The Dog Blog

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES

Dr. Ian Dunbar — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:21:09 -0600

Laboratory study has revealed a variety of reinforcement schedules. Puppy training has revealed that most of these are notorious ineffective, or impossible to administer in practice, with the notable exceptions of variable ratio and especially, differential reinforcement. Yet educators and trainers persist in using these relatively ineffective schedules of reinforcement when trying to teach children and employees and when attempting to train husbands and dogs. Wake up! Puppy training has taught us that most of this stuff doesn’t work too well.

Continuous Reinforcement (CR) — the dog is rewarded after every correct response, for example, the dog is rewarded after every sit

Why The Dog Whisperer Whispers

Rachel Friedman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:30:05 -0600

Just finished up a 6 week series of Puppy Kindergarten and Puppy Next Step with the next series slated to begin next month.

Shy dogs learning to play and overcome some fears; over the top pups learned to tone it down and play nice; people learning a peaceful, fun and non violent way to train.

Spring is definitely afoot. Sunshine, melting snow, blue skies, chirping birds -- an assault on all the senses. In a good way.

View this hilarious clip from Charlie Murphy which says with laugh out loud humor the real secret to the Dog Whisperer. An assault on the senses. In a bad way. Shout it out -- positive training works!

TWEAKING LEARNING THEORY FOR HUMAN BRAINS

Dr. Ian Dunbar — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:39:54 -0600

These days, many trainers eat and breathe learning-theory. The Little Book Of Learning Theory (LBOLT) is creedally accepted by one and all, even though little of it works in practice. Please don’t stone me. I am not being heretical. Learning theory is a real and valid description of how computers train animals but the LBOLT offers little for when people teach people or train animals. People are not computers and have neither the consistency, computing power or timing. LBOLT has many constraints in practice. To make matters worse, the really useful principles that LBOLT has to offer are ignored by many trainers, for example, that consequences are binary — from the dog’s point of view either things get better, or worse. Instead, trainers will debate for hours, which quadrant they are in, even though it’s all really a moot debate.

PET DOG TRAINING NEEDS AN OVERHAUL

Dr. Ian Dunbar — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:11:53 -0600

Off-leash puppy socialization and training classes caused an unplanned paradigm shift in dog training. The off-leash format was ideal for socialization with people and puppies and produced confident, friendly, good-natured and well-behaved dogs. Also the off-leash format was ideal for teaching off-leash verbal control at a distance in an extremely distracted setting without the continued need for training aids. The field of science-based, pet dog training exploded and other fields of dog training (obedience, protection, search and rescue, bomb/drug search and hearing-ear dogs) followed suit, because pet dog trainers were training puppies to off-leash control within a tenth of the time that it took on-leash trainers. Basically, teaching a dog what to do is quicker than teaching a dog what not to do, because … there is only one right way compared to the infinite number of wrong ways.

Let Them Pull!

Laurel Scarioni — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:09:27 -0600

Forget loose leash walking.... I've decided to teach my dog to pull, pull, pull! Okay, so I'm not going to let her pull all the time... and I do continue to expect a loose leash in many situations... but I am also working to perfect her pulling technique! Lately, I've been more and more drawn to activities that allow my dogs to do things that they really love to do. Nose work is one new pursuit that is bringing us all a lot of joy. I think that activity is what prompted me to allow my Australian Cattle Dog, Myrtle Mae, to pursue another of her passions... pulling!

Providing contrast -- the "mistake" lure?

Nicole S. Silvers — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:57:01 -0600

The technique is one for advanced handlers. Beginning handlers, you have enough on your mind! You'll get to this later, and all will work out just fine.

Although the practice is typically associated with positive-punishment (pain)-only training, the concept is valid, even if the pain is unnecessary. The idea is to provide contrast. Elicit or at least deliberately provide the opportunity for the dog to give a WRONG answer, mark it with an NRM (non-reward marker), WITHHOLD reward (or, in other words "negatively punish"), then elicit the correct response and reward it.

Behavioral Mutations Revisited

Rachel Friedman — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:50:24 -0600

Lily the Queen died nearly 8 weeks ago. The historically sound triumvirate – 3 kids, 3 cats, 3 dogs — has been fang shwayed into imbalance with 3 kids, 3 cats, and just 2 dogs.

From the very beginning when she came into my life as a gangly rescue pup — serendipitiously and unplanned in January of 2000, Lily kept benevolent control over the human and animal gang. My aide-de-camp. An organic nanny cam. Chase games with Bean. Tolerance of Trip’s terrier antics. A jarring habit of one LOUD bark at the cats if they walked too close to her while she was resting. Never phased the cats. Freaked me out when I wasn’t prepared. I miss it.

It is OK to Change Your Mind!

Tara Choules — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:39:16 -0600

It’s OK to Change Your Mind

It is my personal view that there is a strong correlation between people who seek education, further learning and new experiences and positive open mindedness and that there is also a strong correlation between those who do not seek education, new experiences and closed mindedness. By education I mean experiences, meeting new people, trying something new, trying a new way of doing something and learning more. I do not mean education from a purely academic point of view.

What dog behaviors should I encourage?

Nicole S. Silvers — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:45:26 -0600

Most owners know that they want their dogs to SIT, DOWN, STAY, COME, HEEL. When it comes to general behaviors, owners have little idea of what behaviors they even want to encourage, let alone how to accomplish the encouragement. By contrast, ask an owner what they are trying to stop, and there are multiple answers. Even the most mannerly dogs' "rap sheets" tend to be read out when meeting other dog people.

As positive trainers, it is our responsibility to model the behavior we want to see in other humans. A small step towards teaching other owners what behaviors they should want is to identify the behaviors our dogs are good at.

What to look for

No matter how tiny a moment of these behaviors you see, if you reward them, you'll see more!

IT’S ALL ABOUT ADOLESCENCE

Dr. Ian Dunbar — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:26:20 -0600

Pet dog training comprises raising good-natured, well-behaved and mannerly dogs that are under off-leash, distance verbal control (at home or in parks). Raising puppies is fun. Socialization is effortless and enjoyable and behavior and manners training is easy and effective. Similarly, living with friendly, confident and mannerly adult dogs is wonderful once all of the training has paid off and now the dog acknowledges household rules and fits in seamlessly with your lifestyle. Personally, I enjoy living with dogs more and more the older they get. I find the prolonged sunset years of the relationship to be magical. Unfortunately, not all dogs get to enjoy their sunset years in their original homes. For many dogs, adolescence stands in the way.