Manipulation for Wives & Pet Owners

What will come naturally to the ladies, and as a shock to men, is that you are not trying to FORCE compliance, but your goal is to make the dog to WANT to do what you want. The basic idea of manipulating a dog (or anyone else with cognitive abilities... don't tell your husband!) is that we actively reward the things we like. We may choose to punish the things we don't like (more on humane punishment shortly), It's also important to note that we ignore the things that are good enough or irrelevant -- not so good, but not so bad, either.

This is, unfortunately, a deceptively simple concept. Effective "manipulation" is actually teaching. Teaching is hard. It relies on the teacher's ability to communicate information and listen to feedback from the student. Most people overestimate their ability to do this, because dogs are really good at learning!

Acknowledging your personal limitations is critical. Some owners will have their hands full simply trying to reward-only or punish-only. Some dogs will shut down under punish-only or lose interest under reward-only. Choosing the specific details of how to manipulate YOUR dog is best done under consultation with a professional. Used properly, all 3 methods can be both humane and effective. However, used improperly, you can be inhumane, ineffective, or both!

You can use one approach in one scenario, and a different one in a different scenario. For longest-lasting, fastest, most humane approach, consult a professional. However, under all 3 approaches, the basic concepts are identical.

Commonly, owners and even trainers used terms incorrectly. To clarify what I mean when I use terms:

CUE = stimuli or combination of stimuli that initiates a behavior chain. Cues help a dog make predictions. Cues can tell a dog what known behavior chain is expected/will be rewarded/not punished. Cues can also signal what will happen next, regardless of what they do.

• "command" = SIT, DOWN, HEEL, COME, LOOK, LEAVE IT, OFF, etc.,
  
• any expectation issued by human (should be precisely defined)
• hand signal
• body language
• leash cues
• touch cues
  
• "trigger" = generally used to describe the "cause" of bad behavior
• prompt = situational clues like curbs for guide dogs, or doorways, seeing the leash, hearing your car in the driveway, etc.

Cues help a dog know what is going on. Not all cues are created equal. Some cues create opportunity, some cues give feedback. What they have in common is a predictive nature.

TARGET BEHAVIOR = your training goal = what you will accept as "right answers"

In competition obedience, command response is a single precise answer with rapid response. In training for general manners or socialization, there are often multiple right answers.

Some good right answers I recommend rewarding as heavily as you can, as often as you can:

• eye contact
• approaching you
• being calm
• tolerating human touch
• ignoring or distancing from aggressive types
• yielding ("submitting") right of way to other dogs or humans
• waiting patiently
• being curious without bolting
• You'll find more when you think about it!
  

REWARD = anything the dog likes, wants, or needs = technically called "reinforcers".

A "reward" is anything the dog WANTS to happen. So, eat a cookie, yes, but there is so much more that you can deliberately use to reward your dog AND that may be accidentally rewarding your dog. In different scenarios, the dog will want different things. Different dogs also value different things.

Rewards are what drive any repeated behavior, whether it is "good" or "bad". Any behavior a dog repeats is because it works for him. He is getting something out of it that he likes, wants, or needs.

There are two kinds of rewards. Rewards can be getting something good you like. The act of giving/receiving a reward is called "positive reinforcement". The thing which you give is called the "positive reinforcer". The other kind of reward is called a "negative reinforcer". This is the reward from avoiding something you don't like. The word "positive" refers to dog's perspective of giving/getting something, something approaching or going to the dog that he didn't have before. The word "negative" refers to the idea of something stopping or going away or being taken from the dog, something bad that he doesn't like which stops. But in both cases, the dog likes, wants, or needs the result.

Positive reinforcer: GETTING anything edible, possession of toy, access
Negative reinforcer: REMOVING a thorn from a paw, STOPPING an annoying dog from bothering you, ENDING time-out, RELEASE from a command

Using rewards successfully depends on understanding that despite your intention to reward, your dog's perspective and interpretation may vary. What your dog considers a reward can vary according to your individual dog's preferences. Also, your dog has a (likely unique) priority list of what I call his "values". (Someday I hope to research how values correlate to canine personality type.) Identifying rewards is as simple as asking "What does my dog like? What does he want?"

Your dog will have his own "list" of what reward is most salient (Best. Thing. Ever.) to least salient (Eh, better than nothing). "Salient" means "stimulating, delicious, or desirable". Over the course of a day, various rewards can change position in that list. A dog who has just eaten may be significantly less motivated by food rewards than he would have been before the meal. (However, there are those dogs who just LURVE eating, regardless. Distention of the belly, diarrhea, or other "undesirable" (only according to us foolish humans) results are inconsequential!)

Sometimes what a dog wants is not necessarily something particularly delicious. Sometimes it is more survivalist in nature. Fearful dogs are primarily motivated by flight. They want to get away from the scary thing. Because they believe the thing is scary. And they don't want to be scared. Emotional rewards like respect from other dogs, stress relief, and the "calming" repetitive nature of obsessive behaviors are also very real rewards. Problem behaviors are complicated because they can be motivated by both intellectual AND emotional rewards.
Rewards can be deliberately given by owners to dogs, but they can also come from the environment.

Rewards owner can provide:

• food
• access -- to anything the dog likes: play, walks, backyard, indoors, meeting new people, sniffing dog's butts
• freedom = dog makes own decisions
• attention
• touch & massage
• praise
• conflict-free interaction
• intellectual stimulation
• ongoing exposure to novelty (stuff that's new and different, out of the ordinary, & feeds curiosity)
• nasal stimulation
• "FUN": opportunities for appropriate barking, digging, tugging, chewing, shredding, biting & holding (bulldogs), keeping order (shepherds & collies), RUNNING (huskies), figuring out what a human wants (Dobes, Malis, "trained" dogs)

• SO MANY MORE!
  

Rewards from the environment (some are ones we want to prevent dogs from accessing)

• safety
• shelter
• physical comfort
• visual access to good view
• seeing, hearing, scenting, and running after prey
• freedom (in the case of the non-secured fence) to explore
  
• self-rewarding activities "FUN": digging, tugging, chewing, shredding, biting & holding (bulldogs), keeping order (shepherds & collies), RUNNING (huskies), -- YES, some dogs will do it if you don't provide it!
  
• sex (or at least attention from the opposite sex)
  
• respect from other critters
• keeping living area tidy (rewards both pottying outside AND coprophagia (poo-eating))
• SO MANY MORE

For a specific example, most dogs want to greet other dogs. Greeting is a reward for dogs who want to greet other dogs. Getting to take one step towards greeting another dog is a reward for whatever behavior came before it. Getting to sniff another dog is a reward. Getting to interact & romp a bit is a reward. So, if your dog sees another dog, drags you over, and sniffs & interacts with the other dog, dragging you, acting excited, and charging over is rewarded by getting to sniff. "Works every time. This human sure is heavy, but it's totally worth it. Chicks dig me."

On the other hand, some dogs want to avoid other dogs. Getting to avoid the other dog is rewarding. Any step you take with your dog AWAY from the other dog is a reward. (This is known as a "distance reward.") So, if your dog barks like a fool, and then runs away, his escape pattern is rewarded by not having to encounter another dog. "I don't know what that dog is going to do, and I've always been safe by doing this, so..."

So greeting, avoiding greeting, going forward, going back, not being eaten, being dug by chicks... these are all desirable things, depending on who you are.

Often, problems result when people don't realize that all rewards are not created equal. A dog who values the chance to greet another dog MORE than he values your cookies or your praise and petting will go for the other dog, given the choice. Not ALL dogs, however, share this viewpoint. Some dogs do NOT value the chance to greet more than your praise or petting or food or play. I would describe these dogs as "easy", since training with praise, petting, food, and play is MUCH easier than manipulating social rewards, which rely on your ability to precisely & accurately read your and the other dog's body language. I would also call such dogs less dog-social, and more canine-social.

Another problem I often see is that , in a social scenario (or "context"), every action in the entire string of the approach, greeting, and ensuing interaction can be a reward. For some dogs, the excitement of reaction from another dog is rewarding.

PUNISHMENT = anything the dog doesn't like or want


Punishers diminish the behavior that caused them. A punishment is most often thought of as pain, but trainers who can only identify pain or intimidation as a punisher don't completely understand canine cognition.

If the dog doesn't KNOW which behavior caused the punishment, the dog CANNOT stop doing that behavior, no matter how much, how harsh, or how frequent the punishment. Persisting with punishment for a dog that doesn't not understand how to prevent or make the punishment stop is what is most responsible for breakdown of communication, which breaks down trust and relationships, which often results in aggressive or defensive bites.

Punishment also comes in 2 flavors: "positive", meaning something unpleasant STARTS happening, and "negative", meaning a good thing is taken away.

Positve punishment: GETTING a collar correction
Negative punishment: NO MORE treats, REMOVED from social interaction

As with reward, what any individual dog perceives as punishment varies by individual. If your dog doesn't like to go out for walks, walks are actually punishment! Forcing treats into the mouth of a dog turning away from you is punishing.

Like reward, some punishments are worse than others. The relative badness of a specific punishment can change depending on the dog and the situation. For example, during a food- or play-training session, complying with various commands can be quite enjoyable. The same command requested mid-play session or mid-dash after a squirrel? If successfully elicited, the exact same command can serve to punish.

Determining if your dog is responding to a punishment is difficult. Is it not unpleasant enough? Or does he not know what behavior is being punished? Although owners feel safe about applying punishments that don't use pain, ineffective or mistimed punishments can really nreak down a relationship. In other words, you can damage your relationship with your dog using punishment WITHOUT using pain! This argument is yet another reason why consultation or classwork under the supervision of a reputable professional is SO important.

Unacceptable punishments
yelling
hitting
kicking
swatting with fly-swatters
ear pinches
shock collars


Acceptable punishments:

time-out
compliance with commands
moving dog away from dogs or people
moving treat away from dog
ignoring attention-seeking
refusing to open ANY door or gate
refusing to take a toy that isn't handed to you