Dog Behavior Part 4: Putting it Together & Questions to Answer on Your Own

In last three posts I have talked about counter conditioning. In post number two I discussed reinforcement-- a category of  counter conditioning. In the last post I went in depth on punishment-- another category of counter conditioning. Both of the categories of counter conditioning have sub-categories known as positives and negatives. We also discussed using aversive stimuli & appetitive stimuli to shape a desired response. I talked about classical conditioning- the linking of an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus which results in a psychological response. Today I'd like to talk more about these subjects in basic dog training scenarios.

• You are a novice dog trainer. You are teaching your 9 week old puppy to sit on command. (In this scenario we will call the puppy Rover). You put a leash on Rover and walk him to a quiet, low distraction room in your house. You can use an appetitive stimulus (treat) to lure the dog into the sit position. When Rover sits you mark the behavior with "good dog" and immediately give him the treat. You could also pull up on his leash until he sits down and then remove the leash pulling, which is the aversive stimulus. What type of reinforcement are you using when you mark the behavior with the treat??? What type of reinforcement are you using when you stop pulling on the leash when the Rover sits??? If you have read the last posts you can probably answer those questions for yourself.

• Your dog is an excited greeter and when you come home for work she practically knocks you over with excitement. (we will call the dog Lily.) Though Lily doesn't jump on you she zooms around your legs and gets in your way. You have an elderly mother who comes to visit often and you're afraid that Lily will end up hurting her. What do you do? You could, number one, grab Lily by the collar and yank her into a sit position and say "NO!" every time she gets super excited or, number two, you could take your attention away from her and completely ignore her existence until she settles down and sits to get attention. Which one is more effective??? You tell me! Which one is an example of positive punishment and which one is an example of negative punishment??? Once again I'll leave that up to you. 

•  Your dog is scared of his crate (once again we'll call him Rover). He has separation anxiety issues and dislikes his crate because you put him in it every time you leave for long periods of time. You want Rover to like the crate. You can put treats in the crate and wait for him to go in to the crate to get the treat. After lots of repetition of this process most dogs will begin to re-associate the crate with food. When crate training puppies I often give them a Kong stuffed with peanut butter to keep them occupied while I leave for awhile. That helps the puppy associate the crate with treats from the very beginning. You use _______ and ________ to help a fearful dog re-associate a fearful stimulus with an appetitive stimulus??? Also, note: If you want a crate-loving dog you should never put the puppy in the crate in anger. Sometimes when the puppy is giving a hard time you can put him in his crate, but don't shove him in slam the door and leave. He will begin associating the crate with anger and punishment. The crate is not a prison, it's a dog's best friend. 

• You have taught your dog to sit on command in a quiet room at home. He always listens to you in that room. You are sure that he is proficient at this command so you decide to take him to the dog park to practice "sit". You let your dog off leash at the dog park and tell him to sit. He ignores you and runs towards another dog. What do you do and why did your dog disobey? There are a couple answers to this. Your dog has been taught to sit in a quiet room and has never practiced in a high distraction setting. He most likely assumes that when you say "sit" in a quiet room he must obey, but when you say "sit" anywhere else it means nothing. This is because the dog has not been proofed. Dogs don't generalize well and must be taught to obey and pay attention to you in all situations. Puppy raisers proof their dogs by taking them in public. At home a dog may seem perfect, but when placed in a stressful situation he may not listen. A dog is only proficient at a command when he listens consistently even when in a distracting setting. Service dogs have to learn that they obey and serve no matter where they are. 

Patience is a key to dog training! Dogs aren't humans and get confused when you are happy one minute and angry the next. In order to get a well behaved companion you need to be consistent, kind, and effective. Using a mix of positive & negative punishment depending on the situation is necessary. Your signals must be clear!

Hope this was interesting, helpful, and enlightening,

Elijah & Dembre

Dog Behavior Part 3: Punishment

Please note: I am not an expert on this subject. As noted by readers of my last post I defined classical conditioning incorrectly. Many of you are more experienced in the field of animal psychology than I am so feel free to correct my views. I hope that you enjoy these posts.

 Last time I went in depth on reinforcement. Today I'm going to focus on punishment. What do you first think of when you hear the word punishment. I think of some terrible consequence for wrong doing. Punishment is often associated with pain and hardship. Punishment is not necessarily terrible! Punishment is anything that decreases the likeliness that a behavior will occur again. To decrease the likeliness that a behavior will be repeated you can add an aversive stimulus (something unwanted) or remove an appetitive stimulus (something wanted). When you remove something that a dog wants it's called negative punishment. When you add something that a dog dislikes it's called positive punishment. I'm going to give an example and then resolve it using both positive and negative punishment. Let's say that you come home from work and your dog jumps up on you. If your dog is a full sized 70 pound lab you probably don't want him jumping. You can correct this behavior in a lot of different ways, but I'm going to give two examples. Number one you can take away what your dog wants (your attention) and ignore him until he settles down or, number two, you give a voice correction and push or knee the dog off. Some dog trainers like Sophia Yin and Patricia McConnell say that it is most affective to train a dog that instead of jumping on you he should sit calmly to get attention. As far as I know this is an example of counter conditioning. So here are your choices: take your attention away from the dog, vocally & physically correct the dog, or train your dog that instead of jumping he needs to sit to get attention.

I'm first going to discuss taking your attention away from the dog. When your dog jumps you remove the appetitive stimulus (your attention). That makes this way of correction negative punishment. Sometimes negative punishment is unideal. If your dog wants to run and play with another dog you can't necessarily remove the other dog. I use negative punishment very often!

Now lets talk about the second option. You can physically correct the dog by pushing him off of you or kneeing him off. At first when you the word kneeing your dog off of you, you probably think of slamming your dog in the chest and sending him flying. This is not what I'm implying. I have used kneeing in the chest on very confident dogs who constantly jump. You might now be thinking that I'm a dog abuser. I'm not. I personally do not believe it is wrong to physically correct your dog. I'm not advocating abuse or "domination". Physical correction is an example of positive punishment. Overall I think that using voice corrections and negative punishment is ideal. Though dogs aren't wolves they are dogs and they communicate much differently than humans. Many modern dog trainers suggest saying "Ouch" in a high pathetic voice when your puppy mouths you. Though many do not suggest this they are using dog communication. In dog communication high pitched sounds are either sounds of approval or fear/annoyance/pain. When you say "ouch" to a puppy when they bite you, you're indicating that the puppy has gone to far and is hurting you. When you use a deep threatening voice to tell a dong "no" or "don't" your mimicking a dogs growl or snarl that says to stop. If you ever watch a mother dog and her 6 week old puppies you'll notice that she corrects her young by growling at them and grabbing them by the scruff of the neck. The mother dog is using positive punishment.

Once again I would like to recommend reading "How To Behave So Your Dog Behaves"by Dr. Sophia Yin. It's an excellent book! I have read it three times and have used it as a source for these posts. I would also like to suggest reading "Dog Talk"by John Ross.

Hope this was interesting,
~Eijah & Dembre 

Dog Behavior Part 2: Reinforcement and Classical Conditioning

In my last post I gave five basic definitions: Operant Conditioning, Positive punishment, Negative punishment, Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Today I will go more in depth on the subject of reinforcement and introduce the concept of classical conditioning.

First things first. Reinforcement is using something to increase the likeliness that a behavior will be repeated. The sub-categories of both reinforcement and punishment are positive and negative. At first the positives and negatives of behavior can be confusing. Think of it this way: positive indicates that you add something to get the desired result (i.e. a treat or aversive). Negative indicates that you remove something to get the desired result (i.e. attention or aversive). Once you begin thinking of it this way it is less confusing. Here is an example of Negative Reinforcement: You want to teach your dog to sit. You put the dog on leash tell him to "come" and yank or pull on the leash until the dog steps toward you. When the dog steps toward you the aversive stimulus (pressure on the leash) ceases and after repetition the dog realizes that when he comes on command he will avoid the aversive stimulus. When the dog completes the desired behavior the aversive is removed. I personally do not think that giving a command and pulling on a leash is the most effective way to teach a dog to come. Also, when used incorrectly negative reinforcement can be abusive and lead to a fearful dog (i.e. you pull up hard on a training collar to get a dog to sit). You can't expect a dog to immediately know whether a jerk on the leash means to sit or lay down. Negative Reinforcement doesn't always involve "pain". An example of "non-painful" negative reinforcement: You want to teach a puppy to sit. You say "sit" while putting pressure on the dog lower back with your hand. You are not forcing the puppy to sit, just waiting for him to do it himself. When the puppy sits you remove the pressure therefore reinforcing sitting on command.

Dembre--12 weeks (sitting was just reinforced with praise and food)

Now we are on to Positive Reinforcement! Positive reinforcement is probably the most popular and effective way to reinforce a behavior. Most of you have probably heard this term. A common of positive reinforcement is using food rewards, physical rewards (petting) and/or you voice to reinforce a behavior. When first teaching a puppy to sit you often lure him into a sitting position by hold the food over his nose. The treat is an appetitive stimulus (something the dog wants).  Once the dog sits he is rewarded with the treat and the behavior, sitting on command, is reinforced. Your voice can be used as either an aversive or appetitive stimulus. As an aversive stimulus you use a gruff and threatening voice. When used as an appetitive stimulus you use a high pitched and excited voice. Dogs love to hear the voice of their master when it is happy and excited. Dogs, by nature, are pack animals and when you have a bond with a dog they tend to seek your approval and affection. Positive Reinforcement is a great way to reward your dog for good behavior. It also tends to create a link between voice command, obedience, and reward fairly quickly. Good dog trainers use positive reinforcement often and effectively. TIMING IS THE KEY! When your dog does the desired behavior you need to reward him for the behavior IMMEDIATELY... not half a minute after he has done what you want. Dogs are "in the moment" animals and will not associate a treat a minute after he has done a command with the command. It is crucial that you reward the dog right away in order to make a link in his mind between the cue, the completion, and the reward.

Lastly, I would like to introduce a new concept. This concept is classical conditioning! Classical conditioning: Form of associative learning in which a subject learns the relationship between two stimuli. In other words associating one thing with another thing and then associating them with each other. A great example is Ivan Pavlov's famous experiment with dogs! Pavlov was originally trying to do some experiment that involved feeding dogs meat, but eventually when the dogs heard the foot steps of the people who fed them they would drool and it messed up the experiment. Pavlov could of given up, but he had another idea. Every time that the dogs were fed he would ring a bell. Eventually he just rang the bell and didn't immediately give the dogs food. The dogs began to drool. They had associated the sound of the the bell with being fed. When they heard a bell it made them instantly think of food. At least from my understanding!

More soon,
~Elijah & Dembre