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Some Thoughs on Training Dogs |
A good manager would establish a common language for better communication. Imagine being able to encourage your animal to cooperate with you by being precise about when he right. He needs to know precisely when he is right. He needs encouragement or a keep going signal to help him understand. He also needs to be paid for his work.
The field of dog training has expanded in the last decade to incorporate some very exciting ideas from the marine mammal world. The idea of putting a choke chain on a dolphin or a sea lion and yanking them about is ridiculous. How does a trainer teach an animal what to do without force? A dolphin or a sea lion could just swim away. The idea would be to let the animal know when he has done something right and reinforce that. You make it worth his while. Traditional training would have you wait until your animal did something wrong, and then correct it. Which is not too successful when your animal can simply leave. One could hardly blame him.
Science has taught us that behavior that is reinforced will be repeated. This includes behavior that we find undesirable. Let’s use jumping up on people as an example. When your dog jumps on you and you yell “no” at him, he has just been reinforced. He got what he came for. He would rather have your attention than be ignored. If you thrust your knee in his chest, he can dodge it or learn to jump on you from behind. What a fun new game! How reinforcing. What if instead, your dog received nothing from you unless he sat? This is an example of teaching an incompatible behavior. He cannot jump on you when he is sitting. When he sits, he gets the attention he desires.
One of the most common complaints I hear as a trainer is, “My dog won’t come to me when I call him”. How did this happen? What happens when he does/did come to you? Was he scolded for taking the long way? Did you lose your temper and shout at him to come? Perhaps you had to put him in a crate for 8 hours while you went to work. Maybe it was bath time, or time for a brushing and a nail trim which he hates. Hardly a reward for coming to you. Maybe you chased him. There are few games more fun for a dog than to be chased by their humans. Let’s face it, dogs have 4 wheel drive all the time and you are not going to succeed in catching him. He is being reinforced for running away. We accidentally reinforce our dogs for the wrong behavior quite frequently. It is more rewarding for them to jump on us or run away than it is to sit or come.
The idea of letting your dog know when he did something right is not new. Children often make wonderful trainers because they let dogs know they like something by laughing or encouraging them. For teaching purposes, we call this a bridge. A bridge is a sound or signal that means one is right. Common bridges are “good”, “yes”, a smile, or a laugh. Some of you may have heard of Clicker training. A click is a bridge. It bridges the gap in time that an animal does something right and his reinforcement. How many of us laugh when a puppy shreds a shoe or runs away with a pen? How many people think it’s funny when our grown dogs are STILL doing these things? I have not found many, but I confess that my 12-year-old dog will unravel bathroom tissue from time to time. I trained him to do that when he was a puppy by laughing or bridging him for this behavior. He just looked so cute when he ran away with the end of the paper in his mouth, trailing a streamer. I further confess that I still smile when I see he has been up to his oldest trick, although he walks sedately now.
Many people believe that their dogs should obey them out of love. As much as I love my job of training dogs, I want and need to be paid. Our partnership with our canine friends developed out of mutual needs for companionship, protection, shelter and food. A dog’s motto could be: What’s In It For Me? Why should he do something for you if there is no benefit to him? Does this mean he doesn’t love you? No. There is a wonderful opportunity to establish yourself as a kind and benevolent leader when you control his resources. These resources are not always food. Affection, access to territory and playtime are all resources.
Training need not be punitive in order to be effective. Communication is the key.
© Stefanie London, 2002
When we begin training our dogs, we must establish a common ground for better communication. Our dogs do not speak our language. Imagine yourself in a new job working for a boss that speaks a different language. He might become frustrated with your seeming noncompliant behavior. He may describe you as stubborn and lazy. He may even start shouting and gesturing to motivate you. So far, nothing he has tried has gotten him the results he desires. If he threw something at you or struck you, you might want to leave or strike him back. You would definitely not want to work for this person. Now put your dog in this position. He doesn’t speak our language though he has one of his own. He is eager to please but doesn’t understand what it is we want of him. So we might jerk his leash and say “heel” or “no”. These things do not indicate what you’d rather he do.
K-9 Friend APDT #6655
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