ignore, re-interpret, or invalidate things that are easily proveable with a little effort.

Let me give you an example.  If I want my dog to come when I call them and I give them a food treat when they do come back, do they come back fast, not as fast, or about the same as before I began offering the treat?  I can measure that.  If I stop offering them the treat after a while, what happens to that “come” behaviour?  Does it become faster, less fast, or stay about the same?  Again, this is totally measureable.

But here’s the thing, some trainers might think that using that food treat is “cheating” to get better behaviour.  And so in spite of the proof that the method can work to get the desired behaviour, that trainer might go to some lengths to show me how, even though my dog is coming to me when called, I have created other “problems” in my dog by using food like “losing my dog’s respect”.

Shaking Bones and Burning Incense

It seems to me that the more a trainer wants a particular outcome, the more willing they are to try anything in hopes of getting that result.  This has been most apparent to me in the sport of dog agility where each weekend trial offers a smorgasbord of training techniques to get your dog to touch contacts, complete weave poles, and follow directions on the agility course.  Unfortunately, many of these techniques seem to be too focused on getting the result without paying much attention to what the dog is actually learning.

I once attended a seminar being presented by an agility instructor who had competed quite successfully in international competition.  He made the point, in no uncertain terms, that agility dogs will watch their handler’s arms and will move in the direction indicated by the movement of the arms.  Having had some experience at that point and, knowing that this did not seem to be true for my dog, I challenged the instructor on this point.  With a condescending smirk and a roll of the eyes, I was told to attempt to run my dog through a prescribed sequence with my hands in my pockets so that I could not use my arms. When I completed the sequence without an error, not once but twice, the  instructor muttered some explanation hastily moved on.  I have no doubt that he continued to tell attendees at his seminars that the hander’s arms are critical to agility handling in spite of the fact that I had shown him at least one case where this was not true.

It seems that people frequentlly stumble upon training techniques that produce a particular result.  The trouble is, once that result is obtained, many times there is no further investigation as to why that approach worked.  Does it work with different dogs?  Does it work with different breeds?  Is there a particular element to that techniques that makes it work?  Can that element be extended to other behaviours to get better results?  It seems to me that this kind of exploration too often takes a back seat to showing anyone who will listen how to duplicate the method.  Teaching them how to “shake the bones” and “burn the incense” to make the magic work.

Gurus and Mystics

This is where the “mysticism” comes into our discussion.  How often do dog owners and trainers adopt a particular training technique or philosophy by taking it “on faith”?  Maybe the technique came from a popular book or television program.  Maybe it came from a trusted friend who has enjoyed a lot of success with her dogs.  It may even have come from an “expert” in the dog community that has been invited to speak to a local dog group.  But does it make rational sense and has it been appropriately tested?

If our dogs were inanimate objects or mindless bystanders, it might be appropriate to try anything and everything out on them until we find what works.  But that’s not the case.  Not only do our dogs have thoughts and feelings, they have memories.  Every past experience we have had with our dog may influence, for good or ill, any new training or techniques we want to use.  And that may have a serious impact on getting the behaviour we want.

Machiavelli and Dog Training

It can seem that the sentiments Niccolo Machiavelli expressed in his book The Prince are prevalent in dog training today – “The ends justify the means.”  Whatever we do in pursuit of our desired goals in training our dogs is fair game so long as it produces the behaviour we want.  However, Machiavelli was talking about social systems in his book and not manipulating individuals.  I would also like to believe that we have developed more accurate and sophisticated philosophies in the time since the 16th century when the book was written.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s not alright to take techniques on “faith” before using them on our dogs.  Just because some “expert” says that I can make my dog “stay” by jabbing her in the ribs if they move doesn’t mean it’s the best way to work with my dog.  I also believe there’s a way to empirically determine if that’s true or not.  And I believe that I owe it to my dog to make the effort to find out what my training alternatives are and which methods have proven to be the most effective with the least bad side effects.

Alternative training techniques and trendy appproaches to working with our dogs may sound attractive, especially if they promise quick and lasting results.  There is a lot of money being made everyday by dog trainers making one promise or another.  But when it comes to the health, safety, and well being of the dog you have taken into your home, it is up to you to decide what is best for them.  For me that means doing some research to find the right approach and not just believing in what the popular gurus and trends are saying.

Until next time, keep doing the right things for your dogs!

Photo credits -

Moon – vanhap 2007  from Flickr
Dog Books - Earthworm 2009 from Flickr
Agility Training – Paranoid Black Jack 2008  from Flickr 

Mysticism and Pragmatism In Dog Training is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

It’s a sunny morning here on the hill in Victoria.  Tira and Rizzo and I are all in the living room listening to some music and enjoying the cool spring air.  There is just something I find very satifying being in the company of my dogs.  They are both dozing near me and I get the occasional glance or sigh.  It’s a wonderful reminder that, all things considered, life is good right at this moment.  I’m glad to have Tira and Rizzo here to remind me of that.

I’ve had a few random thoughts knocking around the inside of my head lately and this week seemed as good a time as any to toss them out to my readers and see what you may think about them.  I offer them in no particular order and they are just things that made me go “hmmm” this week.  

Dogs and Paychecks

This week I came across a great blog post by Victoria Stillwell called “Why Positive Training Is Not Bribery”. Ms. Stillwell makes some excellent points in her article and it’s well worth a read.  But she used a familiar analogy used by many positive dog trainers that just didn’t feel right.  It’s an analogy that I’ve often used myself but always left me uneasy for some reason.

Reward-based trainers will often make the comparison between rewarding your dog for behaviours and humans receiving a paycheck for the work they do.  Stillwell’s version in her blog post is, “Imagine you arrived at work tomorrow and were called into your boss’ office. You like your job (pretend if you have to), and are generally quite good at it. Your boss praises you for your good work and tells you how glad he is to have you on the team, and then informs you that as of that moment, you’d no longer be receiving any salary.”  And that’s when I finally figured out what has bothered me about this analogy.

What Stillwell and others who use this analogy seem to be suggesting is that if you do not use rewards when the dog performs behaviours, then they do not get “paid” and so they ask if you would do your job if you didn’t get paid for it.  But this isn’t an entirely accurate analogy.  Our dogs do get paid – they get food and water everyday (in mose cases).  And this stretches the credibility of the comparison.  We humans work for a full week or more without getting compensation where our dog gets something tangible at least once per day.

So am I quibbling over trivial details?  I don’t think so.  If we want our message as positive trainers to really hit home with those who don’t yet see the benefits of what we do, we need to have a solid message.  On the surface, the “payday” analogy seems accurate enough and expedient but a force trainer or even a dog owner could quickly poke a hole in it.  Our dogs get “paid” every day and a trainer could make the case that the dog should be motivated to cooperate with their human to make sure that the “payments” keeps coming.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for this.  I don’t have a different analogy or clever way to reword this.  A more appropriate analogy might be getting paid everytime we completed a task at work.  Perhaps the case could be made that dogs don’t think at a complex enough level that they understand their daily feeding as a “paycheck” but the fact that dogs cooperate with us at all would lead us to believe that they have some sense of connection between doing what we ask and getting what they need from us.  I would be very interested if anyone else has a different analogy they could share?

Just Fix It

Something I find surprising since crossing over to positive training is the number of dog owners who just want the “fix” for their current dog issue.  It could be barking at the door or not completing the weave poles in agility or just not focusing on them when they want to work with their dog.  As someone who approaches dog training from a behavioural point of view, I sometimes struggle when asked to just give a dog owner a recipe to “fix” their problem.

It isn’t that I can’t help them with their issue, I just need more information to go on beyond just the problem at hand.  After all, it’s not like replacing a broken part in a toaster.  If someone asked me “how do I put out a fire?”, I would not be entirely accurate if I told them to “throw water on it.”  That solution might work for some situations but it isn’t necessarily specific enough to help them out.  People frequently look for help when they are at their wits end and want the problems solved now.

It can be tricky to balance giving a dog owner enough of the right information without testing their already thin patience with overly long explanations of learning theory and behaviour modification strategies.  Something that I have found to bridge the “information gap” is using the internet technology at our disposal.  I try to get an email address and forward helpful information and links to online information to the owner so that they can dig deeper when it’s convenient for them.

So maybe I can’t solve the problem for them, but I will give them a few suggestions to pursue and try to provide as much background information to them electronically to help them out.  Smartphones and tablets are making it even easier to get good information to clients without having to spend a lot of face time explaining things to them.  I’ve also found that working with owners after they have had a chance to review some basic instructions that I’ve forwarded is much easier and more productive.  It seems we now have the means, in most cases, to be as thorough as we need without spending a lot of time with the client explaining.  Most owners will happily read what you send them and that makes things a lot easier.

“If A Million People Do A Stupid Thing, It Is Still A Stupid Thing”

The line above is a quote from a cartoon character.  Opus the penguin was the philosopher and sometimes comic foil in Berke Breathed’s award winning comic Bloom County.  Opus was lamenting the silliness of his penguin comrades in the Falkland Islands when he made his pronouncement but his words seem applicable to a lot of the dog world as well. 

There seems to be no end to the ridiculous and sometimes dangerous methods people come up with to train and work with their dogs.  There are popular books, television programs, and long established educational programs that still recommend outdated and potentially harmful ideas and training techniques.  

Taking the wisdom from the words of a cartoon penguin, just because a lot of people do something with their dogs is not validation that it is the best way to do it.  And just because a lot of people believe something is true does not mean that it is, in fact, true.  Fortunately, there are some great people out there using actual science and research on dogs to develop safe, effective, and remarkably fun ways to train and work with dogs.

Allow me to introduce you to the Pet Professional Guild. The Guild is a recently formed group of pet professionals dedicated to providing educational resources to pet care professionals and the public that promote force-free and scientifically proven approaches to animal care.  The Guild is open to pet care professionals and trainers as well as pet owners who want to learn more about working with their dogs.  Their website provides a wealth of information for pet owners from book and DVD recommendations to articles on raising a happy, healthy puppy.  

The Guild now has over 700 members in 17 countries around the world.  Perhaps the most important resource they can offer dog owners is an easy way to find a force-free Guild affiliated trainer in their area who can help.  The Guild website includes a page dedicated to helping locate your local Pet Professional Guild trainer.  For more information on the principles all Guild trainers follow, please see this page.

Wagging Tails

So from me and the black Belgians Tira and Rizzo up here on our hill, here’s wishing your and yours lots of fun and wagging tails this week.  Thanks for indulging my random thoughts this week.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

Photo credits -

Office Dogs - emdot 2009  from Flickr
Tommy – jackace 20061 from Flickr

Dog Tails and Random Trails is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

We have a saying in our home, “Train it or manage it.”  When it comes to dealing with our dog’s behaviour, it seems there are really only two choices.  We can either train our dogs to do things in a way that we like or we can manage their situation so that they don’t have the opportunity to do things we don’t.  It’s a practical decision.  If the training necessary to control a certain behaviour in our dogs is more work than changing the situation, we just arrange things differently.  Sometimes it even becomes a combination of both approaches – manage the situation until we can get the training in place.

Many times dog owners will wait until they take their dog to obedience classes or “doggy manners” classes to begin teaching their dogs “Sit” and “Come” and “Stay.”  Obedience and group classes are great for teaching your dog how to work with you in highly distracting environments.  Instructors can help you refine your training skills so you can be a better communicator with your dog.  But there is a lot of learning that can go on at home if you take a little time to plan.  We start with a lot of little things very early on with our new dogs.

Lifelong Tools

Our dogs will  need to get used to the accessories we will use to manage them throughout their lives.  For some, this will be a collar and clip on leash and for others it may be a head-halter style collar.  Others may use a harness with their dog.  The important thing is to make that piece of equipment something the dog is eager to get into and makes them comfortable.  A little time spent rewarding them can make all the difference.

We reward our dogs with a treat each time we put on or take off their collar or leash.  In the beginning, we do no more than that – put it on, reward, take it off, reward.  We do this 4 or 5 times twice each day and in a few days, just the sight of the collar or leash will bring our puppy running to get into it.  But the work doesn’t stop there.

We teach our dogs the “collar grab” game.  It’s simple.  We just grab the puppy gently by the collar, reward with a treat, and release.  There are going to be times when I will need to get hold of my dog’s collar to control her.  Wouldn’t it be useful if I made that into something she enjoys?  After a week or so of being rewarded for having her collar grabbed, my dog won’t flinch or duck away when I reach for her collar.  And that makes life a lot easier and safer.  Rewarding your dog for being picked up or being held by you is also very useful.  It’s never too late to start training these useful behaviours even if your dog is a rescue or older dog!

On The Move

We enjoy getting out for walks and outings with friends.  There’s more good stuff to train for when we are out and about.  Many owners teach “heel” position so that their dog walks beside them but it’s not something we focus on.  Instead, we frequently call our dog’s name or using the cue “Look!” to get eye contact and reward them for that.  It’s a way of building in a mechanism for getting our dog’s attention.

Being out on walks is an excellent place to practice our “Come” behaviour as well.  My dog doesn’t need to be 40 or 50 feet away to practice this behaviour.  I can call her to me from the end of her 8 foot leash, it’s the same concept.  Practicing this way gives me complete control of my dog and I have literally dozens of opportunities to call her back safely on every walk.

We teach our dogs two other verbal cues for walking with us.  While on a walk, I will periodically slow my pace and say “Easy.”  I will then reward my dog when they slow down and tune into me to see what’s happening next.  This provides a good intermediate step between “Come” and letting my dog walk freely.  The other cue we teach is “Let’s go.”  Dogs like to sniff and this is a way to let my dog know I’m moving on.  When I’m ready to go, I simply say “Let’s go” and start to walk.  If my dog chooses not to come with me, she will get a gentle tug from the leash as I walk away.  It doesn’t take many occurrences of this before my dog learns that “Let’s go” means “time ot move or you’re gonna get dragged!”  It’s not punishment, it’s infomation.  I don’t yank on my dog, I just start moving away at an easy pace without stopping.  Once we teach it, we always use “Let’s Go” so our dogs are never surprised or dragged along with us when we move on.

Here, There, and Everywhere

There are lots of things to teach our dogs inside the house too.  We have found that teaching our dogs a few useful behaviours can save a lot of fuss when we need to move them around the house.  One of the simplest tricks we teach involves placing some bells on the door to the backyard.  While house training our puppies, we ring the bells each time we go out.  In a very short time my puppy learns to ring them herself if she needs to be let out.  We reward the dog for ringing the bells and then let them out.  This makes the job of knowing when to let our dogs out much easier!

Frequently we have our dogs hop up on a chair or the bed or the picnic table out back to brush them or cut their nails.  It makes grooming a heck of a lot easier when you don’t have to get on the floor with them.  So we teach them “Up!” to get up onto something (including getting into the car!) and “Off!” when we want them to get down from something.  Again, they are rewarded for complying  when we are first teaching the behaviours.  Getting on or off is never a punishment.  This makes moving dogs on or off the couch or bed or even the back seat of the car much easier.

For moving our dogs from place to place, we teach our dogs with a combination of hand signals and verbal cues.  Something we do from when our puppies are quite young it each them to enter doorways and rooms ahead of us.  We simply wave a hand toward the entrance and say “In” and reward them once through the doorway.  This is a very useful behaviour to teach when our dogs are young.  No one wants to be jumped on or blocked while carrying a snack or drink from one room to another!

One of the most useful things we teach our dogs is to backup, literally walk backwards away from us.  This comes in handy in lots of different situations.  If I’m carrying something from one room to another, I can just say “back!” and my dog will take a few steps back out of my way.  It’s also useful in keeping curious noses away from plates of food.  It has even come in handy at dog agility trials where I have left my dog at the start line only to see that she has crept forward a few feet.  A simple “back” command and I can reposition her without having to go back to her!

Building Blocks And Better Times

All of these basic behaviours for moving around and working with our dogs form a foundation for helping us communicate.  We use these behaviours in combinations to help us in our everyday activities with our dogs.  It’s a stream of communication that helps them feel comfortable about what’s happening.  What is important  is that we teach the dog and reward them for their cooperation before we find ourselves in hard to manage situations.  

Interestingly, it isn’t that we have different expectations for our current dogs. We expected just as much of dogs we had before we used positive training.   It’s just that now we are being proactive and teaching them useful behaviours that we will use for a lifetime.  Believe me when I tell you that it works out much better than the frustration we used to experience trying to wrangle our mostly confused and sometimes apprehensive dogs from one situation to another.

Take a look at your life with your dogs.  I’m sure you’ve already trained them to work with you in a number of interesting ways but are there other things you could work at?  Are there simple behaviours, like holding still for putting leashes on, that you could reinforce more regularly?  A little time teaching has made our life with our dogs so much easier.  We have found that life provides lots of opportunities for training practical behaviours we use every day!

Until next time, have fun with your dogs!

Photo credits -

Kitchen - pkingDesign 2010  from Flickr
Biking – nimeus 2011 from Flickr
Black Dogs – DonkerDink 2008 from Flickr

Practical Everyday Dog Training is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

Dog trainers can, and frequently do, debate which techniques for teaching a dog to do a specific behaviour is the most effective.  There is some flexibility in how we teach our dogs to do something new.  But what about those cases where our dog is doing something we don’t want them to do?  What training methods or techniques are available for dealing with those cases and how do we choose?

I’ve been talking a lot lately in this column about how we go about training our dogs.  Does it really matter which approach you use to get the behaviours you want from your dog?  My personal experience says it does and I’m not alone in that opinion.  Many dog and animal behaviour experts have made the same case – some training methods produce more well adjusted animals than others.

Putting Out A Fire

When something catches fire, we just react.  We don’t debate or consider.  We just move to put out the fire with what ever comes to hand.  For many dog owners, that’s how they deal with problem behaviours as well.  When their dog growls at a child or barks unexpectedly at a guest, they just react to stop the behaviour.  ”Bad Dog!”, is yelled out to interrupt whatever is going on.  It can be more or less effective depending on the situation.

The point is, we resort to the most convenient action to stop the behaviour in the moment.  We might grab the dog’s collar, give them a smack on the rump or the nose, pull up on the leash, etc.  But this isn’t exactly like putting out a fire.  In the case of our dog, something caused them to exhibit that behaviour and the correction-of-the-moment might not be effective.  Like throwing water on a grease fire in the kitchen, it might make the situation worse.

Proactive Protocols

Just like dealing with fires, there are different ways to approach dealing with bad behaviours in our dogs.  It might be worth considering a few different techniques instead of relying on our one-size-fits-all reflexive action to Fido’s unwanted behaviour.  There are some systematic principles all of us learn about fires – smothering with blankets, baking soda for grease fires, soaking surrounding areas to prevent the fire spreading, etc. – there are also some protocols we can borrow from another well-known field.  Applied Behaviour Analysis offers us some useful approaches for dealing with problem behaviour.

Applied Behavioural Analysis is being used today in programs for the mentally challenged, autism disorders, and even in mainstream primary and secondary schools.  The goal of such programs is to provide effective methods of dealing with problem behaviours to allow learning to take place.  It has been remarkably successful.  So it should not be surprising that positive training techniques like Mark & Reward or Clicker Training for our dogs are based on these same Behaviour Analysis principles.  And they can be equally successful at dealing with problem behaviours as they are in teaching new behaviours to our dogs.

Friedman’s Hierarchy

Dr. Susan Friedman is a psychology professor at Utah State University who has pioneered the application of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to captive and companion animals. In an article for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) Journal in 2010, Dr. Friedman discusses the intrusiveness of various training and behaviour management methods.  She cites research done in Behaviour Analysis that shows that the least intrusive procedures are the most effective for promoting learning.  

The principles on which she bases her article refer to research done in human schools and a “hierarchy of intrusiveness” presented by Paul Alberto and Anne Troutman in their book Applied Behaviour Analysis for Teachers.  Dr. Friedman expands this hierarchy into an effective model for dealing with problem behaviour in our dogs.  Read from top to bottom, this diagram represents a series of approaches to problem behaviours from first resort to last resort.

Stepping Through The Hierarchy

Unwanted or inappropriate behaviours will happen in our lives with our dogs.  Some of those will occur because the dog does not know any better or has not been taught alternative behaviours.  Other times inappropriate behaviours can show up almost mysteriously.  Friedman’s hierarchy provides a simple, easy-to-use protocol for dealing with unwanted behaviours from growling to pulling on leash to barking.

Medical, Nutritional, Physical - Many inappropriate behaviours our dogs exhibit can be the result of real physical problems.  A dog in pain or physical distress may be much more likely to show aggressive or defensive behaviour.  They are ill and wish to be left alone or at least not be touched in certain areas.  Before taking any other action to correct behaviour, first make sure there isn’t any medical or physical cause that may be triggering it.  A trip to your veterinarian or health care provider should quickly determine if this is the cause of the dog’s behaviour.

Antecedent Arrangements - This is just fancy language for the “situation” the dog is in when it exhibits an unwanted behaviour.  My dog could be frightened of men in hats or small children or even loud noises.  Under those circumstances, she might be more likely to display aggressive or other inappropriate behaviour out of fear.  So the next step for me under this hierarchy is to look at what I can change in my dog’s environment to change her behaviour.  Can I put more distance between us and the disturbing object?  If being too near activity causes my dog to be over excited, perhaps I can move back to a safer distance.  Similarly, if my dog is annoying me by stealing food off of our counters, well, I guess I should stop leaving food on the counters!

Positive Reinforcement - Rather than allowing my dog to decide what she would like to do in a situation where an unwanted behaviour develops, can I teach her to perform a behaviour of my choosing using positive reinforcement?  Ideally this is a proactive step taken when the dog first encounters potentially troublesome situations.  For example, if my dog exhibits a preference to nip at the pant legs of family members as a puppy, I can use positive reinforcement to teach her an alternate behaviour such as picking up a toy which would be more acceptable to everyone.

Differential Reinforcement of Alternate Behaviours - This is similar to Positive Reinforcement above except that I may be working with an already established unwanted behaviour.  The concept of Differential Reinforcement means that I will reinforce my dog for an alternative behaviour at a higher level than she is reinforced for the unwanted behaviour.  At that point, the choice should become obvious for the dog.  If my dog barks out the window when she sees the mail carrier, I could train her to come to me for a treat when she sees them.  In this case, the mail carrier becomes a signal that coming for a treat will pay off.  In a short time, my dog will become more reinforced by coming to me after seeing the mail carrier rather than standing at the window and barking.

Extinction, Negative Punishment, Negative Reinforcement - Each of these approaches to behaviour change has a fairly high degree of complexity to implement correctly.  Extinction involves providing no reinforcement whatsoever for the unwanted behaviour.  This can be difficult especially if the behaviour is caused by fear and the behaviour itself provides some level of stress relief.  That said, if the dog does not have the opportunity to engage in the unwanted behaviour (i.e., they are not exposed to the thing that triggers the behaviour) it is possible that the behaviour will become extinct.  Both Negative Reinforcement and Negative Punishment involve the removal of something in order to change behaviour.  Negative Reinforcement seeks to increase a preferred behaviour by removing something unwanted by the dog when the desire behaviour is performed.  Negative Punishment targets the unwanted and seeks to decrease the target behaviour by removing something the dog wants or values – food, companionship, security, etc.

Positive Punishment - This approach should be familiar.  It involves targeting the unwanted behaviour by adding something the dog doesn’t want or like when the unwanted behaviour occurs.  This could be a tug on the leash, physically pushing or hitting the dog, yelling at the dog, or making threatening gestures to get them to stop doing the unwanted behaviour.  In Friedman’s hierarchy, this type of behaviour modification is the most intrusive and therefore the least ideal for teaching the dog.  It may learn not to do the behaviour, but it may be learning to stop the behaviour as a way of avoiding the punishment and nothing more.  If we are not able to be there to deliver the punishment, there is nothing keeping the dog from doing the unwanted behaviour when we are not around.

First Response and Last Resort

Like putting out a fire, often a dog owner’s first response to a problem behaviour is to stop that behaviour as quickly as possible.  All too frequently the method used is Positive Punishment, Dr. Friedman’s last resort in her intrusiveness hierarchy.  It may not be the best choice for solving the behaviour problem long term but in the immediate situation, it will very often produce the desired effect.  Startling, surprising, or otherwise interrupting the dog in the act of an unwanted behaviour can give the illusion that we have “corrected” the behaviour.  But all we have done is deter the outward behaviour without giving the dog any instruction as to what other behaviour we would prefer.  We have done nothing to improve the dog’s situation.  And by introducing punishment, we may even add to their stress or arousal.

When we were young, our first response to our clothing catching fire might be to run and hope the wind would put it out.   But we are quickly taught that the best procedure in this case is to stop, drop to the ground, and roll to put out the flames.  It is a more involved solution that might not come to mind if we are not taught the effectiveness of doing it that way.  Similarly, I think most dog owners are prone to reacting without much thought as to what the most effective approach would be for an unwanted behaviour.  If dog owners understood Dr. Friedman’s hierarchy, they might be able to quickly employ a more effective and longer term solution to behaviour problems.

What Else Could I Do?

All too often dog owners and dog trainers alike will use the reasoning that something needs to be done and it needs to be done fast to stop unwanted behaviour.  Unfortunately that “something” is usually the punishment that Dr. Friedman reserves as a last resort.  When a dog owner asks me, “What else can I do?” in defence of using punishment to stop unwanted behaviour, I know from the basics of Applied Behaviour Analysis that there is PLENTY that can be tried before resorting to punishment.  

Dr. Friedman’s hierarchy provides an excellent, easy-to-understand framework for solving behaviour problems.  Although many of these steps are not as dramatic as the most invasive punishment-based solution, they employ techniques that have been proven to produce longer lasting and more effective behaviour changes in our dogs.  So although poking, startling, and kicking at a dog might make for good TV, it doesn’t necessarily make for good solutions to behaviour problems.  

Using the wrong training method on problem behaviours can be like throwing gasoline on a fire.  Using physical force on an unwell dog is a good way to get injured.  So, like the “stop, drop, and roll” we were taught in response to fires, Dr. Friedman’s hierarchy gives us guidance for handling problem behaviours without the risk of creating bigger ones.  And isn’t it better to be proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to our dog’s welfare?

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

Photo credits -

Intense - colemama 2008  from Flickr
The Stare - Lon Fong 2010 from Flickr
Feature banner – theoelliot 2009 from Flickr

Bad Dog – Handling Problem Behaviours is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

There are a few common phrases that float around in the dog training world that get my hackles up.  One of those phrases is “I use whatever training technique my dogs need.”  The implication being that some dogs are more responsive to one technique over another.  And while there may be some truth in that statement, the variations necessary to train individual dogs are not as great as some trainers would have you believe.

Training our dogs is a mostly private affair.  We work in our own homes with our dogs and we do the best we can.  We get our information on how to train from a variety of sources.  Many of us grew up in families with dogs and watched our parents work with dogs.  Some of us look to books for ideas and information.  Some of us seek out the advice of professional trainers or dog owning friends.  And the variety of media outlets available today offer dog owners new sources of information from discussion groups and blogs on the Internet to the dog oriented shows on television.

He Said, She Said

It has been said that the only thing two dog trainers can agree on is that a third dog trainer is wrong.  It’s a line that is always good for a chuckle but only because there is some truth in it.  Why is it that with all of the resources of the 21st century at our disposal, no consensus on dog training methodology has been reached?  You might think that enough research has been done to give us a general picture of what works and what doesn’t.  So why do opinions on dog training vary so widely?

That’s a complicated question and one that doesn’t have easy answers.  Certainly a big part of what people believe about dogs and dog training is what they have seen with their own eyes.  If a given training technique produces the desired result, then that technique works in the eyes of that trainer.  So why is it that what works for one dog doesn’t work for a different dog?  The answer may lie in the trainers and not the dogs.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

In his book “Blink!”, author Malcolm Gladwell talks about the adaptive unconscious, a set of mental processes identified in the human mind.  This adaptive unconscious can actually leave us convinced that we saw something even if what actually happened was quite different.  How is this possible?  Researcher Timothy Wilson writes in “The Unseen Mind” that his subjects were “unaware of their own unawareness” regarding the bias of their decisions.  Instead of recognizing that we were already looking for a particular outcome, we use our reasoning and introspection to explain why we saw what we wanted to see.  

This disconnect between our adaptive unconscious and our introspective, reasoning mind sets the stage for misperceptions that we absolutely believe.  The only way past this kind of conflict between reality and our perception of it is a willingness to re-examine observable facts.  We are influenced by what we are familiar with and the things we understand.  

In other words, it’s possible that a trainer believes their training methods “work” because it is what they have been taught.  It is what they understand.  Their adaptive unconscious influences their choices and their perception of their results.  Our ability to rationalize our choices is also biased by another important factor – most dog owners have only trained a handful of their own dogs.

Imperfect Solutions

I have met dog owners who are absolutely convinced that a particular training technique is 100% effective for teaching a certain behaviour.  After talking with them about their discovery, it becomes clear that their success is based on a sample of one or two dogs; the ones they currently work with at home.  This kind of trainer is often at a loss to explain why their technique works but they can show you how to use it with your dog.  If it doesn’t work with your dog, they will politely suggest that you might not be doing it correctly.  Their method can’t be flawed because it works with their dogs.

Another factor is that it is difficult to teach a dog the same behaviour using different methods.  Once they have learned the desired behaviour, we can’t reset them to try teaching a different way.  Even if we could, why would we?  We already have a technique that works and it has done the job in the past.  So a given trainer is limited in their ability to compare different training techiques in a relatively short time frame.  They have only so many dogs to work with and only so much time.

Numbers Don’t Lie

As recently as 15 or 20 years ago, it might be difficult for a dog owner to get information about the effectiveness of a particular training approach.  It might involve trips to the library or bookstores.  It might require phone calls to training professionals around the world to ask about training methods and results.  The lucky ones might have access to a university that was doing research on canine behaviour.  But today we have the Internet.

As a dog trainer in the 21st century, I no longer have the luxury of looking to my own adaptive unconscious and a limited pool of information to justify my training approaches.  Everything from the experiences and knowledge of professional animal trainers around the world to university research on canine learning and behaviour are at my fingertips if I choose to access them.  But overturning decades of my own experience to find that I don’t know what I thought I knew can be a scary proposition.

In my own case, I have made my choice to see as much as I can see and discard the things I have learned in the past if they don’t hold up in light of new information I am learning about.  I have chosen to re-examine the things I have heard from dog trainers and other dog owners – the hearsay.  And what I’m finding is that much of what I’m learning goes against many of the things I was taught about dogs –  the heresy of a science based approach.  The difference is that this new information goes beyond what I have “seen with my own eyes” and relies on the weight of the trials and experiences of trainers who are recording and reporting their results.  Numbers don’t lie.

For Instance…

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.  There are lots of ways the people teach their dogs.  Each method has it’s pros and cons.  But in the end, people use what “works” for them.  And that’s just fine, right?  Wrong.  Would it surprise you if I told you that methods based on punishing incorrect behaviours actually cause more problems than methods that rely on rewarding correct behaviours?

In 2004, a study was done at the University of Bristol in England.  It involved interviewing hundreds of dog owners and trainers about their dogs, their training methods, and the most common problem behaviours reported in dogs.  In the conclusion of their research paper the authors report that, “in the general dog-owning population, dogs trained using punishment are no more obedient than those trained by other means and,furthermore, they exhibit increased numbers of potentially problematic behaviours.”

This isn’t the hearsay of a dog owner who’s best friend is a dog trainer who has “been doing it for 20 years” and knows her methods work.  These are the results of university educated animal behaviourists who devised a specific methodology to determine their results using hundreds of average dog owners in their trials.  Their results were submitted for review by other professionals and it stood up to their rigorous scientific standards.  And to many dog trainers out there, it is heresy!

Training Beyond Results

Using training methods because “they have always worked” for certain dogs may not be the most effective way to go.  After all, I can drive nails with a heavy wrench but it’s not the most effective way to go (a hammer works better, so I am told).  Remember that our dogs are thinking and feeling animals and they are not neutral as to which training approach we use.  A given training method may get the desired results but, as the study from the University of Bristol shows, it may also get you some additional problems you didn’t anticipate.

We have the capacity to fool ourselves.  The research on human psychology shows us that the adaptive unconscious is particularly good at masking our biases for certain answers or approaches.  We may not even recognize that those new problems with our dogs come out of our own choice of training methods.

We all love our dogs.  We should take the same care in choosing how we work with them that we do in choosing the right food for them or the right places to go for a walk.  To me, “I use what works with my dogs” is not a good enough justification for how we train.  I want to know that I am using the most effective training methods based on solid research.  And if that doesn’t jive with the hearsay in my local dog community, I’m content with my methods being heresy.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

Photo credits -

Hearsay - sea turtle 2007  from Flickr
Serious – sillydog 2008 from Flickr
Partners – Images by John ‘K’ 2009 from Flickr
Feature banner –  Duje Lalin 2009 from Flickr

Dog Training Hearsay and Heresy is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

What if your dog offered you a behaviour you didn’t ask for?  What if it was a good idea?  Being smart enough to catch your dog doing something right is good for both of you.  You get what you want and your dog gets to flex his creative muscles!

It was your average evening here at the homestead.  My wife was in our sitting room enjoying a television program and the dogs were scattered through the house lounging in their preferred spots.  The jingling of bells caught my wife’s attention and soon a pointy brown head with black ears peered around the corner at her expectantly.  My wife smiled and said “Good boy!” and got up to let Jedi outside.

This would be a ho-hum kind of story except for one small fact.  Jedi is not our dog and he has never been trained to ring bells to go outside!  Jedi had been staying with us for a short while while his family was travelling.  We have always kept bells on the door we use to let them out to the back yard to relieve themselves.  We have had dogs in the past that used these bells frequently but we never expected Jedi to learn to use them in so short a time.

Genius or Accident?

Considering this was a one time occurrance, I have to allow for the fact that Jedi ringing the bells was accidental.  But there are a few factors that lead me to belive that it was intentional.  Jedi had been staying with us for 9 days and nights at the point this happened.  Everytime the door was opened in his presence, Jedi heard the bells jingle.  So he was exposed to them at least 4-6 times each day.  And Jedi appeared to seek out my wife just after ringing the bells to see if she had noticed it.

There are a couple of non-situation specific things that I’m also considering here.  Jedi was raised and trained by someone who uses a lot of operant conditioning in her training.  This allows him the confidence to try things without worrying about a reprimand and he is used to getting something in return for his efforts.  He knows that trying something is more likely to pay off than doing nothing.

We can’t know whether or not Jedi would repeat that behaviour because he went home with his owner the next day but we think it’s likely that he would have.  Two of our other dogs developed the same habit in a matter of days also.  So long as the bell-ringing produced reliable results that they wanted, the dogs used it as a means of communication.

When Opportunity Presents Itself

Here’s another example of this phenomenon.  When our Rizzo very young, my wife began bringing him to agility practices.  She would keep him in a soft crate but he was often very excited by the dogs that were out and running as he watched.  As a way to focus Rizzo, my wife began asking Rizzo to lie down and dropped treats into the crate through the zipper in the top of the crate.  It wasn’t long before my wife realized that trying to look into a dark crate, through mesh, to see a black dog was not an easy task.  It’s dark in there!

And so she would ask Rizzo to down and then lean forward to try to see if he was in fact lying down before dropping the treat.  Apparently of his own accord, Rizzo began to poke the mesh of the crate when my wife looked in.  This was the perfect indicator.  The height of the nose poke would tell her whether Rizzo was standing or lying down.  She began only paying for nose pokes that came at a low enough level.

It’s important to realize that this was not a trained behaviour.  My wife did not teach Rizzo to poke the mesh of the crate.  But she did reward it!  Before long, my wife had figured out that if she leaned forward to peer into the crate, Rizzo would immediately show her his nose poke in hopes of getting the reward.  Like Jedi working out how to ring the bells to be let out, Rizzo had worked out how to give my wife the information she needed and was rewarded for that.

Organic Learning

In both of these cases, Jedi and Rizzo were passive learners.  They were not specifically being instructed to offer a particular behaviour.  They were, however, both rewarded for their efforts.  Jedi and our bell-ringing dogs were let out and Rizzo received his food treat from above after letting his mom know he was lying down with a nose poke.  The important point here is that these dogs were not instructed to do a particular behaviour.  They were allowed to offer something that worked for them and they were rewarded for it.

To us, this is an incredibly cooperative and empowering way to work with our dogs.  By giving them the freedom to offer behaviours we have created a mechanism for them to express themselves.  Rather than the dog needing to meet criteria that we set as trainers for a given behaviour, we are simply accepting something they contribute and build it into their repertoire of existing behaviours.  Instead of requiring a specific behaviour, we are accepting something offered of the dog’s own accord.  I suppose that, in a way, it could be that we are validating their efforts with our rewards.

The Diabolical Schemes of Tiramisu

A few years ago, it was standard practice for my wife to be sitting in her office only to look up and see the steely glare of two brown eyes attempting to bore a hole in her.  Our Tiramisu would stare intently at my wife in what looked like an attempt to telepathically will her to get up and feed her dinner.  Unfortunately for our little black dog, we are quite aware of how operant conditioning works and so my wife would never get up and prepare dinner when she saw Tira engaging in this behaviour.

It took a short while, but Tira learned that this “staring thing” was not really working.  So she set about looking for alternatives.   Before long, she was finding my wife and offering a soft smile and a light hearted wag of the tail.  This approach proved much more successful as my wife would would often laugh and say “Ok Tira, let’s get you fed.”  But it was not a reliable strategy.  If my wife were engrossed in her work, Tira’s efforts at displaying her cuteness might go unnoticed.

Our young dog Rizzo was growing up fast and my wife often encouraged Tira to play with him.  Tira is not really one to play with other dogs much.  So it surprised my wife one day when Tira ran into the room with Rizzo in tow and began playfully bouncing and bowing at him.  This made my wife laugh.  She would watch them play for a few minutes and then my wife would get up and start preparing dinner.  Tira was delighted!  She had at last discovered a reliable way to get my wife to make dinner for her.

Who Is Training Who?

Of course Tiramisu probably thought she had finally worked out the secret method to get dinner when she wanted it.  But what was really happening was that my wife had observed a behaviour she wanted to encourage in Tiramisu and decided to accept the play and reward it consistently.  Now when Tira wants to be fed, she will engage Rizzo in some silly play.  Rizzo gets a little fun, Tira gets fed, and my wife gets what she wanted too.  It’s a win-win-win.  

This kind of cooperative learning and training works for two primary reasons.  First, the trainer is aware and observant enough to consistently reward the behaviour she wants once the dog offers it.  And second these dogs are all used to being trained using positive reinforcement and mark & reward training.  They have a long history of offering behaviours and being rewarded.  

Perhaps more important is that these dogs are never corrected when they offer incorrect variations of what we are looking for.  If they offer a behaviour other than what we are looking for or are willing to accept, we simply ignore it and let them try something else.  In short, we teach our dogs that “there is no harm in trying.”  Of course there are behaviours we discourage, but only infrequently.  Jedi, Rizzo, and Tira are all products of positive reinforcement training and each has demonstrated their ability and willingness to engage us in their efforts to communicate.

It makes for a pretty interesting life for us as their owners and I have to believe that it must be fun for them too.  After all, how many dogs get to feel like they are active partners in their training?  We are very thankful for all of the gifts that modern training and operant conditioning have given us.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

Photo credits -

All photos copyright Petra Wingate 2012

Catch Your Dog Doing Something Right is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

“Sit.” “Down.” “Fetch.”  These are things that most people associate with dog training.  But is there more we can teach our dogs beyond simple behaviours?  You might be surprised that you already do!  And there might be more you can teach them.

Every dog owner’s idea of “dog training” is a little different.  That’s not surprising, we all have different requirements for our dogs.  The family dog that is a playmate for the children needs different training than the herding dog that works most days in the field tending to livestock.  The same is true for the urban dog who will spend much of her day amusing herself indoors compared to the farm dog who gets to spend his time outdoors with the other family dogs.

Even though we all train for different lifestyles, there are some common things we expect and train our dogs to do.  Behaviours like “sit”, “down”, and “stay” are pretty universal, as are directional behaviours like “off” and “here”.  But there is other learning going on while we train and live with our dogs that may be more or less obvious to us.  One of the most critical things our dogs need to learn is how to read humans.

Learning Beyond Training

There is an old saying among some dog trainers that goes something like, “Every minute you are not training your dog, your dog is training you.”  I can’t quite agree with all of that because I don’t believe my dogs have an agenda that they are actively trying to train me to follow.  Instead, I would say that “Every minute you are not training your dog, your dog is still learning but you may not know what she is learning.”

As her caretaker, I am the single most important element in my dog’s life.  Learning as much about me as she can is understandably a high priority.  She quickly learned the routine that means we were going out for a walk or that dinner was being prepared.  She learned when to stay quietly to one side when I’m busy or to come and cuddle if I had some downtime to relax.  Our dogs do a remarkable job of learning our habits and signals even if we don’t realize we’re putting them out there.

What A Concept

Teaching my dog how to “sit” or “come” are behaviours.  I’m asking her to do something.  By contrast, “dinner time” or “going for a walk” would be more like concepts.  There’s nothing for the dog to do but they have learned enough to watch for our subtle signs and use them as cues to determine what’s happening next.  Our dogs do understand other concepts like “bedtime” and “settle down.”

Perhaps the most startling example I have heard about dogs and conceptual learning came from professional animal trainer Ken Ramirez.  Ken pointed out that guide dogs for the disabled are able to naturally account for the space requirements for both themselves and their human when moving through crowded areas or doorways.  Now there is a concept – “will both of us fit?”

Accidentally On Purpose

If our dogs are capable of understanding concepts, are we able to teach them concepts on purpose?  Trainer Ken Ramirez would answer with an emphatic “YES!”  Ken has worked at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium for over 20 years training marine mammals, birds, and a variety of other animals at the facility.  As the Executive VP of animal care and animal training, Ken has pioneered some interesting training experiments including having dolphins learn new behaviours by watching another dolphin perform them, in essence “do what he is doing.”

Of course we humans have already taught our dogs some concepts even if we don’t normally call it that.  Teaching a dog to track a particular scent is an example of the concept “matching to sample.”  It’s basically saying “find me one of these.”  The dog has to understand the concept of matching in order to perform the tracking task correctly.  But can we teach other concepts to our dogs?

In the sport of dog agility, some competitors focus on what are called “directional” cues for “left” and “right.”  These are not behaviours but information that goes with other cues for behaviours.  Ken Ramirez calles these “modifiers” because they are paired with other cues.  For example you could say “left jump” or “right tunnel” to indicate which particular piece of equipment the dog should take next.  And this idea could be take farther to teach dogs concepts like “far and near”, “taller and shorter”, “higher or lower”, “bigger or smaller”, etc.

Life Concepts

Let’s come back to that idea of what we might not realize we are teaching our dogs.  There are a few concept lessons that we are giving without thinking about it.  One of the most basic concept lessons happens when we choose to scold or correct our dog for something we do not want them to do.  Our dog may or may not understand the thing we are punishing them for (we hope they do!) but the lesson that they are certain to take away is a knowledge of what it is we are willing to do to them.  Whether it’s a harsh verbal reprimand, a smack on the nose, or being banished to their crate for half an hour, our dog now knows that under the right circumstances, their human is capable of inflicting that punishment on them.  They learn something about who we are as caretakers.

The same could be said of any training or life situation.  Think about how you approach training or working with your dog.  Does your dog get it wrong more often than they get it right?  Do they get scolded more than they get rewarded?  This can affect how your dog conceptualizes working with you.

Training For Success

In raising Tiramisu, I intentionally introduced a few concepts into her training routine.  Because we were training for the sport of dog agility, it was important to me that Tira learned that responding to several cues before receiving a reward would always be worth her effort.  Typically agility courses will be made up of 12-24 obstacles.  That means Tira would have to respond to that many cues before getting any kind of reward for her efforts.  So when she was 6 months old, I began training the concept “stick with me, this is gonna pay off – I promise.”

The methodology was simple. Our normal dinner feeding routine included asking for a behaviour before putting down the bowl.  By 6 months of age, Tira already had a repertoire of more than 20 different behaviours I could ask her to do.  I began to vary the dinner routine by sometimes asking for one behaviour and sometimes asking for two behaviours before putting down the bowl.  I gradually increased the number of behaviours I would ask for but always the end result was a big bowl of dinner.  Worth the effort?  You bet!

Another element I added to this training was variation.  My progression was not linear.  One day I would ask for 2 behaviours before putting dinner down.  The next day might be 5 or 3 or 6 or even just 1.  By building both the total number of behaviours I would ask for (sometimes as many as 13 or 14) and varying how many I would ask for on a given day, Tira learned the concept that she should continue to follow direction and that it would eventually lead to a good result for her.  I had taught my dog “perserverence.”

Limits Are What We Make Them

In an interview with Julie Gordon for Clickertraining.Com, Ken Ramirez says that “When we limit ourselves or our dogs, we also limit our view of what is possible.”  Thinking beyond the usual boundaries of standard behaviour training allows us to explore what is possible with conceptual training.  If I can teach my dog “perserverence”, what else might be possible?

Teaching foundation learning skills like Mark and Reward training and shaping are essential in giving your dog the tools necessary to explore and learn concepts.  It’s an investment we make in our dog’s education.  Just as we prepare human children with basic arithmetic skills in preparation for higher level mathematics like algebra, we need to prepare our dogs with skills and the motivation to work without fear of reprimand as they explore.  This is where positive training excels.  Reward what you want and ignore the incorrect response.  You dog learns a very important basic concept “no harm in trying!”

Speaking from my own training experience, concept training has been a great deal of fun and opened up tremendous creative possibilities for me and my dog.  It has stretched me as a trainer into new areas and made me think “outside the box” to get what I want.  Using Mark and Reward (Clicker) Training has given me a dog that is eager to explore and experiment with me.

 I would encourage you to expand your own training adventure and see what concepts you can teach your dog.  Some of you have already started, I’m sure.  Let’s push beyond old limitations and see what is truly possible for dogs – and for trainers!

Until next time, have fun with your dogs!

Photo credits -

Attentive - Maplegirlie 2007 from Flickr
Teaching – ActiveSteve  2003 from Flickr
Willing -Bruce McKay Yellow Snow Photography 2010 from Flickr
Feature Image – Kisses -Pretty Poo Eater 2009 from Flickr

Dogs and Concepts – Learning Beyond Behaviours is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

Crossing over to positive training can be frustrating.  Abandoning old techniques for new is uncomfortable.  Especially when you aren’t good at the new stuff.  Dog trainer Eric Brad has found that sticking with positive training is well worth the effort for the rewards that come later!

Moving to training based on behavioural science and positive reinforcement seems to  require a major shift in thinking and philosophy for a crossover trainer.  Many of the things we believed before we crossed over are hard to get past.  They seem so simple and insignificant and yet they can have a major impact on our ability to succeed at a new way of training.  Starting with the language we use around dogs and dog training.

A good example is a comment made by professional dog trainer Karin Apfel on Facebook.  Karen writes, “I found my thinking changed from ‘I must make my dog do XYZ’ to ‘I’d like to help my dog want to do XYZ.’” That’s a tremendously important observation. It marks a shift in responsibility. It changes the scenario. It’s not about making a “stubborn” dog do our bidding but about teaching a dog who doesn’t understand what we want that working with us is a good thing.  We become a teacher instead of a taskmaster.

Through The Looking Glass

Making that first step into a different paradigm for training can seem simple enough but it brings with it many unexpected changes for many crossover trainers.  It can seem like every time we turn to our old familiar tool kit for changing our dog’s behaviour that we have to see if that approach is still valid if we are teaching instead of tasking.  And it’s frustrating when the tools we used to use aren’t really appropriate if we have nothing new to replace them.

Let me give you an example.  An important part of dog management is keeping the dog from bolting out of doors from either the house or the car.  More traditional training models frame this problem as one of “dominance” or “leadership.”  The “pack leader” needs to be the first one through any portal when leaving or entering the house according to that approach.  So working on getting the dog to wait for you to go first becomes a win-lose proposition; if I go first and the dog waits I win, if he bolts out first I lose.  If we move to positive training, how do we reframe that training issue?

Downside Up

If we are to “teach” our dog to wait for us to go out first instead of making them wait, we have to change how we go about the process.  If I was “making” my dog wait, it would be a process of physically preventing him from getting out.  I could use a leash, my body, or even gates or fences to help me restrict his ability to get out the door first.  Will my dog learn from that approach?  Sure, eventually.  But if I were to give up all of that, what’s the alternative?  How does a positive trainer go about this?

The first step is to recognize that the dog wants to be outside.  That’s where the fun is!  Waiting is, well, not as much fun.  So how do we raise the value of “waiting” for our dog?  There are two things at work here.  First, the longer we wait to let our dog out, the more frustrated he’s likely to get.  Second, we need to provide a good reason to wait for permission to go out.  And in this case, it’s unlikely that a pat on the head or a kind word is as exciting as a run around the yard to your dog.

As a positive trainer, I would begin by asking for a brief pause and reward the dog with a great food treat for cooperating.  As we progress, I would do two things; ask for longer waits before releasing and gradually reduce the quality and frequency of the food treat.  If I do this correctly, my dog should patiently wait for as long as I need before I release him to go outside in a very short time.

Great Expectations

Thinking back to the days before I crossed over to positive training from more traditional methods, I remember feeling like it was all about controlling my dog.  He must do my bidding or face the consequences.  That’s a simple and easy to understand relationship.  But it also has a tremendous blind spot.  It assumes that my dog understands what’s expected of him.  And that just might not be true, especially with young dogs.  

These days, if I ask my dog to do something and he doesn’t respond, I know he’s not just being stubborn.  There is a good reason he’s not responding and I know that it’s in my power to change that.  I have more behavioural tools at my disposal change the situation.  Best of all, it doesn’t have to be a fight.  In fact it’s more like a game; figure out how to motivate and/or teach my dog what he needs.

Clumsy Trainer, Sad Trainer

Getting great results from positive training didn’t happen overnight.  After reading the books and taking some classes, I understood what I was supposed to do as a positive trainer but I have to admit that I wasn’t very good at it in those days.  My timing was awful.  I frequently forgot to have appropriate rewards with me when I needed to train.  And to be honest, I kept finding more and more training challenges that I didn’t have a good plan for with these new positive methods.  Many of those challenges seemed so simple when I was using more traditional methods.

I guess when all you have is a hammer, all the world is a nail.  In my case, my hammer was “force training” and every training challenge could be solved with it.  Crossing over took my hammer away and I was faced with learning to use a completely new set of tools.  It was very disheartening at times.  My usual response was to tell my dog he was a “good dog”, put him in his crate for a few minutes, and try to figure out what to do next.  It was by turns amazing fun to train and incredibly frustrating.

Learning, Acceptance, and Zen

I remember going to my first ClickerExpo weekend training seminar many years ago.  World famous author and animal trainer Karen Pryor was doing a demonstration with a dog and at one point said, “Don’t get frustrated, it’s just behaviour.  It’s not personal.”  That short thought hit me straight between the eyes.  It’s not personal!  There is no benefit to my dog in willfully disobeying me.  He’s not stubborn, he needs my help to be successful.

I was new to positive training and  Karen Pryor’s words helped me to accept my dog’s behaviour without getting angry or offended.  If my dog didn’t respond to my request the way I expected, it just meant I have more work to do with my training.  That idea, “it’s not personal”, helped me also be more accepting of my clumsy positive training skills as well.  It’s not brain surgery, it’s dog training.   And I knew I was going to improve as a trainer if I kept practicing and working with my dog.

Stay The course

Those of you who are crossing over to positive dog training (or are considering it) may very well find yourself frustrated or disheartened as I was when I started.  I can only offer you this advice: Stick With It!  The science and principles on which positive training is based are sound.  They have proven to be repeatable on many different dogs, dog breeds, and even different species of animals (including lizards and goldfish!).  It will take some time to let go of old habits but there are lots of people out there in your community and on the Internet who are on the same road that you are.  Ask for help, it’s out there.

When you know how to use a hammer, hitting a nail is easy.  But there are only so many things that can be built with only a hammer and nails.  Learning positive training has given me a much richer toolkit and has opened up training possibilities with my dogs that I never dreamed were possible.  Yes, it was frustrating at first and I considered going back a couple of times.  But I’m glad I didn’t.  The calm and easy life I live with my dogs now would never be possible with a confrontational style of training.  You could say I found my Zen with my dogs.  There’s a peace in working together that I didn’t have before.

If you’re crossing over to positive, behavioural science based training, keep at it.  It will pay off in many wonderful and unexpected ways.  I promise.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

Photo credits -

Skeptical - chadmiller 2006 from Flickr
Treats – technodad  2007 from Flickr
Joy – outlier dogs 2009 from Flickr
Feature Image – Crossing Over -floodllama 2010 from Flickr

The Crossover Files – Positively Frustrating Dog Training is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

“Electrostimulus” collars or eCollars (sometimes called Shock Collars) are one of the modern tools for dog training.  Positive trainer Eric Brad looks at the top 5 reasons to consider using one with your dog!

I talk a lot in this column about science and behaviour based training.  I’ve made the case many times that all dog training is based in Operant and Classical Conditioning even if the trainers don’t realize that they are employing those behavioural principles.  And while many positive dog trainers are aware of the science behind what they do with their dogs, more traditional trainers may not be as well versed in the science or terminology.

All dog training works, eventually.  I believe that firmly.  So I thought it might be appropriate to take a look at an alternative method of dog training that is very popular in some circles of the dog world.  Just as technology has brought us the “clicker” and automated reinforcement devices, it has also provided some trainers with a tool that they swear by and promote as a tremendously efficient way to train their dogs.  I’m referring, of course, to that miracle of modern technology knows as the eCollar or “shock” collar.

For those not familiar with them, eCollars are electrical devices attached to a collar that fits around your dog’s neck and is capable of delivering an electrical charge directly to the dog ranging from a mild tingle to a potentially painful shock depending on the setting used.  The collar is operated by a remote control used by the trainer.  A simple push of a button delivers the charge or “stim” (short for stimulus) as some eCollar manufacturers call it and is used to “correct” the dog even at long distances.

So, in honor of this first day of April, in hopes of a wonderful spring, I thought I would explore what I see as the top five reasons a trainer would choose a “shock” collar or eCollar for training their dog.  Let’s dive in!

Reason #5 – I can’t accurately throw things that far.

One of the great advantages of eCollars is that they work at ranges farther than I can throw something at my dog.  One website lists “short” range at less than 1/2 mile and “super long range” at up to 2 miles.  Holy cow!  That’s farther than even my voice would carry if I wanted to scream at my dog to “correct” him!  No longer am I limited by my proximity to my dog to effectively interrupt whatever it is he is doing with a physical correction.  Now I can stop working on my throwing arm with that soda can with the pennies in it and focus instead on pressing the button on the remote.  That will save a lot of effort!

Reason #4 –  Punishing my dog works better if he can’t figure out it’s coming from me.

Hey, everybody loves their dog, right?  Who wants their dog to think of them as the bad guy?  Certainly not me!  Using an eCollar gets me totally out of the picture when “correcting” my dog.  If my dog isn’t cooperating in our training exercise, I can deliver a correction from a distance and let my dog believe that god, woodland faeries, or even the spirit of all good dogs has interrupted them to get them back on the straight and narrow.  Maybe think of it as a conscience that you can strap around your dog’s neck.  When she’s not doing the “right” thing I can help her out with a few little reminders.  And best of all, she can’t ever come to resent me for it because, hey, I’m way over there.  

Reason #3 – I can work the TV, I can work my dog.

By using an eCollar in my dog training, I can use a skill I have been developing for most of my life – operating a remote control.  Goodness, they make a remote control for nearly everything, don’t they?  Garage doors, unlocking or starting your car, turning off your space heater, working the TV; the list goes on and on.  It only stands to reason that someone would come up with a remote control to work my dog.  They say you need to have good timing when using an eCollar remote.  Well, no one is faster than me at hitting the remote the instant a commercial comes on my TV.  Moving to that kind of training seems like it would be a breeze for me.  If I can watch my favorite hour-long TV crime show in 45 minutes by accurately fast forwarding through the commercials, I should be able to get my dog trained in no time!

Reason #2 –  I can “correct” my dog more efficiently and more often.

If you’re the kind of trainer that finds it easier to tell your dog when they’re doing it WRONG than when they’re doing what you want, then this might be the perfect tool for you.  Let’s face it, there are many more things you don’t want your dog to be doing than there are things you want to train him to do.  An eCollar gives you a tool that is ready to go again immediately after you use it!  Unlike that can with the pennies, there’s no need to get another one or retrieve the one you just threw.  Just flick your thumb over that button again and Voila! - job done.  Now you’re free from those pesky limitations on how often you can correct your dog in order to get just the right behaviour.  Don’t forget to recharge between training sessions!

Reason #1 – Pushing a button to get what I want is as clever as I get.

Why would you want to spend hours learning positive reinforcement training techniques from heavy scientific books and lengthy videos when you can just buy an eCollar and this 46 page book by Stephen C. Rafe on training with “electrostimulation?”  All of this talk about reinforcement rates, aversives, behaviour suppression, positive punishment, negative punishment, Pavlov and Skinner is more than most people want to deal with.  Is your dog not doing what you want? Push the button!  Still not doing it?  Push it again!  He will figure it out eventually.  They always do.  Dogs have been trained with punishment for centuries and only a few people have been mauled to death for it and they probably should have chosen a more appropriate breed for their size.  And besides, with an eCollar, I don’t even have to be in the same room with my dog to correct him!

Ok, Seriously…

Happy April Fool’s Day from Canine Nation.  I hope my little excursion into the absurd made some of you laugh.  I’m sure it will infuriate others.  And I’m dead certain that somewhere someone is thinking “Hey, you know….that doesn’t sound like a bad way to go.”  Such is the state of dogs and dog training early in the 21st century.  There are lots of ways to live with dogs and, bless them, they are a very tolerant and accepting animal.  They stick with us through thick and thin.

A few closing thoughts.  I very pointedly did not use the terms “shock” or “pain” in this article.  That’s because not all eCollars use an electical shock.  Some use a vibration.  Many also use a sound as a marker in the same way positive trainers use a click to precede a reward.  There is science behind eCollar training although I find the logic of using it a little confusing considering other alternatives that have proven to be more effective.  That said, eCollars are used humanely and effectively by skilled trainers every day.  However, the potential for misuse is something I find very unsettling.  But that’s me.

Since it is the hunting dog community that seems to make a great deal of the advantages of eCollars in getting great results, I thought I would leave you with video of a hunting dog demonstration that was presented at the world’s most prestigious dog show, Cruft’s, in England.  It’s amazing what positive training methods can achieve if we take the time to learn and use them properly.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s hoping I gave you a smile.  

Until next time, have fun with your dogs!

Top 5 Reasons To Use A Shock Collar On Your Dog is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

Do you ask your dog to do things for you or do you tell them to do them?  Trainer Eric Brad believes that how we think about working with our dogs matters.  It affects our expectations and can lead to cooperation or conflict.  It seems to be an AND/OR proposition.

I train my dogs using behavioural science.  That means that my training is based on a simple principle that B.F. Skinner put forward over 50 years ago – “consequence dictates behaviour.”  Whatever happens after my dog performs a behaviour will influence whether she is more or less likely to offer that behaviour again.  The science of Operant Conditioning defines this as a reinforcing (more likely) or a punishing (less likely) consequence.

But there is a bit more complexity to this simple equation.  What exactly was it that I did after my dog performed the behaviour?  The simplest question to ask is did I add something to the situation or did I take something away?  For example, I could have “added” a food treat to the situation for my dog to eat or I could have “taken away” my attention from her.  Operant Conditioning calls this “positive” (adding something) and “negative” (taking something away).  

So combining how the consequence occurred after the behaviour with whether the behaviour became more or less likely to happen again, we end up with four different combinations:

Positive Reinforcement (adding something to make a behaviour more likely)
Negative Reinforcement (removing something to make a behaviour more likely)
Positive Punishment (adding something to make a behaviour less likely)
Negative Punishment (removing something to make a behaviour less likely)

It’s important to remember that determining whether something is reinforcing or punishing (makes the behaviour more or less likely) requires us to observe what ACTUALLY happens with that behaviour over time.  It has nothing to do with your intention as a trainer.  If you give your dog a treat every time she sits and she is sitting less and less, then that “treat” is actually punishing the sit behaviour because it is becoming less likely over time.  It has nothing to do with my intention to punish my dog in the usual sense.

Playing Along At Home

Here’s the interesting thing.  You can look at any dog training method and see which form of Operant Conditioning is being employed to make the behaviour work!  When you watch your favorite TV dog trainer, watch to see what’s going on.  Does he add something or remove something in a given situation?  Does the targeted behaviour increase or does it decrease as a result of the trainers actions?  This will tell you whether the technique is “reinforcing” or “punishing” to the behaviour and whether the trainers consequences were “positive” (adding something) or “negative” (removing something).  Try it and see for yourself what’s going on from an Operant Conditioning perspective. 

Your local obedience trainer may give a tug at the leash when their dog strays too far from the “heel” position.  What bit of Operant Conditioning is at work here?  Positive Punishment.  When the dog does something other than heel, they add the tug at the leash.  Over time the dog will start to avoid the behaviour that gets the tug.  Adding the tug has decreased any behaviour other than the correct heel position.  And that’s just one application of Operant Conditioning to a dog training scenario.  Can you think of others?  

All training will fit one of the quadrants of the Operant Conditioning model.  Trainers who use “time outs” are using Negative Punishment, for example.  Removing the dog’s freedom to interact with them in order to diminish an unwanted behaviour.  First determine if something is being added or taken away and then observe if the target behaviour becomes more likely or less likely over time.  Dog training isn’t such a mystery after all!

And/Or Dog Training

In thinking about all of this, I came across an interesting phenomenon.  If we think of the behaviour we are asking for, how do we determine what the consequence will be?  As trainers, it is always our decision what the consequence will be.  So I wonder what the trainer’s inner voice says when asking for the behaviour?  I think that’s an important question.

“Do what I ask AND this will happen.”

“Do what I ask OR this will happen.” 

It doesn’t sound like much of a distinction.  The small difference between AND and OR seems like a simple semantic choice but it speaks to a much more important mind set.  Think about it.  Almost naturally the mind seems to fill in the blanks – “Do what I ask and you will get this” versus “Do what I ask or ELSE.”  One seems like a natural offer while the other sounds like a natural threat.

Reasoning With Canines

Compared to humans, our dogs have very limited reasoning capabilities.  That said, they have demonstrated extraordinary abilities to recognize our signals and remember the consequences of their actions.  Science has proven that dogs can remember a cue you have given them for up to 20 minutes and that they are capable of learning upwards of 200 different verbal cues.  And this is to say nothing of the hundreds of visual cues they watch and react to every day in our homes.

Here’s a question to ponder: Do our dogs learn anything about us in the process?  This is where that AND/OR thing comes back into the discussion.  When we give them a cue or command, are we making them an offer (AND) or are we implying a threat (OR else).  And does this affect the way they approach their life with us?

I think that it does matter.  Our relationship with our dog can have a profound affect on not just his response to our cues and commands but also to his behaviour in our everyday life.  Think about it.  How would you feel if your life was full of “do it or else” choices?  I know I’d be pretty cranky most of the time.  At the very least I don’t think I would have much to look forward to everyday.

Let’s Make A Deal

“Do this for me AND you will get something for your efforts.”  That just seems like a much better deal to me than “do it OR else.”  I much prefer a cooperative relationship with my dogs.  I just find that things work out better that way for me.  I like playing agility with my dog and I want a dog that eagerly anticipates another chance to go and “play” that game with me.  I can’t imagine telling my dog to “go jump OR else.”  I can imagine that in a short time, my dog would be as worried about what might happen if they missed the jump as the did about what might happen if they did it successfully.

This AND/OR phrasing gets to our inner dialog as well.  How we think about working with our dog can affect our attitude toward him.  If I offer my dog something for his efforts and he don’t do it, oh well, he lost out on a deal I guess.  However, if I tell him to do it OR ELSE and he doesn’t do it, now I’m sort of on the hook to follow through with the consequences.  

My experience with our dogs in the past 10 years tells me that the cooperative approach is much less stressful than the old confrontational approach we used to use.  Helping our dogs understand that there is a payoff for working with us has given us enthusiastic and happy dogs.  That just wasn’t true before.  Did we get results?  Of course.  But they weren’t nearly as satisfying.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

Photo credits -

Well? - jpctalbot 2008 from Flickr
Deal – powazny  2010 from Flickr
Kisses – basykes 2005 from Flickr
Feature Image – Field Dogs -Linda Cronin 2011 from Flickr

Dog Training And/Or What Comes Next is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN