Identifying Effective Rewards

Knowing what your dog considers to be a reward and having the ability to use that as an advantage in training can make the difference between making a behavior 99.99% reliable in a couple days and making it reliable in a couple weeks.

Giving your dog a piece of cheese or a good pat on the head is all find and dandy but it might not be as effective as we think. If the dog's main attention is on something else, or expecting something completely different, the "Good boy!" and the pat on the head is a poor reinforcer.

As a rule of thumb whenever you want to find a high reinforcer for your specific situation ask yourself this simple question: "What does my dog really want as this moment?"

Lets see a few examples:

2 year old girl had jaw ripped off by dog.

This news story absolutely blew my mind!

Here's the link if you haven't already read it: 2 Year Old Girl Mauled by Dog

Basically in a nutshell, this young 2 year old girl was playing with toys and the drawers in her bedroom (apparently with the dog in there) and the father was there supervising. He turned away from "2 seconds", heard a growl and when he turned back the dog was mauling the young girls face. The father beat the dog off of his daughter, took her to the neighbors, went back and stabbed the dog with a knife.

Alright here is what I have to say on the subject.

Let me say it right now, I feel really sorry for the poor girl (Taylor), the poor child wasn't even screaming when the dog was taken off of her, which goes to show how traumatic this experience must have been, and will most likely leave emotional scars on her for the rest of her life. I honestly hope she gets better.

Now here are some things that seriously bugged me. I completely understand a desperate father's attempts at trying to save his daughter by punching and beating the dog, its a moment where one doesn't really think and time is of the essence. I don't judge the father for that whatsoever. But the fact that, after he took his daughter to the neighbors, that he left her there and went back to stab the dog is outrageous! Should have something been done about the dog? Yes. But stabbing the dog? No. The last act was purely out of revenge, not self defense seeing how no one else was in danger, and would justly fall into the category of animal abuse.

Two different kinds of walks.

Not long ago a dog trainer brought to my attention something, soon after I inquired about Junior's pulling tendencies. What he mentioned wasn't anything highly complexed, as a matter of fact it was quite elementary, but it's a piece of information I've never been able to forget. He told me that there are two kinds of walks on which to take your dog on: the dog's walk and the owner's walk.

He didn't realy coin those terms but to make it easier to explain I've given each that name. A 'dog's walk' is when you take your dog out and let it explore to it's heart's content. The 'owner's walk' is where a dog should be at the owner's side, heeled, at all times and not being distracted by anything. One is definitely much easier to go on than the other but in truth neither is more important over the other and almost every dog should be taken out and trained for both kinds of walks.

Now we all know how important walking our dogs is, after all a 'tired dog is a good dog'. Going on walks helps use energy that could build up and become distructive behaviors. For others its a good way not only to keep their dog's in shape but themselves too! Regardless of why we go on walks, both the dog's and owner's walks help in separate aspects and one shouldn't be written off as unimportant. Lets take a closer look at each one.

Housebreaking: Are you expecting too much?

Its not uncommon to get frustrated dog owners on forum and q/a communities asking what is wrong with their 3 month old pup that continues to have accidents in the house. The answer is always the same: your dog is still too young. I can say from experience that housebreaking is one of the most tedious and frustrating problems one comes across in dog-ownership. However we should try to avoid expecting so much in so little time.

Most pups may not develop full bladder and bowel control till about 6 to 8 months. Take this and add to it that most pups haven't yet learned a way to let us know that they need to go to the bathroom and you can easily see why a pup has frequent accidents at first.

So what can you do? Well its true that in time the pooch will eventually be able to hold it in, but you can't simply stand back and watch. There are plenty of things you can do to speed along the process. The first thing is never to set up your dog for failure, if you know the pup can't hold it in for long don't allow long periods of time to go by without having had taken out the pup. I usually recommend after meals, after play time, after exercise, before bed, when you wake up and maybe even once during the night.

A Great Dog Training Book!

I wanted to share with everyone a great book I just finished reading. Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor.

This book has taught me a whole lot about clicker training and operant conditioning. I actually wasn't all too comfortable with the thought of using a clicker as a reinforcer but the simple and clear explanations given by the author along with some great examples teaches you just what you can do with a bit of shaping.

This might be an excellent read for those that are reluctant to stop using "traditional" means of training dogs such as dominance or force. There are chapters dedicated to talking about the effect of fear on learning as well as explanations as to how the clicker works in the brain.

Why not advise Aversive Techniques on the Net

Many people that advocate the use of aversive or negative techniques often say that they DO work and that its worked wonders for their dogs. I don't think we can argue with them on that point, because if they didn't work then trainers back in the 1960's who were using them wouldn't have had a job! Of course the more modern trainers don't question IF they work but rather how, why, and for how long they work. But thats a different story that we may touch upon on another blog. I just want to focus on the following two points of why its not appropriate to advise using aversive techniques on the internet.

The Skill Required

The skill to effectively administer an aversive training technique is not present in everyone. In an article I wrote debunking the alpha theory, I wrote a little about why punishement wasn't an appropriate tool for average owners. It explains how most people's emotions rule the severity and length of the punishment and how timing and consistency is usually not a strong point in those that aren't well acquainted with how dog's think.

Simply because an aversive method worked for you personally doesn't make it ok to go on the internet and argue with those that offer more dog friendly methods and suggest that others use it because it worked for them. People reading that may not possess the skill to do the same thing and have it work for them. Not to mention used incorrectly aggressive methods have been proven to cause aggressive behaviors in dogs. Suggestions of this nature have only made the problem worse when it could have been avoided with more modern and positive techniques.

Secret to having two dogs meet

Alright its not really a secret but here are some good tips to keep on hand when you are having your dog meet another.

Not too long ago I took Junior along to the park with me, there really isn't all too many dogs there since it isn't a dog park but it is dog friendly. On this occasion Junior had to socialized with two different dogs.

One important thing to do is to know your dog, always look at him/her to make sure that you aren't stressing them out more than you should and to make sure that they aren't going to start going crazy.

Next important thing is to be calm. Honestly, we tend to tense up so much because we don't know whats going to happen. It happened to me in the park as well, the other dog in this case was a friends of mine and it was smaller so I didn't want anything to happen to her. But I noticed that I was too tense, I had the leash held tight and I was hardly controling my breathing (I was holding it in). So I shook that feeling off, I let the tension out of the leash and I took a deep breath all at the same time. Junior stop pulling, stopped that little throat growl of his and went up my friend's dog and did the typical k9 greeting ceremony. After that they were both just fine. Junior was now more interested on continuing his walk!

Sheetza

Here's our little Dachshund! Her name is Sheetza, yes I know its the weirdest name for a dog, but that's the name we got her with. We actually got her quite young, about 8-9 months I think, one of our close friends gave her to us, and so we were less inclined to change a name that they had given to her.

From what we are told, she didn't have a very good puppyhood (before our friends got her), and as a direct result she tends to be fear aggressive of people and some dogs. Other than that, she fits the doxie description pretty well, she's a one person dog, wary of strangers, and a surprisingly loud barker!

Junior My Chow Mix

So I said in a blog before that I'd talk a little bit about my dogs. Well first lets start off with Junior, he's my chow mix. I didn't receive him as a puppy, as much as I would have liked, he actually belonged to someone else that I knew in the neighborhood. I actually didn't get him till he was three years old.

A little about Junior? Well he's a HE, many people seem to mistake him for a her...I'm not sure how...Currently (2010) he's 5 years old. I'm positive he's a chow mix although I have no idea what other breeds he might be mixed with, my best guesses would be Golden Retriever and Finnish Spitz. He's got an incredibly high prey drive, meaning he'll chase rabbits and squirrels like crazy, also has some trouble with pulling on the lead, which I'm working on.