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 1: Operant Conditioning

Dembre & I have decided to do a couple of posts on dog behavior and training. For the first post we would like to introduce basic dog behavior/psychology terms.

• Operant Conditioning forms an association between a behavior and a consequence. The following definitions are the four ways operant conditioning can be applied.

•  Negative punishment: In an attempt to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring in the future, an operant response is followed by the removal of an appetitive stimulus. In more simplified terms: when the dog does something unwanted you decrease the likeliness of the unwanted behavior being repeated by taking away something that the dog wants (i.e. When a dog jumps you take away any form of attention until the dog settles down.) 

•  Positive punishment: something undesirable is given in response to the behavior. (i.e. Your dog lunges towards a distraction while on leash. In response you give a forceful leash correction. You are implementing something that the dog dislikes to decrease the likeliness of him repeating the undesirable behavior. 

•  Negative Reinforcement: Negative Reinforcement can be thought of as nagging. If you pull on a dogs leash until he sits he will learn that when he sits the nagging (leash pulling) stops. This method of dog training can become abusive if misused, but can also be affective. 

• Positive Reinforcement: Positive reinforcement is a behavioral technique in which desired behaviors are increased through the use of rewards, also known as positive reinforcers. A good dog trainer uses positive reinforcement every day. An example of positive reinforcement is using treats to reward a dog for sitting. Another example of positive reinforcement is showing excitement and giving praise when your dog comes on command. 

Operant Conditioning is also applied to child training. In the training of ever species of animal Operant Conditioning is used. Bob and Marian Bailey founded chicken camps where students can come and apply operant conditioning to chickens. In their camps they assigned each trainee to one or more chickens and had them teach the chickens three tasks over three days. Yes, they trained chickens. I find myself mainly using positive punishment and positive reinforcement in my dog training. I think that negative punishment is very effective and is one of the best ways to correct a fearful dog. I will go more in depth on reinforcement in my next post!

If you are interested in learning more about operant conditioning I highly recommend reading How To Behave So Your Dog Behaves by Sophia Yin D.V.M.. From her scientific standing Dr. Yin provides lots of information on the "new" scientific approach to dog training. She gives effective ways to use positive and negative punishment, and positive and negative reinforcement in every day training. For more on how dogs think I would suggest reading Dog Talk by John Ross. Ross, an experienced professional dog trainer, talks about the way dogs communicate and how to apply what we learn to more effectively communicate with your dog. Though this book talks absolutely nothing about all the things I talked about this post, it gives a very clear understanding that we need to stop thinking that our dogs think the same way we do!

Hope you enjoyed this,
~Elijah & Dembre

No matter how scientific dog training is, it's not easy. The most important thing is that the dog and trainer have mutual respect for each other.