"that dog whisperer lady" at Silver Sky Canine

It's been ...

2010-03-23T19:56:00.000-04:00

Interesting. I wish you all the best. The end.

Addressing emotional arousal: Encouraging Calm

2010-03-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

Many people mistakenly believe that dogs are quite different from we are in emotional responses. That some magic exists that will instantly snap a dog into calmness. Imagine the last time you were stressed out, angry, frustrated, terrified... Now imagine that someone insists you stop this instant. Do you think it will work? When you encounter your family and friends who are feeling stressed, angry, frustrated, or terrified -- do you react by insisting they stop? And if you do, how well does that work?

The emotional state that produces calm behavior cannot be forcibly elicited. You can force a sit, you can force a down, you can force a dog to stand in one spot, you can force a dog to lay on her side, but you cannot insist or pressure your dog into not feeling pressure. (See why not?)

So how do we deal with emotionally aroused dogs?
One way is to reduce the brain's exposure to arousal chemicals by minimizing arousal everywhere you can. Almost everyone reading this has already heard that advice! "Yes!" they says, "That sounds like a perfect plan." What does that look like? Few people are quite sure.

Steering a sequence of potentially exciting events
Your dog's emotional state is affected on a second-by-second basis by any sequence of events. Most dogs see a cue like you reaching for your coat & looking for your shoes, or reaching for the food bag, and immediately there is both an emotional and behavioral response. (There is a lot of argument over which produces the other, behavior and emotion. I suspect the answer is that it varies.)

The emotional response is a kind of arousal. "Excitement." As the chain of events unfolds, second-by-second, the arousal level spikes. "It's coming... it's coming closer... it's coming CLOSER...!" The "it" can be the walk, the dinner, the scary dog next door.

To stop the escalation, stop whatever is coming closer. Physically freeze yourself, and freeze the sequence of events to whatever extent you can when dog becomes even mildly excited. "It's coming... it's coming closer... Oh. Hold on a second, what's going on? It's NOT coming closer?" If freezing and waiting isn't enough for the dog to realize that things have stopped, super-slowly reverse the normal series of events. Rewind until you see the excitement diminish. Then begin moving forward with your activity. See excitement again? Back to rewind. More calm? Move forward. This "cha-cha-cha" can be very communicative, as long as your dog is interested in what you are doing, and emotionally able to pay attention to you.

Actions speak louder than words, so there is absolutely no need to say anything at all to your dog during this process. (This is the original meaning of "whispering".)

If the arousal level has already spiked beyond where the dog even recognizes there is a sequence of events, where the dog's brain is screaming "FOOD!" "WALKIES!" "BITCH IN HEAT!" "INTRUDER" -- the dog doesn't even know he has legs or a person or that any other objects even exist -- don't waste your time slowly rewinding. The dog is gone. Just make a clear end to the activity. Put away the leash. Put the food bowl on top of the fridge. Hand a Coke through the door and ask your guests to keep waiting outside. If she won't turn and correct you (extremely aroused dog with low bite inhibition? she might -- use a muzzle next time), grab the dog's collar and, instead of holding her back, go somewhere with her. Steer her out of visual contact with the exciting things, into another room, or her crate.

Whatever was GOING to happen is now simply NOT happening. That exciting thing that was going to happen will now NEVER happen. You had one chance to get it right and you blew it. Even though, in another half of forever (you know, 5 minutes), the dog will get another chance, if the chance is still there.

Making the call
One of the most difficult skills to develop is making the call between just ending things, and making it a teachable moment. There is a time and place for both, but it isn't as clearly defined as "hackles up" = just end it, and "no hackles" = work through it with rewind and fast forward.

To further complicate the situation, this decision has other options. The "cha-cha-cha" and "that's it - all gone" aren't the only two options available to deal with emotionally charged situations, but if you are presently overwhelmed, this is a good place to start.

What are the exciting sequences of events in your dog's life?

What's your leash-handling style?

2010-03-10T13:31:00.000-05:00

The leash may be the most commonly used and misused dog training tool.

There is no leash
The owner acts as if the leash does not exist, using the exact same commands, feedback, and rewards s/he would use if the dog were loose. The leash's only function is to stop the dog from running off. While more challenging for the owner to teach, this style facilitates transition to off-leash responses.

Jockey-style
The owner uses the leash as a rider would rein a horse, using pressure on the dog in various locations (top of the neck, bottom of the neck, left side of the neck, ride side of the neck) to cue the dog to move in various directions. The dog must be trained to respond to these cues, exactly as they need to be trained to respond to SIT, DOWN, COME, HEEL, and other commands. Shaping or luring are great ways to teach the responses you want.

Handle
The owner does an impression of a waterskier behind a very large, excited dog. This practice offers almost no ability to influence the dog's behavior, except for slowing his gallop. It also offers onlookers a great show. The owner tends to focus most of his/her energy on remaining upright, and on the same side of trees and street signs as the dog, typically with marginal success.

Punisher
(Training collars can be used effectively and humanely, but such use cannot be taught by text, so I won't try.) The Punisher is a variation of the Handle where the display is occasionally interrupted with a human yankfest, as if having some kind of fit. This fit is intended to display to other humans, "I am attempting to control a beast who is clearly uncontrollable," but says to knowledgeable humans (and also the dog) "Hey, I have no clue what I'm doing!"

Wow! Welcome new followers!

2010-03-03T13:29:00.000-05:00

Thanks for reading! I hope you are deepening your relationship with your dog as a result of my efforts. I'll keep bringing you my best as often as I can.

Comment
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Beyond the Click

2010-02-26T14:48:00.001-05:00

We heart clicker training
My dog Lila is a great fan of the clicker. We use it for shaping, and make much more rapid progress eliciting precise, unusual movements. I stay silent during clicker work, and a minimal amount of eliciting the correct answer. I think, for her, the clicks provide a certain sense of independence, compared to the Lila-patter I use for encouraging her. (I anthropomorphize shamelessly, I know, but it is my belief that the affinity of the two species hinges on the similarity of our social hierarchy, value system, and affective responses.) I would describe myself as pro-clicker training, and even one step further, pro-marker training.

Did clicker training fail Tilikum?
As I understand it, the equivalent of the clicker (the whistle) is the tool of choice for training marine mammals, such as orca. I expect that the recent death of the SeaWorld trainer will be cited as the ineffectiveness of such training. And, I partly agree with the idea. Training, of ANY sort, including traditional, e-collar, and other training does not make play, randomly volunteered behaviors, predation, or aggression inevitable. Given that this animal has killed two other individuals, I suspect a strong case could be made for this being predatory aggressive behavior.

Brains undergo natural selection for the specific behaviors in which they will engage
Eliciting predatory, aggressive, or just random acts resulting from boredom, frustration, anxiety, or psychological breakdown caused by prolonged exposure to the brain chemicals such affective states release is a simple matter of lifestyle.

Although the killer whales & other marine life are touted as being trained by "force-free" methods, I take issue with this description. These animals do not willingly arrive each morning to participate in this training program. They have no choice or control over their living conditions. Physical force keeps these wild animals trapped in tiny pools.

While the practice of keeping dogs and other domesticated animals has resulted in a kind of natural selection for brains that can tolerate to some degree the type of (or, compared to wild life, lack of) stimulation associated with confinement, the brains of creatures that Nature alone selects for must not only tolerate but crave long periods of travel, seeking, stalking, chasing, killing, and consuming prey. Occasionally, the brain demands reproductive-related behaviors. I don't know enough about orcas to know if they have pods or territories, social interactions, play, defense of social ingroup or territory..., but if they do, those concepts demand certain behaviors from a killer whale.

While I am no expert, I do know that whatever they do in the wild, whatever capacities Nature has selected killer whales to perform: those behaviors does not strongly resemble swimming around a tank for 20 years, taking fish from a human hand, leaping through hoops, carrying humans on their snouts, or any of the other show business they are being "asked" to do. "Do you want to jump through a hoop and eat fish? Or would you rather starve?" Force-free? I do use force in training dogs, and I call it what it is.

But it generates interest and raises funds!
Our society as a whole has become disconnected from the natural world. Could it be a result of believing that the "cute" are valuable, and the "scary" are not? Killer whale. Shark. Koala. Crocodile. Could these ideas result from exposing children, not to the reality, but to an artificiality? Can humans not be encouraged to be come connoisseurs of wild creatures being, behaving, exactly as they are designed by Nature to do?

Could these animals not be confined and displayed for human education and enjoyment for only a short period of time and re-released?

Could their willing cooperation in a seaside training program not be obtained if they were permitted to come and go as they pleased? Can a reliable recall from freedom, of the type that most dog owners face as part of life, simply not be taught using reinforcers alone?

The Rejected Affective
Beyond behaviorism, there is a messy, difficult to observe, and all too real affective (emotional) domain, which no amount of whistles and fish, clicks and treats, can change. We cannot train the feelings out of an animal -- including humans. We can teach management, we can provide outlets, but we are powerless to force, "reinforce", encourage, discourage, or "punish" feelings, as if they are deliberate, occurring at the beckoning of the feeler.

We failed Tilikum, but we don't have to fail our dogs
Beyond training sessions, wild things and even "domesticated" ones, like dogs and humans, need a "life". They crave the behaviors and experiences their brains are genetically "wired" to find chemically rewarding ("it just feels so right to gulp a seal") and often stumble upon other behaviors and experiences that feel just as good as a part of their exposure to environment. The sensations that arise as a result of the release of these chemicals are "intrinsic motivators".

Knowing that the vast majority of canine genetics were selected to do work, not for entertainment purposes, it is important to recognize that providing the right tasks means releasing "feel-good" brain chemicals in your dog. Happy, contented dogs are least likely to engage in the behaviors we humans dislike.

But, to dog trainers, who sometimes tend to see training interactions as a dog's only need, I remind you of what you already know: apart from tasks, dogs can need social interaction, exploration of new physical environments, and, yes, freedom. As trainers who enjoy working with animals, there is a tendency to assume that what we enjoy, the animal enjoys, too. Trainers would be happy to train all day, morning to night! The trainees, however, may or may not share those sentiments.

Be sensitive to your dog's interest level during training sessions
Manage your own interest level and emotions -- Quit while you both want more!
Break or change up training sessions at least every 15 minutes Some may need more frequent changes
Allow at least some sniffing on walks (but don't force it!)
Provide sufficient freedom -- off-leash exploratory opportunities (amount varies by dog)
Provide social opportunities -- even if you have to use a muzzle
Provide access to tasks or sports the dog enjoys
Address behaviors caused by anxiety or frustration: barking (more than 3 barks or continuous barking), pacing, circling, digging, lunging, leaping, destruction, etc.

Diamond needs a chance to shine

2010-02-25T17:08:00.000-05:00

This adorable pup was scheduled for euthanasia because of her medical needs. Hit by a car, she has a broken jaw,a broken front leg and a bruised pelvis. Mary Illiano, of Mid-Atlantic Bully Buddies couldn't let that happen. Diamond is safe from euthanasia, but will need a new home.

To contact Mid-Atlantic Bully Buddies about Diamond or any of the other great dogs in their care, e-mail midatlanticbullybuddies@yahoo.com.

Positive Human Training

2010-02-24T20:13:00.000-05:00

For me, "positive" is emphasizing the good, the desirable, the valuable. Spending more time encouraging what should be done than correcting, cautioning against, resisting, or attacking.

When I analyze any dog/human social or training interaction, I find that it is sometimes harder to find what the human is doing right than it is to find what the dog is doing right! So why bother? Positive dog trainers know the overwhelming effectiveness of finding, emphasizing, reinforcing what is right. Overlooking, minimizing, replacing unwanted behaviors. What's good for the dog... well, if it works to teach a simpler mind, it will definitely work for the more complicated! Whether teaching dogs or humans, good practice is good practice.

Most humans tend to be motivated by genuine attachment to their pets, even if they are at a loss as to how to elicit the behavior that is essential for the dog's participation in human society. Most people inappropriately using prong collars, e-collars, yelling, hitting, choking, and other harsh tactics get sucked into the idea of "combat" with their pets; these owners are not hateful monsters! By demonizing individuals, we create their resistance to our advice. And, if what we say is true, that those tools aren't going to work when mistakenly and inappropriately used, those individuals will sooner or later be receptive to what we have to say.

As positive trainers, we know that an attitude of combat creates resistance. Listening without judgment, demonstrating alternatives, encouraging good decisions, and supporting our clients is the human equivalent of our approach to dogs. Although we'd like to steer both away from making bad decisions, establishing our role as supportive partner is critical to making the changes we'd like to see occur in general dog training practice. Trainers make mistakes. Owners make mistakes. Dogs make mistakes. Fortunately, all of us are capable of learning from our mistakes.

Focusing on the right answers is the key to creating receptive, willing, cooperative, and non-resistant partners, no matter what their species. Teach humans like you teach dogs!

Positive Hypocrisy?

2010-02-18T17:19:00.000-05:00

Are good, effective teaching practices for dogs equally good, effective teaching practices for humans?

Most "positive" dog trainers would say, "Yes!" And I am one of them.

Are there dog training practices that are risky, both to the outcome for the dog and the human?

Yes.

How do we discourage their use?

The use of poor and risky dog training practices is a behavior I would like to see disappear, but I disagree with the premise of the question.

How do we encourage the use of safer, less risky dog training practices?

THIS is the right question!

Are strategies like personal attacks, philosophical attacks, and "pushing for acceptance" modeling the behaviors we want to see used in teaching?

Don't we teach that aggression and force are ways to create resistance? And don't we seek to persuade, to lead, to set a good example?

By "pushing for acceptance", are we suggesting that there are people who would resist training through easier, more effective, and less risky methods?

Dog owners I meet (and, granted, our perceptions are all shaped by the "populations" we meet) are generally reluctant to use the more objectionable methods, but feel as if they have no alternative. Or, they live in fear of what will happen if those methods are not used. Few people I meet find the techniques I dislike highly desirable.

I have certainly met resistant individuals. Generally, these individuals are "experts", whose ego and family tradition are at stake. Rejecting "the way it's always been done" is to eat crow, and turn one's back on one's family or tradition. For these people, creating an opportunity to gradually transition from primarily punishment-based to primarily reward-based training is crucial.

What are the strategies we know to be most effective?

Emphasizing the desirable. Listening. Acknowledging. Communicating clearly. Patience. Persuasion. Gradual transition. Show, not tell.

"That Doesn't Look Like Training", the sequel

2010-02-14T14:57:00.001-05:00

This Christmas, my 7-year-old lab/Weim Lila was first introduced to the puzzling human behavior called "cross-country skiing" by my brother, who she adores.

Lila finds it prudent to be extra-aware when encountering the stiffness, the unpredictable nature of inanimate objects. Natural, organic objects move, they telegraph their intentions, and any threats. Inanimate objects can suddenly come at you from any direction, sometimes at high speed. Being careful has a great record at keeping Lila out of fights with inanimate objects-- 100% of the times she has done it, she has not had a fight with an inanimate object.

It was fascinating to watch her follow him, in the snow. While he moved forward, he & the collection of objects attached to him exhibited a predictable pattern, and she stayed quite close. When he stopped to chat with me, however, a few ducks and a greater comfort distance was necessary, as the poles moved in a completely new pattern.

I wondered how much she was learning. I acted -- as I mostly do with Lila -- played it cool, like nothing was wrong. I gave a few words of encouragement. I was proud and impressed, but had no goal in mind. If she hated cross country skiers, if she ran from all of them, for the rest of her life, I can deal with that. I won't stop her. Run as far as you need to make yourself comfortable, Lila. I'll be there for you.

Today, we encountered her second lifetime exposure. Fortunately, she was on the retractable leash. Her ears perked up as she spotted the couple. (Lila mostly ignores people. Smelling wildlife is much more interesting.) She stood still and watched them. Even though they were approaching her directly, she simply watched with interest.

I walked to the end of the leash and stopped briefly, waiting for her to lose interest. Freezing and tired after our walk, I headed for the car. The skiers were headed for their car! Right by ours! She wagged on over to check them out. I actually called her back to me, laughing and chastising her nosy-ness, because I didn't want her to get so brave she scared herself. Sniffing cross country skiers? She's out of control.

Teaching your dog effectively is about understanding your dog. Understanding is the product of listening, observing, paying attention, with suspended judgment. Trust your dog to show you what kind of support she needs. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that your dog needs you to show the same kind of social support from you in every circumstance. And never, ever underestimate what your dog is capable of learning!

NIMBY!

2010-02-07T20:08:00.000-05:00

Northeast Philadelphia man, John William Fleet III. Charged with animal cruelty for allegedly pouring rubbing alcohol over a puppy and setting it on fire. The 5-month-old pit bull mix was burned. Its neck, ears, whiskers were burned off, and one of its corneas was seared. The animal also had been burned repeatedly with a cigarette. It may be disfigured, and possibly blind in one eye.

Here is the addition I wrote:

"As PA's population shrinks, state revenues are increasingly dependent on sources of income like tourism. Going soft on animal abusers in a city's whose reputation is already besmirched by the employment of convicted animal abuser Michael Vick, not to mention a state known as the Puppy Mill Capital of the East? Is this the image of Philadelphia and of PA you want to present? The actions you undertake or fail to undertake will strengthen or weaken the accuracy of this image."

Hey, wonder why people are leaving this coal-burning dump?

Ice skating? Isn't this blog about dogs?

2010-02-06T19:22:00.000-05:00

I can ice skate. I'm never as good as I want to be, so how well I skate at any given moment just doesn't really occur to me. I do it purely for the feel-good chemicals. For me, ice skating is the thing that just feels so right. Even when it's really painful, it makes me feel fantastic. I have been mistaken for a pro, which makes me giggle. I'm far from being a pro. I think it's that my passion that shows when I skate.

So, last night on the ice, I watched a skater work on alternating forwards and backwards 3-turns. I never criticize or give advice when it looks like someone is having fun, since FUN is the point, but she looked frustrated and worried, and I knew what she was doing wrong. I skated by (ludicrously wobbly, as I was wearing hockey skates that are too painful to lace up. Long story.), gave some non-intimidating eye contact (yup, just like with a dog), and she said, "You're a figure skater, aren't you?" (Uh, yes, though you can hardly tell today.)

"Yup," I said, realizing after I skated off that I had failed to actually wait for the question. "Lead with the shoulder. Your rotation should be head, then shoulders, then hips, and let your foot follow. You are starting from the feet, which is why it looks and feels forced. Have fun!" I smiled and skated off.

I surreptitiously watched her. She caught me a few times, and I smiled, continuing to work on my own stuff. She was getting it, though it was certainly not yet perfect. Learning starts with theory first; it takes a bit of time to get everything you know in your head to find its way out of the body to practice. I know she's got enough material to work with, she understood what I said, and she's not afraid to approach me again if she has more questions.

And, it didn't occur to me that I did anything so far out of the ordinary until I watched a mother with her 5-yr-old daughter. The mother is clearly an accomplished skater. She is attempting to teach the girl a spin. (In my opinion, this is not only a waste of time, but instills bad habits, as young children are physically incapable of holding correct body positions, and so are forced to compensate. Physical compensation becomes cognitive bad habit to break later. Another long story.) What struck me, though, besides my issue with pushing young children beyond the limits of their bodies and coordination, is that the woman criticized EVERY repetition. Not once did she smile at the girl, not once did she highlight what the daughter had done correctly. It appeared that neither the daughter nor the mother were having fun. How tragic!

It suddenly became very, VERY clear why figure skating clubs are not popular. It's hard enough to deal with the intellectual complexity (timing, coordination), the physical demands, and, well, the pain (Things that look pretty are often painful.). Add constant external reminders underlining every imperfection. Who wouldn't deliberately choose to participate in a soup of pain, criticism, insecurity, competition, and thinly-veiled frustration -- even emotional aggression? Ooh, yay! Let's get kids in an environment like that!

Success at something difficult is its own reward. Teach a kid, a dog, a human to do something that they know is difficult. Help them to actually experience success? You've got interest. My grandmother taught 5th grade for something like 60 years, and she always claimed that, "Where there's interest, there's capacity." (She noted that kids who "couldn't" memorize a multiplication table could recite stats for every player of their favorite ball team.) When frustration, confusion, and exhaustion set in, interest provides an allure, a drive to continue, with focus, that NO force of will can match.

People really think that telling someone what they are doing wrong is "teaching". Any idiot can say, "That's not right." Someone who knows what they are talking about can tell you what you SHOULD do instead, and identify what you DID do correctly, without getting hung up on the mistakes. It started to remind me of dog training. Teaching is not about attacking errors, retroactively, but leading the exercise, proactively.

A bit later, my young friend was attempting some jumps. She did a beautiful jump-- straight, plenty of height, plenty of rotation, very well centered. "Good!" I shouted before I could stop myself. Yeah, she two-footed the landing. Who cares? Work on that later.

And there I was, training dogs again. I knew: She should stop now. The probability that she will do TWO jumps in a row that are that good? Very low. After a very successful trial on a difficult task (low probability of success) is always time to stop. Stop while the brain can review the successful event. Reflect back on what WORKS. She had found what works. It's difficult, because success makes you want to continue to work at something that causes you that good-feeling rush of success, whether you are the skater, the coach, the handler, or the dog. But you should.

She continues to skate around for a while. She attempts the same jump again, and it's massively inferior. She looks disappointed. "It's ok," I say, smiling, "You should have stopped after the one before. That one was so good," doing my best to keep her brain focused on what DOES work, interrupting an emotional circuit of self-criticism and frustration.

Toward the end of the session, she asks if I am a coach. She seems disappointed to find out I am not.
"You're a really good teacher, " she says, "You should be. Thanks for your help." Color me warm and fuzzy. I'm not immune to the feeling of success!

Less is More -- Should "COME" always be rewarding?

2010-02-02T14:07:00.000-05:00

It's a common idea: 100% reward schedule is the most effective. It makes sense to a human brain. If I know I am always going to get something versus taking a chance that I might not? Which will make me respond more quickly?

It's a typical and understandable human viewpoint, since our brains look for patterns, not probabilities. Dog (and most animal) brains use probabilities. On a multiple choice test, a human would look for a pattern, such as the correct answer to the question! A dog would pick whatever was the most commonly used right answer on the last test, say, answer B, and answer all the questions with that answer. (Actually, I do suspect that some dogs have pattern recognition capabilities, and I need to do research on this. Or someone does. Go for it, anyone who cares to "steal" this idea and run with it!)

The "variable reinforcement schedule", where only a certain percentage of correct responses are rewarded, in a random fashion, has been supported as most effective via thorough research. "Always", 100% of correct responses get rewarded, is a CONSTANT reinforcement schedule, and less effective.

Why is it most effective? Well, here's where I am out on a limb. *crossing my fingers for acceptance to grad school -- Let me in, people, I got work to do!* Research would be necessary to say that this is fact.

A variable reinforcement schedule (NOT getting something every single time) may activate the emotion that Temple Grandin refers to as "seeking". "Seeking" is one of the primary emotions she identifies, and dopamine is involved. Dopamine is the brain chemical responsible for making things "just feel so right" -- some might call dopamine a reward your brain gives itself. By withholding reward on some trials, we enable the activity to become a seeking activity, and therefore an even more rewarding activity.

The question is, what level of reward, percentage-wise, will activate seeking WITHOUT activating frustration? Again, research is necessary, but I'd expect to find it varies by dog, although there may be commonality among groups -- breed, behavior tendencies, "IQ", or even personality type.

What is your experience with your dog's recall? Have you had different recall experiences with different dogs? What about with different training approaches?

Organic Milk Appeals to a Conscience-driven Target Market

2010-02-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

Some of you know that I am a recent vegan. Not because I find the practice of milking cows or takings eggs intrinsically wrong, but as a boycott of the current production practices. Having found a sick cow whose rear feet had been tied with twine and dragged on her side by a truck to a hidden corner of the farm, and left for 6 hours that I know of, without being milked, and without being able to stand. I can't quite get the image out of my mind. Every ice cream, sour cream, every drop of milk... I see her poor face, her spooked reaction to my touch (cows generally adore me -- dunno why). My former nickname was "The Dairy Princess", because I primarily subsisted on milk and milk products. Now, I just can't.

Here is the note I included in the letter I sent via the ASPCA website:

"Simple economics. The target market for organic milk are people of conscience, who are willing to pay more for a product we find superior. Getting consumers spending more money for a domestically produced product benefits producers, consumers, and the economy at large."

Click the title of this post if you'd like to send a letter of your own.

Do as I Say, Not as I Do!

2010-01-30T20:36:00.000-05:00

Can you find all the things I should definitely not have done? I'm pretty sure I'll do them all again.

A grey dog walks in live slow-motion towards a Volkswagen. "You are a defiant dog, " I say, with feigned anxiety. "We are really going to have to do something about you. You are out of control. Thank God I got you in the car." I laugh at my own joke. Lila, my mild-mannered 7-year-old Lab/Weim, had very reluctantly agreed to load up in the car after a rather short off-leash romp in our local state game lands. She gives me a look from the back seat. "Yes, I know you got shafted today, but it is 17 degrees, and I do still have some chest congestion..."

I shut the door to find brown fur dancing before my eyes. An off-leash chocolate Lab! "Hello! Do you want to say hi to my doggie?" I open the car ddoor, knowing exactly what I expect to happen, and, naturally, he does it. Plunged irectly into the back seat. There's a certain forthrightness among Labs that I think of as characteristic of the breed, and his approach was precisely that "Hi, what's your name?" attitude. I laugh.

Lila, of course, played it totally cool. She finds it most sensible to remain in the down position while in the car, up to and including when strange dogs hop in and over her. She also finds it drives the males crazy to be just slightly aloof (We joke that I taught her that.), and since this dog is male, reason #2 to be polite, but uninterested.

The owner comes racing over with her two other Labs, one chocolate, one yellow. She is all apologetic, worried that her dogs are somehow bothersome. (Remember, I had already shut the door and re-opened it, so I was really the troublemaker!) I assure her that everything is fine, and we chat about how much fun it is to have 3 large dogs (Oh, how I miss that life!).

While we are chatting, Lila decides she's made the boys wait long enough, so she stands at the door of the car awaiting my permission. I release her, and continue my conversation with the human. She and two of the boys have a instant message-style pee-mail conversation.

One of the boys approaches me and I instinctively reach down and touch him, bending right over him like I know him. He licks my face, and wiggles with delight. The second dog approaches as the first leaves. His tail leaves loud thumps on the side of the car as I give him the same touch. Doesn't that hurt? He doesn't even seem to notice it's happening.

All three dogs mill around. After a bit more small talk, the owner looks interested in starting her walk, so I call Lila from her new group of friends. "Nice meeting you," the owner says. "You, too," I say, "Enjoy your walk!" Lila sprints to me, and I load her up in the car as the other 3 follow their owner.

I make a habit of breaking the rules because there is an exception to every rule, including this one.

That doesn't look like training!

2009-11-20T19:21:00.003-05:00

Working through a socialization issue? Try not trying so hard. Try using more patience, with less effort. It doesn't look like training. It might not even BE 'training'! Could it be learning anyway?

My dog Lila (motto: "you can't be too careful") is wary of crossing wheelchair ramps, usually at corners of sidewalks, that are covered with rows of quarter-sized bumps, if we haven't encountered them for a while. (This regression with lack of exposure is a classic symptom of a socialization gap -- I don't recall seeing many of them when she was a puppy. Guess what my next puppy will do a lot of.)

So, today, not even thinking about it, I cross a ramp with her, she swings wide to avoid it. I cross back over the same ramp, she swings wide again. I turn back to make a third pass, and deliberately pause, waiting for her to feel ready. I don't know how to characterize what I am "feeling" for, but I don't even look at her. I just wait, believing she will regroup herself, and believing that she can do it when she is ready.

I feel it. We're ready. I say nothing. I do nothing to the leash. I make no eye contact. I make no deliberate body language gesture. I simply step forward. We cross. She stays closer to my side than her usual distance, but does not hesitate, bolt across, or otherwise show any sign of what I know to be a mild level of uncertainty. I don't react at all until a few steps later when we make eye contact. I smile, and we both just know. That was hard, and she did it. It wasn't a big deal, really. We then circle back and cross the same one and two different ones without pausing. She doesn't swing wide or "cling" to me. It's a big deal, but it's no big deal. I don't even bother to look. She knows I know how cool she is. I play it cool, too.

Not a soul realized we were "training", let alone how well it was going. Except me and Lila. (And, really,we're the only ones whose opinions matter.) I didn't work her through the situation like a dog trainer. I didn't cross the ramp like a dog handler or pack leader. If you watched her crossing, you'd have to know you were looking for that just slightly closer than normal proximity to me, and that just slightly lower than normal head carriage. It LOOKS like a regular human being and a regular dog just going about their day. (Ha! "Regular". Me? Lila? Looks are extremely deceiving!) It doesn't look like training.

If it were training, I'd be using a more deliberate cue that means "cross the scary and possibly uncomfortable bumps". It IS training, and the cue to cross the bumps is that there are bumps to cross.

If it were training, I'd be guiding her across, dragging her across, luring her across, placing intermediary surfaces to gradually remove over the course of the next 6 weeks, clicking for one toenail on the ramp,... I should be doing more than just standing there! But this IS training. I elicit her behavior by modeling the crossing several times, indicating my own belief in its safety. I model the target emotional state, which is near boredom. I deliberately wait for her readiness.

If it were training, I'd be using some kind of marker to indicate that she was doing it right. I'd use a release word or cue to mark the end of the exercise. Ok, maybe this isn't training after all. Horrors. Dogs can't learn unless training is being used, right?

If it were training, there'd be a reward of some kind. And "rewards" are only things like treats, petting, praise, play, attention, removal of pressure... Ok, you win. It isn't training. The immediate reward was... nothing! Deliberately!

Are dogs allowed to experience intrinsic motivation? The pride of doing something that was hard? Can dogs tell when we feel pride? Relaxed? Can they add up cross bumps + relaxed+ pride = I think I'll do that again? Can they feel a sense of relief at discovering that what they were worried about was actually nothing?

So, it isn't "training". I didn't shape anything. I didn't punish anything. I didn't work to elicit anything. I didn't reward anything. It's having a relationship. It's understanding that adding excitement while an event occurs helps to define it as "an event". (Crossing bumpy ramps is definitely a non-event, so no excitement.) It's appreciating the level of anxiety, of arousal, and how to avoid elevating it. In the end, it's indisputably learning.

Owners, handlers, and trainers can be motivated to engage in "dog training behaviors" by a mistaken idea of how learning has to look. Learning does not have to look like training, although it can, and often should. But, since we have a fixed idea of what changing a dog's behavior demands from the human's behavior, we repeat that behavior over and over, "rewarded" by the thought that we are "doing it right", or "doing what we should", or even "doing what we have to".

In reality, canine-human interactions have been so successful because both of our species are incredibly adaptable. There is no one "right answer". There is no One True Way.

If we are leashed to a dog who is "misbehaving", some of us feel compelled to look as if we are trying. "I [insert ineffective elicit strategy here: say ssst, get the treats, ask him to sit, jerk the leash] every time he does it, but he doesn't seem to get it. I thought he'd have gotten it by now that his behavior isn't working." It isn't nice, and shame on me, but when I hear this, I think: "Hmm... I thought you'd have gotten it by now that your 'training' isn't working." But, I guess, in the absence of a better strategy, it feels better to be using one that doesn't work but seems like trying, than to do nothing ('nothing') and appear as if we aren't trying.

As anyone who has ever skipped a class to explore the world already knows, learning doesn't just happen inside formal structure. Does formal structure have a place? Absolutely. Is it the only place learning happens? Absolutely not. Is it possible for humans to facilitate a dog's informal learning? I believe that's what I did today.

There are as many ways to learn, to teach, to understand as there are brains. There are many ways to provide formal training. There are many ways to provide informal training. Some of them work for some dogs. A few of them work for a lot of dogs. A lot of them only work for a few dogs. None of them work for every dog.

Keep trying until you find the way that works for you and for your dog, whatever it looks like.

"It's only this one thing..."

2009-11-06T15:10:00.006-05:00

An attractive, late 20s couple was examining the store's selection of muzzles as Lila & I strolled past, my arms loaded with 20 lbs of dog food, Lila, not so full of dog food as she would like. The woman was pregnant. Muzzle + pregnant? As insanely busy as I am, I had to go back.

Thankfully, the situation was not as grave as I feared. The 7-year-old "Heinz 57" or "all-American" had been acquired about 10 months ago, and has a habit of barking at animals on the tv.

The strategy they were considering to address this behavior was not unique. They were going to put the muzzle on the dog whenever the dog barked. This, they hoped, was going to teach the dog not to bark. Upon further discussion, I discovered that the dog has begun licking at herself.

They don't walk the dog every day.

The man does work with the dog on a routine of sits and downs, but nothing new has been added. He thought the dog was too old.

Of course, I expressed that I had heard about the failure of their approach, and that they should consider the entire lifestyle of the dog, add walking and more interaction, and also discuss the behavior with their veterinarian.

"She lays around a lot" meant "No, she doesn't need more exercise. This is a training problem" (it's a lifestyle problem) and "I don't feel like walking after a 12-hour day at work" meant he wasn't realistically going to be able to make that happen.

When I evaluate the situation, as if they were clients, or friends, or family, anti-anxiety medication would have to be part of my consideration. I don't like medications. They have side effects, and can be ineffective. They aren't my first recommendation. In fact, I grit my teeth when I can't simply dismiss them or postpone them as a back-up solution when other options are exhausted. There is no doubt in my mind that they are ridiculously over-prescribed. I've had clients who found that simply using common sense and diligence, they found much greater results than with medication.

But, coming from the dog's perspective, well... The dog won't know why she feels more relaxed. She won't be aware that it may slowly be killing her. She will experience better attitudes from the humans she lives with as a result of her relaxed behavior.

I think part of the reason why I don't like the medication solution is because it seems as if the human is refusing to do what I think needs to be done. More effort, more attentiveness to the dog, more exercise, more openness to new ways, more courage, more leadership... I rarely find myself telling people to back off of the work they are doing with a dog displaying problem behavior! But, the reality is that while we as "trainers" work with the human behavior, the goal is to make life better for the dog.

There is no One True Way. There are no "right" and "wrong" answers. We will always be choosing the best option we can from a list that does not contain ANY perfect solutions.

There are intellectual solutions, which work best for intellectual problems. There are emotional solutions, which work best for emotional problems. There are social solutions, which work best for social problems.

Then there are the shortcuts. These are what I call the "elicit" step. Getting the right answer to happen, sometimes shockingly rapidly. They are so addictive because they work short-term. Common practice is to use one until it stops working, then find another. Lots of hunting. Lots of stress at the moment when they stop working.

There are the mis-applied solutions. These are actually the right "elicit", being used incorrectly, and therefore ineffectively. Poorly used food rewards, inadequate praise rewards, improperly aversive techniques. They all fail, and can even make things worse.

Finally, there's good old optimism. "Optimism", I find, is a euphemism for "stupidity". You could call it optimistic to try to squeeze blood from a stone. Or you could call it stupid. Like the aforementioned muzzle approach, these solutions entail a hopeload of placebo effect when they work. They occasionally accidentally work, but not because they are good ideas. There are a lot of these solutions, and they seem to make their way around the dog park, doggie boutiques, groom shops, and, I've even heard some of them out of the mouths of veterinarians.

Interacting with a dog: cooperating with another complex organism, compromising and refusing to where appropriate, communicating, understanding is NOT a simple matter. Brain surgery is cutting your head open, when you oversimplify it, but saying so only displays your own lack of understanding!

Like everything else in life, it's just tough to know what you don't know.

Stop Handler Frustration with Good Showmanship

2009-11-05T06:36:00.000-05:00

Thanks, J, for the idea! Sorry I didn't get this out sooner.

Our own frustration is an issue for every handler/trainer. Even the best have a day when they don't feel like training, feel rushed, feel pressured, or even have body aches and pains -- high likelihood of feeling frustrated!

When I feel frustrated, it's generally because I am expecting something beyond what _I_ know how to elicit -- which means that I have to lower my expectations -- i.e., reward a smaller piece of the behavior, OR come up with a new elicitation strategy (which involves some combination of creativity, conversations with trainer friends, and book/internet research).

In my training sessions, I take advantage of every "break" I can to take a deep breath and relax, look around. Very hard to have frustration in a relaxed body -- true for dogs or people! The break is usually after a release word, although when I am proofing an extended behavior (say attention, heel, or stays) for me losing focus, I will do it after a command.

I find that it also helps to have multiple items to work on. When LOOK isn't going well, switch to hi-5 or roll-over or something the dog will definitely get right, generally something the dog enjoys.

Although I self-monitor pretty well now, I haven't always. I find that lots of no, lots of corrections, and lots of frustration indicate a human being pushed (oddly, by their own brain) beyond their limits. It's hard to recognize that the kind of focus that good training demands is not much different than teaching a dog to pay attention. You can't start by demanding 20 minutes of staring at your face. Heck, 20 seconds of staring is a long time to begin with.

Humans, too, have a time limit for focus. I stretch mine by choosing various training activities to match my focus level. When I am fading, I do something not so demanding (like a nice long down stay, or something quick and mindless like jumps or tricks). When I am all gung-ho and excited about training, I do the hard stuff, the complicated, focus-demanding stuff, like very precise attention & heelwork.

The value of quitting while you are ahead is so large. It's so difficult to get really excited about a fantastic COME and then call it a day, but this is beneficial for both parties. Both of you think about how great that was, and end feeling great -- this is how we create an addiction in both parties-- and if you push through until you surpass the dog's and/or your limits, you both think about the crummy thing that training is.

It's like show biz. Leave 'em wanting more. If you give 'em (or yourself) all they (or you) want, if you DON'T leave 'em wanting more, if you give 'em as much as they want...? You are leaving 'em wanting NO MORE.

Don't Kill Bill

2009-11-02T10:39:00.003-05:00

I got such a warm fuzzy from the photos in the most recent post on this blog, I just had to share.

I do, of course, adore Boston Terriers, a bull-and-terrier breed. You can see the bully heritage on the doggie-tilt-a-whirl photo at the bottom of the post.

Bill is, however, not a fortunate son, when it comes to his genetic past. Bill is a puppy mill dog. His owner, Kyla's loving perseverance has helped him recover from tremendous deficits.

Bill's story is a classic example of how "normal" dogs are treated differently. Normal dogs go on walks. Normal dogs enjoy play with other dogs. Normal dogs get to act wild, and no one thinks, "Oh my god! He's about to... [insert nightmare here]."

Treating dogs who are NOT normal as if they ARE? This is no small feat. There is nothing normal at all about a quaking dog! Kyla has done a fantastic job of transitioning Bill from where he was, while constantly aiming for "normal". Bill could have been diagnosed as a "fearful" dog. Is that what you see in the pictures?

Focusing on what success looks like is significantly more important than focusing on what steps are taken to get there. In fact, excessive focus on the HOW of getting there interferes with focusing on WHERE you are going. It's a bit like driving a car by watching the steering wheel and the pedals!

Enjoy! And don't forget to share Kyla & Bill's story with your dog-loving friends!

Keeping the Bumpus Hounds at Bay

2009-10-29T10:11:00.000-04:00

The ubiquitous dog-related holiday disaster story appears in "A Christmas Story". Still, every year, I am contacted by distraught owners who just didn't realize how predictable and, sadly, preventable, holiday hoopla could have been.

To ensure you & your dog have a smooth holiday
Assess your situation:
Is this the dog's first holiday experience at your house?
Is the dog an adolescent (age 4 mos -3 years)?
Have you had the opportunity to properly socialize the dog?

Assess reality:
Are you able to make this a positive learning experience for the dog?
Have you been providing the correct levels of exercise, training, and stimulation over the past few weeks?

WHY are the holidays so tricky? So much can be non-routine. Here are some occurrences that your dog may not ever encounter apart from the holidays:

tired owners (alcohol or fatigue have similar effects on ability drive a car)
stressed owners have litte patience or calmness in working with the dog
rushed owners have no time for the dog
irregular schedules
prolonged confinement
kenneling, pet sitters, or daycare sessions
skipped or reduced-length walks and training sessions
extended, overnight visits from family and friend
visits can include other pets
crowded rooms in your home
unsupervised children
food left out or accessible (You don't really think the trash can is inaccessible, do you?)
atypical, highly-stimulating objects (toys that make noise or even move, blinking lights, candles, etc)

When making decisions about how to handle the holidays, forethought is your best defense. Once something has already occurred, it isn't as if you can rewind time and "unteach" what happened! However, being overly cautious may result in your dog never learning to handle holiday-related stimulation.

BEFORE THE BIG DAY
INCREASE, rather than decrease walks, training, and exercise. Bad weather means "bundle up", not "skip your walk". Get help if you can't realistically make it happen. Hire a trainer, a dog walker, a pet sitter, .... Even a trustworthy neighbor or family member will do!

Replace extended confinement whenever possible. Consider letting your dog spend the day with a trustworthy friend or family member, or use a reputable doggie daycare. Confinement to a crate, room, pen, or backyard, while safest, increases exercise demands to maintain desirable behavior.

Enroll in a training course. Not only will you learn great tips and tricks, but you also get a terrific opportunity to see what your dog can handle. A group class environment is a great indicator of how your dog may handle other highly stimulating environments (like your holiday get-together).

Test run confinement before the big day.

ON THE BIG DAY
Don't skip exercise; add extra. If you aren't providing extra exercise to accommodate increasing stress levels, you are adding risk factors. Skipping exercise is a risk factor above and beyond that.

Supervise, supervise, supervise! Multi-tasking is a myth. At moments when you can't provide the appropriate level of supervision for your dog's level of expertise, confine the dog to a mistake-proof area.

Deliberately teach through as much as you can handle. Calm is key. Feel harried, anxious, or rushed? Don't handle your dog. Opt for confinement until you feel calmer. Ask your favorite resource how to teach through real-world scenarios like greeting guests at the door, greeting seated guests, going to a designated spot and lying down on command, etc., while in a highly stimulating environment.

Avoid the problem. While a terrible long-term solution, it may be most realistic for your situation this year. Find a reputable boarding kennel, daycare, or even a dog walker, pet sitter, dog trainer, groomer, vet assistant, or other dog pro who can be trusted take the dog to their home. Realize that everyone else and their cousins will do this, too. Plan ahead.

There is no way to absolutely guarantee nothing will go wrong. Make the best choices you can, and don't worry about any minor mishaps. At the end of the day, if no one bled, no one died, and your home is mostly intact, call it "success", ... and memory material. Even the legendary Bumpus Hounds just made for a great story.

Today I Became Dairy-Free

2009-10-20T21:52:00.000-04:00

Walking Lila on our usual route, I encountered something unusual. As our typical route takes us beside a dairy farm, the presence of cows is typical. The location of this cow, however, was not. She was outside the pasture fence.

"Oh, no," I thought, "She must have gotten out somewhere." I started to approach her, thinking I would find a way to use mildly-cow-phobic Lila to help herd her back into her pasture.

She didn't move right away on my approach. I wondered, "Is she tied out? Is she having a calf? Maybe she is having some vet procedure today, and needs to be easy to get to." She was lying down, and these all seemed reasonable possibilities.

As I got closer, she heaved her enormous body in an attempt to stand. It was then that I realized that she could not get up. "Has she hurt a leg?" I thought. I mentally cringed in anticipation of some kind of bloody, mangled mess. Still, it made sense to isolate a cow with a hurt leg, rather than allow her to be jostled and further injured by her fellow bovines.

I was still operating under the assumption that I wanted to believe: that she was tied out.

Reaching her, I found that my assumption was wrong. I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. Back legs tied together with twine. One side caked with mud, from face to rump. Bloody scrapes on the muddy side. And, most awful of all, tire tracks around her.

"Maybe she fell while they were delivering her? Maybe there is a single hand here today, who can't lift her, but didn't want her to run off while he tended to all the other chores, and he'll come out to take care of her in a bit." I really didn't want to believe what I was seeing.

What I was seeing looked like maybe they brought her to the back field, tied her back feet, and hit her with the truck.

But this farm always had the nicest looking cows! They were always clean, well-kept, and apart from the general structural breakdown the Holstein breed is experiencing, were fine-looking animals. The farm is generally exceptional tidy. These two qualities always made this farm seem a lovely contrast to the generally run-down, dirty, ill-kempt animals and farm properties I have, over the past 30 years, come to associate with Amish farming practices.

Yes, cows are, by nature, skittish animals, I grant you. However, it's me. Cows are curious animals, and if you communicate the idea that you are not a threat, generally, they are far more social than most city slickers probably realize. I have been licked by many cows. This cow, was traumatized. Her breathing was rapid. Before I even laid a hand on her, she tried to move away from me.

I touched her gently, slowly increasing pressure as I massaged the soreness I imagined that laying still for so long had probably caused, she began to relax. I used my nails to "nibble" her neck, like cow friends do to one another, and she relaxed even more. I leaned into her body, and she leaned back into mine. "Ah," I thought, "we're ok." And in my pride, I patted her neck with my open palm.

I may as well have shocked her. She leapt from the sensation, but bound by the twine, could go nowhere. I continued to work her, and then just crouched beside her. I knew she was doing ok when I saw the cows back at the barn stop staring at us and go back about their regular cow business, whatever that is.

Still, I just didn't want to think what I was thinking.

I called the police and reported a loose cow. I thought, "Well, if I am mistaken, they'll see what is going on here." Two hours later, sunset, 40 degree temps, the cow is still there, I note that she is mildly dehydrated, and the farm is still deserted.

I announced to my mother, "Of all the things I thought I'd get arrested for, this never made the list." I have, I admit, rather frequent misanthropic fantasies, and our joke is that I'll get arrested for following through one day. (I've never been arrested. I was a straight-A student.) I actually considered stealing a cow. I saw her standing in my parents' garage. (My parents who can't have a dog in the house because it's "dirty"?)

I called the Humane Officer, and mentioned the possibility that this was a cow who needed to be euthanized. She introduced the conclusion my mind did not want to accept. "Sounds like maybe they dragged her." she said. Instantly, I realized that I should have (as is almost always the case) trusted my instinct.

Today, I am done with dairy. As an enormous fan of dairy, and dairy products, this is a sacrifice. I'm not an extremist. In theory, there is nothing so inherently evil in keeping cows or drinking their milk. In fact, one of my dreams is to have a Jersey cow and/or goat of my own, whose milk I'd drink! I don't think they mind terribly, provided they are well-looked after, basically large pets, I guess, and that they aren't separated from their offspring, drugged, milked by machines, or otherwise mistreated.

However, the practical reality of what my money supports when I purchase milk and milk-derived products from the grocery store? What I saw today was obviously not a first. This was not the first dragged cow. And this is probably not the worst of what happens.

I think we probably all assume that the worst happens on large-scale farms, because many of us have a mental image of large soul-less corporations being uncaring. However, when it comes to animal husbandry, I can't imagine the large, adequately staffed, state-of-the-art operations engaging in what I saw today. I suspect someone wanted to avoid the cost associated with proper euthanasia.

And, I bet that it is mid-size operations that are most guilty of the worst offenses. Small-scale operations give their cows names. (Sometimes they even write it on the cow's ID tags.) Large scale operations find it more economical in the grand scheme of things to do things properly.

But unless I know the name of the cow from which the milk came? Well, Nicole is done with dairy. I cannot cause what I saw today.

What stopped me (before today) from this decision is a common human cognitive foible. Humans have, by nature, a bias for optimism. Daniel Gilbert does an excellent job of exploring this idea in his book, "Stumbling on Happiness". Our brain's "immune system", as he describes it, depends on our ability to put a positive spin on just about anything.

And, so, our brains simply don't want to believe that dairy operations involve what they do. Behold the power of cheese! We love cheese. More importantly, _I_ love cheese. With the possible exceptions of cottage cheese and cheesecake, both of whom, I feel, besmirch the reputation of cheese as being universally delicious, I have not found a cheese I didn't like. This brain, like most, simply doesn't want to accept information that results in a diminished cheese consumption!

Believing that such practices are anomalous, not the norm, (and when we look at a typical day on one or two or a dozen farms) we can justify not giving up the dairy.

A sweet, sensitive creature, whose only "sin" was to become ill was traumatized by being dragged across the farm. She had no idea what was happening to her, why, or what would happen next. She had no choice. And, she trusted. She could have kicked a few idiots in the head, but submitted to gruesome, awful, senseless, compassion-less treatment. (I hope she did, though, obviously, she'd not be able to do much damage to any heads on THAT farm. . .)

Did I mention how much I "love" the so-called "good Christian folk"? Let me proclaim, now and forever, that you can do such heinous things with impunity while Jesus is watching, since he only requires you to be kind to humans (or other Christian humans, is it? or politically influential Christian humans? I guess that varies) but don't let it happen while I am watching.

Rice and beans, anyone?

Don't Quit Now!

2009-10-14T20:47:00.002-04:00

No, this isn't a post about me quitting twitter! But, I did quit, so I'm relying on you, my readers to spread the word about my blog and my unique viewpoint. E-mail a link to this blog to your dog friends!

Quitting is a common problem on both ends of the leash. Faced with the impression of less success than desired, the subject says, "Hey, this isn't working. I should stop now, because this is a waste of time." (Ok, dogs don't waste time thinking words, but you get the idea.)

When the subject is quitting destructive behaviors, like yank-based training or digging holes, quitting is a good, smart thing! We could call that "extinction". It makes good sense to quit doing things that fail to work. We've all heard the quote, attributed to Albert Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

But when the learner quits due to a false sense of failure, quitting is a huge mistake.

In order for a dog to learn, things have to go successfully, or as desired, only slightly more than half the time for the dog to learn. Animals, in general, have a much better understanding of probability than humans. If you are getting what you want 3 out of every 4 times? 75% success? You are well on your way to more success!

Unfortunately, what often happens is that humans don't see 75% success as good enough. They look at that same 75% success as 25% failure, focus on that failure and blow it way out of proportion. The situation feels out of control, the dog is "untrainable", the technique doesn't work, and we throw out baby and bathwater and just give up.

"We'll just have to put her in the back room when company comes over."

Or, instead of just giving one repetition where the dog is asked to sit, the door yanked open, and the dog jumps -- maybe you could just persist in opening the door only when the dog is calm, refusing to allow the entrance of your guests (and the prize: greeting sniff) until all 4 dog feet are firmly on the floor.

Sure, it will take two dozen reps the first time, but that's how the learning works. The next time, it takes 10. Then it takes 4. Successful application of this approach tapers down.

UNLESS you quit before you get what you need. Wherever you quit, whatever you call "good enough", the dog will call this "success". You will not ever get better behavior than that. You will simply get the level of behavior where you quit more rapidly over time.

If you quit when he sat before he jumped, then you aren't ever going to see him not jump at all. His understanding of what you want is sit-then-jump. Because that's where you quit -- even though if you had persisted on every opportunity with the exact same pattern, you would have been able to achieve no jumping!

Quitting when things ARE going well? Yup, it happens. Way more often than you might suspect.

People lack confidence when it comes to the effectiveness of any kind of dog-related interaction. They lack so much confidence in the approaches they select, that they tend to fixate on figuring out IF it "works" than on the more relevant task of HOW it works -- learning every detail of applying it properly. They tend to forget that they, too, have learning to do!

While mastery of the no-jump guest-greet is a fine place to "quit" the dog's learning, learning about dogs is no place for quitters. Dog behavior "experts" who insist that there is only One True Way of dog training? These are people who have quit learning.

Don't quit now. There is so much more!

Get 'Em Under Control with ... Play?

2009-10-01T13:29:00.003-04:00

It occurred to me today that I had looked at something repeatedly without ever seeing it.

If you own multiple dogs, you will have looked at this, too. If you've SEEN it, bravo!

Ginger (my rock-solid example of nearly flawless leadership--I miss her intensely) and Lila (possibly the world's most aloof dog) had such a close bond, that when given the opportunity to play with other dogs, would still choose to play 90% of the time with each other.

Lila and I have a relationship, there's no denying it, but nothing like what Lila & Ginger or Ginger & I had.

Ginger & I played. LOTS. Our primary interaction was tug or retrieve play. Hard, rough, intense, occasional bruising of the human from collision with feet, WOO HOO, wild-ass play.

Ginger & Lila played. LOTS. Their primary interaction was wrestling. Ginger never really had the stamina for chase play, so they wrestled. Chest-to-chest, I-throw-you-down, I-throw-myself-down (auugh... I'm dying, kill me!), all-the-books-say-don't-let-em-do-it, ROUGH play.

Lila & I do not play. I can bribe her to retrieve, but it's an exercise.

Until today. I decided that since Ginger taught me everything I know about everything else, I'd finally just go along with her ideas on how to manage Lila.

So, on today's off-leash romp, after one of her famous "see ya later" sprints, we wrestled. Not alpha roll flattening, but the best imitation I could do of the self-alpha-roll?, initiator belly-up, Lila on the top romping I could do.

I have never seen her stick so close to me.

And, that was when I got it. The thing that I have looked at hundreds, probably thousands of times, by dogs everywhere and I never saw.

Dogs use the idea of rewarding undesirable behavior to excellent effect.

Think about it. Watch for it.

Dogs want each other to pay attention to each other, engage with each other, play with each other, communicate with each other. Awareness of "each-other-ness" is the essence of being social, isn't it?

Therefore, separation from, or "distraction" from each other would be an "undesirable behavior" that is "extinguished" by the use of play reward.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is a MODEL of the behavior. This is not how it works, this is just a way to make our human minds evaluate, observe, and assess the interactions that take place without much serious cognition on the part of either canine!

But watch your dogs. Watch your neighbor's dogs. Watch dogs at the dog park. And let me know what you see!

Denial of Canine Social Hierarchy

2009-09-13T14:28:00.001-04:00

There is a school of thought, unfortunately all too common among positive trainers, that denies the very existence of a social hierarchy among dogs.

I believe there are several reasons for this mistaken perspective:

1. They genuinely don't see it

Women, especially, seem to fall prey to this idea, which may be related to their own human social experience. Women do not form hierarchies in their own social interactions!

There are men, too, who don't see the social hierarchy, possibly because dogs tend to yield rank to individuals possessing testosterone, eliminating the need for the canine(s) in the household to establish a hierarchy among themselves.

Finally, if you have not owned multiple dogs, you don't get the same perspective. Yes, dogs can and will form loose lead-follow relationships at the dog park, during play dates, and the like, but the leadership role is not quite the same as the type of leadership role exhibited with the family.

2. There is motivation to make the claim

They don't want to support "dominance" techniques. Recognition of a social hierarchy absolutely does not constitute endorsement of practices like alpha rolls, scruff shakes, stare-downs, muzzle grabs, etc, that present serious risk of "miscommunication". If your dog learns that no amount of appeasement will make you stop aggressing, you can effectively ELICIT aggression.

A stable, effective leader dog elicits cooperation from the follower dogs through performing the duties of a leader. Owners often misinterpret growls from a low-ranking dog protecting resources from a higher ranking dog as evidence that the growler (low rank) is actually the leader!

Aggression has been linked to canine leadership in the minds of many humans. Aggression is neither a tool nor a communicator of leadership. Aggression is, by definition, a strategy for handling social conflicts, which result from MISSING or INEFFECTIVE leadership.

3. Not as much as as we need to know has been researched in DOGS

One of the common assumptions made is that canids are canids, and that foxes approximate wolves approximate dogs. Well, in very general terms, this is correct, just as it is to say that primates approximate humans.

But in specific terms, humans are not monkeys, and dogs are not wolves.

While I argue that there is evidence to support the idea of dogs understanding a social hierarchy among dogs, there is even less research that explores how dogs (and other species who form social hierarchies) frame the inclusion of other species.

My point is simply this: keep an open mind, and look for what is really there, not evidence that simply weighs for or against a social hierarchy.

I have very strong feelings about the importance of what I call good leadership, but there are many possible explanations for why the recommendations I make work, which may or may not have anything to do with a social hierarchy that may or may not include humans.

300 Word Limit?

2009-09-12T09:18:00.002-04:00

I was reading the blog of another writer, who suggested that blog posts be about 300-400 words long.

What do you think? Would you find my blogs more useful or readable if there were shorter posts?
(that was 37 words)

Cue-Elicit-Release-Reward Model

2009-09-06T15:16:00.000-04:00

All effective dog trainers, regardless of "technique", provide a standard framework for learning. Some very successful trainers do so without even realizing it! Whether intentional or accidental, the presence of this framework provides a predictable pattern for the dog, which is key to providing successful learning experiences to dogs. By contrast, the absence of a standard framework creates unpredictable experiences. A missing or variable framework can be responsible for the failure of otherwise very excellent training.

It is predictability that allows us to communicate. "Predictable", a word often used by dog trainers, has a similar meaning to "consistent", the word often used by dog owners. No matter which word you use to describe the idea of presenting an identifiable pattern, you no doubt recognize the importance of presenting a pattern, and the potential confusion (& stress, the end product of confusion) of failing to present an identifiable pattern.

The interesting thing about this framework is that it describes what dogs are looking for in any interaction:

What do I do? What is expected of me?
How do I do that?
When am I done?
Why should I do it again?

If you are not deliberately providing each of these pieces of information the cooperative, motivated dog must try to pull the information out of there.

The reactive, stressed, unmotivated, or frustrated dog? She'll probably just shut down.

By taking the "confusion" on-board the human circuitry instead of dumping it on the canine, the dog's learning experience is greatly simplified. Make no mistake, shifting the thinkery to the human is very taxing for the human! The amount of focus the human is able to sustain is often not much more than what the canine can.

When designing or assessing a learning experience for a dog, I use the terms "cue", "elicit", "release", and "reward" to refer to the concepts expressed by the 4 questions above. These elements, successfully applied, occur sequentially, not simultaneously. For beginning dogs, the sequence must be so rapid that it can look to novice observers as if it is simultaneous. It is not.

The most "controversial" aspect of dog training, among dog professionals, anyway, is the "elicit" step. Getting the dog to actually do what you are looking for. There are ways that are acceptable and there are ways that are not, and those vary dramatically, depending on who is doing the accepting or rejecting!

Chances are, you think that the elicit step alone is what determines the success or failure of "training". For many people, "elicit" = training.

OWNER: "How do you get him to sit?"
TRAINER: "Well, you just wait for him to do it... raise a treat over his head... push down on the rump... pull up on the collar... pinch his ear (!)... [insert "trick" or"technique" here]"
OWNER: "Ohhh...."

This is absolutely NOT good training. Does the elicit step work? YES! That's why we use it. And, unfortunately, that is why it has become synonymous with "training". All those little tips and tricks we use to get the dog to get the right answer are effective in the moment they are applied, but no matter how often you repeat them, your

And, if you want to keep doing them forever, that's your decision to make. It's just that you won't really have a "trained" dog, you'll have good handling skills. Really good handlers can take a completely untrained dog and make it look marvelous in about 20 minutes. Of course, when the dog is handed to YOU, the dog has not thought about or deliberately selected any behaviors, so it's still completely untrained!

In too many training classes, the focus is on those little tips and tricks that elicit desirable behavior. Without following through and teaching students how to incorporate those tips and tricks and "techniques" into a framework, well, ... students end up with the kind of results that are too often seen.

This phenomenon applies to just about every elicit technique out there. The good ones all WORK for someone, which is why they exist. There's absolutely nothing ineffective about simply waiting for the dog to lay down, but it is frequently ineffectively applied.

Choke chain communication can be highly effective, and NOT aversive, but it's frequently used as a handling tool, rather than a training one-- meaning, it works as long as you are yanking away, but the dog never gets the right idea. Food lures also fall victim to the same issue. Luring the dog around with cookies--fantastically effective as an elicitor, but often falls apart when it is used only as a handling tool. Although, if you have a super-food-motivated dog for whom it never stops working? Why not use the food forever? Who cares why your pet dog behaves? Distractors like noisemakers, squirt bottles, and tickle-touches work extremely effectively for even the most severe behavior problems -- but they only elicit cooperation. They do not teach!

Engaging the dog's brain, using your tool of choice to help nudge the behavior in the right direction, is TEACHING. Teaching is training. Repetition is important, but repeated application of elicitors is NOT TEACHING.

In training your dog, by focusing on making the CUE-ELICIT-RELEASE-REWARD framework a habit FIRST (training the human behavior first), to later add any elicit "technique" for any behavior you like or need is a piece of cake! It is the framework that engages the dog, establishes communication, and ultimately enhances your relationship and partnership performance.

Mistakes Happen!

2009-08-30T23:12:00.003-04:00

Mistakes are an unavoidable part of learning. Are they an essential component of learning? No, not really. There's some new human cognition research supports this idea, and I'd expect a parallel concept to apply to canine cognition.

In theory, perfectly designed learning experiences would prevent all mistakes. In practice, the mistakes help us design more and more perfect learning experiences. The mistakes help us see where the gaps in learning truly are.

For example, a dog trainer's client repeatedly uses the word "No" where a command cue, not a feedback cue, is appropriate. The trainer realizes: "Hey, we need to discuss a LEAVE IT command."

Ideally, the trainer would have been able to download this idea to the client's brain during the first few moments of interaction. Practically, the client had so many other, more pressing issues to process, that introducing this concept first would likely have resulted in the same lack of learning.

Another example is a dog's idea of a SIT. A dog who has difficulty sitting in the proper HEEL position (aligned with & adjacent to the handler's feet, not angled toward or away from handler, not ahead or behind handler, not too close to handler or too far away) may have an idea that SIT is something you only do when someone is standing or when someone is in front of you or when someone is close to you.

SIT should be simply a rump-lowering manueuver, regardless of where you are, where your handler is, or what your handler is doing -- at least, if it is going to be used as an instructional prompt in the HEEL exercise! (If you teach SITs only in the space in front of your feet, SIT really becomes a recall cue because it means "plop yourself in front of my feet". Do as you wish with this knowledge.)

The idea is easy to recognize when mistakes fall into the above kinds of less emotionally-charged categories. But when mistakes include pulse-raisers like cringing, shivering, staring, teeth-baring, hackles-raising, growling, tail-thrashing, lunging, ... It's difficult to keep the perspective that these are simply indicators of where learning needs to occur!

I am not attempting to minimize the seriousness of any of these behaviors. These are indeed very, extremely serious behaviors, and addressing them should only occur under supervision of a qualified professional. I am also not suggesting that all of these behaviors can be sufficiently addressed to make a dog a safe pet! Some dogs have simply been the unfortunate recipients of a imperfect storm of genetics, upbringing, and/or management. Not every dog should be considered "just in need of some training". Some would be better off in a sanctuary, and, if one is not available, in the interest of best addressing needs that cannot be met -- well, the Best Day Ever should end with a trip across the Rainbow Bridge.

A solid learning experience is designed to elicit significantly more successes than errors, but also anticipates the occurrence of errors. How do we handle them? How can we minimize their impact? Do we ignore them? Do we (humanely) punish them? If so, how? What does a specific mistake indicate that we need to re-teach? At what point do we go back to the drawing board? These are issues you should discuss with your trainer.

Because errors can come from both ends of the leash, many owners feel that they are to blame for every mistake their dog makes. This is blatantly untrue. Every dog is different, and what one dog chose to do in a given context is not necessarily what another one would have. Owners & dogs who are shy, anxious, damaged, even neurotic do seem to find each other, but this is not to say that one causes all the behaviors of the other!

Sometimes, though, it is the human's error. Apart from immediate, "in the moment" errors, like missing a click or feedback marker or release word, which are recognized by most humans immediately, errors in judgment are often more typical of the kind of mistakes humans make.

Instead of keeping my dog on leash at twilight on a cool, damp August evening while walking through a cornfield frequented by deer, like any sensible dog owner would -- I didn't. I'm a dog trainer, after all! After some mind-bogglingly awesome responses to sit and down commands (from motion, no less), I released her from a SIT, looked to see what had caught her attention, and watched the blur of fur that was her get smaller and smaller as two deer lead her through the field. Yes, I got her back & no one died (my sole criteria for "a good off-leash experience"), but to call the event a high-value reward for release from the sit? Well, as much as I'd like to, even I can't quite convince myself that the judgment call was a good one!

Instead of training their dogs during puppyhood, a charming couple decided to simply give the dogs whatever the dogs "needed", which the dogs would communicate to them. Dogs don't lie, after all. Apparently, what the dogs "needed" was to fight with each other, occasionally biting their owners in the process. Since the owners had done no training to establish any kind of communication skills, nor were there any learned behaviors on cue, the kind of interventions that could have addressed the friction before it erupted were impossible. Fortunately, these owners realized in fairly short order the error of their ways and contacted a qualified, experienced professional.

Mistakes are definitely undesirable & unpleasant, and consequences are something all teachers wish they could shield their students from, but they will happen. They say that good decisions come from experience -- and experience comes from bad decisions!

Leadership versus Dominance

2009-08-28T11:15:00.003-04:00

Leadership is a grossly misunderstood concept. Leadership is often associated with words like “dominance”, “alpha”, “authority”, “respect”, and “challenge”. Rarely, if ever, is it associated with the word “trust”. Which may explain the tremendous lack of demonstrated leadership present in today’s human society!

Leadership is a role that requires the earning of trust from followers. Trust cannot be demanded. Force (the tool of the Dominator) creates resistance. Trust can only be given, not taken. Leadership, unlike "dominance", requires followers to CHOOSE to follow. Trust is broken in a heartbeat, but repaired, re-earned, only over a long period of time--not hours, but days, weeks, even months or years. Sometimes, it's irreparably broken.

An individual dog always has the right to choose whether to follow another dog or not. Even the most severe aggression will not force an individual dog to follow a leader it does not willingly choose to follow. It is only the benefit offered by the leader that encourages a follower to follow.

Whether we are referring to corporate management, family structure, or canine management, the basic principles of effective leadership remain the same:

To lead is to set the example. To design structure of activities. To plan. To create expectations. To minimize conflict. To intervene and mediate conflict. To consider the best interests of all parties when creating boundaries or structure. To listen as often as speak. To compromise your own ego, your immediate interests for the benefit of all parties, putting the needs of your followers before your own. A good leader builds willing cooperation.

To “dominate” is to bully. To ignore the needs of your followers when it conflicts with your own personal interests or desires. To repress free will. To have one-directional conversations. The product of domination is conflict, since only one party’s will or desire is considered, but all parties have needs. The “dominator” forces “cooperation” (compliance).

Among households with canine family members, lack of leadership is a common cause for serious problem behaviors. Failing to plan is planning to fail, they say. Responsibility for leadership issues is often shifted to the dog, calling the dog "dominant".

While a dog may have strong leadership tendencies or even capabilities, it is the yielding of follow that creates a leader. When a human or another dog reacts, rather than initiates, that individual is following. Interestingly, this "reaction" is the very hallmark of application of "dominance" techniques-- wait for the dog to screw up, then intervene. Who is leading who?

Waiting for the car to run off the road before steering is obviously a bad idea. But somehow "because dogs aren't like us", this approach is often attempted.

Sadly, I've seen a well-intentioned "positive" approach used in the same way. The dog jumps up, THEN the person asks for a SIT. This is ineffective for so many reasons, now "positive" training has been misidentified as the cause of ineffectiveness.

The key to leadership for your canine pals is developing the ability to read the current situation, anticipate what behaviors come next, identify "crossroad" moments when steering is needed, and a toolbox full of ways to elicit the behavior you want BEFORE an undesirable behavior emerges.

I'm often asked by folks with dogs displaying aggression toward other dogs what to do if the dogs get into a fight, again, reflecting the "follow the dog" backwards approach. Some people are looking to use the fight to "teach their dog a lesson". Others are simply trying to prevent injury to the dogs.

Returning to our model of leadership as steering the car, PREVENTION is the key strategy to address accidents. Maybe there's that 1-in-a-million race car driver out there who can adeptly intervene WHILE the car is crashing--maybe. But if you were that 1-in-a-million dog owner who could effectively intervene while your dog was in a fight...your dog wouldn't be in a fight to begin with!

Once you've "crashed the car", once you've missed the "crossroad moment" where you needed to steer the behavior in the correct direction, once the dog has jumped or barked or lunged -- the dog's learning is out the window. You may be able to use the moment to learn how to handle such a circumstance, but the dog's learning for application to future interactions has ceased.

By learning to lead effectively, you will not see the "crashes"!

A "Routine" for Walks

2009-08-24T11:17:00.003-04:00

Most dog owners, trainers, behaviorists, veterinarians, etc, agree that walking and outings provide an essential daily component of dog life.

What many dog owners don't realize is... Need = REWARD.

For many dogs, the reward of a walk is so alluring, so powerful, that even the most scrumptious edibles pale by comparison. Even the discomfort of leaning on a flat collar or twisting your face on a headcollar or pinches from a pinch collar often fail to distract you from the surge of elation you feel when anticipating a walk! The reward is totally worth any hassle to try to get to it faster.

Since your dog views the walk as a reward, your dog believes that whatever behavior it engages in makes the walk happen. This is called "transitive logic".

If your dog is pawing and barking at you, and you go get the leash-- what made you go get the leash? When your dog leaps and thrashes while you attempt to attach the leash, what behavior made you finally get the leash attached? Jumping & thrashing, of course! And when you walk to the door with your riot on a string, what makes the door open? Its obvious to any dog. The rioting did.

Now, your dog knows your personal sequence of events. Every step in that sequence is a reward. Any, god forbid, reversal in the sequence is a punisher. Hesitation or slowness is a mild punisher that can serve as a useful elicitor.

Remember back to where we observed that walking was worth ANY hassle? Make the hassle being calm -- or at least controlled!

Walks should start as your idea, not the dog's. Ignoring any previously rewarded behavior (like the pawing, barking, whining, pacing stuff) will cause the behavior to worsen. The dog thinks, "I know this works -- I just have to do it harder, louder, faster, over here, over there, in combination with something else..." The dog has to exhaust every possible variation of the thing that he KNOWS works until he realizes, "Hey, amybe this doesn't work anymore..."

Try choosing a command you want to use to earn the walk. It can always be the same one. It can be a different one every time. Don't forget a release word!
OR
Perform your regular sequence at about 1/2 speed.

In either case, by continuing with your sequence when you are seeing things you like, and reversing your sequence when you see things you don't like, you can communicate quickly to the dog what works and what doesn't with regard to getting to go for a walk.

To make things even clearer, you can use the word "good" repeatedly to mark every single correct behavior. At least one every 2 seconds! Use a single marker like "oops", "eh-eh", or even clear your throat at the second you see something you don't like AND simultaneously demonstrate that it doesn't work by reversing your sequence.

Using the markers alone may distract the first few times, but if they doesn't predict anything meaningful (i.e., we are moving toward or away from walking), they will soon be disregarded. Show, don't tell!

Showing works so well that you can do it in absolute silence (no markers), and the dog will still catch on! This silent interaction is what was historically meant by "dog whispering".

"What if he has to go the bathroom?"
For many of us who work typical 9-5 jobs, the evening meet-up has an added level of reward intensity. The urgency of needing to go to the bathroom can really make things difficult. It makes the reward of the walk of even HIGHER value! So whatever the dog is doing just prior to this walk is REALLY working. At least, according to the dogs.

How do we combat this? Well, I suppose a hard-core dog trainer would insist that you just make the dog behave before giving it access to this reward. Lucky for you, and all my own spoiled dogs, I am far from hard-core!

For this circumstance, if you believe it IS urgent, I'd suggest taking the dog directly (no sniffing or meandering--hustle!) to a designated potty spot as close to the house as possible. Then, return to the house with the same hustle. Make it your idea to go on for a real walk when it is convenient for you. OR, if you prefer to do it right away after the potty, you could ask for a command response near the potty spot and go. You could simply expect (wait for) calm behavior and go. You could still hustle back to the house and go.

However, you know your dog's routine -- does she step out the door and then not potty for 20 minutes? If this sounds more like your dog, I'd be a little more skeptical about interpreting the "urgency" of the behavior when you arrive at home!

The idea of instituting a deliberate walk routine is often problematic for dog owners. So let me simply remind you -- if you do what you've always done, you'll get the results you've always gotten! The cognitive demands of giving 100% attention and interaction with your dog after a long, hard day place on you, the owner, often serve to dissuade (punish?) us from doing what will ultimately enable us to think less and walk more conveniently. However, as someone who doesn't have chaos for walks, let me tell you -- it's totally worth it. Once your new routine becomes "what you've always done", those results will be what you always get!

Buy Us a Round of Entropion Surgery?

2009-08-13T10:39:00.003-04:00

"Jamais deux sans trois" (Never 2 without 3), they say in French. Bad things do seem to come in threes. In the case of MidAtlanticBullyBuddies(MABB)dogs, it happens to be 3 eyes with entropion.

Two eyes belong to Lilly, a charming young adolescent dog, possibly a Boxer mix, for whom MABB set up a ChipIn widget.

Then the third eye with entropion arrived. It belongs to a sweet baby girl who also has kennel cough and an as-yet unidentified skin condition causing her to lose hair (NOT demodectic mange). Her pink paws and skin look so painful, but she doesn't quit being sweet! She is receiving treatments from the vet to make her more comfortable. No widget has been set up for her vet bills yet, but it will be shortly.

Man, after a run of dogs not needing much of anything except to find a good home, MABB is seeing a run of dogs with medical issues. I guess it couldn't last forever. =(

"What Else Can I Do?"

2009-08-12T18:01:00.003-04:00

No matter what behavior you are dealing with, sufficient walks are often THE critical component missing from your dog's life, and contributing significantly to your dog's inability to handle what should be non-events.

Add extra walks. Not treadmills, not backpacks, not running beside bikes or rollerblades, not heeling, not training walks -- just good old walking, meandering, sniffing, being a dog.

Dogs who jog or sprint given this opportunity are dogs who have been living under a pattern of insufficient walks.

As a component of a "rehab" or "detox" program for reactive or otherwise misbehaving dogs, are responsible for at least 60-80% of the results. You could conceivably lapse on EVERY OTHER ELEMENT and still see significant results from adding sufficient walks.

It might take you a few weeks to "catch up" on all the walks you've missed on a daily basis so far, but providing THE basic element of canine cognitive experience will make the biggest impact on your dog's behavior.

But, still... The owners ask, "What else can I do?"

It's as if they are asking, "Well, other than driving between the lines of the right-hand side of the road, what can I do to improve my safety behind the wheel? Realistically, I'm just not going to stay on the right hand side of the road."

Uh,... then, realistically? You shouldn't be driving.

Some dogs CAN do with less exercise. Certainly elderly dogs and physically challenged dogs cannot tolerate the exercise a 14-month-old Border Collie can. But if you are not providing enough exercise to keep your dog from displaying behaviors like barking, biting, digging, self-mutilation, chewing, and other unhealthy AND undesirable behaviors -- what kind of a home are you providing?

Actions speak louder than words. Dogs know: Walks = love.

Happy Ending for Pit Bull Stabbing Victim!

2009-08-11T12:34:00.000-04:00

We did it! Ceasar (now called "Rocky") has recovered from his injuries, and is now living with his new person, Emily, who calls him "the coolest dog ever". I think that's just because he is.

Good Training is...Good Training

2009-08-07T13:06:00.006-04:00

"This is Nicole, what can I do for you?"

"Well, I was just wondering what kind of method you use?"

There ARE no methods! Dogs recognize no "methods". There are two kinds of training: Good training, and bad training.

There is good training: The dog understands, and demonstrates understanding with reliable performance of correctly chosen criteria. The handler can consistently perform the requisite elements. The success of such training enhances dog-handler relationship. Ultimately, good training results in increased desired behaviors and decreased undesired behavior.

There are many, many ways to get this to happen. Every effective way relies on precise timing, effective communication, consistency of message, showing--not telling, presentation of contrast, and intellectual engagement from both dog and handler. These create predictable expectations, predictable and controllable consequences. Predictability is the antithesis of anxiety.

There is bad training. The dog does not understand. The handler does not understand it. The trainer teaching it does not understand it. No one knows what is going on, but something is happening. 'We have to do something, and this is something, so we are doing this.'

There's a shot gun approach of 'we're trying this', 'Oh, we've stopped that, now trying another thing', often due to the human's inappropriate expectations or incorrect diagnosis. There is a wide variety of ideas conveyed for a short period of time, and then a new idea, replacing the old idea, (often in stark contrast to the old notion) appears out of nowhere.

Confusion, inconsistency, poor timing, emotional intensity, lack of clarity result in a lack of predictability. If you wanted to create a monster, (or if you wanted to make a dog just stop trying--see Martin Seligman's research)removing predictability, removing controllable consequences, and generally increasing frustration, arousal, and anxiety is a good way to accomplish that.

Some dogs are frankly not negatively psychologically impacted by pain alone. These are the rough-players of the dog world, who make great police dogs, Schutzhund & Ringsport players, unstoppable trackers, and tolerant therapy and service dogs. Pain does not necessarily equate to stress for all dogs.

However, even for dogs who DO have a high tolerance for pain, anxiety, confusion, frustration DO negatively impact the dog's psychological state, and therefore performance and compliance. Maintaining appropriate emotional state is a critical component of effective training. Stress-tolerance can be taught, but never demanded.

Stress is the hallmark of abusive, aversive interactions.

Stress, anxiety, confusion, and frustration are NOT unique to methods using pain. You can easily stress, confuse, and frustrate your dog using treats or play alone! Selection of tools ALONE does not determine whether your dog is receiving "good" or "bad" training.

I have watched Schutzhund dogs have a wonderful time, happy tails, and excited to work, and frustrated when prevented from working! These are dogs on precisely used slip, choke, prong, and remote collars. Their handlers are emotionally neutral, and there is no yelling.

I have seen Schutzhund dogs mistreated, abused, confused, and FAIL, as they AND their cretin owners misunderstand the exercise, the tool they are "now" trying, and resultantly the two creatures generally yell, scream, and otherwise act a fool!

I have watched dogs in reward-only classes shut down in confusion as treats are waggled but not delivered. Watched their insistent owners ratchet up the pressure, reaching for higher and higher value treats, trying for "another way to get him to do it". As if they can force the dog into wanting! Good trainers wait until the time is right to work. They can identify the body language that indicates a good time to work.

I've watched frustration build in a dog leaning into a flat collar while the owner inclines away from the dog, who is only interested in sniffing a new dog, sparking aggressive outbursts. Using only a flat collar, that generally accepted as among the most benign of tools, mixed with a little ignorance, misunderstanding, or inattentiveness, --we've created aggression!

The issue I take with the labeling of training as "positive" or "traditional" or "dog whispering" or "natural" or any other label used for marketing purposes is that I have yet to find any relationship between the label and whether or not the training is good, fair, and enjoyable, --or bad, unfair, and stress-inducing.

When you are making decisions about how to interact with your dog, remember that it isn't the label that matters to your dog. It's reducing anxiety. It's making you happy. It's having a good time. Dogs are, above all, supposed to be fun!

Go have some fun with your dog.

Retrieves!

2009-08-05T17:46:00.006-04:00

Retrieves are a great joy for both the dog and handler. Their complication encourages teamwork, while the independent function of the dog can foster relaxation.

Retrieves consist of
1)Picking up the Object
2)Dropping the Object in the indicated spot
Everything else is problem-solving for the dog!

Picking up the Object
To begin teaching a dog who doesn't naturally retrieve, start with an object the dog WANTS to pick up and hold.

Although my other dogs were highly toy-motivated, and picked up on the retrieving game right away, my Labrador RETRIEVER mix, Lila, who has clearly not read her veterinary paperwork indicating her genetics, did not.

Lila's retrieving started with what I called, "The Chicken Bag". It's just as gross as it sounds, but she loved it. I used a standard Outward Hound treat bag, and filled it with lightly drained canned chicken. The liquid leaked out of the bag -- revolting for me, enchanting for her. I had no trouble with her wanting to put her mouth on it!

The Chicken Bag was placed on the ground a few feet away. After a SIT, she was released and told to BRING, as I stepped toward the object, using my hand to lure her nose near it.

She began by licking it, then pawing at it, then FINALLY, putting her mouth on it. I waited silently through the initial behaviors, and nearly shouted "YES!" when her teeth made contact. As long as her teeth were in contact, I encouraged her with Lila's special blend of tertiary reinforcers: "That's it, good, good, yes, excellent..." (I don't know why Lila likes the blend more. All the other dogs generally just prefer the simplicity of "Good".)

Dropping the Object in the indicated spot
Many people begin retrieves with some great distance thrown into the mix. The distance is not really an essential component of the behavior!

A beginning retrieve can consist of the dog lifting the Object off the floor, and "accidentally" dropping it into your hand, which you have sneakily chosen to place directly under the dog's chin. Voila! You & your dog have completed an entire retrieve.

For Lila, once The Chicken Bag, well, slopped(mmmm....) into my hand, I cringed, opened the drawstring, and pulled out some of the delicious, runny, chicken-y goodness. If it didn't fall into my hand, I used an NRM, and didn't (phew!) open the bag to give any chicken.

Once you have the dog picking the object up and dropping it into your hand (or a basket, or a hoop, or any other indicated spot), you can simply add more challenge (escalate criteria).

You can start by making either component more difficult, but if you are not working with a natural retriever, I don't recommend doing both components at once. Start by making it harder to pick up the Object (object placed at greater distance from dog or thrown to greater distance) or by making it harder to put it in the right spot (moving your hand left or right or farther from the dog).

Once your dog catches on to the game, you can use a new, previously less desirable object. Very likely, you will have to begin again with Object on ground, waiting for dog to pick it up, catching the Object, and then gradually escalating through the same progression.

Want your dog to pick her toys? Say CLEAN UP. Use a unique, moving body language signal. Now use BRING. Hold your hand over the toy box as the dog brings the toy to your hand. "Miss" catching the toy and let it fall into the box. YES! Toy is in box. No problem. Gradually make it harder for the dog to find the toys AND toy box (move it left or right or farther away), and eliminate the BRING command. In no time, your dog will be able to pick up her toys on command.

What kind of ideas for retrieving tricks do you have?

Freedom in The House

2009-08-05T10:52:00.008-04:00

The most common mistake I see owners making with regard to freedom in the house is trusting too much too soon.

There are two "flavors" of this mistake.

One variation is to base trust on puppy behaviors.

Few people start out making the mistake of leaving the puppy loose in the house all the time. They realize this is potentially disaster, and use an error-proof zone to contain their puppy when they cannot directly supervise.

When this more common mistake happens, the puppy is generally about 4-6 months old, just prior to the onset of adolescent behaviors. The puppy has been a very good puppy when they have allowed it supervised freedom. They have supervised it extensively, rarely needed to distract it from mistakes, and have decided that NOW is a good time to introduce freedom. "After all," the owner thinks, "It's been two (or four) whole months with no (or only a few minor) mistakes."

And that is true. The dog has been good. But what the owner doesn't realize is that adolescence is the timeframe when most more major mistakes occur. The adolescent brain is developing the focus to keep at something that the puppy brain would lose interest in more rapidly! Adolescents also are developing increased confidence and curiosity. They are now much more willing to investigate items in which they previously had no interest.

This is a very risky point at which to begin leaving the dog unattended. It's not impossible -- just requires slower progression from leaving 2 minutes, then 3, etc.

The second variation applies to almost everyone, whether starting with a puppy, adolescent, adult, or even senior dog.

Leaving the dog loose and unsupervised for too long!

Most dogs do the majority of any damage during the first 15 minutes of separation. This means that owners need to very gradually work up to 15 minutes of separation. Most owners try "only 20 minutes" or "only an hour" for their first (disastrous) trial.

How do we gradually work up to these time frames? Trial separation.

No, you don't need a lawyer. This means leaving the dog for short periods of time when you don't actually HAVE to leave. It's pretend leaving.

All success starts with the dog actively engaged in something. This can be chewing something appropriate, or eating some kibble sprinkled on the floor or from a bowl. If you are providing sufficient exercise, midday generally consists of laying around calmly, which is its own kind of activity.

I've had a lot of success with not mentioning anything about my leaving to my dogs. I just sort of drift away while they are engrossed. However, not everyone has this luxury. If you have a "troupe" of partner, offspring, other pets you may be leaving with -- well, they have to participate in the trial separations! If you can't avoid signaling separation to your dogs, ask them to WAIT. (WAIT is a version of stay that does not have a release command.)

Choose a good moment to begin leaving. Immediately after a tiring exercise, play, or training session is good. Midday is generally R&R on dog time. Sunrise and sunset are times when dogs would naturally engage in hunting behaviors, so the dog can be more stimulated at those times. Leave those times for later teaching.

Leave for a miniscule amount of time. If the dog begins to approach the door and whine or scratch at it immediately, don't leave! You need a better activity, a tired-er dog. Though your overall goal is to increase the time duration the dog is left unattended, you may not want the dog to not know exactly how long to expect. Once you increase the time, always do a few of shorter length times to keep your dog guessing.

However, there are dogs who enjoy and thrive on exact predictability. If you suspect this is your dog (often the more shy, not bold dogs)--use a very gentle progression of slightly and slightly longer each time. This is the exception dog, though, not the general rule.

Return calmly. Ignore the dog entirely until it is calm or ignoring you. You will be excited that the dog hasn't destroyed anything, and you'll want to reward it. Unfortunately, this moment is now too late for the dog to associate your reward with its good separation behavior. You will be creating an anticipation of reward when you walk in the door, which leads to excitement. Excitement makes your departure and arrival an event, when what you want is for it to be a non-event. Totally routine, boring, and hardly of note.

What are YOUR best activities to engage a dog when leaving?

Tapering Off Food Rewards

2009-08-01T12:28:00.005-04:00

The advice often given by positive trainers to avoid the undesired effect mentioned in my last post ("How to Stop GOOD Behavior") is to taper off reinforcement (rewards).

The advice is that, gradually, you give less and less food. On some repetitions, even though the dog did the right thing, and you want to pay it with food, you just don't. You cheer, you celebrate, you pet, you massage, you allow access to other rewards, but you don't feed.

This is a hard thing for most pet owners to do. Their dog has done something, and they want to pay it. Which is a fantastic breakthrough from the old-school training days of NEVER feeding! Nothing wrong with that inclination.

And, it bears stating: If you can be committed to continuing your reward schedule of 100% -- go for it!! There is absolutely no reason for you to stop. There are too many people who are ashamed of using food to encourage their dog's behavior. Trust me, the general public doesn't give a rat's behind WHY your dog behaves--only that he DOES!

One way to continue to increase good behavior while decreasing food is to escalate criteria. This can be difficult for most owners to recognize at first. They are so excited that the dog complies at all that they can't imagine more!

Escalating criteria automatically tapers off the rewards, because your dog will not meet the new criteria 100% of the time.

What does "escalating criteria" mean?

"Criteria" means the precise behavior (usually multiple behaviors for beginng dogs) that earns the reward. The criteria can be thought of as the dog's "definition" of the behavior.

"Escalating criteria" is redefining the behavior, making it harder for the dog. It means you expect a teensy bit more than what you used to expect. You are making a new and more specific "right answer".

For example, you reward faster reponses -- ones within 2 seconds instead of 5. Stays are now with distraction. Or more tempting distraction. Or you only reward the down position if both rear feet are on the floor (Sphynx position), not if the hips roll over to the side. You reward ONLY recalls where the dog sprints as a response to your call, instead of any response at all.

Choosing correctly escalated criteria is what "separates the the men from the boys". Make it too hard, and the frustration is punishing. Make it too easy, and the boredom is punishing. Just to make it even more complicated--there is no one "recipe" of the right criteria for every dog!

However, choosing criteria that the dog gets right about 75% of the time is a good place to start. This is, however, just a suggested rule of thumb! No magic. If you and your dog have the patience and drive to attempt something the dog only gets right 10% of the time, it doesn't mean it's wrong. However, choosing criteria that keep a high success rate (high rate of reward) will keep your and your dog's interest and enthusiasm high.

Once you have chosen your new criteria, you STOP food-rewarding anything that does not meet that new, exact definition. It is important to note that this failure to provide an anticipated reward could be called "negative punishment" by your dog. This negative punishment is what conveys the idea that the lesser responses no longer consitute the "Right Answer".

Should you ignore the NOW undesired, but still very good answers? NO! Acknowledge that those formerly right answers are STILL right-ish. Provide encouragement and appreciation-- pet, praise, get excited. Use your dog's lower-value rewards.

How to Stop GOOD Behavior?

2009-08-01T12:08:00.008-04:00

I recently read a fantastic explanation of a commonly recommended, but highly counter-intuitive approach to diminishing unwanted behavior at http://aspergersexpert.blogspot.com.

The approach is simple. There are three steps.

STEP 1: When your pupil (dog or child) engages in deliberate, undesirable, self-rewarding behavior -- reward it. Every time. Heavily.

WHAT?!? Reward BAD behavior???

Yes, reward a bad behavior that is BOTH deliberate and self-rewarding (this is where a professional diagnosis is highly recommended).

When this idea is applied to dog brains, you can put the behavior on command by giving a cue for it (such as JUMP or SPEAK).

STEP 2: Repeat. Establish the idea that this behavior will receive a reward 100% of the time, in addition to "just feeling so right."

The amount of time necessary for this approach to work is likely to vary by individual.

STEP 3: STOP all rewards. Cold turkey.

This works, if used on the right behaviors, and if the reward is given 100% of the time.

Dog trainers like to believe that by putting it on cue and never issuing the cue, that your compliant dog will never engage in the behavior. I do not agree with this explanation. The kind of dogs who engage in the behaviors to which this approach is best suited are generally not in a good, willing compliance relationship with their owners.

The explanation given by the author of the Asperger's Expert blog is that the accompanying frustration associated with unmet expectations functions as a punisher. That the behavior no longer feels as SUPER-right as it did when there was the added reward PLUS the initial self-rewarding nature of the behavior.

This is an explanation that makes sense to me.

Now, what's all this about stopping good behavior? One of the very real problems with "positive" training is the real-world application. Owners get gung-ho about the first few weeks of puppy training. Some behaviors are getting 100% rewards -- every sit, every down, every everything. And that is fantastic! Nothing wrong with that.

Then, the real world reality -- something interferes with this 100% schedule. They run out of treats. The dog gets sick. The vet puts the dog on a special diet.

So the dog is slammed from 100% reinforcement schedule to 0% reinforcement schedule. Which, as we see above, is a great way to STOP good behavior.

Invisible Fences are NOT COOL

2009-07-29T18:10:00.007-04:00

I have encounter dogs who are... unfazed by the electric shock given by invisible collars, but I can't honestly say I've met a single one who was unaffected. The added stress of such extreme positive punishment or so many less extreme positive punishments is perceived by the dog as at least moderate levels, if not extreme.

Invisible fence collared dogs tend to be very hyper, at best, and very prone to aggression, at worst.

Some dogs will even use aggression to keep owners &/or guests from being bitten by the bad thing that is out there.

They fail to physically prevent the dog's access to danger.

They expose the dog to the danger posed by other dogs who are now reacting to your e-collared dog who has learned that other dogs "bite" when you approach them.

Dogs who receive a warning tone end up reacting to the warning tone in exactly the same way as they do to the HIGHEST LEVEL of shock ever experienced. The warning tone is actually MORE stressful than collars that increase in shock intensity.

Is it the shock alone? I don't think so. I've actually seen dogs trained on remote collars who act completely normal. Granted, these are high-drive dogs in the hands of a trainer with precise timing receiving a consistent message in extremely rewarding environments where they have a pretty good idea of what is expected of them already.

What is it that makes invisible fences so effective at creating problems?

Today's incident with Lila was absolutely typical. A not-so-new dog on a fairly new fence. I guess around 18 month old-- intact black Labrador male. Sees Lila. Lila, though spayed since 6 mos, literally drives male dogs insane. (Dogs really do resemble their owners! Well, I drive the boys crazy... not the spaying part.)

Runs to check out the Hot Chick Dog. On his way, she BITES him! From a distance! (collar zap, for our sleepy readers) Well, distance biting is FIGHTING WORDS. He runs at Lila making sounds and quick movements like he wishes to eat her. (This terrifies my mother, who said her adrenaline shot through the roof.)

Lila is a very well-socialized dog. Extremely. When we are at an off-leash park, and I am ready to leave, I would say she is OVERLY social. No matter what kind of nut job she meets, she "talks it out".

In today's interaction (which many owners would be inclined to describe as an "attack"), she stands stock still at 90 degrees to the other dog's loud and maniacal approach. She lifts her head to say "No, you're not going to bite me", and gives a warning growl. She slowly lowers her head, telegraphing her intention to sniff the other dog's butt "Is this ok with you?" He says, "No. Sniff my face." and shoves his face to hers. She repeats the intention to butt sniff. Now that she's older, there's a bit of pee-fighting. (Just a slight "piss on your bad attitude"?) There is more sniffing, and thoughts from the male of mounting, which between my body language (angle of approach and a few well-timed pokes) and Lila's dirty, disdaining looks (she is very proper), he gets the message "That's a no-go, crazy pants." She says "Let's just be friends instead." Finally there is a butt-sniffing circle. This is highly desirable, and on the way to working it out. There is a reversal of direction to the doggy-handshake-butt-sniffing circle. We've changed from challenge to working it out. (It can go the other way, too. Reversal of circling direction is very communicative.) Sniffing ensues. She takes a short sprint away with her tail held at a crazy angle which invites him to play. I curse my short leash 6' instead of my 26' retractable, which is fantastic for controlled romps with crazy dogs. We've worked it out.

Why was it so critical for us to stay and work it out? Couldn't we have just walked past?
Round 2. A few hours later.

On this round, he knew she was nice. So when he got nailed by the collar again on his way out of the yard, well, he learned that it was worth it. Just a quick flash of pain, and then --freedom and sexy romps with the hot grey Lab chick! "Totally worth it," I hear him say in a 15 year old voice.

His owners, trying to be responsible, realize in short order that he is loose. They call him back into the yard -- while they are standing INSIDE the fence. Poor great doofus charges back to them, yipes as he hits the fence, and continues into the house. NOW he has learned that listening to COME takes away the hot female & freedom, gets him bitten again, and then he ends up in confinement. I don't think you have to be a pro to guess what effect this is going to have.

Why do people use them?
Sadly, I think it is with good intentions. It makes them feel good. They can give their dog more freedom. They are protecting the dog from traffic. And, let's face it, these things are well-marketed, and cheap and easy compared to a fence.

Unfortunately, they believe the hype, and they discredit the concerns of folks like me because sometimes, they DO work. Or they appear to work. A mild-mannered dog is not highly motivated to leave the yard in the first place, and a highly aversive punishment definitely keeps the dog in the yard.

And that's their goal. No matter what the cost to the dog, or what side effects it causes, they will only turn their tunnel vision towards keeping the dog in the yard.

Even when the fence fails, the frustration they feel makes the dog's pain seem acceptable. At least they didn't hit him. At least he "learned a lesson" (of course, which one is it??). They truly believe that their dog is just slow, and that it will just take more pain and more loose running in the neighborhood for the dog to learn to stay in the yard.

I admire their optimism, and stalwart resistance to being confused with facts.

Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire

2009-07-25T17:18:00.002-04:00

(Title links to article.)

"Extroversion"= energetic & bouncy “hyperactive” to “eager” to “quiet”

"Neuroticism"= nervousness, sensitivity and caution, combined with curiosity
Similar but not identical to human neuroticism. Canine neurosis, unlike the human version which mainly consists of anxiety, may be related to that of hyenas.“Perhaps a combination of fearfulness and curiosity represents a single factor in the dog but contributes to two separate factors in humans . . . further research will be required to determine the exact components of ‘neuroticism’ in dogs,” says the study.

"Amicability"= happy-go-lucky or gentle
different from friendliness in humans “lacked the altruism qualities commonly found in human studies

"Training Focus"= characteristics selectively bred by humans, such as the ability to follow a scent or retrieve a bird

"Self-assurance"= assertiveness, dominance and comfort in its surroundings.

Isn't that Pain? -- REdefining Punishment

2009-07-24T13:02:00.000-04:00

A dog ALWAYS has free choice. A dog can ALWAYS choose all "bad" behaviors, including biting. No amount of training reward or punishment will ever remove a dog's opportunity to choose.

There are trainers who report that they can. These people are fools, at best, who really believe that such a cognitive overhaul is possible. These people are slick salesmen, at worst, telling people what they want to hear in the interest of selling something, even though it isn't actually true!

There are, in fact, NO GUARANTEES when it comes to dog behavior. Just as there are no guarantees when it comes to human behavior. We can all choose any behavior we are capable of at any moment.

What good training & management does is continually to make "good" choices extremely appealing, and "bad" choices unappealing. Dog ownership is risk management. We want to make it probable that a dog will choose to resolve conflict with "good" behaviors. Creating this likelihood is a deliberate choice on the part of the owner.

While behaviors can be deliberately chosen, EMOTIONS cannot. Emotions are reactions to stimuli. Neither we nor dogs can choose whether to receive hot or cold stimuli-- to sense "hot" or "cold". We can only choose behaviors that avoid hot or cold triggering reactions. Dogs cannot choose to be fearful or frustrated. We can only teach them to choose behaviors that avoid triggering those emotions. Through careful emotional intervention-- modeling neutral/positive emotions, building trusting relationships, and establishing unmistakeable communication, we can re-shape dogs beliefs & reactions to some degree, but we cannot cause a dog (or human) to DELIBERATELY CHOOSE a feeling.

PUNISHMENT = anything the dog doesn't like or want (not necessarily pain) -- decreases the frequency of the behavior preceding it (does NOT eliminate it)

Dog owners often THINK they are looking for punishers to institute "discipline". Nothing could be further from the truth. "Discipline", "structure", and "leadership" are all created by telling the dog what to START or CONTINUE doing. You want a dog to do good behaviors MORE. Only reward increases behaviors.

Punishments are only a small part of a communication picture, because they only tell a dog what to STOP doing. The dog has only a piece of the information. It's as if a trainer told a human: "Don't use punishment." The human is left thinking, "Well, what SHOULD I use?" Or if a coach tells an athlete, "Don't throw the ball like that." The athlete thinks, "Well, I can throw it 15 other ways. What way SHOULD I throw it?"

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. Punishers diminish the frequency of the behavior that caused them because the dog does not like the result that behavior seems to cause.

For example, imagine a dog encounters a baseboard covered in Bitter Apple spray. Tasting & chewing the baseboard seems like a good idea because, well, dogs aren't humans. "I feel like chewing. That looks chewable." The baseboard punishes the dog by delivering a nasty taste, which makes the dog rethink his next chewing selection. (Well, unless the dog is one of the ones who LOVE Bitter Apple spray flavor.... Then the baseboard rewards the dog with chewing release AND a delicious taste!) The frequency of tasting the baseboard is likely to diminish over time.

Like 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. Going for car rides for a dog who gets carsick is a punishment.

Like reward, there is a scale of punishment from most aversive (Worst. Thing. Ever.) to least aversive (mildly irritating, distracting). 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.

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

Positive punishers: TASTING Bitter Apple spray, GETTING a collar correction, SMELLING citronella spray
Negative punishers: NO MORE treats, REMOVED from social interaction

Like reward, some punishments can be implemented by you, the handler, and some can come from the environment. Sneaky handlers (like me) will find ways (like Bitter Apple spray) to set up the environment to do the punishing so I can do the rewarding. (When I see a dog turn away from an object he has decided not to chew, I reward him with food and celebrate! Woo hoo!)

Absolutely unacceptable punishments -- can NEVER be humane under ANY circumstances:
These are all punishments owners have reported and I have read in a book.

NO yelling
NO hitting
NO spanking
NO kicking
NO hanging
NO throwing dog to ground
NO rubbing his nose in potty mistakes
NO filling holes from digging with water and submerging dog's head
NO scruff-shake
NO swatting with fly-swatters
NO beating with sticks
NO flicking dog in the nose
NO knee to the chest
NO ear pinches
NO chin grab & shake

I personally object to treating such a sensitive, intelligent creature with such abusive physical aggression. I frankly don't care if "they work" or if someone thinks such behavior "worked". These are simply never, ever acceptable. However, besides just being icky, there are many other good reasons not to use such attacks. The biggest one, besides the humane issues, is the risk of ineffectiveness. The risk of not solving your problem AND creating another one at the same time.

Uh,,, yeah. Good job done, there. Like addressing the hole in your back yard by digging one hole for the dirt to fill the first. Well, I guess that worked for the first hole, but isn't the second one a bit of a problem? And, generally, whether holes or dog problems, the second one is BIGGER than the first. Hey, I have a good idea -- let's not do it that way.

Not saying it's 100% impossible for these to work. People assume the risk inherent in these activities, because there's always someone's Aunt Bertha who has a story about how she successfully addressed some behavior with one of these abusive punishments. It's possible that some other reason is why the dog stopping doing the bad behavior, and Aunt Bertha just THINKS it was her foolish punishment. If it DID work, it's a credit to the DOG's patience, tolerance, non-retaliatory nature, not to mention intellect, that the dog figured out what was going on.

These tactics are NOT effective or easy for the dog to understand. So things that are difficult to understand will NOT be understood by some dogs. Who will have been treated aggressively for no reason at all.

Why do these tactics so often fail?
These actions don't remotely resemble dog-dog social interactions. A human is shaped nothing like a dog, and though our actions will be interpreted through a canine filter, dogs don't think that humans are dogs.

To be effective, they often require an emotional intensity from the owner. This emotional intensity can interfere with a trusting relationship & break down loyalties. Punishing with hatefulness, even if you achieve your goal of reducing a certain behavior, has also displayed to the dog that you can be hateful. Punishing with an appearance of being out of control can come across as weakness. Weakness does not make you a reliable authority figure. It makes you likely to crumble when the going gets tough-- and in need of being lead by someone more rational (like me, thinks the leadership-motivated dog).

Dogs do punish each other, and sometimes they even use aggression to do so -- but they don't use ANY of these tactics. Because dogs do not develop using sticks and hits and knees to the chest, these behaviors demand more interpretation from a dog than a typical dog-dog punishment. A fair dog-dog punishment, starts with loads of warning, and gradually escalates. The sequences of events include a number of these elements that are difficult for humans to recognize: context (dog being punished did something)--a tiny pause, decreased overall body movement, change in eye contact, ear placement, growling, tail thrashing (wagging), hair stands up, breathing rate changes, increased speed of approach, specific angle of approach telegraphs intent of bite.

It may be because of the time required to "make your point" (a point which, frankly, I understand to be you saying "I'm. A. Jerk."), or because the brain is loaded with pain signals and juiced up with stress chemicals, leaving no processing circuits for learning, or another reason, but more often than not, with such techniques, the dog can have difficulty making the cause-effect connection, so cannot identify which behaviors to eliminate.

On the next repetition, the dog may have eliminated a behavior he thought was the cause behavior, which you don't notice, because you are paying attention to another behavior that he is still doing, so you punish anyway. From the dog's perspective, being punished after changing your behavior is a good way to break down trust and predictability. Trust affects a dog's motivation to comply, and her feelings about you, which affect her future interpretation of your future behaviors. A dog's ability to correctly interpret your behaviors is fundamental to clear communication. Communication is the foundation of a healthy relationship.

ACCEPTABLE PUNISHERS
Acceptable punishments, to make this list, are ones that are highly effective because they center around removing access to things dogs find strongly motivating. This is called negative punishment, because a good thing (reward) is REMOVED, TAKEN AWAY, or STOPS happening. The word "negative", like the symbol we use, can be thought of as "take away". or strongly repulsive without being physically painful. From a dog's perspective, though, something like not getting to walk RIGHT NOW is extremely "painful" (aversive)!

Although owners feel safe about applying punishments that don't use pain, ineffective or mistimed punishments can really break 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.

In no particular order:

time-out (60-90 seconds or until calm) **
compliance with commands (60-90 seconds or until calm) **
moving dog away from other dogs or people **
moving people or other dogs away from dog
moving treat away from dog
moving dog away from treat
ignoring attention-seeking behavior
refusing to enter the room (staying behind closed door)
backing out of room & closing door once entered
refusing to open ANY door or gate
closing door or gate once open
refusing to touch a toy that isn't dropped
refusing to attach leash
removing leash (if inside) -- displays taking away the walk
returning to the house (if outside) -- display ending the walk
dropping toy and leaving room -- displays ending a play session
applying Bitter Apple & other taste aversion (bad-tasting) sprays to objects
applying scent aversion (bad-smelling) substances to environment

**These punishers may involve force but can be trained (using food rewards -- yes, EVEN during the punishment) to minimize or eliminate use of force, which I strongly recommend. The dog can and should be rewarded with food for compliance with these consequences. No, this will not cause mixed messages. Even during a punishment, the dog has the ability to choose to accept the punishment or be an uncooperative fool. We reward acceptance of the punishment.

Is there a risk of misinterpretation? Yes. To be effective, the punishment has to be exquisitely timed, and appropriately administered, THEN something rewardable must occur at some future time.

Coming home, finding chewed belongings, screaming like a banshee and throwing the dog in the crate for the rest of the night has done nothing for the dog, but you do it because it vents your frustration. Onto the dog. Who chewed things that smelled like YOU because he missed you. That is really wrong. Throwing some treats in the crate afterwards may ease your conscience, but it has NOT trained the dog in any way.

DISTRACTORS
Mildly irritating punishments, though often ineffective at significantly reducing an entire behavior chain can often function effectively as distractors. However, for sensitive dogs (fearful or reactive), these may be viewed as stronger punishments, making them unsuitable as distractors for those dogs.

The key to using distractors effectively is just like using any other punisher effectively: having something to reward! Dogs (and humans) do things to get rewards. No reward= NOT TRAINING.

Making noise: dropping things, shake cans, air horns (I personally cringe for air horns, yuck.)
Squirt bottles**
Pokes**
Tickles**
Head-patting
Throwing things (toys, treats) near (NOT AT) dog (visually & olfactory distractraction)

**Application to rear of dog may cause dog to turn to investigate. If you are trying to get the dog to NOT focus on something else, this elicits something you can immediately reward. Can cause reactive dogs to turn & chomp.

RISKY OR QUESTIONABLE PUNISHERS
A smart owner will hesitate before trying ANY of these techniques frequently recommended by books, DVDs, pet store personnel, TV shows, and other dog owners. In order to use these properly, a good deal of understanding is required. Simply trying one of these techniques does not make a problem behavior solution!

holding a grudge/withdrawing attention/ignoring non-attention seeking behavior
paw squeezing
holding mouth closed
Snappy Trainer & other scary booby traps
Ultrasonic bark deterrents
Spray Shield hand-held citronella spray can
Spray Commander (remote citronella spray collar)
citronella or shock bark collar
pressure
stress
"chin-bonk" for forced retrieve
choke collar
prong collar
shock collar
Headcollars (Halti, Gentle Leader, Snoot Loop), EZ-Walk harnesses, and Sporn harnesses
alpha rolls
noise (air horns for me -- too aversive)

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 what behavior caused the punishment or what would 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. A dog can also stop doing a behavior that SHE thinks is causing the punishment, even though YOU think you are punishing something else.

Determining if your dog is responding to a punishment is difficult. Is it not unpleasant enough? Or is it too unpleasant? Does he not know what behavior is being punished? Have I simply failed to teach him what he SHOULD do? Am I seeing an emotional reaction or a cognitive one? Is this deliberate or am I provoking him to beyond his limits?

You will never go wrong if you start by identifying what you WANT the dog to do. Punishment is reactive -- it admits that YOU, the teacher, has failed. Sadly, it's the DOG who pays the price for YOUR failure.

Elicitation-- Step 2 -- Getting the Dog to Do It

2009-07-24T11:58:00.000-04:00

This step of teaching is, by far, the most controversial and misunderstood.

One effective approach, especially for beginners, is to actually start here. The human must learn how to draw out the desired behaviors. Once you are certain you can reliably get your dog to do a behavior, THEN go back and put it on cue by presenting your cue (hand signal, verbal command, context clue, or other), get the dog to do the behavior, release, and reward.

For non-beginners, this approach is unnecessary, because they can already reliably get the dog to do certain behaviors. Generally, people have ideas about what works for them personally. As long as what works for you personally is working for your dog, I'm generally ok with it.

There are a few basic approaches to eliciting the behavior. THEY ALL WORK.

Waiting for the behavior
PRO:Absolutely no added stress to the dog.
CON: Time-consuming, can add frustration to the owner.

Luring (leading with a bit of food)
PRO: Does not require physical contact with dogs uncomfortable with contact
CON: Lure can become part of cue if not faded quickly

Physical guiding
PRO: Dog is getting right answer more quickly. Can teach dog to accept handling as communicative.
CON: Bite risk for dogs uncomfortable with contact. Touch can become part of cue if not faded quickly.

Gimmicks/Band-Aid Solutions/Equipment
Baby gates, headcollars, visual barriers, prong collars, anti-bark, crates, muzzles, squirt bottles, etc.
PRO: Immediate results.
CON: Dog learns nothing unless gimmick is part of long-term training program. No long-term results if gimmick is removed.

Feedback (Tertiary Reinforcers)
Using a continuous stream of markers: "good. good. good. no. good. good. no. good. good. good." followed by release "OK" & motivational reward.
"Good" = one treat. "No" = no treat and/or acceptable punisher. OK = 5+ treats fed one at a time.
PRO: Once communication system learned, all future learning is significantly more rapid. Exquisitely clear communication.
CON: Demands intense concentration, ultra-precise timing, rapid decision-making from owner. Human brains tend to opt for option that involves least thinking. That would not be this option.

Punishment (Traditional training)
I don't like to do things that make me feel icky. Punishment that consists of more than a brief discomfort makes me feel icky. Punishment that is unfair (the dog doesn't know what caused it) makes me feel icky. "Punishment" that consists of owner venting emotions onto the dog makes me feel icky. What makes me feel most icky is application of ineffective punishment. I can't honestly say that all punishment is ineffective. I also can't say that it is free of side effects. But, for me, immediate effectiveness defines humane punishment. ANY punishment, no matter how mild, that requires dozens of repetitions is a red flag. More on punishment in another post.
Traditional training uses pain as both cue and feedback. Pain/lack of pain is used as the primary communicator. While this works, it is a) unnecessary, and b) risks very serious side effects.
PRO: Works.
CON: Slower response times. Relationship built on avoidance of pain. High potential for mis-communication. Extremely high risk of "breaking" the dog -- pushing frustration level beyond dog's ability to tolerate = very serious intentional "you will stop that now" bite.

DIY Dog Training

2009-07-23T22:40:00.002-04:00

To the novice owner, DIY dog training is not attending any classes, not consulting any professionals. They may consider a book, DVD, TV show or other less personal (and, unbeknownst to them, less accurate) reference.

They want the pride of having trained the dog themselves.

Sadly, dog pros know, this is NOT an intelligent approach to DIY. The truth is, even if you have a consultant in your home once a month, a group class once a week, and a dog walker every day-- the dog's behavior is STILL determined entirely by the owner.

In fact, most dog pros will tell you that even having a dog trainer come to your house every single day will not necessarily result in the dog behaving for you! Dog ownership, by its very nature IS DIY. There's no need to deprive yourself and your dog of the experience and direction that pros & group classes can provide.

As a former PetSmart employee, in contact every day with scores of dog owners -- I have yet to meet an exquisitely well-trained dog who belonged to a novice owner who had never had ANY instruction. I met nice dogs, great dogs, lovable dogs -- even the occasional naturally well-behaved dog-- but... The dogs who knew what to do and would do it with alacrity, without hesitation, always belonged to someone participating in at LEAST one dog-related activity, often more.

No pro dog trainer I know and respect would consider starting a dog with absolutely no participation in a formal activity of some kind.

If you've gotten yourself into a corner, where your dog's behavior prohibits you from participating in a group activity, get some private help. In-home or at a facility.

If you simply cannot manage right now, sending a dog away to board & train is a short-term solution that can jumpstart your success together IF you are able to begin private work LITERALLY the moment the dog returns to your home.

It's still all you.

Correction does not equal Learning

2009-07-23T19:03:00.004-04:00

Imagine teaching someone to drive by waiting for them to crash, and then punishing them (with yelling, shaming, hitting, or any other thing you like--rub their nose in it?) every time they made a mistake.

Just as they are for learning drivers, the stakes when we work with dogs are very high. If we fail to teach bite inhibition, if we fail to provide sufficient exercise & interaction to prevent frustration -- innocent children, neighbors, other dogs, are all at serious risk.

Good training is rewarding every good decision a dog makes, all day long. Advanced trainers can elicit good decision making, even from historically bad decision makers, using precise timing and crystal-clear (to the dog) communication.

Poor training is failing to plan. Failing to anticipate. Reacting to the dog's behavior.

Leadership is a controversial subject. But for dogs who require human leadership, REACTIVE (punishment-oriented) training is FOLLOWING THE DOG. By clearly indicating what the dog is to do, eliciting that behavior via physical guiding, luring, or simply waiting for it, and actively rewarding it, you are LEADING THE DOG. Not all dogs require this kind of leadership.

Dogs who don't necessarily require so much explicit human leadership don't need directive commanding, but still benefit from rewards for good behaviors.

Imagine yourself in kindergarten. Imagine being asked to write an "A" on your paper. In your entire life so far, no one has told you to write an "A". You may not even consciously realize that "A" exists.

Now someone starts yelling at you for your defiance. Or they do something painful to you.

Wouldn't it be easier if someone gently took your hand and guided you through the strokes to make an "A"? Or at least pointed to where you should guide your pencil? Or at least encouraged you when you made one correct stroke on your paper?

This is learning.

Will you later benefit from knowing when your stroke is at the wrong angle? Yes. Does that matter for the first one? No.

Being the teacher is facilitating the learning. Not just knowing what is a carrot and what is a stick. It's knowing how to communicate success and failure. Knowing how rapidly to escalate criteria. Knowing what criteria to choose. Knowing how to clearly compare and contrast success and failure.

Smarter teaching = faster learning.

Thinking & Feeling

2009-07-23T17:53:00.006-04:00

These concepts are grossly misunderstood by the average person. Many people believe that only knowing what they did wrong is how they learned to do something. This is not true. They also think that any brain can learn anything, which is also, sadly, not true.

Teaching is a deliberate process of guiding learning. Teaching is NOT demonstration, although demo can help. Teaching is not telling, although telling can help. Good teaching is a deliberate process of selecting, designing, and presenting controlled experiences designed to facilitate learning.

Learning is a yes/no process of comparison. Does my letter "A" look like the teacher's? Yes or no. Does jumping up get me what I want? Yes or no.

Emotions are an inseparable part of the learning process. Repeated failure is disheartening, even frustrating. Success is joyful.

To complicate the picture, much of the work that is done with dogs is an attempt to address feelings directly. While operant conditioning is a wonderful way to teach behaviors, feelings are not teachable. Feelings are not learned or deliberate, but rather instantaneous chemical reactions. I cannot intentionally make myself genuinely sad without thinking of actual sad triggers. I cannot intentionally make myself genuinely frustrated without thinking of a frustrating stimulus. Feelings are not behaviors, although feelings can be inferred from the appearance of behaviors.

Because feelings are so often what dog owners wish to address, one way to address them is to provide the joy of success.

Now, this is where we begin to walk a slippery slope. Obedience training, a purely intellectual pursuit, can offer the dog the opportunity to experience success, and the emotion of joy that results from this success. So, what does the human learn from this? "Oh, obedience training fixes problem behaviors." Well, it can help, but SIT, DOWN, HEEL, COME, etc. aren't really the reason the problem behaviors (displaying unwanted emotions) disappear.

Why do SOME kinds of obedience training fix problem behaviors, while others have no effect or even worsen? Successful training approaches allow the dog to experience what the DOG recognizes as success. Problems arise when, though the owner may feel successful, the DOG does not!

There is no magic in teaching obedience commands. From the dog's perspective, I'd say most behaviors are roughly equivalent when there are no social interactions apart from handler -- no other dogs or critters or people around. You could have a fair degree of success teaching your dog to turn off the light, sit up and beg, jump through hoops, or whatever your dog is physically capable of doing!

The magic is in success. "Nothing succeeds like success," the old adage goes.

Rewards -- food, play, attention, access to any desired activity -- are an easy way owners can unmistakably communicate a dog's success to the dog.

Cotton --Canine Disarming?

2009-07-23T16:55:00.003-04:00

Reducing the size of canine teeth may make the owners feel better, but if this isn't a classic case of avoiding the issue, I don't know what is!

The unfortunate part about this lawyer's "due diligence" with her canine is that she simply doesn't "get it". She tried every possible punishment, but what did she teach?

Large Dog, Glass Sliding Door

2009-07-22T20:34:00.006-04:00

When you walk out your sliding glass door, your dog jumps up on it.

What could cause this behavior?

The bored dog believes something interesting is going to happen on the other side of the door -- which he is missing out on.
The dog has learned that this behavior attracts your attention, gets you to vocalize ("Get down!"), or even gets you to come back!
The dog relies on you for assurance and support, and is stressed by being separated from you.
The dog believes you rely on HIM for assurance and support, and is stressed by being separated from his job, or determined to try to do his job.
Something else!

Understanding what the dog is motivated by--attention, wanting to bring you back, wanting to go out, wanting to go out with you-- could determine what more advanced trainers would use as a reward (and punisher when you DON'T do what dog wants).

However, you don't have to use anything other than good old treats and patience (or is it a stubborn streak? Let's call it patience.) to make it happen! These ideas are only suggestions, and there are ways to successfully modify them. As the adage goes, "there's more than one way to skin a cat." Just, please, don't skin anything.

"Desensitize/Counter-condition"
Go out of the door and come back in before dog has time to jump. Just before you head out, you may need to leave the dog something to do (like a handful of kibble on the floor or Kong or greenie, etc) so it doesn't become a chase game.

Repeat until the dog looks uninterested in you going in and out of the door. This display conveys the idea that most of the time, if you are going outside, you are probably just coming right back in, anyway, so it means nothing when you go out the door.

"Training"= TELLING THE DOG WHAT YOU WANT
Leave door open and ask dog to WAIT.
I know this sounds rather obvious, but it's a great opportunity to practice impulse control. Instead of FORCING the dog to remain behind, you ask the dog to CHOOSE to remain behind, and reward it for doing so.

Approach door & open it.
Ask dog to WAIT.

As long as dog is pausing (or at least not crossing the line) keep repeating the word "GOOD" & reward with a bit of food after every time you say it.
If dog thinks about crossing the line--SILENTLY or using a single, calm "no" at the moment he thinks about crossing--close door.
If dog crosses the line--SILENTLY or using a single, calm "no" at the moment he crosses-- immediately bring dog back in (use leash, luring, or any other method you like) and try again UNTIL HE DOES IT RIGHT. Failing to repeat until he succeeds is pointless.
Release and reward. (Have long-line or leash attached if running off is a worry.)
Gradually extend the amount of time before the dog is released. Once the dog can wait for just a breath or two, you can reward the dog with food on the inside side of the door. ALTERNATIVELY, you can never let the dog out the door, and reward only with food or play inside. Fun inside, boring out.

You can change this slightly with any behavior you want instead of the waiting. You can use sit or down. You can have the criteria be staying on a dog bed, or rug, or towel.

"Behavior Modification" = NO TALKING TO THE DOG

Leave the door open. Click & reward continuously while dog is doing any acceptable behavior that is NOT crossing the line.

Click & reward continuously for any & all non-door contact behavior as you approach, open & exit the door. Gradually progress to closing the door for longer and longer times behind you.

Go outside as usual. Time how long the dog fusses at the door. (This is your baseline.) Next time you go outside, don't look, speak, or come back inside until your dog is calm for that same amount of time. Generally, this makes the dog try harder, faster, longer, louder --worsens the behavior before the dog realizes it isn't making you come back. A rule of thumb I read was that it gets about 5times worse before it dawns on the dog. So if your dog normally fusses for 3 minutes, on the next time out, take a book-- you'll probably be there about 15 minutes of fussing plus at least 3 minutes of calm! Only the calm brings you back in the door.

"Dog Whispering"=100% ATTENTION ON DOG'S BODY LANGUAGE

Wait facing the door with hand on handle until you see "calm-submissive" body language. Dog should be standing still, not wiggling, with all feet on the floor, relaxed tail, neutral ear position, etc. (If you have to wait more than 5 minutes for this--dog needs more physical and mental stimulation in his life!!)
Slowly open the door.
Immediately close the door in front of you & walk away (you are inside) for 30-60 seconds if the dog gets even the tiniest bit excited--tail wagging, panting, foot-lifting, ear-perking, pacing, etc. Then you MUST return to try again.
Continue until you get the entire exercise completed with no excitement.
Give affection!

Choosing an approach
Do you want to use a command or do you want it to be automatic?
Do you have easy access to food? Will you remember to use it?
Do you have easy access to a clicker? Will you remember to use it?
Can you pay 100% attention to your dog's body language for 20 minutes or longer or will you get distracted?
What makes the most sense or sounds the most fun?

Choose one you like and see how it goes for you. If it doesn't work, try another. Or ask me or another trainer for ways to modify! You CAN use ALL of them to convey the same basic idea, but it may be easier for both you and the dog if you do each approach separately.

Since almost all the approaches depend on you being committed to continuing until the dog gets it right, what do you do if you don't have the time right now? Don't undo all your hard work by letting the dog rehearse the old behavior. Place the dog in another room, in his crate, tie him somewhere he can't hurt himself or your stuff, etc.

BOYCOTT Lancaster County Products

2009-07-14T23:33:00.003-04:00

Round of applause for Whole Foods, who is refusing to buy products sourced from puppy-mill convicted farms.

Lancaster County, PA is the "Puppy Mill Capital of the East". It is also, coincidentally, where I was born and raised. Unlike many who discuss this topic from a philosophical viewpoint, I've spent many years in close contact with the Amish & Mennonite religious extremism.

While most people want to view the Amish lifestyle as quaint, idyllic, enviable, the reality of Amish & Mennonite values may not be something most people share.

Most Mennonite & Amish view all animals as for their use. Care provided for the animals is only enough to keep the animal's welfare from interfering with its function. Animal functions are breeding, draft, milk, egg, or meat production.

It is not uncommon to see open sores from pressure placed on a draft animal by ill-fitting harnesses, or overwork. These sores are often covered with flies.

Horses pull buggies in traffic, on regular roads, in ALL weather: rain, snow, sleet, extreme heat, etc. While many stores frequented by Amish provide a place to tie the horses, and a few even provide horses shelter, absolutely NO WATER is offered.

Amish & Mennonite are words that some people associate with "hard-working". This is not untrue. However, many people are shocked that this work is not demonstrated in care of animals or property. Most Amish & Mennonite farms have a distinctive unkemptness. Their livestock are frequently extremely dirty, diseased, and of poor conformation.

Amish & Mennonite ideas of breeding livestock reflect their own tradition of in-breeding, a practice which has been responsible for serious health problems. The study of genetic problems often includes Amish communities for this reason. If you are capable of breeding, you should. Doesn't matter if you are risking your cousin-children's health.

The Amish, particularly, value forgiveness. In application, this means that you can do whatever you want. Drug and alcohol problems are serious, especially among the youth.

Puppies are rarely, if ever, seen on an Amish farm. If you pass on foot, you will occasionally hear barking from a barn with no windows. "De-barking" is critical to prevent discovery. While many people think of "de-barking" as a surgical operation, Amish "debarking" is ramming a rod down the throat of the dog to destroy the vocal chords. No painkillers are administered.

Breeding dogs, sick dogs, and otherwise unsaleable dogs, along with all urine & feces are permitted by law as acceptable fertilizer for farm fields. Horse manure is dropped wherever a horse happens to be when it drops. This includes roadways, and even hospital parking lots!

I don't have a problem with the Amish & Mennonite beliefs. Freedom means that you can believe whatever you want. I don't have a philosophical problem with healthy horses and draft animals doing hours of work. I eat eggs, and I drink milk.

Freedom doesn't mean that you can DO whatever you want. I do have a serious problem with the practices that include the acceptability of failing to provide adequate animal welfare. The PA Dept of Agriculture has the ability to prosecute many of these practices, but until Lancaster County, PA stops being a desirable tourist destination, not much is going to change.

The Rescue Business

2009-07-14T23:05:00.005-04:00

Plenty of overtime. Loads of job satisfaction. Pay? Fulfillment?

There are many misconceptions about how rescues operate, which leads to hurt feelings and frustration.

Public animal control shelters receive owner surrenders, lost pets, and strays. Just like you, they can only provide for as many animals as their budget and manpower will allow. While there are always horror stories, euthanasias are for animals they simply do not have the resources to care for adequately. Given the choice between starving to death and euthanasia, I think most animals would choose euthanasia. Medical issues are not something these shelters are equipped or funded to address, so many animals are euthanized for medical conditions. Other animals are euthanized for behavior problems that could potentially put the public at risk. Some public shelters are able to work with private rescues to give mild behavioral problems a chance to be rehabilitated. Others simply don't have the manpower to make the phone calls and coordinate pick-ups, etc. Changing what happens at our public animal control shelters means increasing funding to public animal control shelters.

Private animal rescue groups receive animals directly from owners, from public animal control shelters...

Recall = "Come" Command

2009-07-14T18:19:00.006-04:00

Getting the dog to come to you is one of the top two reasons pet owners seek professional dog training help. (The other being "get my dog to stop [insert unwanted behavior here].)

What does this mean?

It means that COME, although it seems simple, is a difficult behavior to teach, AND an easy behavior to ruin.

It also means that most pet owners realize how critically important recall is: a dog responding to COME cannot engage in any other problem behaviors! If you have only enough time to teach one very reliable command, this is the one you should choose.

Why is it so hard?

Recall is hard to teach, because it punishes dogs who listen. WHAT?!?

That's right. When the dog does what WE want, it is not getting to do what HE wants. After all, if the dog WANTED to hang around sitting in front or beside us... well, we wouldn't ever need a recall command.

We ruin COME because of how we use it.

The dog is having a lovely sprint or romp or sniff or chat with a new doggy or human friend. She is exploring, leaving pee-mail, chasing prey. She is making her own decisions. She has found a lovely cool spot to lay with a good view. She is taking a dip in running water. She is exploring.

NOW is when you choose to say COME. "COME, doggy. Come get in the hot car and go to the boring house. Come do as I tell you. Stop all those fun things you are doing and come here."

Everything you call a "distraction" is something your dog calls a "reward". So, what you call "ignoring distractions", your dog calls "negative punishment". ("Negative punishment"= taking away something the dog likes.)

If the poor soul complies, and many of them actually do, bless them, the best we can manage to compensate with is a "good boy", some pets, the most generous among us are giving some treats. For some dogs, this compensation is actually enough. For others, more strategy is necessary!

To make things worse, sometimes after the dog gets to you, he now needs a bath or a nail trim or a car ride, or some other horrible thing happens. This can be viewed as "positive punishment" -- giving things the dog doesn't like. Of course, if you have one of those dogs who just LURVES a good massaging scrub, the picture is a bit different.

The worst of ALL is the idea that the dog can make the connection between bad behavior WAY over there and a punishment delivered HERE by me. Even the smartest of dogs are unlikely to make that connection! Next to you should be your dog's safest of safe zones.

Don't EVER call your dog and then punish it. Even if you did not get the timely response you want, by the time the dog gets to you, she is now GETTING IT RIGHT. Generally, positive punishment slows responses, positive reinforcement (rewards) speeds up behaviors. (Because, dogs, too, are more motivated by getting something they want than by avoiding something unpleasant.)

Some dogs have difficulty with recall because they have not yet bonded to or even trust their owner. For shy or fearful dogs, being near people is a positive punishment. For these dogs, it may make more sense to ask them to sit, down, or wait... or direct them to go to the car or another spot. They may be more comfortable approaching you from a non-confrontational direction (not straight-on), so you could turn yourself, walk away, and ask them to come to your back side. Reward by your side or slightly behind you without eye contact. Gradually transition to front-on, if you need it for some reason.

For many dogs, that sweet freedom, that stress-relieving run, that delicious scent of sex or prey or company -- it's all they can think about. Some brains are so stimulated by the rush of chemicals & electricity these salient (delicious) stimuli present, that their brain literally may not register your call. These are dogs that some trainers recommend never allowing off-leash.

For me, that is not an acceptable solution.

So how do we make sure that COME is reliable? How do we avoid making it a punishment?

Recall an off-leash or long-line-wearing dog (=say "COME')
Reward with 5 or 10 of your highest-value treats, (I use 20 or more pieces of kibble). Feeding one at a time makes it seem like more.
AND THEN (this is key) re-release back to good stuff.
Pause for enjoyment of good stuff (which is NOW rewarding your dog's successful COME)
Repeat

Vary the number of repetitions before the dreaded LAST CALL. Try not to telegraph that it actually IS that last call.

Call your dog for good things, like mealtimes, food- or play-based training sessions, and walks.
Recall an off-leash dog, ask for a sit or down or shake, reward, and release to play.
Occasionally use SIT, DOWN, or WAIT to stop your dog, then go get them. If you do this ONLY at the end of off-leash time, the dog may catch on to this.
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE Vary location, context, distractions, number of recalls before the dreaded LAST CALL.

Now, even if you do everything intellectually "right", it is important to recognize that dogs are only canine. While that may be a whole lot closer to perfect than humans are, they aren't robots. That impressive recall you see a police dog or sport dog perform is the result not just of good training, but of good genetics and good management. That good training is likely performed by a professional for at least 1 hour a day. That dog has been selectively bred for its responsiveness to humans, amenability to the training approach being used, and "instinct" that makes doing what is expected "feel so right". That dog has the optimum amount of exercise, socialization, R&R, training, health care, nutrition, etc. that most pet owners simply can't provide.

You can have your dog's BEST recall, and it may not look like that. But your dog can't do better than it's best, and neither can you. Don't expect too much -- you'll both be frustrated for absolutely no reason.

You're Going To Do What I Say.... Or You're Going To Ignore Me

2009-07-14T17:05:00.001-04:00

All learners (canine and human) have free choice. Sometimes, this basic idea is forgotten.

While many trainers abhor the idea of using force to train dogs, ... well, they insist on a single approach to training the dog. The "my way or the highway" approach.

This leaves the learning human with two choices:

The trainer's way Which I don't understand, don't like, or find ineffective, inhumane, or unwieldy, or have some other problem using.
The highway A free-wheeling bad time of seeing all other approaches as roughly equivalent. My aunt, my neighbor, the breeder, the vet, this guy I met, this TV show I saw, a thing I read in a forum online ... These sources now all appear to the struggling owner to be equally good.

I would like to introduce to teachers everywhere a third option.

3. Recognizing and discussing the learner's options.

Those options, while you (as the pro) may rule them out, appear very real to the learner.

Many beginning dog pros don't believe that other methods work or appear to work. They aren't well-versed enough in what options are even out there, because they focus on studying their philosophy of choice.

They also don't realize that certain approaches will naturally make more sense to a (human or canine) learner than others.

By learning about methods you don't ever intend to use, you can guide the learner's decision-making process. Your argument can be better than, "Oh, that doesn't work." It works -- or appears to work for someone -- that's why it is used!

Beginning trainers (owners) will often mistake irrelevant items for causing a behavior. If the dog did this, we'd call it "superstitious". They want the specific kind of collar or treats or toy or leash or "stuff" their source uses. "My neighbor uses this for his dog, and it works." "I saw Victoria Stilwell or Cesar Millan using this on TV."

All of this behavior points to an overall lack of understanding (or denial) of how things actually function.

Know and be honest about what you are using. Clearly identify what the dog may (or may not) understand as reward and punishments. Identify what are acceptable and unacceptable rewards & punishments.
Don't argue with success. A sitting dog is sitting, no matter how he got there. Explain what you like or don't like about various ways to elicit the sitting behavior.

Identify indicators of a dog's reaction -- the chart in every dog training book of "dog body language" is so painfully rudimentary!
Define success & failure. Owners need to understand what are realistic expectations, given their dog, their time, their physical limitations, even their financial limitations. Anything is possible, but what is probable?

At some point, every leash will be used for compulsion. You are forcing the dog to stay within 18", 4", 6", 10", or 50" of you! You are forcing the dog to not run into traffic. You may be trying to force the dog to walk next to you. How's that working out?

At some point, punishment-only methods use rewards. Why do these methods seem so successful for working dogs? Hunting, protection, guide work, etc. are contexts the dogs it works for find highly rewarding! Just because "it works" for that dog and that handler in that context -- doesn't mean it will work for you!

By functioning as a sounding board, the effective dog pro will enable the learner to make decisions.

Be supportive through bad decisions (we all make them): "Bought wits are the best kind, as long as they don't cost too dear". Sadly, sometimes bad decisions DO cost very dearly, when they result in injury to ourselves, our dogs, other dogs, other people.... I wish dog training was not such a high-stakes business.

Be encouraging of good decisions, even if you don't find them to be the BEST decision. If it's good enough to meet your client's goals, and it's not detrimental to the dog, isn't that good enough?

I will not tolerate your crap

2009-07-14T16:11:00.001-04:00

When we train a dog, the message should be that NEITHER of us should have to tolerate crap.

The dog should not receive mixed messages, unmerited punishments, or any avoidable unpleasantness.

The human should not have to tolerate behaviors that pose risk of injury.

But if our relationship is only this deep? We have no relationship at all. Neither of us knows how to make the other happy, how to communicate with the other, how to embrace the other, how to deepen the bond.

For me, only knowing each other's hot buttons is NOT an acceptable relationship with my dog.

I want to know every detail of what you like, don't like, and ponder about. What scares you, what excites you, what "feels so right" to you.

For many pet owners, this level of connection is not occurring, and that saddens me. Dogs can be such dear companions, partners, "personalities".

Dogs are not just a clothes tree or hand bag ornament. They aren't just decor for the yard or home. They aren't some proof of the superiority of your training approach. They aren't a competition vehicle. They aren't objects for your contemplation. They aren't toys for your children. They aren't evidence of your toughness.

Dogs are highly intelligent, emotionally complex, social creatures. Everything about them is interactive, adaptive, communicative.

I feel sorry for you and your dog if you are so distant. It is my fervent hope that I can encourage you to find more from your relationship with your dog.

Effects of Stress on (Human) Cognition

2009-07-12T00:22:00.009-04:00

Click the title of this post for a link to the info that inspired this post. Summary: mild stress offers maximum benefit to cognition, no stress, moderate stress, and extreme stress interfere with cognition.

Anyone interested in footing the bill for me researching if there is a parallel in canine brains? Anecdotally, it appears there may be.

No stress: Waiting for good behaviors, though very effective and something I use & recommend for specific situations, does not lend itself as well to rapid escalation of criteria.

This situation is one I occasionally see when I walk into a client's home. I like this one. It's well-intentioned, even if it isn't maximally effective. Plus, it's always easier to increase stress than it is to decrease stress.

Mild stress: "The sweet spot" Insistence, mildly forceful elicitors=physical guiding or pressure on flat collar or harness, or CORRECTLY used training devices. Benefits learning as compared to no or moderate stress.

Using some elicitors, distractors, insistence definitely increases the rate at which I personally can progress a dog through a single training session.

Does that make it a good idea for a struggling dog owner to begin increasing stress on a dog? NO! The potential problem is the next paragraph. A little is good, so a LOT is ... NOT BETTER!

Moderate stress: Yelling, fear, confusion, excessive frustration, incorrectly used training collars, headcollars, alpha rolls, shock collars-- poorly selected, poorly timed, poorly executed. Bad training interferes with progress.

The ease with which mild stressors become moderate and even extreme is a great reason not to use ANY training tool without supervision.

This vision is primarily what I encounter when I walk into the home of failing owners--generally it's adolescence when they have realized they are in over their heads and should have gotten help before--who make me cringe by doing all of the above (except shock collars and alpha rolls--I'm not watching you break your dog or get yourself bitten). The "bad" dog is overstimulated. The owners generally are not intentionally causing extreme stress, but their "training" is actually COUNTERPRODUCTIVE!

I do definitely notice a cognitive delay during the owner handling that I do not find when I handle the same dog in the same environment with the same tool. Even if the dog DOES learn, and not break (as with extreme stress), it's at a slower pace. Who wants that?

I wonder if this cognitive delay is why punishers slow behaviors down -- presence of stress chemicals, processing of strong stimuli interferes with learning?

Extreme stress: Deliberate harsher use of training tools than most accidental misuse. ALSO Long-term use of moderate stressors accumulates.

A primarily positive Schutzhund group I trained with splintered because one individual was beyond harsh with his dog. Harsh but fair punishers that are effective, I can stomach, if the dog can. Unfair punishments (ones whose causality is not identified by the dog) are just abusive. They cause stress, which I find practically to be significantly more deterimental to the dog than brief pain.

But, separating myself from the stomach-churning feeling,... Well, let's address that for just one minute. I would like to congratulate myself for displaying extreme impulse control in not sending and accompanying my own dog to "address" this individual's behavior. Good girl, Nicole.

The dog just broke. He whined, he forgot things he knew, ... his general body language was not right, and the barking I heard from his crate was just psychotic in nature. I suspect it was only good breeding for ridiculous stability (he was from a very good line) and the release afforded by being able to hold a sleeve and thrash that kept this poor dog even mildly functional. He was able to do very little correctly.

From a "do whatcha gotta do" perspective, extremely harsh punishments ARE NOT extremely effective. They are NOT guaranteed to create the "single-event learning", as the dog can easily misidentify or never identify the cause of the punishment. This failed learning sets up a situation where the handler places the dog under the kind of long-term stress that is associated with decreased human cognition.

It makes perfect sense to me that excessive stress hormones overwhelm the brain, and over time begin to actually break it down. There is, in my mind, absolutely no justification for such treatment of a dog. Ever. I'd rather see you euthanize the dog than continue with your "training". ("Oh, I want my dog to be intense." Psychotic does not equal intense. For either dogs or people. Grr..... )

There's a reason for such treatment: you're a powerless pathetic idiot asshole who doesn't have a clue what you are doing... but there's no justfication.

Puppyhood--Keep The Faith

2009-07-11T22:12:00.008-04:00

Most pet owners' worst fears about how a new dog will develop include fears about the appearance of problem behaviors.

The scariest and most serious problem behaviors often result from poor socialization. Socialization is an umbrella term that really refers to the adoption of beliefs that make a dog suitable for human-social interaction. This information only "sticks" permanently if taught before 4 months of age, with a few repetitions before 6 months of age. After that, we have to frequently remind dogs of these ideas to keep them "believing".

How could you show your dog these ideas?

Preventing resource guarding

Hands give, they don't take away.
When hands take away, they give right back.
Hands that take away my stuffed Kong help me pull good stuff out of it.

Accepting handling

Cooperation reduces pressure/time duration of restraint. Uncooperativeness increases pressure/time duration of restraint.

Vet visits & grooming

Tolerance of discomfort/fear results in reduced time, reduced restraint, food, and FREEDOM.

Car rides

Cars don't always take us away from our home.
Cars take us good places that we want to go more often than they take us bad places.

People

People are non-threatening.
People are fragile.
People can be rewarding.

Stuff

Wheely things are to be mostly ignored, or simply contemplated.
Kongs, nylabones, and other chew items are where we chew.

Other dogs

Our person will not let other dogs eat our food or take our stuff.
We do not take other dog's food or stuff. We wait for a turn.
We do not leap on other dogs unless they ask us to. We wait for an invitation.
We approach other dogs correctly-- with enough speed (=confidence) to not be eaten, but without being a bully.
We sniff butts politely. We leave if the other dog gets scared.
We allow our butt to be sniffed if we want to or we go away if we don't.
If another dog cowers, growls, or even snaps at us, we go away.
We ignore crazy barker dogs.
We do not bully other dogs. If another dog bullies us, we go away.
If everyone is going to fight over it, it belongs to the human.
Sharing means we both get it. Taking it away means no one gets it.
We do not pee on dogs who are peeing. We wait.

Experiences

Being left alone means your person will come back if you wait quietly.
Being boarded does not mean your person will never come back.
Being on the leash is not really different from being off-leash.
Doors are unpredictable, so you should not dash towards them. You should wait.
Being very quiet will get you out of your room or crate.
Laying down is a really good thing.
Pottying outside is a really good thing.
Being calm is a really good thing.
Making eye contact with my person is a really good thing.
Coming to my person is a really good thing.
Everything and everyone leaves me alone if I retreat to my crate.

Rewards are appropriate for teaching ALL of these beliefs! Anytime a dog displays one of these beliefs, she should be rewarded.

Punishments are never appropriate for puppies. Beyond the general icky-ness of punishing a being whose brain only finished developing at age 6 weeks--this is absolutely inhumane, there is the issue of ineffectiveness. Not only will the punishment not work properly, but puppies are likely to misinterpret. Pain will be associated with people. People hurt. People are unpredictable and scary. I should run from them or get them to run from me.

Most pet owners are not trying to accomplish these "lessons", but most experienced dog trainers can tell you stories of working with dogs after these lessons have been a bit too well "learned."

Just like all the good, desirable beliefs "stick" when formed in puppyhood, so do bad, undesirable beliefs. Sometimes these faulty beliefs can be changed, but , sadly, sometimes they can't.

Guest Post on ILRA

2009-07-11T15:29:00.005-04:00

Nikki & Ashley are two ladies committed to putting their effort where their hearts are. I am delighted to be featured on their website. My post is called "I Brought Fluffy Home This Morning, Now What?" Click the title of my post: it's (supposed to be) a link to their blog.

About Rescue Animals http://iloverescueanimals.org

In short, we are a site dedicated to celebrating rescue animals of all kinds, supporting shelters, rescues and animal rights groups and to animal welfare worldwide. We advocate always choosing adoption over buying an animal. (Note: We do not condemn responsible breeders but still feel you should consider adoption first.) We have no preferences for mixed breed or purebred animals as both can be found in shelters and rescues. We seek to raise awareness within our communities and to work towards a future where all animal owners are responsible and we no longer have to make the choice to put down otherwise adoptable animals simply due to a lack of space and resources. We also strongly believe in spaying and neutering your animals to help reduce the number of homeless animals. We support animal welfare causes from around the world and believe people should take action in any way they can, whether it’s signing petitions, speaking up when they see mistreatment of animals, fostering animals, anything! Everyone can make a difference!

Hungarian study of 14,000 -- Dog and owner demographic characteristics and dog personality trait associations

2009-07-11T01:05:00.004-04:00

Click title of post for link.

INTERESTING

Dog and owner demographic characteristics and dog personality trait associations

Enikő Kubinyi, Borbála Turcsán1, and Ádám Miklósi
Eötvös University, Department of Ethology, H-1117, Pazmany P. s. 1/c, Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between four personality traits (calmness, trainability, dog sociability and boldness) of dogs (Canis familiaris) and dog and owner demographics on a large sample size with 14,004 individuals. German speaking dog owners could characterize their dog by filling out a form on the Internet. There were five demographic variables for dogs and nine for owners. Two statistical methods were used for investigating the associations between personality and demographic traits: the more traditional general linear methods and regression trees that are ideal for analyzing non-linear relationships in the structure of the data.

The results showed that calmness is influenced primarily by the dog's age, the neutered status, the number of different types of professional training courses (e.g. obedience, agility) the dog had experienced and the age of acquisition. The least calm dogs were less than 2.5 years old, neutered and acquired after the first 12 weeks of age, while the calmest dogs were older than 6.9 years. Trainability was affected primarily by the training experiences, the dog's age, and the purpose of keeping the dog. The least trainable dogs had not received professional training at all and were older than 3 years. The most trainable dogs were those who participated in three or more types of professional training. Sociability toward conspecifics was mainly determined by the age, sex, training experience and time spent together. The least sociable dogs were older than 4.8 years and the owners spent less than 3 h with the dog daily. The most sociable dogs were less than 1.5 years old. Males were less sociable toward their conspecifics than females. Boldness was affected by the sex and age of the dog and the age of acquisition. The least bold were females acquired after the age of 1 year or bred by the owner. The boldest dogs were males, acquired before the age of 12 weeks, and were younger than 2 years old. Other variables, including the owner's gender, age, education, previous experience with dogs, the number of people and dogs in the household, and purpose of keeping the dogs had minor, but detectable effects.

The results suggest that on-line questionnaires are a very effective means for collecting data about dog behavior, especially if owners are motivated by instant feedback. However, note that the characteristics of dogs in the present study were reported by the owners, and the associations with the traits do not necessarily represent a causal relationship.

Thoughts inspired by recent study-- "Dyadic relationships and operational performance of male and female owners and their male dogs "

2009-07-11T00:56:00.003-04:00

The first thing that strikes me about this study is the unfortunately small sample size. Still, this is a concept that I've thought about before: comparing dog-owner relationships based on dog and owner personalities.

Dog Training and Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" Insight

2009-07-10T20:31:00.008-04:00

Two recent posts on http://www.predictablyirrational.com/ deal with concepts related to dog training. Whether you are a dog trainer or learning dog training from an expert, these two articles point out "irrational" human brain tendencies -- tricks our brain plays on us -- that we should be aware of.

We're more swayed by confidence than accuracy June 25, 2009

Read the article for details on how this was determined.

The take-away for me?
This "irrational" phenomenon in human brains explains how unscrupulous dog trainers (ones with little or no analytical understanding of their work) can convince folks to part with their cash.

Often, these unscrupulous individuals have more financial and reputation "success" than those honest dog trainers (ones who realize the limitations and variable nature of the field) who express the verifiably uncertain nature of dog training advice!

Knowing this, however, leaves me with a quandary. If I act more confident, or avoid acknowledging the variable nature of dog training results, am I simply manipulating people? I think yes, and that feels icky. However, if I act less confident, I am risking clients & their dogs, who may end up taking advice from someone unqualified.

The Value of Advice July 10, 2009

Again, read the article for a scary revelation about how we think: when presented with the opinion of an "expert", human brains literally STOP thinking about a decision.

Perhaps this phenomenon, this preference of the human brain, explains why critical thinking skills are disappearing. In today's world, expert opinions are more accessible than ever. We are forced to make more decisions that don't matter, like which of 8 different peanut butter jars to choose in the grocery store, and less decisions that do, like how to teach our children (or dogs) social skills, or how to manage our finances and avoid debt.

The take-away relative to dog training is that, as an expert, forcing my clients to choose or invent their approaches, rather than stating a clear answer actually encourages their brain participation, and prevents their (human) brain from shifting into auto-pilot, because good (humane AND effective) dog training hinges on good decision-making, not use of prescribed techniques.

Help Your Dog Always Have the Right Answer

2009-07-10T17:09:00.007-04:00

What a handler will accept as "right answers" are called "TARGET BEHAVIORS". A "target behavior" is your training goal. Since all dogs are constantly displaying behaviors, this term distinguishes the one(s) you are specifically looking for from the ones the dog is giving anyway (which we could call NON-target behaviors). Target behaviors are the ones you will deliberately and actively reward. During any training interaction, using any training method, non-target behaviors are ones that are either ignored, interrupted, or punished.

In competition obedience, the target behavior for each command is a single precise answer. For example, the response to a DOWN command needs to be rapid, after the first verbal-only or hand-signal only command, and without the dog laying on its side. Some handlers insist on a "fold-back down", in which the dog lowers the entire body at once, rather than front and rear separately.

However, in PET dog training, especially for general manners or socialization, there are often multiple acceptable right answers. If your dog misunderstands or doesn't correctly perform a command during a training session, these responses can STILL BE REWARDED!

Because these are all excellent behaviors that we want to see from our pets as often as possible, I recommend rewarding the behaviors below as heavily as you can, whenever you see them -- not just during official training sessions.

eye contact
approaching you
being calm
being quiet
yawning (relaxing)
pausing before exploring
tolerating human touch
ignoring or distancing from aggressive types
yielding ("submitting") right of way to other dogs or humans
waiting patiently
being curious
keeping feet on the floor
any good social decision
You'll think of more good things your dog ALREADY does! Let your dog know how good those things really are.

Training Dogs Vs Training Dolphins or any other species

2009-07-10T09:43:00.001-04:00

What makes training dogs different from training dolphins or other animals?

What makes training dogs different from training humans?

We're all trainable because we all like food, right?

I suspect that what makes dogs different from humans is less substantial than the difference between dogs and dolphins. Why? Dogs and humans have a special cross-species relationship because they understand each other, or have the ability to easily learn to do so.

What facilitates this learning? Shared practice of communication via body language, shared motivators, shared social structure. (Well, human MEN naturally form and accept social hierarchies. WOMEN do not form, accept, or even recognize social hierarchies.) Dogs & humans enjoy some level of cooperative interaction and some level of independent decision-making. We are both novelty-seeking, but unsettled by novelty overload. We share similar emotional ranges, even if only humans think & feel about their emotions. We have amazing problem-solving capabilities when presented with a completely new challenge or opportunity. We both accept a market economy-- where value is affected by the reactions of others. Even our "unwanted" behaviors are oddly similar -- destruction, depression, rage, violence, rudeness, quivering, anti-social.

It's possible that, being human, we can only notice behaviors that have meaning to humans. I'm skeptical of deliberate pheromone communication, but that may be only because I have no ability to deliberately release pheromones.

Of course, I haven't worked with dolphins. Maybe this post is just a big excuse for me to find a way to train dolphins. =)

That's Treats, Right? -- Defining "Rewards"

2009-07-09T21:35:00.009-04:00

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. Rewards are technically referred to as "reinforcers".

Treats, yes, are rewards, but there is so much more that you can deliberately use to reward your dog's good behavior AND that may be accidentally rewarding your dog's bad behavior. Not all rewards are equal in value. In different scenarios, the dog wants different things -- he will be working toward specific outcomes that vary by circumstance. Different dogs also assign different relative values to potential rewards.

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,
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

More on Cesar Millan

2009-07-09T15:20:00.005-04:00

Cesar Millan is a controversial figure. Depending on who you ask, he is either the canine Messiah or evil incarnate. Objectively, I would like to point out that he is a human being. I think if you asked him, he would agree.

Cesar has successes and failures. He makes some mistakes, and he does some things properly.

Feelings about his techniques do not make a good argument, either way. You may love him because he is trying to get dogs & people to understand and work with each other for the goal of reduced euthanasia. You may hate him, because he uses ancient training techniques that were dropped from most training programs decades ago because of the risk to dog's psychological well-being, resulting over the long-term in more bites when used improperly, necessitating long-term use.

Like every interaction between dog and human, we can learn something. By suspending judgment and analyzing, we can clearly identify what is of value & why, and what we disagree with & why.

AGREE
More exercise
More structure
"Live in the moment"
Read dog's body language
Appropriate & inappropriate times to reward
Neutral emotion interaction
No yelling
No hitting
Use of distractions
Development of trust
Rehab don't euthanize

DISAGREE
All problem behaviors ARE NOT dominance issues
Fear is not a deliberate choice
Behaviors do not change beliefs
Eliciting aggression so that you can show dog it "doesn't work" is not optimum approach!

Jumping Thru Hoops

2009-07-08T23:22:00.006-04:00

Here is how I created (and solved) an off-leash issue for one of my dogs, Lila, when she was an adolescent.

Lila, as some of you know, is estimated to be a Labrador x Weimaraner. Her hunting heritage really seems to show: Although she is generally a cautious canine, she throws caution to the wind when it comes to the great outdoors.

Lila would attend work with me at PetSmart and spend the day basically off-leash. Even leaving other dogs (she loves dogs) was no problem.

Lila & the crew & I would go to various undisclosed wooded NC locations where we would break the law & have lovely off-leash romps together. Not the fastest recall, I'll admit, but still, basically, no problem.

Home backyard? Different story. We had no fence, just a pen. When she would get the chance, she would hightail it around the neighborhood. "Tour of the county," I called it. She was never terribly far away, but it would typically be 40-60 minutes before she would return. THIS is a problem.

I didn't want Lila to get hit by a car. I didn't want her to spook the chickens who lived next door. Although she would never fight with another dog, I didn't want other dogs to feel frustrated behind fences and on chains (yeah, it was rural NC) while they watched her live it up. I didn't want the neighbors to be annoyed.

When she got back, I would be scared, stressed, and frustrated. I tried to take the advice I had been giving. I'd always feed her a giant bowl of kibble, even if she'd already eaten. I'd give her treats if I had them.

That should do it, right? I mean, I strongly doubted she'd encountered as much deliciousness on her "Tour of the County", even if there was some roadkill and cat poop here and there... She'll figure it out.

She didn't. The problem persisted weeks with absolutely NO CHANGE. I'm a pro trainer, and a sharp one at that. I knew it couldn't be a dominance issue. At the time, I was seeing dominance-related problems with one of the other dogs (who turned out to be my one in a lifetime dog, Ginger). Lila was (and still is) never defiant. It was like she didn't even see or hear me!

Lila had learned that when she got back AFTER the food and/or treats something unthinkable would happen -- slow motion action movie "No-o-o-o-o. . .!" -- she was going back into her pen. And no amount of food was going to change that.

She had broken my trust and caused me stress, not to mention the risks... I just couldn't deliberately expose her to danger, neighbors & neighbor dogs to irritation, and myself to more stress.

Or could I?

Eventually, I took what is now my own advice: The next time it happened, I fed the treats and the kibble... and released her. She was very likely going to do it again tomorrow, anyway... Nothing bad has happened to her so far... I recalled, waited, rewarded, released --several times.

What do you know? The "backwards", "counter-intuitive" strategy worked. Lila found the release MORE rewarding than an obscene amount of food -- a reward I had leveraged to convey what I wanted. That hefty reward was now working to reinforce the behavior I wanted, instead of the one I didn't. Recall didn't mean I wanted her to go to the pen, like she thought, I wanted her to come to me.

What finally made her not leave at all? What could trump the stimulation of the "Tour of the County"? Interesting training.

No more boring down-stays and sit-stays and heelwork and retrieves on the flat. Bleh. Jumping! Retrieves over jumps. Jumping over other dogs on down-stays.

MORE! More and more specific behaviors -- foldback down. Speed drills. Tricks--crawl, hi-5.

"What are we going to do now?" Long chains of behavior that changed constantly. COME-SIT-release to jump over hurdle to retrieve item-jump back over hurdle-place toy in my hand-release word-reward. THAT is an interesting exercise!

I cursed my lack of creativity -- I could hardly keep up with her appetite for learning. While _I_ was not exceptionally rewarding, at least not as compared to the "Tour of the County", figuring out what I wanted, discovering what got her the treat -- problem solving WAS rewarding!!

But the best-of-all bribe, the one that would eventually bring her sprinting to the yard no matter what, even when neighborhood cats and rabbits appeared? Jumping through a hula hoop. I suspected the hula hoop became an extreme sport thing: oh-god-so-scary but that makes it so much awesomer when I actually do it. I'd raise the hoop over my head, and always followed thru on my hula hoop offer when I bribed her with it. It never failed to work.

Lila taught me the importance of allowing our dogs to show us what they value, of clearly identifying rewards & punishers. And, ... what should have been obvious -- the value of hula hoops.

I felt horribly guilty when I realized how I had underestimated her. She had been (and still is) capable of so much! We had spent so much time on her feelings: preventing her from being a fear biter -- not fleeing from people, accepting touch & handling, approaching scary objects -- that I had neglected to stimulate the emotion-free side of her brain. It was like food to a starving man.

What food might your dog need? Brain food? Heart food? Social food? Muscle food?

Manipulation for Wives & Pet Owners

2009-07-07T15:52:00.031-04:00

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

My Dominant Houseplant

2009-07-07T15:14:00.006-04:00

Dear Plant Whisperer,

My dominant houseplant does not listen.

It was a good little sprout, but now that it is big, we are having problems.

It started with refusing to stand up straight. I told it firmly, "No, " but it ignored me. When I laid it on its side, it wet the carpet. So, I put it outside, to show it that inside is my territory. It deliberately developed brown spots, just to spite me.

I tried walking it more, but I have to carry it or it lags defiantly behind me. When I put the choke collar very high for more control, it dropped a leaf, marking its territory, I presume.

Should I get a pine tree or a poison ivy to de-throne this alpha plant?

Sincerely yours,

I. B. Dumas

The idea that "dominance" is responsible for EVERY behavior problem is absurd. Of course, it's equally absurd to claim that there is NO pack hierarchy, or NO social dynamics affecting dogs' behavior!

The Dog is Biting

2009-07-07T14:17:00.004-04:00

Annually, in the US:

4.7 million dog bites.
800,000 require medical attention.
386,000 require an ER visit.

There are 4.7 million warnings. There should be 4.7 million people seeking behavior help from qualified, experienced professionals.

This breaks down to something like 94,000 owners needing help per state, each year. I guess that does explain why it seems like I have SO much work to do.

However, I notice that this number is roughly the number of pets submitted to shelters. Although behavior is not given as the #1 reason for surrender, it is very possible that the owners don't realize that the behavior is a problem, or they don't want to admit it.

But it IS a problem.

By choosing to care for a dog, you have an ethical obligation to keep those who didn't choose that dog safe from the consequences of your choice. You may think it's cute, or funny, or macho that the dog bites but, according to the CDC, it's children ages 5-9 who are most at risk of dog-bite injury. Your denial is a choice to put those children at risk.

No dog can go its entire life without encountering children. If it does, what kind of a life are you providing for a curious, sentient creature who lives to explore and learn?

Animal lovers are often inclined to mold the world around the needs of their dogs. Instead of addressing their dog's behavior by consulting a professional, and getting specific assistance, they ask all manner of strange behavior from their houseguests.

They use band-aid solutions. Like the famed bizzy bee of "Best In Show" fame, these "solutions" are only a vehicle to mask and continue to deny the existence of a problem.

Your dog should NOT bark at things going past your window for more than 3 barks.
Your dog should not be a maniac in the car.
Your dog should sit politely in the car.
Your dog should not bite at the crate door and pull on it.
Your dog should be calm in the crate.
Your dog should not sprint everywhere it goes.
Your dog should have moments of self-controlled body language.
Your dog should not shiver when going out and about.
Your dog should not lunge at or sprint from other dogs you encounter.
Your dog should be able to be approached by children & tolerate one physical touch.
You should not feel worried or stressed about your dog's behavior.

These are warning signs that arise even before the first bite.

"Normal" dog behavior has become such a rarity in this country that people have begun to believe that what they typically see defines normal behavior.

I think it's unfortunate that explaining the warning signs is perceived as professionals over-dramatizing the situation to increase business. The doctor explaining how to prevent and address possible health issues is not perceived this way!

If the warning signs were acted upon intelligently and responsibly, by finding a professional-- well, knowledge is knowledge! Improving your understanding of canine body language, behavior, and learning will result in better behavior from all canines you encounter for the rest of your life! If the word gets out -- hey, this is how dogs talk, this is how they feel, this is how they think -- here is how to use that effectively to get human-appropriate behavior -- those 4.7 million reported bites could be significantly reduced.

Who benefits? 5-9 year old children.

What are you waiting for? Go get some help! Spread the word! "Humane" is kindness to both species.

The Rescue Rant

2009-07-05T12:24:00.007-04:00

Rescue is a difficult business. You feel frustrated and powerless most of the time, and it makes you nuts.

A dog in OR is dog-aggressive, but human-social. (Opposite of me, then, eh?) The difficulty of placing this one dog has STOPPED this group from taking in more dogs, who, presumably, are at risk of euthanasia in public shelters. Is it better to euthanize one dog with known issues when that opening could save the lives of possibly dozens more dogs? What if those dogs are dogs with no issues?

If I were able to show this rescue group how to address and resolve the issues of this dog, I could potentially save not only this dog, who could be placed, but also the dogs that are "disappearing" while this dog puts a wrench in the works. I can't afford just the transportation costs to help in person.

So, while I am willing and able to leave my family at home, put my local clients on hold, travel solo across country, and spend 2-3 (probably painful -- fibro doesn't like travel) days helping out... I don't have the funds for a plane ticket or accommodations to do it.

ARGH!!

A PA pit bull rescue group contacted me about some older bullies with issues who they cannot place. Their request was for any places that provide permanent care for unadoptable dogs. I only know of Best Friends, in Kanab, UT, home of TV's 'Dogtown', who, I can imagine, has their hands full.

So now, I think about the two bullies who I might be able to help, but to whom I can't in good conscience expose foster families & their neighborhood.

ARGH!!

I also think about how much I want to go to Best Friends. As a volunteer. They have paid openings, but if I can support myself without taking funds from them, well, isn't that more dogs that I can help?

Yes, I am doing what I can, given my situation, but, man, if I could figure out how to change my situation...

There's always so much more to do.

If I figured out how to make people care enough not just to turn their twitter pic green or throw money at a problem, but to actually GIVE. To donate free effort, expecting nothing in return... I could leave this planet a better place than I found it.

It frustrates me that most people only care with their feelings. "Oh, yes, isn't that awful?..." If you care about something, you put your action where your heart is. If you are not putting action where your heart is, how much do you really care?

I'm just a small business owner barely scraping by. I don't have a spouse to fund me. I have a dog I can barely feed-- no way I could afford a child! I have medical issues and no insurance. I have tremendous sympathy for people in difficult situations. But if I can find a way to give, why can't folks who are in MUCH better situations find a way?

I have no patience for the "good" religious folks who diligently attend church and pray for God to fix things. Didn't your Jesus stir up trouble? Didn't he walk the walk? Isn't that supposed to be your example? Get busy. Give until it hurts. Don't just sit around thanking God with your mouth for all your blessings. Or, *eyeroll* asking for more?!?

Sticking a Jesus fish on your car and showing up at church every week is a show that only the people who do it believe is a contribution to something!

Cats & even some dogs are being euthanized because families can't be bothered to share their shelter & dump out some kibble. Children are encountering more bullying issues than ever, because parents neglect the basic responsibility they DELIBERATELY assumed when creating those children. Those neglected children are producing children-- how are they going to turn out? -- because no one can be bothered to explain why and how, say, a 17-yr-old Alaskan child can prevent pregnancy.

But, yeah, why don't you quote me a text you spent hours memorizing instead of doing something for those cats or dogs or kids or dying humans? I'm sure that's what Jesus would have done.

Iranians are bleeding & even dying for what they believe in. It disappoints me to realize that the legacy of America, of fighting for what we believe in, not for personal or familial financial gain, but in defense of the basic rights of all,... that legacy has been dropped. America, who once would die so others could live, has become soft.

It seems less than coincidental that it occurred at the same time that America's breed, the American Pit Bull Terrier, who served in previous wars as the symbol of our nation, loyal & strong, began to lose the very qualities that made it so. Because of the all-pervasive value of short term personal (or familial) financial gain, at ANY cost -- from the ghetto to the boardroom. America is about making that money.

If the pursuit of wealth is the American Dream, wake me up. I know I'll never be wealthy. Functional, but never healthy. But, dammit, I will die following my conscience.

I'll be cleaning up messes I didn't create until the day I physically can't.

Knowing this is why rescue people are nuts. We care too much, we can do too little, and we can't fight apathy or stupid.

Let me know if you have a effective solution. Genocide is not one.

It's HERE! It's HERE!

2009-07-04T21:15:00.009-04:00

From Lila's Necklace

Lila is a very proper lady who started acting like she was 10 yrs old at about 1 yr old.

This comes off as amazing diva-tude in photos. Here she is modeling the handmade necklace we got for her at Lainey's Pawtique. I wish I was a better photographer, because it is truly beautiful.

Click on the title for the link to Lainey's Pawtique, if you have a dog who needs a necklace of her own.

Impenetrable Fingers or How Not to Meet a Dog

2009-07-03T23:49:00.025-04:00

Kids, especially between ages 5 and 9 years old, are at significantly greater risk for dog bite injury than people in other age groups. Because reducing the number of dog bite injuries can be accomplished by improving the behavior of both dogs and children around each other, dog professionals find themselves in the position of having to educate children as well as dogs.

Preventing dog bite injury is NOT convincing dogs that you are "nice", or that you are "potentially dangerous to the dog". It is convincing dogs not to choose interaction with you. Convince the dog that you are dull, boring, uninteresting, and, by canine interpretation, a neutral stimulus. You make no attempt to bring the dog to you OR to push it away from you.

Preventing dog bite injury is NOT bracing for inevitable impact. Successful prevention focuses (oddly enough) on successfully convincing the dog not to bite. You might even say on "preventing" the dog from choosing biting.

Once the dog has decided to bite, theoretically, you can minimize impact by moving your backpack (or, read on, your impenetrable fingers, if you are so equipped) at the speed of light between you and the dog before the teeth contact you. I'm not saying it's theoretically impossible. I've studied physics. I simply don't know anyone, not even children, who can successfully maneuver a backpack at even Mach 1 (the speed of sound), which I think would do it. Practically, once the dog has decided to bite, most of us respond with after-the-fact regrets, bruising, bleeding, and possibly a trip to seek medical attention. Some of us engage the dog in an escalating fight by attempting to control the situation. Most dogs respond to escalating fights with more bites.

Socializing CHILDREN to dogs is equally critical to preventing injury as socializing dogs to children. Just as no dog will go its entire life without encountering a child, no child will go his/her entire life without encountering a dog.

According to my observation current parenting practices, parents seem to believe that any inhibition of behaviors will crush developing minds, who need to learn, and explore. Well, unpopular though my stance may be, I'd rather crush some of their psyche than see any other parts crushed. I want kids to learn the easy way not to dash in front of cars, not to climb into washing machines, and not to approach strange dogs, cats, or wildlife. I'm not saying that the hard way isn't effective. I'm sure most children hit by a few cars, drowned in washing machines, or bitten by a few dogs do learn to hesitate before repeating those behaviors. Effectiveness is not my issue with that approach. In addition to the threat of injury or fatality from bites, stray dogs, cats, and wildlife can carry diseases transmitted by saliva sneezed or licked on (rabies), physical contact (ringworm), and (shudder) ingestion of segments (I pet the doggy. I lick my hand) of tapeworm and roundworm.

The single most vivid dog-related memory of my childhood occurred when I was about seven or eight years old. Though my mother was likely watching us from a window in the house, I believed I was alone in the backyard with my two- or three-year-old brother, Roger, when I saw a pack of 4 stray dogs approaching.

Dogs, at that point in my life, were not something with which I had much experience. We didn't have dogs. My extended family didn't have dogs. We would occasionally meet and even pet (Heaven!) "nice" dogs. My mother was petrified of the two Dobermans leash-walked on the opposite side of the street from our duplex. (She wasn't all that excited to hear, some 20+ years later, that I had begun volunteering for Doberman Rescue...)

They were running towards our yard. Four medium-to-large dogs I had never seen before. Running directly at the two of us.

I instantly recognized danger. I don't recall why I knew (I was absolutely convinced) that the dogs would not hurt me if I stood still. It may possibly have been because, sometimes without my mother's knowledge, I had been socializing myself with neighbors' dogs for years, by this point. Never bitten. I was even more sensitive as a child than I am now. I could always tell what a dog liked or didn't like.

A charming yellow Labrador belonged to the neighbor behind us. He was tied out 24-7 on a runner. He would obligingly eat special pieces of grass I hand-picked to feed him. I knew he liked them. (Adult me says, Really? He did?--child says, "Yes, of course. They were from me, his friend." Odd child.) Tethered dog! Feeding! Do as I say, not as I do.)

I don't know how I knew that these four were not dogs to make friends with. I distinctly remember the feeling of terror I had as I realized the potential implications of my brother failing to comply with my order. Perhaps the seriousness of the situation was conveyed in the tone of my voice, or perhaps he was simply accustomed to following big-sister orders he didn't always completely understand, but he did not flinch as I froze and ordered, "Don't move."

Though he complied, Roger had an uncomprehending look in his eyes, waiting for the rest of the game to be explained. And then they arrived.

I recall the squeezing sensation in my chest as I watched the dogs approach Roger. Afraid to startle him into moving by speaking, I silently willed him not to move. I did not move. He did not move. Some dogs sniffed us. Some didn't. None jumped on us. Though it was likely an encounter of seconds, it seemed like forever before they raced off again.

That was it. We had been trees. It was a non-event.

Neither my mother nor my brother recall any of this story. Perhaps it is because my mother didn't see it. Perhaps only I realized, during the event, and even more now as an adult and dog training professional, how close we came to having a horror story. Four strange dogs. An 8- and 3-year-old. It wasn't just the paranoia of an overprotective big sister: I still think I was right. A sneeze could have provoked an attack.

Since I obviously loved dogs, I wonder what I saw that made me distinguish these dogs, which I believed to be potential danger, from the yellow Lab who would occasionally delight me by slipping off of his runner. (Being the responsible, big-sister type, I would lead him back to his yard and re-attach him to his runner. Again, do as I say... ) Even as a child, I was skeptical of my mother's belief in the dangerousness of dogs, and this incident did nothing to change my opinion.

So how did I know?
I think I understood that some dogs could be dangerous, and I recognized different body language, different speed and angle of approach from the pack of strays than I ever saw from the nice yellow Labrador who was my friend.

What advice does my experience lead me to give?
Parents:
ALL children must be deliberately positively exposed to nice dogs, just as all puppies must be positively exposed to children. Impulse control around all dogs must be deliberately taught & rewarded, ... and forcibly imposed until reliable. Children must be aware that any dog can be dangerous.

Children:
Be a tree! The "Be a Tree" program prevents hand & arm movement by giving the child a clearly defined behavior that elicits hand/arm control (folding the hands). It also prevents eye contact with the dog by having the child stare at his or her hands. Children are encouraged to be silent while listening for panting.

This advice conveys a similar idea to the "No Touch-No Talk-No Eye Contact" advice given by Cesar Millan.

Beware misguided advice that breaks the Recently, I learned that there is an individual selling dog training who decided to dispense this general idea as child safety advice: "Cover your face with your fingers. Peek through to see if the dog is friendly. Roll away in a ball if not." While I admire the good intentions of this individual, this advice is not merely unhelpful it is potentially harmful.

It reflects the individual's awareness of the high risk of injuries to the face, but addresses this risk by substituting the fingers for biting. I would like to point out that fingers are not impenetrable, and are often used by children and adults in many activities, making the sacrifice of fingers not such a useful strategy. Bite prevention is not about offering something else for the dog to bite. Bite prevention is being boring and non-threatening.

Also, movement is a very stimulating... stimulus to dogs. Dogs don't distinguish non-moving items from background well, often relying on scent or hearing when no movement is present to provide visual information. In this case, moving the hands (or any item) upward will draw the dog's attention upward, effectively highlighting the child's facial area, which I would like the dog to ignore or not even realize is there.

Finally, this advice does not address sound triggers. Squealing, screaming, yelling, or shouting also adds stimulation, which is counter-productive.

This individual misidentifies the real cause of dog bites to the face or any other part of the child. Young children should not NEVER approach strange dogs. If a dog approaches them they should be silent, still (not engage in any movements), and avoid looking at strange dogs, as noise, movement and eye contact are likely to excite a nice dog, who can still injure by knocking down, jumping on, or scratching a child. They can also be interpreted by undersocialized dog as threats, provoking an "unprovoked" attack.

Apparently, the individual believing in the impenetrable nature of fingers has not learned of the "Be a Tree" program.

NOT MOVING, and avoiding eye contact are the key to preventing bites. As a dog trainer (and former vet assistant & kennel manager), I have often interacted dogs who are known biters, or in situations that involve high likelihood of bites -- without being bitten. The more still & quiet you are, the less interest and alarm you cause, period.

On the two occasions where I have been bitten, (one involved one stitch) I can clearly identify my own provoking behavior, and poor choice. On one occasion, I misread a dog who was working on being CC & DS to movements toward it, which required me to move toward it. On the other, I attempted to intervene in a dog argument, which in hindsight, given the dogs' history together, would likely have resulted in no injury to either dog had I not. (I have successfully intervened a few dog fights without being bitten, but that doesn't mean it is a good idea. Very poor judgment. Extremely high risk: I'd say 85-95% chance of being bitten, 5% chance of not. A woman killed last year was intervening in a fight between her two mixed-breeds, neither of which was identified as having any pit bull genetics.)

Some programs advocate throwing things, or shielding yourself, backing away, and other inadvisable strategies. Some even advise intimidation attempts including yelling. These movements, sounds, and requisite eye contact directed toward the dog break my (and others') cardinal rules of dog interaction.

Overview of Basic Approaches to Problem-Solving

2009-07-03T23:16:00.005-04:00

There are several general approaches to addressing problem (unwanted) behavior. One or a combination of these approaches can be used.

Selecting which one(s), and defining the specifics of how to use them is most effectively accomplished in conjunction with a qualified, experienced professional. (Be sure to verify any claimed credentials.)

No one answer will fit all dogs, owners, or behaviors. Good work is both humane and effective. Poor work can be "humane but ineffective", or "inhumane and ineffective". There is the occasional anecdote about some approach that is "inhumane but effective", but this is extremely rare and generally accidental.

Desensitizing, abbreviated DS
Desensitizing is a process that turns an existing cue (or "trigger") into a neutral stimulus. In other words, it takes away any meaning. The cue formerly predicted something, and now it does not effectively predict anything.

Counter-conditioning, abbreviated CC
Counter-conditioning is a process that makes a cue predict something different. The cue formerly predicted one thing, but now it predicts another.

Behavior Modification, sometimes called B-Mod
Although this term is now being used for all manner of approaches, applying behavior modification protocols is about changing beliefs, using rewards and punishers (not necessarily pain). One way B-Mod can be distinguished from "training" is by the absence of commands, hand signals, or leash cues. B-Mod focuses primarily on the dog's behavior. This approach can include the use of veterinarian-prescribed medications.

Training
Training is teaching one extremely specific behavior as a correct (desired, rewarded) response to a cue deliberately presented via rewards and punishers (not necessarily pain). Training focuses primarily on changing the owner's behavior to elicit the dog's response. Different approaches incorporate different amounts of reward and pain and compulsion (force), from 0% to 100% of the approach.

Dog Whispering
Dog whispering is showing, not telling. This approach focuses on the effectiveness with which dogs interact with each other, and attempts to mimic as many relevant elements as possible. The success of this approach depends entirely on the human's ability to correctly interpret the dog's body language, and extreme self-awareness of body language when responding. The use of touch and distance as rewards/punishers is common.

Rehabilitation

2009-06-29T14:56:00.001-04:00

Frequently, adopted dogs require rehabilitation. Even dogs who are "the best of the best" will be impacted by moving from one home to another. So what IS rehabilitation? How does it differ from training?

Rehabilitation of dogs is not conceptually much different than drug & alcohol rehab programs. Rehab is an experience that gives a participant the best possible chance at moving forward and functioning normally. Rehabilitation is for dogs who are doing anything outside of normal behavior.

Rehab incorporates training (meaning deliberately taught response to commands), but there are other elements. Initial training of a dog who "knows nothing", but is otherwise normal is significantly different from training a dog who knows some things but isn't doing them, or who "knows nothing" and is acting fearful, stressed, or frustrated.

When we rehabilitate a dog, we begin by removing the opportunity to make mistakes. We provide the tools we think will give the dog the best chance at being successful. And then we begin teaching.

Rehabilitation typically requires a significant time investment on the part of the human(s) providing it. Most dogs need a bare minimum of 3 hours a day to accomplish full rehabilitation. Anything short of FULL rehabilitation is simply not rehab, and not likely to result in the achievement of complete, long-term success. This routine of 3 hours a day, every single day must continue without skipping a single day for a period of at least 3-6 weeks. Sporadic "rehab" attempts can drag the process out to months or years, risking the dog's emotional well-being, not to mention the physical safety of other people and dogs, in the case of dogs showing or likely to show aggression.

The rehabilitation work of TV star Cesar Millan includes 4 hours of running, a 2-hr feeding ritual, 1/2 hour of sprinting with rollerblading human, and 1/2 hour of playing fetch with a ball. Some dogs receive additional one-on-one attention! In addition to the stimulation provided by the exercise, social interaction is recognized by research in some species to cause increased need for sleep, so the presence of dozens of other dogs helps to force the brain to work.

If you are thinking about rehabilitation for your dog, a great place to start is by providing walking every day. CAUTION! Most average pet owners don't have the fitness level to provide even 2 hours of walking every single day. If you intend to provide this yourself, start with as much as you can comfortably do, and gradually increase the amount of time you walk.

So, how do you start rehab if you can only walk 20 minutes a day?

If you have a dog over 4 years old, the timing is less critical. Just wait until you CAN walk as much as you need to. Unless you have a major issue that must be addressed now, you have the luxury of not paying a significant price for just working your way into the amount of physical work required.

However, if you have a dog who is 4 yrs old or younger, starting rehab NOW is critical. The sooner you start, the shorter the rehab phase will be, and the better your overall long-term results will be. In your situation, find a neighbor, friend, dog walker, or trainer who can work with your dog every day to make up for the time that you cannot provide.

Priming

2009-06-28T22:42:00.002-04:00

In psychology, "priming" refers to situations ("trials") where an early stimulus influences response to a later stimulus. Although this phenomenon describes human behavior, I believe dogs also can be "primed". (Big sigh for the degree I need to get to where I can accurately research this.)

When I took my pitbull Ginger to work with Schutzhund competitor Ivan Balabanov, he insisted that the dog be told which of the 3 components of the sport--tracking, obedience, or protection--that the dog was about to work. Although, at the time, I thought this was silly, I also realized that I was pretty much already doing it.

Obedience phrase "Are you ready?" would send Ginger to seated, at my heel, staring at my face.
Protection cue "Are you ready to rumble?" would induce wiggling and attention away from me (Where's my sleeve?)
Tracking trigger "Where is it?" would put her nose to the ground.

Dogs do not treat all cues equally. Effective, deliberate use of cues reduces stress, because they provide reliable information from which the dog can predict what will happen next with high probability. In the case of my 3 different priming phrases, each one predicted a specific, unique set of correct responses. Sniffing the ground is NOT a correct answer in obedience or protection, but it is the primary correct answer in tracking.

How does this concept affect the average pet dog or pet owner?

Whatever behaviors have been taught, deliberately or accidentally, as responses to priming cues will begin to occur. I recommend deliberately teaching all dogs a desirable response, as priming cues are potential problems for pet owners. Prime the dog for a set of correct behaviors BEFORE a problem arises.

Many humans prime their dogs with phrases like "Who is it?" when someone knocks at the door, "Bye. Be a good boy. Good Boy!" when they leave for the day, "Wanna go for a walk?", "There's the mailman!", and others. Humans also prime dogs with actions, such as walking to where the leash is kept, looking at the treat cabinet, putting the dog in the crate, and adding tension to a leash. It is my suspicion that humans can prime dogs with scent cues, such as the stress hormone.

When we train, it is important to deliberately prime for desirable behaviors, and to deliberately stop (where possible LOL-- Stop stressing, I dare you!) using priming cues that are often followed by undesirable behaviors. In the long term, initially avoided priming cues (ones that elicit undesirable behaviors) can be deliberately re-taught, once the desirable behaviors are easily elicited (as a response to alternative priming cues).

For a unwanted behaviors in response to separation, it is often recommended to exit the house in a completely different manner. Some folks have had to climb out windows! Why does this work? Because that priming cue (climbing out the window) is NOT the priming cue that has repeatedly prompted the dog to stress out (walking out the usual way). Climbing out the window does not predict that you will be gone for 8 hours. You can teach the dog that it does by only climbing out the window, which will work for a few repetitions. However, the dog will rapidly suss out the pattern. This "remedy" only works long-term when the window climb out predicts a variety of time lengths of "abandonment". It is ultimately becoming accustomed to the unpredictable nature of departure and arrival that reduces separation anxiety. A dog that has displayed undesirable behavior before will return to it more rapidly than a dog that "invents" the first undesirable behaviors.

This effect can also be seen with equipment switch. The initial pressure of the flat collar on the neck primes the dog for sled-doggery. When you switch to anything different, for some dogs, even just a different width flat collar, the textural difference can give you an opportunity to prime for a different leash behavior. If you just switch the equipment, the dog will eventually adjust to whatever texture. We've all seen dogs plowing along at the end of every single piece of equipment out there. Once the dog has experienced desirable results from pulling, he will pull sooner on the new equipment than a dog who has never experienced the pulling phenomenon.

What priming cues (words, actions, scent) are you using deliberately and accidentally with your dog?

Which of the priming cues that you use elicit desirable behavior? Are you actively rewarding these desirable behaviors?

Which of the priming cues that you use elicit undesirable behavior? How can you eliminate or change these priming cues? What desirable behaviors can you elicit? How will you reward these desirable behaviors?

Pet Basics

2009-06-28T20:56:00.002-04:00

Every pet should:

Accept handling
Accept grooming
Be able to be walked
Not fight with other dogs

Maximizing Benefit from Relationship with a Canine Professional

2009-06-27T18:08:00.002-04:00

Right now, training & behavior management is viewed by most owners as exactly the same as car service. You wait to get help until you see a problem. You can't fix a problem before it starts, can you? You just have to wait until it happens, or even make it happen, so you can "nip it in the bud". You get help, you get results or you don't, and then you go back or you try another professional if you have another problem. Just like car service, problems just stay the same until you fix them. Sometimes they even go away by themselves... Right? These common misconceptions are dangerous.

Teaching a dog is not like servicing your car
Canine behavior is not best addressed with a "snapshot" perspective. It is best addressed over time -- months & years is an appropriate time frame on which to evaluate the success or failure of your efforts. Because of the importance of the "long" view, the development of a relationship with a behavior professional should be considered as most similar to that one might cultivate with a doctor or psychologist.

Problem Prevention
The fact is that you CAN prevent problems. Preventing problems is significantly more effective at achieving long-term results. Nothing "buds" for you to "nip"!

Once an issue has "budded", the sooner it is diagnosed and treated, the less work (less time, less expense) it requires. Not only is it easier, but early intervention also has more lasting results. A related problem that professionals face is that many owners don't recognize "buds". We are contacted once the issue is in full bloom!

Adolescent Volatility
After your professional provides you some instruction, you should start seeing some results. However, many owners do not realize the volatility of adolescent behavior -- one day she's acting like a puppy, the next day, she's an intractable "teen". So, from the owner's perspective, this seems like a problem with the training advice, the technique, or the trainer. In fact, it's just par for the course.

This volatility is also responsible for the misconception that problem behaviors can just disappear. Often, owners are lead to believe that their adolescent is on the right track on the days when the dog is acting like a puppy. They love the dog and want to see those "good days" as signs that things are improving. In fact, they are using "selective vision" -- simply choosing to pay attention to what they want to see. It's sweet that these owners want to see the good in their dogs. It's unfortunate that this lovely sentiment often results in worsening behavior.

Economics
Owners can be reluctant to communicate openly and honestly with their professional because they want to save money, and they believe the professional is only motivated by selling more training. This CAN absolutely be true. I recently heard about a trainer who was selling agility training -- and the trainer had never competed in agility!

Select a pro who can provide references from experienced, knowledgeable participants in the dog community, not just from owners who may not realize that what they called "success" may not last, or that what worked for their dog won't necessarily work for yours. Owners who have selected poor trainers can even delude themselves into thinking that they made a good choice, simply because they don't want to admit the truth, that they made a mistake.

"Technique"
Some owners fail to report lack of results because they want to avoid hearing the trainer say, "I think you need to use [insert objectionable method]". The "objectionable method" can be anything from taking more walks, to using treats, a crate, a collar, a leash... I've heard objections to just about every teaching tool out there!

If you work with a professional who understands multiple techniques, there may be alternatives to use of whatever tool or technique you don't like. Of course, in the case of taking the dog to the correct potty spot when it has to go --there also may not be! "Ok, but what else can I try?" A cork? NO.

Human Learning
Humans don't like to admit that they failed to learn some or all of what the professional was teaching. Unfortunately, ego is not your friend when it comes to training dogs! I am continually puzzled at why humans expect themselves... and their dogs... to "get it" on the first time through. Learning research in humans has shown that it takes about EIGHT (8) repetitions of a brand-new concept for a human to actually retain it. Replacing an old, faulty idea takes TWENTY (20) repetitions. I have a very high IQ (not a big deal--you just come with it "from the factory" like having blue eyes), which means learning comes to me easily and naturally. Even I need at least 3 repetitions for something brand-new!

Part of the relationship you develop with your trainer should allow for you to follow-up and ask questions. Because answering questions takes part of the trainer's workday, many trainers need to charge you for their time in order to support themselves. This practice, unlike the agility or Schutzhund trainer who has never competed, is a fair one. Simply pay their fee, and/or schedule a lesson. It is not a good idea to seek out "free advice" once you have started with one technique. Switching techniques can result in confusion and additional stress to the dog, which is never helpful when you are addressing problems.

Keep In Contact
Providing your professional with continuing updates on your dog's behavior, whether good or bad, benefits you, your dog, and your professional. So, what should you say? Most dog professionals are dog lovers who love to hear about dogs.

Let them know specific details of what seems to be going right: your goal, what you are doing, how often, what equipment or tools you use, what you say. "Princess's walking is going well. We are taking 2 walks a day, every day, for twenty minutes each time. We are using the flat harness and the retractable leash. I don't talk to her on the walk at all, except when we step out the door, I say, 'Let's go'."

Also describe the details of what seems to be going wrong: what happens, how often, warning signs, what you have been doing with the dog, what you think may be happening. "Aggie's growling at the neighbor's dog when she comes over to visit. I correct it by using the shake can. I think he may be becoming aggressive."

Talk about specific lessons you worked on, and ask specific questions. "When we did the down stay, do I give the treats when the dog is laying on the floor or when he gets up?"

Ignoring Things

2009-06-27T17:16:00.003-04:00

Ignoring things is a powerful tool for teaching. While the power of ignoring unwanted attention-seeking behaviors is recognized and recommended, this strategy is not what I am talking about.

I am referring to our reactions to the world at large. The dog pays attention to what we pay attention to.

"What is it, human? What are you looking at? What are you thinking about? What are you excited by? What are you afraid of? I'll look at/think about/be excited about/fear that, too!"

Things that we attend to are things that have some meaning to us, and therefore to the dog. Things that we "don't see" are things that aren't really there. I personally "don't see" grass or trees. The city dwellers among us "don't see" sidewalk or manhole covers. This unique fingerprint of that to which we attend is what I believe accounts for much of the "dog resembling owner" phenomenon.

Greeting Other Dogs

2009-06-27T13:57:00.002-04:00

What I do with my dog: "My dog" meaning, any dog I am handling. As do many dog lovers, I feel every dog is my dog. Guess that's why I am so passionate about what you all are doing to "my dog".

I allow my dog to greet all dogs, nice or not. Although, as someone pointed out, I would discourage my dog from distracting a service dog performing his duties. Generally, dogs focusing on work are not of interest to my dogs. My dog may greet dogs who are not nice, permitted that my dog shows curiosity and friendliness. (What do curiosity and friendliness look like?)

My dog is not permitted to hump during a greeting. My dog is permitted to sniff butts of dogs who are comfortable with butt-sniffing.

However, my dog IS permitted to grumble at rude dogs. (Can you identify a rude dog greeting? How does it compare to a polite greeting?) They should be permitted to avoid dogs they do not wish to greet.

Are you Overly Pre-Emptive? Is that possible?

2009-06-27T13:41:00.001-04:00

The owner who fails to plan for the development of his dog into an agreeable companion, suitable for his lifestyle, is, I believe, a bugaboo of trainers and behavior professionals.

However, I believe there is also the Overly Pre-Emptive owner who is so terrified of having problems, that their "diligence" actually creates problems. These are the owners who cannot differentiate between normal range of dog emotions & behaviors and abnormal ones. When do you step in? "Nip it in the bud" is a great approach to weeding, but not always effective for encouraging desirable dog behaviors.

Choosing when and what to actively teach, and choosing when to ignore it is part of what is now regarded as the "art" of dog training. Largely, I think, because we don't understand it clearly. We have no large chunks of solid research or data on the subject. (At least, not that I am aware of. Please tell me I'm wrong?)

For my decision-making process, the factors affecting the decision are not now very precise. It's not that the dog is scared/aggressive or not scared/aggressive. It's not black or white. Our decision is not "train if scared/aggressive", versus "ignore if not". The reality of the situation, its greyness, is what makes handling both scared and aggressive dogs very complicated.

The dog is scared, but how scared? (For further research, what body language indicators and personality typing info is Nicole's brain using to quantify "how scared"?) Being scared is part of what keeps animals & humans safe. Some healthy fear keeps dogs from roaming into traffic, being bitten by other dogs, and from exploring other potentially hazardous "unknowns". Unhealthy fear interferes with the dog's ability to learn, eat, move, and process her environment. Unhealthy fear jeopardizes the dog, and dog's owner, in many ways. Imagine a scared mastiff who bolts in a downtown area -- not only is the dog in danger, but also the human rag-doll attached to the leash!

The dog is "grouching", but how aggressive is it? (Again, for more research, what measurable factors do gifted"natural" trainers use to make this call?) An effective growl helps a dog keep an unwelcome or threatening animal at bay. An ineffective growl heightens the stress level of a dog-dog interaction, making injury more likely.

The dog is interested in watching something, but is it obsessed? Curiosity is natural, healthy, and provides the mental stimulation dogs need for a balanced "normal" life. But "locking on" to such stimuli as light can pose a threat to the dog's safety if it's brain is not open to other, potentially hazardous stimuli. I have a former client whose obsession-inclined dog leapt into freezing water mid-winter in response to the "sparklies" he saw on the water, who endangered both himself and his loving owner who leapt in after him.

Every behavior can be too little, too much, or a range of somewhere in-between. One tiny point on that range of in-between-ness is "ideal". There are countless ways the dog can be "OK", even if it isn't ideal. This concept of multiple "right" answers is difficult for most people to accept from their dogs, but imagine extending this concept to our expectations of human behavior...!

Imagine if we demanded that everyone around us think, feel, and behave exactly as we defined ideal -- which, of course, would be exactly how WE think, feel, and behave... But, in a sense, isn't this is how we approach dogs when we insist they never feel fear, they never grouch at rudeness, never show interest in potential distractions?

When an owner is Overly Pre-Emptive, they begin to steer the dog away from in-between-ness. Which, not always, but sometimes, can result in steering the dog TO the extremes. We take a dog AWAY FROM having an acceptable amount of fear/communication/curiosity, TOWARDS the extremes of too much or too little.

Similar to the wisdom of consulting a doctor before starting a diet, consulting with a professional or other very experienced individual is the intelligent way to decide how you are going to proceed with your dog.

"distractions" in adolescent dogs

2009-06-22T08:22:00.000-04:00

Adolescence is a surprise. Most owners do not expect what occurs at adolescence. Good owners, who have spent much time carefully and deliberately training their pup, find themselves with "teen" dogs who do some of the most aggravating, frightening, and just plain weird things.

Some owners view this phase as evidence of failure of puppy training techniques. They see "Hmm.... puppy training was gentle & reward-oriented. Now I am seeing behaviors I don't want, so that means that gentle & reward-oriented doesn't work."

Nothing could be further from the truth. The adolescent brain is capable of so much more than the puppy brain. Yes, hormones must have an effect (c'mon kids, let's get testing this stuff) . Even if they have had spay/neuter at age 6 months, they have had at least a taste of some hormones. But even early spay/neuter candidates seem to have some degree of behavioral change, which I argue relates to full development of brain capacities.

Adolescence is marked by "distraction". Owners having trouble with their "teen" use this word a lot. Now, "distraction" is a human word. "Reward" is the dog word. What _I_ see is that we have a dog who has had the same access to these rewards for the past 12 months, and kept choosing the human who is only NOW getting around to choosing the distraction over the reward presented by the human.

My belief is that this "distractability" is related to the same root cause as the difference between how long a training session can be for a puppy compared to how long it can be for an adolescent.

The problem is NOT that the adolescent is MORE distractable -- it's that she is LESS distractable. Once her brain starts wrapping itself around the mysteries of something so all-absorbing, like what a squirrel really represents... That package of smell and movement and sound, well, you just know that you really like that.

While her brain is flooded with squirrel-related contemplations... Well, it's going to take a lot more to distract her BACK to your boring handful of Milk Bones (or... snort... SITTING for your stupid treats?) than the cough or the jingle of keys or various other non-predictors-of-anything-as-interesting-as-a-squirrel that you used to use when she was a puppy.

For this reason, I LOVE play as a training tool for adolescent dogs. Because I have noticed that the distraction that seems to beat all distractions when you are an adolescent dog is the opportunity to play with another dog. Play is powerful!

Puppies are unable to focus on anything for terribly long. (I suspect biologically unable.) They are quickly distracted from focusing on the "distraction"(what the human doesn't want them to think about) by the cough, clapping hands, a giggle, the keys,-- very very mild stimuli. However, they are just as easily distracted from focus on the human. That shifting focus doesn't pose a problem in puppyhood, because the puppy brain doesn't really "lock on" to any particular thought in the way that the adolescent brain gradually starts to be able to do.

I suspect that this gradual increase in focus and increased resistance to milder stimuli is to blame for the practice of using more and more aversive distractors. Oddly, there is no matching practice of more and more salient (delicious) rewards.

What does this mean for training? When you have your adolescent's attention, you've got to overwhelm the brain in the way the squirrel does. One way to do this is to ratchet up your criteria. It's no longer good enough for the dog to just sit. Now, the dog has to sit faster than ever. Loose-leash walking isn't mentally demanding enough -- now it's time to start the focus-demanding heel. Whatever you asked for before, it's now time to ask more.

Another way is to provide more stimulating reinforcers. The milder the stimuli you use for puppy training, the easier it is to step up. Food rewards should be smellier and dogs should be hungrier than ever! Use play! Touch the dog as a distractor! Use some training equipment (properly).

How much you have to step up and for how long will vary significantly by individual dog. Once you do, it's still an up-and-down experience that makes trainers question: Should I add more punishment? Should I add more reward? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Deliberately working through adolescence properly--with patience, expecting ups&downs, and teaching whatever needs work-- has big payoffs as the dog reaches adulthood at 3-4 years of age. Behaviors solidify, in the way that humans get more set in our ways as we get older (again, suspect biological reason for this lack of "creativity"). So, good, desirable behaviors are no longer the "gamble" we saw during the adolescent phase. We begin to see the real lessons that the dog has learned. Dogs who have been properly trained and managed, whose needs have been met, blossom into dogs who are everything they can be.

On the other, hand, the solidification of behaviors also works against us. If, during the adolescent phase, when dog often test aggression, avoidance, or other behaviors for the first time, if the adult dog has learned that unwanted behaviors work for him -- we have an uphill battle thru adulthood. Once the adult dog knows he can make them work, well, it's hard to convince him that they don't. He knows they do. "No, no, Killer, that person isn't REALLY backing away from your growling..."

While puppyhood is about exploring puppy's relationship with the big wide world out there, adolescence is, in my opinion, the time when you can have the biggest impact on your relationship with your dog. Use it to your advantage!

Are you slicing a chunk off your tofurkey?

2009-06-22T06:38:00.000-04:00

Rules are often cited as justification for continued use of any method.

"Why are you [insert human training behavior]?"

"Because it works. Because you are supposed to. Because this is how my family always did it. Because it is my preference."

When I hear this language, I get a chill up my spine. These "explanations" often reveal that the speaker has not the slightest clue about why they are doing what they are doing.

Reminds me of the joke about the woman who slices a chunk off her turkey... it's my joke now... tofurkey... before putting it in the pan. When her child questions this behavior, the woman responds, "I think it has something to do with the moisture content. It's how your grandmother always did it." Turns out, that mother had to cut the chunk off of the turkey... tofurkey... to fit it in the pan.

Humans have a remarkable capacity for what could be described as "supertitious" behaviors. If I do X, and then Y happens, X must be causing Y.

If I cut the chunk off the tofurkey, and the tofurkey is (arguably) edible, clearly the chunk-cutting is the reason why. I've always cut the chunk off. The food has always cooked properly. You can't argue with success.

Although this train of thought is called "superstitious" (meaning the cause only appears to be related to the effect, even though it isn't) for humans, transitive logic is the standard for dogs.

If I lower my bum to the floor, the door of my crate will be opened. If I place my front feet on our guest's shoulders, I will be acknowledged. If I walk towards a boundary, I will catch someone's attention, they will call me to come, and I'll receive a cookie for coming to them. For dogs, it doesn't even have to happen EVERY time! As long as the outcome (opened door, acknowledgement, attention-command-cookie) is more likely than not, the dog believes there is an association there. From the dog's perspective, this is undeniable.

In one of her books, Temple Grandin describes the behavior of pigs at feeding time. (I'm under the impression that pigs may be even more environmentally aware than dogs with regard to what behaviors result in food.) The pigs repeat whatever behaviors appeared to work when feeding time first came around. "Let's see.... I was rocking back and forth and angled to the left, and then I saw food. So obviously, the rocking back and forth and angling makes the food come to me."

As the human, we realize that the feeder is responsible for the food coming to the pig. Yay! What a clever human!

Don't get too excited.

What makes human learning of new behaviors difficult is that our brains are less adept than animals with the concept of probability. One of many areas where we are "dumber" than animals. Dog definition of IQ must have a lot to do with food-finding abilities. Put a sandwich in the middle of a cornfield. Simulateously release hungry dog and hungry human. Who eats the sandwich? Clearly, by dog definition, the eater is smarter!

We assign more weight to whatever we heard first (serial position effect), even if it was a single event. We have a hard time sorting out patterns that include both successes & failures. We have very little intuition regarding probability, which is frankly child's play to animals. "Your dog has jumped up on 55% of the people who come thru the front door. Someone is at the front door. What is likely to happen next?" Your dog finds this a significantly easier question than you do.

Where is this leading? The problem with teaching humans to do something different or new is a) they love rules, and b) any apparent failure causes them to throw out the baby with the bath water.

The rule-lovers say, "Ah! This isn't working because I wasn't using the right rule. The old guy told me A, this other guy is telling me B. I just have to switch rules, and then it will work!"

Those who have switched rules will likely experience failure. Now the entire approach is at fault: Cookies don't work! Tug causes aggression! Choke collars don't stop pulling!

The point that this raises is that, whether we like it or not, as trainers, we have to understand the subject matter that we are teaching to a level that is beyond superstitious. Why is the rule the rule? What is going thru the dog's mind in the situation when this rule applies and works? What about when the rule doesn't work? Why doesn't it work?

Question everything.

AAUGH! Frustration

2009-06-21T15:43:00.001-04:00

Frustration is a powerful emotion. Tolerance of lack of success is a skill that must be built and practiced on both ends of the leash.

Again, I generally find that dogs pick up this skill more quickly, given their adeptness with probability. They are more inclined to take a failure in stride, because a single trial does not significantly effect their overall picture.

"Out of the 100 times I sat, 64 of them resulted in something good. In my mind, there is a 64% chance of something good from sitting." Whether the actual number is 63 or 65, the overall probability of something good happening from sitting is high enough for the dog to continue to believe that "Sitting works!", even though it actually doesn't work 35-37% of the time.

ALL teachers -- owners, trainers, competitors -- experience some degree of failure. At some point, your student (dog) is not going to give you the response that is your goal. The student does not conjugate the French verb "aller". The dog doesn't sit. The client does not use a release word. The dog looks away from your eyes during a heeling exercise.

This single mistake is disheartening. There is something so human about a single failure making us into Charlie Brown "AAUGH!" The emotion of AAUGH! is, I believe, contagious between humans and dogs. I don't know if we push them into frustration because of our frustration or if they are so sympathetic as to just feel what we do, but I know that once I see frustration on either end of the leash, learning is about to stop.

Emotions and thinking do not coincide well. The brain does not multi-task. It can shift focus rapidly, but it does not multi-task. (Thanks, Dr. John Medina! All teachers should read "Brain Rules".) We exploit this to good effect when we ask frightened dogs to sit or give Hi-5 or heel. It is important to realize that this can work the other way as well.

Thinking can be interrupted by feeling equally well as feeling can be interrupted by thinking. You can stop your dog's lovely heel work with your few mis-timed reinforcers (punishments or rewards). Your mis-timing will frustrate the dog. "What the heck? NOW what are the rules?"

Since many dogs are good and kind, no one is chomped for this unfairness. But when I feel AAUGH!, if I had a mouthful of teeth and something squishy to chomp... well, I think it would take more than a few biscuits to stop me. Heaven help us if you decided to correct me for thinking about chomping! I'm not saying I excuse biting dogs, but I do understand them. (I am a shameless anthropomorphosizer. Or do I caninomorphi... ? well, whatever.)

Mistakes are part of the game. They are part of the experience. You will make them. The dog will make them. But human frustration -- that comes from lack of appropriate expectation of mistakes. Just as I would work with a frustrated dog, I recommend one of two approaches: learn to assess "Ok. Now why didn't that happen?" OR monitor building frustration and stop the session before it reaches critical mass. Use both.

Cue? Command? Trigger? Prompt?

2009-06-20T14:30:00.000-04:00

ALL behavior is initiated by something. There is a "trigger", "cue", "prompt", "eliciter", "command" that starts every behavior. The dog receives some stimuli, which results in some mental processing. This starter -- the thing which tells you (the dog) what to do, how to respond -- can take a variety of forms.

I find that most dogs rely on a combination of clues to figure out what is going on, and what kind of behavior is called for. Now, sometimes this behavior is called for DELIBERATELY, by humans who are asking for something, and sometimes it's just dictated by being yourself (the dog).

Physical location
Scent
Sequence of events
Actions taken by owner
Behavior of other dogs
Behavior of humans
Sounds
Deliberate sounds, leash/collar movement, touches, body language from handler (traditional commands)
Others

For example, my dog learned when she was a puppy that doors were places to sit. A door is a physical location "cue" for my dog. I didn't have to say anything to her, but I would elicit a sit response when we approached doors. Now, 6 years later, I don't insist on a sit every time, but she always gives me a questioning look when we approach doors: "Do I wait this time?"

The importance of physical location in helping the dog understand the question is evident when I meet dogs who sit with rapt attention to their owner in the living room, where their owner has carefully trained them to sit, and who don't even so much as glance at the owner outside the front door. Same command, same expectation, "SIT", but competely different results. The dog has accepted the texture of the carpet, the smell of the home, the location in the living room as PART of the question. It's how you (the dog) know what you (the dog) are supposed to do.

Scent is grossly underrated as a component of a command. The smell of treats or food can not ONLY serve as a motivator, but I suspect that it activates relevant neurons in the brain, ones that have to do with training. How do I generally act that is most likely to make this scent result in something in my mouth? (Unlike humans, analysis is not based on what happened LAST time but what is most likely overall. More on that in another post.)

If you train your dogs to follow scent, you must deliberately expose them to multiple fields, multiple conditions, so that the only variable that stays the same is the scent of the person you are following or of the crushed foliage, if you are tracking.

Sequence of events is also an often overlooked context. The squeal of hinges. The jingle of tags. A pause. The neighbor just let their dog out. How do I (the dog) respond?

Actions of owner can also be sequences of events. Did you get up late? Did no one go to work today? It must be weekend and therefore hiking/training/agility/etc day. There is a certain probable sequence of events that occur on "sleep late/don't leave" days. Going to the kitchen. Opening the treat container. Picking up the leash. Someone walking up the front steps and across the porch.

The importance of understanding the ENTIRE sequence of events is particularly important for beginning trainers who cannot yet steer through an exercise, and who must instead repeat the ENTIRE exercise. Failing to do so can be perceived by the dog as the human actually giving a DIFFERENT command. This is confusing to the dog. (Confusion generally yields a lack of successful results.)

The behavior of other dogs is not unknown as a "trigger" to owners of multiple dogs. This subject should also be a completely separate -- well, probably an encyclopedia. Suffice it to say that other dogs recognizably demand a behavioral response from your dog.

My position is that any dog will have to learn to deal with probably 100s of dogs who aren't happy about them, so I enforce the "cue" of dog body language that says, "Go away". Yup, I'm that owner. I don't listen to a word you say. I listen to what your dog is saying. So if your dog says, "Hey, who are you?" to my dog... I let my dog say hi. And when your dog says, "Uh, you are making me nervous"... my dog has to leave. In so doing, I actively teach my dogs to respond to cues (commands) given by other dogs.

(In my defense, I'm a poorly socialized human who prefers dogs to people. I'm not trying to not hear you. I see your dog, I have tunnel vision on your dog. It just happens.)

Behavior of humans is challenging, as anyone knows who has owned a dog with dominant bully, aggressive-fearful, or timid-fearful responses. Teaching the dog to read every human behavior as either "none of your doggy business" or non-threatening -- well, THAT is a project! Another post for details, but remember that by teaching, you can assign a specific right answer to the "question" of interaction with humans.

Sounds are often easily recognized by humans, because humans use & respond to sound cues themselves. The doorbell is an obvious one. Phone ringing. Your significant other saying, "Honey..." in that tone you know means you are going to have to do something you don't want to. Interestingly, in the list here, doorbell and phone are often relevant to dogs, while "Honeeey..." is not. Another post later on keeping your SO from learning how to "Honey..." you.

Althought sound is easily recognized, because of the similarities of sound importance to both species, sight is often over-rated by humans. Dogs actually do not see that well. Movement may either be easier to see, or just more likely to be interesting. They can be taught to use visual discrimination, but using visual cues does not come as naturally to dogs as it does to people. A dog doesn't care if you hold up one finger or a flat palm -- that's pretty much the same gesture unless you teach the dog that one finger means one thing, and flat palm means another.

Now, these cues are often cited as "causes" or "motivators" of behavior. This is incorrect. Your dog is not lunging at mine because mine approached. Your dog is lunging for the reward of either sniffing my dog or getting my dog to move away from it. But my dog's behavior is not responsible for your issue. In fact, my dog's behavior is not actually affecting your issue. The demand for reaction, the "cue" is no different than me walking past your dog and saying "SIT". The presentation (or avoidance of presentation) of the "question" is not responsible for your dog's failure to give a correct answer. Lack of deliberate teaching IS responsible.

If your dog gets it wrong, well, he gets it wrong. Not the end of the world. When your dog "gets it wrong", I see that behavior as a cue for my dog to go away, which I enforce when I need to. When your dog approaches mine, this is a cue. This is a teaching opportunity.

Traditional command training -- SIT, DOWN, HEEL, COME, LOOK, LEAVE IT, OFF, GO TO YOUR ROOM, FETCH, SHAKE, ROLL OVER, etc -- is taught using a variety of cues. Some trainers insist on a specific cue-- only voice, only hand signals, only leash signals, no touching, etc. This is plain silly. There is no magic in using any kind of cue.

There are reasons for choosing one type of cue over another -- for example, leash signals are not good for teaching off-leash response. Visual hand signals are not effective when your dog is in the next room. Scent cues, while probably the most natural way for a dog to discriminate, are immensely complicated to keep from being tainted and changing. Touching your dog may not be possible if it is fearful or a mouthy pup!

Say you choose something inconvenient. Can you change it? YES!! By consistently showing your dog that the unknown word cue "SIT" is always followed by whatever is the known visual hand signal, you can eventually eliminate the hand signal. Any cue can be changed from to another, just like humans learn that "Hola" = "Hello".

Train Brainy - Basics of Training For Command Response

2009-06-19T19:51:00.000-04:00

"Training brainy" allows you to establish trust and stimulate thinking.

1. Give command & hand signal.
2. Get the dog to do what you asked.
3. Give release word.
4. Reward.

The command & hand signal can be thought of as a "question". You are presenting the dog with a challenge. An opportunity. An assignment.

When the dog gets the answer right, you give the release word. Not only does the release tell the dog when he is done, but it also becomes a reward. The release word becomes what behaviorists call a "secondary reinforcer".

If you are using a clicker, it is important to understand the functional role your clicker plays. The clicker can be used in a similar capacity as the release word (secondary reinforcer). It can also be used as feedback (tertiary reinforcer). It can also be used as both. It can be used as a command, but not if it is being used in a reinforcement (primary or secondary) capacity. Clicker is often attempted in a "distractor" capacity. I don't find this works out well. More on this in another post!

The release word (secondary reinforcer) predicts the appearance of what the dog REALLY wants, which is food, play, etc. What the dog REALLY wants is called the "primary reinforcer". Primary reinforcers are motivators like food, sex, distance from danger, stress relief, social status, etc. Temple Grandin says that behavior comes from drive to stabilize core emotional states. These would also be considered "primary reinforcers" or "motivators".

There ARE dogs for whom getting the right answer, pleasing the handler, or receiving affection is a primary reinforcer. I find MOST dogs don't fall into this category.

Beginners, use food -- not just because dogs really like food, especially if hungry, but also for ease of controlled access. Non-beginners, play is a bit harder, but worth a try. It's addictive for both parties!

There are cognitive rewards (like stress relief or social status) which we must acknowledge exist as motivators, but which we have no vehicle with which to control the brain's access to these motivators.

So, great. Now we know how to train! All we do is follow the 4 steps, everything's fine. Right?

Chances are, the dog will make a mistake. You can think of your starting probability as 50/50 that the dog will get the answer right/wrong. When you see a mistake, do you teach through or do you regroup yourselves for another (hopefully better) trial?

If you choose to teach through, you will need to make use of feedback to communicate precisely what is leading to the reward and what is making the reward farther away. Teaching use of feedback (tertiary reinforcers) will be covered in another post. Suffice it to say that feedback is a game of "hot & cold".

If you are a beginner, or if you are not able to tell at if it is your mistake or the dog's mistake, I recommend simply telling the dog to "try again" (literally say those words to the dog) and start again from the very beginning of the exercise.

**Starting from the very beginning of the exercise is critical. If you have a dog that jumps on people as they enter the door, the beginning of the exercise is where the person is outside the door, not just where you told the dog "OFF".

It is also important to recognize that if the dog gets the answer right, the probability of the dog getting the next one right is high, but the probability of getting the next 20 right is much lower. Always quit when you have had success. 2-3 answers right is about quitting time on any new exercise. If you get 5 right answers in a row, without having to start from the beginning, definitely quit!

Punishment

2009-06-18T16:52:00.001-04:00

Punishment is not an effective primary tool of learning. In the immortal words of Peter Gibbons in "Office Space" --

"When I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired."

Most of us want a relationship with our pets where the dog is actively interested in trying to please us, not just avoiding the hassle we eventually come to represent.

Punishments tend to damage the trust and eagerness most pet owners work hard to build. Pain activates circuits in the brain related to stress & frustration. No brains, dog or otherwise, can multi-task. Excessively painful punishment actually inhibits learning.

While aversive distractors can have a place in training, they can have tremendous side effects, and rapidly. For this reason, they are best left to professionals.

Fundamental Behavior Concepts

2009-06-18T16:24:00.000-04:00

Although it is important to recognize that dogs are different from humans in what they value, the basic framework of learning is quite similar.

ALL behavior is motivated by pursuit of reward.

Whether you would describe the behavior as "good" or "bad", anything the dog finds rewarding will be repeated. The more "delicious" (salient) the dog finds the reward, the more difficult it will be to stop the dog from doing that behavior.

Effective training takes advantage of this idea in three ways:

You can make sure it is very difficult to stop your dog from doing the behaviors you like by providing properly timed salient rewards.
You can eliminate unwanted by ensuring that your dog no longer has access to the rewards incurred by unwanted behaviors.
You can communicate with and teach your dog new (and fairly unnatural) behaviors by deliberately providing or removing access to motivators.

In some ways, dogs learn more efficiently than humans, because they are able to assess probabilities much more effectively than humans. A dog does not assess based on what happened the first time or the last time, but on the probability of reward based on all his previous experiences. For this reason, a single event generally does not have a significant impact on the whole of training.

Mistakes are often made in training because of a lack of comprehension of potential rewards. Most people recognize food and affection. Some other rewards dogs value include:

sex or interaction with the opposite sex
play/social interaction
touch/getting more or less
attention/getting more or less
sniffing/olfactory stimulation & processing
proximity to novelty/going to or avoiding
social status/higher or lower
shelter
visual access to stimuli/gaining or avoiding
intellectual stimulation "work" -- digging, tracking, scent work, sports, etc.

This is by no means a comprehensive list! It appears to me that the entirety of what any individual dog values and works for is probably unique to that specific dog.

How to Train Brainy -- Teach a Dog to Respond to Commands (Beginners)

2009-06-17T09:21:00.001-04:00

Command
Elicit--Get the dog to do what you want
Release
Reward

Command alone is not training. Elicit alone is not training. Reward alone is not training.

Punishment alone is definitely not an effective way to change behavior, because dogs are not THAT different from humans! In the immortal words of Peter Gibbons in "Office Space" --

"When I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired."

Most of us want the dog to work eagerly, with enthusiasm, and in partnership with us. If your primary goal is for the dog to "respect" (fear) you, you have an ego problem. You should really talk to someone about why you feel so powerless as to find it rewarding to intimidate furry creatures under 3 feet tall. Can dominance be an issue? Yes. Can dominance (social status) affect response to commands? Yes. Does it have any place in the teaching of command response? No way.

The challenge of #2, Getting the dog to do what you want, is that you have to do two things at once. There are 2 parts to getting the dog to do what you want. One is what I call "eliciting" the behavior--showing the dog what you want, helping the dog to get the right answer. The other is communication -- what I call "steering" the behavior via feedback. The more often you and your dog work together doing 2 things at once, the easier it becomes.

"Eliciting" the behavior is generally what most trainers offer as "tips". For example, moving a treat over a puppy's head often results in the puppy sitting. This is one way to elicit the sit behavior. Another way is hands-on physical guiding of the puppy. Some trainers use a collar and leash to show the dog what they want. Still other trainers will simply wait for the dog to accidentally sit. These are all effective methods, and you may have thought of another that works!

Using distractions, distracting the dog back to focus on you, such as a noise or noisemaker, a tickle (lightly touching the dog, moving the hair against direction of growth) are part of eliciting. Some trainers use a leash & flat or other collar to do this. You've got to be watched by a trainer to use the leash distraction effectively.

"Feedback" is the harder of the two parts. To communicate the meaning of "good" and "no", you must teach what those mean AS you are teaching response to commands. And, while you do that, it is CRITICAL that your timing of any action or word is dead-on!

See why dog training is not quite as easy as it looks on TV? There is an intense amount of "juggling" you must do!

"Good" is the word you repeat as long as the dog is doing the right thing. Eventually, you will be able to use just the word "good", but in the beginning, you must communicate its meaning. Give 1 treat after each good.

"No" is a little red "X". "No" means "that's not what I want right now". It doesn't mean "never do that again", and even if you try to mean it, most dogs won't understand a single "no" to mean that, anyway! It does not mean "I will eat you". It does not mean "I will not tolerate that". It just means "no". In the "hot or cold" game we all played as kids, it's "cold" -- "you are not getting closer to the right answer".

To communicate the meaning of "no", there are a number of non-physical consequences that are effective.
Physical consequences should NEVER be instituted by a beginning trainer (owner) on a beginning dog. Any physical consequence you use should be directly supervised by a trainer who has effectively used this consequence. Although it is stated many times on "The Dog Whisperer", most beginners don't realize that physical consequence is ALWAYS "Do not try this at home". Appropriate physical consequence is a matter of some debate in the training community. While there is disagreement, I know of NO reputable trainer who would suggest hitting, kicking, swatting, using newspapers, sticks, or other similar attacks to your dog. Don't attack your dog if you are trying teach your dog not to attack.

Effective non-physical "No" consequences:

moving treat farther from dog's nose
breaking eye contact
walking away from dog -- leaving training area/context (Don't leave dog with access to treats!)
putting treat container back
putting leash away instead of attaching for walk
moving dog to time-out of 30-60 seconds or until dog is calm & relaxed

The opposite of all of these consequences is understood by your dog as a reward:

treat moving closer
paying attention/eye contact
initiating training exercise or training session
getting treat container out
attaching the leash
releasing the dog from time-out area

Part #3 is the part everyone always forgets, resulting in the dog who "won't stay" because he doesn't know when he is done staying! By clearly marking the beginning and end of a behavior, you can clearly communicate your expectations to your dog--who, by the way, cannot read yoru mind!

Part #4 is typically food at the most basic stages of training, but to take it to the next level, it is important to understand all the other non-food rewards that can motivate a dog's behavior.

Use your brain! Have fun training!

Perspective -- What is it like to be...?

2009-06-10T12:29:00.002-04:00

...a dog?

...THAT dog?

...that owner?

...dealing with that issue?

Cognitive Ethologist? Abnormal Canine Psychologist?

2009-06-10T11:59:00.000-04:00

One significant difference between humans and dogs is dogs' inability to lie. I initially typed the word "limitation" in this sentence, and then began to ponder: What does that imply?" Canines can redirect, "fake out" a partner--I accidentally typed "person" with a picture of a dog in my head. Yeah, I'm a little nuts. -- maybe 'interlocutor' is the word I need?, but I believe they cannot lie.

So where is all this going? It's going to my desire to move the canine model from behaviorism to something cognitive. ALL behavior is motivated by something. Behavior is not random. So, a biting dog who simply needs more mental stimulation will benefit from obedience training or tracking work. A biting dog who needs social help will benefit from controlled & monitored social interactions. A biting dog who needs emotional help will benefit from exercise or pharmaceutical support. A biting dog who needs physical help will benefit from walks, treadmilling, & backpacks. Practically, I find dogs don't fit neatly into physical/mental/emotional/social. They have some degree of need in each direction. I start with the direction that seems farthest from normal, and often use combination therapies, such as wild play reward for intense obedience work, to address multiple needs at the same time. Now, this type of work is not what I would call "training". I think the closest description of my role would be abnormal canine psychologist? I'm not sure if that means the canine or the psychologist is abnormal... Which seems to fit, really.