Seek Your Tribe

May 232022
 

There are respected, successful, talented, effective trainers at nearly every point along the spectrum of “hardness.” (Personally, I think the very best trainers tend to have superb balance of the various principles along the majority of the spectrum, and can shift themselves as the animal and situation demands, but that is a topic for another day.)

Those nearer the “hard” end tend to espouse messages around strong leadership and boundaries, and not letting your animal become pushy, spoiled, wild—they tend to be big on clarity and firm authority.

Those nearer the “soft” end tend to espouse messages around listening to your animal, helping him find calmness and relaxation, making sure his needs are met and he is comfortable, soft, relaxed—they tend to be big on empowering, motivating, encouraging.  

In general, I think owners who are near the soft end of the spectrum would improve the most by spending the majority of their time listening to trainers who are nearer to the hard end, and owners near the hard end would improve the most by primarily listening to trainers nearer the soft end. Not that anyone should feel compelled to go “too far” outside what seems ethical and right to them–quite the opposite, it is important to work with trainers whose techniques make sense and feel good and correct to you, but generally listening to trainers a bit in the direction opposite your leaning will maximize growth and learning and help you to become a more balanced trainer with greater breadth and depth.

What is interesting is that the opposite tends to happen—soft owners are drawn to soft trainers whose messages sound and feel familiar and comfortable to them, and so they reinforce or exacerbate their inherent imbalance; and hard owners seek out hard trainers who tend to reinforce or exacerbate their innate proclivities.

This is also true with politics, metaphysics, media, life: it is important to seek out those whose central ethics and ideals overlap with yours, but if you constantly surround yourself only with like-minded experts who affirm and reinforce your inclinations, growth is slower and less certain than if you also seek out, and genuinely consider, those whose views will push you to question your tendencies and consider alternative perspectives.   

Share
 May 23, 2022  Posted by at 4:09 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

Emotional States as Training Goals

Aug 182020
 

For most of the last twenty-five years, if you had asked me to define my training style, I probably would have identified myself as a “joy trainer.” My central defining characteristic as a trainer has been to find and develop joy in playing the game; to determine ways to ensure that doing whatever behavior I wanted was the most fun option imaginable, and that the animal was demonstrably, actively engaged and enthused about the process and the outcome. Over the course of training thousands of dogs, cats, antelope, raccoon, skunk, lemur, crows, chickens, lions, tigers, bears, snakes, and nearly everything else to fairly high levels for hundreds of films, commercials, ads, and TV shows, this technique has served me very well, not only in terms of achieving superb results, but also in terms of having extremely happy animals that LOVE to train and that continue working over long lifespans, and also feeling very good about myself and the lives of my animals.

In that vein, I have often written about the importance, early in training any animal, of determining precisely what that individual finds genuinely rewarding, and understanding the patterns and specifics of reinforcement—when should you use which treats, when play which games, when use which types of praise or petting. What motivations and drives that animal possesses and how best to utilize them.

But over the past few years, Veillan, an energetic Lusitano x Arab colt, has helped me to realize that my thinking about joy, drive, and reinforcement was too narrow. When I started training Veillan, I found myself struggling a bit to figure out how to incorporate play and joy into his training. Sure, he had periods of exuberant play, but they tended to be brief and difficult for me to instigate, and trying to play with him while also being safe and not allowing him to rehearse behaviors that would be dangerous and undesirable later in life was challenging.  

(It is worth pointing out that my horse experience has been comparatively limited: I rode camp horses as a kid, and briefly participated in an equestrian program in eighth grade, but really had not ridden much. Over the years when we needed to work horses, I always demurred to Lauren who is a lifelong equestrienne. Of course, I started out reading many books, watching, hundreds of DVDs, attending countless clinics, seminars, and lectures, and the vast majority of the principles of training are sufficiently parallel to all other animals that in relatively short order I felt reasonably competent—I knew how and when to release pressure to reinforce a desired behavior, I understood about waiting for relaxation, I was getting pretty good results, my horses were calm and happy and working pretty well, but I had not really figured out how to bring “joy training” to my horses, and none of the horse training experts I consulted seemed particularly focused on joy or exuberance in their horses.)

One day I found myself thinking about something well-known by everyone, and absurdly obvious—that horses are paradigmatically prey animals, and that most of the animals I have trained are predators. In predators, excitation is a powerful positive. Chasing, fighting, killing, eating—good! In prey animals, excitation is generally less positive—being chased, fighting, being killed, being eaten—bad! A central goal for any prey animal is to avoid unnecessarily expending calories or risking injury, so exuberant play is problematic. If you watch young predators, they spend huge amounts of time joyfully playing and rehearsing excitation. If you watch young prey animals, they do play and evince joy, but FAR less. In contemplating this, I realized that I was overlaying onto my animals my assumption that “joy” represented the highest ideal. Perhaps, I suddenly realized, different individuals perceived different emotional states as having more or less value than I assumed…

Most of the horses I have known crave above nearly everything else what I will—imprecisely—call “tranquility.” Tranquility is a complex notion. It includes relaxation, calmness, contentedness, safety, harmony, peace, clarity, certainty, confidence, comfort, balance, and connectedness to friends, self, and environment,. A horse is happiest when all these things come together, although different horses may weight the individual components differently, and to a large degree spends its entire life trying to return to tranquility, to remove whatever factors are interfering with that return. Certainly, play and fun can be used, to great effect, in horse training, but they must be used in service of helping the animal achieve its emotional holy grail.

I started thinking about different dogs who had worked primarily in different drives, and realizing that not only were their drives different, their ideal energy states were different. Loki was happiest in a very relaxed state, Slate finds relaxation almost unpleasant and wants to be vibrating, Flint enjoyed an almost violent tension. Even though they each had play drive and retrieve drive, the emotional tone of their play was very different. As I contemplated each of the animals I have trained, I found myself more and more recognizing that each of them had an ideal energy state, and that training them worked best when I could match my energy, intentions, and actions to that tone, and mindfully help them achieve that state.

One of the central tasks for any animal trainer is to find ways to help each animal recognize that performing the desired behavior is the path to maximizing whatever energetic and emotional state brings that individual the most bliss.

Share
 August 18, 2020  Posted by at 9:16 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Education Protects Against the Vagaries of Life

May 112019
 

I have written many times about how and why education is critical to the life of an animal. How it builds confidence, develops intelligence, strengthens bonds, etc.. How learning begets more learning, and understanding begets comfort, relaxation, and joy. I go on and on about this from the animals’ perspective because it is one of my deepest passions and areas of expertise.

Recently, however, I have had a series of experiences that made me want to share one distinct reason for teaching your pets a wide variety of skills that may not seem essential in the moment: things change.

Several people I have known have recently undergone huge life events that changed most of the details of their existence. They got old, injured, evicted, fired, whatever, and suddenly they had to pivot and build a new life, and their less-skilled pets became a huge impediment. If your pet is adaptable, flexible, and able to survive in a wide variety of circumstances, they will thrive, and be happy, no matter where you may end up. Even if you end up dead, or having to rehome your pet, the likelihood of an educated pet finding a good home and having a great life is far greater than if your pet is stressed, noisy, destructive, contentious, aggressive, has very specific needs, etc. Do not get me wrong—there are some pets that will never be “easy” no matter how much effort you put in, and I am not saying that owners of difficult pets are in any way “less” than owners of easy pets! I am merely saying that the more you can do to actualize any animal’s potential to be a good citizen and a delight, the more you will have increased that animal’s ability to find success and happiness in this dynamic world…

Share
 May 11, 2019  Posted by at 8:03 pm Tagged with: , , ,

A Note to Parents

Mar 112018
 

Several times recently parents have proudly told me—usually while their child was mauling an animal—that “any animal that survives” their child will be supremely tame. I find this assertion problematic on several levels, most significantly that it mischaracterizes in disturbing ways the process of building trust in an animal. It implies that flooding, through lack of awareness, leads to very tame animals; which, sometimes, can be true, but in most cases those were nice animals that would have been very tame anyway and have gotten through “despite” course handling, not because of it. And often animals handled this way do not become genuinely tame, confident, and trusting; but rather shut down, stressed,  and a bit helpless.

I have very little experience with human children, so I will not focus on that side of the equation except to suggest that as a parent I might want to work on my child not overwhelming animals or dragging on leashes or ignoring animal language and emotion—not only can it be quite dangerous for the children and detrimental for the animals, but also I would think one of the best things about having animals around a child would be the opportunity to work on sensitivity, empathy, and thoughtful awareness.

I do have considerable experience working with a huge range of animals, so I can meaningfully share that to me, building trust and rapport with an animal is almost always a supremely subtle process that requires considerable gentleness and incredible awareness. It is about teaching them that they are safe, that they can control their world, that they can play and communicate and set boundaries. There are moments to retreat, moments to reward, moments to soothe, moments to push forward… There are times to make eye contact, times to look away, times to act indifferent, times to be solicitous, times to leave them alone. There are times to model enthusiasm and raise your own energy, and times to create a calm and safe space for the animals. There is body language and tone of voice and precise observation.

I imagine some children are naturally more gifted than others, but virtually all children will need extensive help learning how to safely and effectively interact with animals. Please, do not justify or excuse your child’s heavy-handed behavior by pretending that it is beneficial, but rather talk to them about how to listen and observe and be gentle and kind…

 

Share
 March 11, 2018  Posted by at 4:36 am Tagged with: , , ,

The Art of Animal Training

Jul 122016
 

SufiXmas

Great animal training requires substantial knowledge and mechanical proficiency.  But perhaps even more, great training requires artistry.

Recent decades have been a golden era for the science of animal training.  Our understanding of behavior has grown and evolved, our techniques for utilizing that knowledge have advanced, and core principles have become widely understood by a great many trainers. Hallelujah!

But knowing, and mastering, techniques is only the first half of becoming a good trainer. I have known several trainers who possessed extensive book knowledge but whose training outcomes were dismal. And I have observed others who had very little knowledge but who achieved incredible results. Why?

For teaching almost any behavior, numerous techniques can be utilized; and the well-versed trainer knows many.  But selecting the right technique for an individual animal at a particular moment demands acute perception and judgement: when to push; when to ease pressure; when to encourage, to coddle, to take a break; when to reward with food or toy or praise or play; when to correct, to lure, to raise or lower criteria; when to cheerily accept effort, to add energy, to be calm; when to wait, to rest the dog for more energy or exercise them for less; when to capture or back-chain; when and how to proof; when more training is needed, or less …. .

For some trainers, this feel – this ability to read an animal and a situation and respond with just the right tool – comes easily.  For others it seems almost impossible. As with so many talents, there is an innate component, but there is one process that can maximize whatever talent a person may possess as a trainer: mindful experience.

Not to be confused with mere repetition (some people can “train” for thousands of hours without really hearing or learning), the single most powerful means to develop training artistry is to carefully, critically, thoughtfully observe and listen as one trains.  During each moment you are training, your dog is reacting, responding, showing you what is working and what is not.  You must listen. Science and technique must be so honed that they require little attention and recede into the background as you focus everything on feeling your dog. You must attune yourself to the dog’s reactions, not only the obvious changes in behavior, but the tiniest and most-subtle changes in body language – eyes, ears, tail, energy, enthusiasm, engagement.

You must constantly adjust and file away each moment as information that will help you to develop and refine your training intuition. Videotaping yourself can be useful, as can asking other trainers to observe and critique your sessions. But ultimately you must listen to your partner and refine your partnership so that you instantly and seamlessly accommodate your partner’s needs at each moment.

This is not to disparage science. By all means read and study and listen and learn everything you can.  It will all help you improve.  And absolutely spend many, many hours learning and practicing various techniques. But ultimately the training excellence you achieve depends upon how willing and able you are to listen to the animals with whom you practice.

Share
 July 12, 2016  Posted by at 5:05 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

The Secret of Dog Training

Jul 162015
 

IMG_9337-Edit

I found myself watching a novice obedience class a few nights ago, and I wanted to cry. Don’t get me wrong, nothing awful was happening, no physical abuse, no harsh corrections, but so little joy… Watching most people plod along with their dogs connected to them by a leash but nothing else is like some macabre satire of what dog training ought to be.

If you watch 20 people train their dogs, you will immediately observe that there are two distinct groups who are essentially doing two completely different things: those who are going through the motions but their dogs are disconnected, flat, out of control. And those whose dogs are beautifully, magically, joyfully playing the game. Within each group you will see a variety of techniques and skill levels, the difference between them is something more fundamental…

Here is the secret that separates the two groups:

You cannot effectively teach your dog anything until you get him engaged and connected. Attentive, happy, excited, eager to learn, enthused. You need to make learning enjoyable. You must figure out what makes your dog excited and build an expectation that playing/training together is super fun. One of your very first responsibilities as an owner and trainer is to figure out how to induce joy for your pet, what combination of treats and toys and tone and luring and whacking and squealing and petting really lights them up; and if you cannot figure out a path to joy, you need to build one. You need a great attitude yourself. You need to make sessions short and fast. You need to tug and fetch and race and wrestle and play. You need to be willing to get on the floor, to run, to praise and cheer like a loon. You need to play with your dog many times each day at home and everywhere so that you have built this into your relationship. You need to teach your dog that looking at you is great, on its own, and that it is the key that will unlock the best and most rewarding game of all. Only when you have built this reward base and tapped into attention and attitude can you really start worrying much about specific behaviors, and you will find they are so much easier to train when you and your dog have this core connection.

If you are dragging your dog around, pushing and pulling him into various positions, giving him commands that he ignores, you are not merely wasting your time, you are actually hurting your relationship. You are making your dog like you less. You are convincing your dog that you are a boring bully. You are inculcating resistance, lethargy, disinterest. Better to NOT train your dog than to keep slogging through these miserable sessions. Stop training immediately, and from now on any time you feel yourself starting to do this, stop! Go do something else. Come back when you are ready to be present, joyous, enthused, connected.

If you can get five beautiful seconds of your dog looking at you, ears perked and eyes bright, listening, eagerly trying to play the game with you, then you are genuinely training your dog. Tomorrow it will be ten seconds, then twenty… Now you have a partner, you can start dancing, start working on super-fast sits followed by a game. A step or two of perfect heeling, an eager down. Happy, happy chase recalls. Now you are working for several perfect minutes, increasing distance, duration, distraction, but never for a moment sacrificing attitude and relationship… Do this for a few months, and you will be amazed! You will have a dog that loves training with you, that has a fabulous attitude, and that can do all those behaviors you originally wanted.

Share
 July 16, 2015  Posted by at 7:14 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Why I Train My Dogs

Jul 072015
 

RallyJustice317I was conversing with a friend recently who does not train her dogs beyond the minimum required. She does not want to diminish their individuality, to be their master, to break their spirits, to turn them into automatons. She does not even really want them to be obedient—she wants them to do what they want, not her bidding.

As we talked, it became clear to me that her idea of training is something very different from mine. She perceives it as diminishing—removing unwanted parts of a dog, while I perceive it as enriching—nurturing and developing additional facets of a dog.

Dog training is a broad catch-all term encompassing a huge range of techniques used to modify the intensity and frequency with which a dog offers certain behaviors. The goals, objectives, and methods are nearly infinite. Of course, in the strictest sense of the word dogs are always learning, so you are always training them whether you mean to or not, you only get to decide what they are learning. But for the purposes of this post, I am talking about structured intentional training, and I want to share why I train my dogs:

Let me start with a few ancillary benefits that I believe accrue from dog training but are not the core reasons I train:

  • Fun: virtually every animal I train values training sessions above almost all other activities. Better than food, better than walking, better than swimming—when I pick up the tools and take an August09005animal to go train they are giddy, ecstatic. They bounce and glow and vibrate. It is pure joy.
  • Proscription: teaching a dog what not to do makes them more pleasant to live with. Do not pee on the floor, pull on the leash, bark, take food off the counter, chew on the electric cords, etc.
  • Increased range of opportunities: the world is full of fun places that welcome well-behaved dogs. Friends’ homes, restaurants, busses, concerts; if you have taught your dog to have good manners you can take them on many adventures.
  • Skills: Sit, down, stay, wait, fetch, leave-it, all very useful for a dog to know.
  • Safety: a dog that comes when called, that does not take things off the counter, that holds a stay, and that can relax in a crate; is safer than a dog that cannot.
  • Trust and leadership: your dog learns to look to you when unsure, to rely on your guidance, to come to you for assistance.
  • Vocabulary: language and communication make it much easier to live with an animal. flintwithlamba7
  • Activities: training opens up doors to fun shared activities: agility, dock diving, tracking, carting, obedience, if you train, you and your dog can have so much fun doing so many things. You can do these things recreationally or competitively.
  • Tricks: many dogs really enjoy showing off, gathering a crowd, making people smile and laugh.
  • Fun: okay, I have fun too! I love the challenges, trying to figure out how to induce some new behavior, watching them think, reinforcing in just the right way at just the right moment. I usually end training sessions tired and glowing and happy and fulfilled.

While many of those are valuable, in truth I train my dogs—lots—for two fundamental reasons:

Untitled-23-Edit

  1. To maximize their development through education. For the same reasons I would send my child to school: I want to help them actualize their potential. The act of learning, regardless of what one is learning, increases neural development and plasticity. It increases the ability to solve problems, to be thoughtful, to mindfully assess challenges and solve them. Learning begets learning. Learning literally changes and grows their brains. Each day children wonder why they need to learn algebra, what real-world application is there for solving a quadratic equation. And while there are real world applications, the ultimate answer is that what we really want from their education is something different: we want them to become free, thoughtful, kind, effective, confident, happy, engaged, etc.
    By choosing what we work on, and how, I can develop drives, increase confidence, improve problem solving skills, alter energy levels, change reactions to various stimuli, decrease contentiousness. I can help them become the best possible version of themselves, the most content, confident, happy, relaxed, enthusiastic, intelligent, well-rounded individuals they can be.
  2. To build connection, relationship, intimacy. I want the best partnership possible. I am not sure I can explain this to someone who has not experienced it, but somewhere after a few hundred hours of shared training time, a partnership develops that simply does not come without those hours. Trust, communication, anticipation—the dance becomes delicate, fluid, nuanced. Your dog knows when to look to you for leadership, knows your subtlest cues, knows how to succeed. You trust your dog, and know how to help him. You can read his every raised eyebrow or IMG_2492tightened muscle. You are a team.

Many people have lovely dogs with little training. And many people have rich and fulfilling relationships with their dogs without ever having taught them a single formal behavior. I simply know that in my experience, good training can make great dogs even better and wonderful relationships even deeper.

Share
 July 7, 2015  Posted by at 5:48 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

Animal Training 101

Feb 282009
 

Obviously I cannot cover all of animal training in a single article.  In this post, I am going to discuss the basic idea of training.  What it is and basically how it works.  In later posts we will go into much greater depth on training specific behaviors.  Training animals can be challenging, but is also immensely rewarding, and the dividends for both you and your animals will grow dramatically as you put more time into their training.skate

What is animal training?

      In broad terms, everything you do with an animal is training.  Animals are always learning; therefore, you are always teaching, even if you do not mean to be.  In a more formal sense, animal training is a series of procedures you follow in order to alter an animal’s behavior.  All animals possess certain natural behaviors which you shape into specific behaviors or chains of behaviors that you want the animal to perform on cue.  You increase the frequency and intensity of desired behaviors and decrease the frequency and intensity of undesired behaviors.

What are the goals of training an animal? 

  1. Teach specific boundaries
  2. Teach specific behaviors
  3. Refine social relationships
  4. Refine working attitude
  5. Habituate usage of the thinking portion of his brain
  6. Develop his character

       Many trainers focus at the top of this list, believing that training is primarily about boundaries and behaviors.  Over time, good trainers tend to shift their focus more and more towards the bottom of the list, realizing that teaching specific behaviors and boundaries is easy and that the real skill is to use your training time to develop your animal’s character and attitude and the relationship you want with him.

      Refining social relationships means that you are constantly aware of the relationship you have with your animal and use your training time to polish this dynamic.  You use training to make sure your animal respects and enjoys your leadership.  That he trusts your decisions.  That he wants to please you.  Each time he performs as requested and the outcome is positive he becomes more confident in your leadership.

      You must constantly be aware of your animal’s attitude, energy, and focus: you need to induce the state that you want, and only train while you are able to maintain your animal in that state.  If you want a bright, enthusiastic animal, do not train when he is tired and flat.  For me, training is always the best part of the day: we have a great time, and we are always engaged in a fun game.  My animals love nothing more than figuring out what they have to do to get the reward.

      Animals are reactive.  Many of their responses naturally occur without thought.  One of the central objectives in training an animal is to develop the habit of thinking before acting.  “Thoughtfulness” works much like a muscle-the more it is used the stronger it becomes.  So in training we rehearse mindfulness: we present a stimulus and facilitate our animal’s thoughtful response.

      You must also remain aware of the character you want to develop in your animal. What you rehearse regularly in training you will see blossom in his daily demeanor.  You may spend time developing patience, independent problems solving skills, confidence, and attention span.  You may work to get him more focused on you, or less.  Balance is essential here. Constantly evaluate your animal and your relationship and structure your training sessions to approach your objectives. 

Origins of modern animal training

      Humans have been training animals for over 3,000 years, but modern training techniques have developed primarily in the last century.  Bypassing the complex history of behavioral psychology, two key concepts have largely defined modern animal training:

       Classical conditioning, made famous by Ivan Pavlov (Russian physiologist and physician, 1849-1936): if you pair a neutral stimulus (say, the ringing of a bell) with a positive stimulus  (say, a valued treat) you can condition the animal to respond to the neutral stimulus in the same manner as he responds to the positive stimulus. (Or the converse-pairing a negative with a neutral stimulus)

       Operant conditioning, commonly associated with B.F.  Skinner (American psychologist 1904-1990): an animal will repeat with increasing frequency and intensity those behaviors which result in positive consequences, and will repeat with decreasing frequency those behaviors which result in negative or neutral consequences.  Almost all of animal training derives from that simple notion!

What skills are required to train animals well?

  • Responsibility: animals behave naturally; all training is up to the trainer, not the animal.
  • Body language: animals are very aware of your body. In many ways they will listen more to what your body says than to what your mouth says. So always be mindful of what your body is saying.
  • Excellent observational skills: see everything the animal is doing and note all the factors contributing to what the animal is experiencing. See when to bolster, when to stop, when to encourage, etc.
  • Imagination: always see how things look to the animal.
  • Understanding of the science underlying behavior and behavior modification.
  • Mastery of the mechanical skills required.
  • Great timing and reflexes: praise at the right moment and you increase the behavior you like, praise a second early or late and you get something else entirely.
  • Ability to trust and to engender trust in animals
  • Creativity and flexibility: something is not working; what else can you do to get the behavior?
  • Calmness and emotional self control: reactions in training must always be dictated by the desired effect and outcome, never by anger or frustration.
  • Acting ability: you need to be able to act unhappy or disappointed or ecstatic as needed.
  • Consistency: the more you can repeat your patterns identically, the more easily your animal will be able to learn.
  • Patience: sometimes it seems like simple things take forever to train. Breathe, relax. It may take a little while, but he will get it…
  • Energy: you will generally get from an animal what you put in, and if you need a high energy behavior, you need to be energetic. And you need to be able to play games and keep your animal’s attention at all times.
  • Training Intuition: the art comes in knowing which technique to use when, and in subtly blurring the techniques together to respond to your animal’s mood and state.

How to train a new behavior

      There are many different techniques to train an animal, and there are countless variations on these techniques depending on the individual animal and the precise behavior being trained.  However, the underlying process is surprisingly constant.  Without being present I do not know your animal, so you need to determine which techniques are effective and safe in training him. If you understand these basic components of training, you can modify them to teach almost anything:

 Evaluate your animal’s drives and reinforcers: before you can do anything else, you need to get to know your animal.  What motivates him?  What does he find rewarding?  When does he have energy? Does he have a strong opposition reflex?  Is he easily bored or overstimulated?  Everything you do in training is predicated on your knowing his prefences and attitudes so you can manipulate them.

Condition a secondary reinforcer: all this means is that before you start training, you must teach your animal a special signal that means, “Yes, that was what I wanted and I am going to give you a reward!”  This secondary reinforcer can be a word like “yes”, a sound, a click, whatever you would like.  And all you do to condition this reinforcer is make the sound and give a reward, over and over.  Use a valued reward like a yummy treat, and do this many times each day until your animal understands that the sound means a treat is coming!

Determine the behavior precisely: You cannot effectively communicate your desire to your animal until you know exactly what you desire.  If you want the animal to come when called, does that mean come close or come and sit in front?  Does it mean he must run or just come at any pace?  If more than one person gives the animal commands, make sure you all agree what the commands are going to be and what they are going to mean.  Do not use these commands except when training until they are well understood.  Even when they are understood, these should be sacred words that you expect your animal to always react to.  Do not use these words to mean other things.  If you are teaching that “Come” means run to you and sit in front, then do not say “Come” when you really mean ignore the squirrel and keep walking down the trail with me.

Induce the behavior: In this phase you use your creativity to get the animal to perform the desired activity.  You are not asking or telling the animal what to do.  You are luring him into it.  For instance, if you want a sit, you can hold food so that the animal lifts his head and naturally sits.  There are many different ways to induce the animal.  You can lure with food or a toy.  You can use props, a piece of tape behind an ear, for example, to teach the animal to scratch.  You can use the environment: walking along next to a wall so the animal has to stay close to you when heeling.  You can even wait until the behavior occurs naturally.  During this phase do not say “No” or correct any behaviors your animal offers.  He does not know what you want and is trying his best to please.  This phase is best done away from all distractions so your animal is focused on you.  Be calm and patient and try to enjoy the challenge of communicating with your animal.  Set him up to succeed.  Over time, as your animal begins to understand the behavior, gradually reduce the lure until he is doing the behavior without any help. 

Bridge: In traditional usage, a bridge is a tool used to tell the animal that you like what he is doing and that a reward is coming.  I suggest a slightly different technique: using four distinct bridges.  While this may sound complex – and will likely take a few days for you to master – it can significantly improve training results.  You can use whatever sound or sight you prefer for each of the bridges.  Here are the ones I use:

  • Terminal positive bridge: “Yes!” This is the secondary reinforcer that you conditioned at the beginning. It tells the animal that he did it right and that the behavior is over. It is almost always followed by a primary reinforcer. (Timing is critical when giving this signal because the animal will tend to repeat whatever he was doing at the precise moment this occurred.)
  • Intermediate positive bridge: “Good!” This tells the animal that you like what he is doing and he should keep doing it or even increase the intensity of what he is doing. It can be repeated indefinitely until it is followed by a terminal positive bridge, and is like saying “warmer” when playing “hot-cold” games.
  • Intermediate negative bridge: “Aaatt.” Not strictly a bridge, this is a way of telling the animal that what he is doing at the moment is not going to get him to the reward. It is like saying “colder” when playing “hot-cold” games.
  • Terminal negative bridge: “Nope.” Not strictly a bridge, this is a way of telling your animal that what he did was not what you wanted and the behavior is over and you are going to reset and start over.

Reward the behavior: Once you have given a terminal positive bridge, reward the animal.  Be creative.  And be enthusiastic in the right proportion and at the right energy level to keep him excited and focused but not frantic.  At this point you are telling the animal that you like it when he performs the behavior, so be expressive.  Give food, praise, etc.  Throw a ball, play tug, whatever will be authentically rewarding to your animal.

Associate the behavior with a cue: Once the animal has started performing the behavior without too much luring, start associating a cue.  You are still helping the animal at this point, but as the animal performs the behavior, you say the word and/or give the signal.  Any time you give a cue and then allow your animal to ignore it, you are training your animal to ignore you.  So only give the cue once and then induce the animal to perform.  If your animal does not perform the behavior, do not simply repeat the cue: go back a step and get the animal to perform. 

Proof the behavior: During this phase you ask the animal to perform the behavior in increasingly difficult situations.  You probably started at home.  Now you may try it amidst gentle distractions.  Then at the park but away from other animals.  Then near other animals.  It should still be fun and upbeat.  Do not introduce excessive distractions too soon.  If your animal is too distracted, go back to a less distracting environment and reinforce the behavior.  Increase the duration, intensity, and distraction and then increase the distance at which he can perform. 

Reinforcement schedules: There has been much debate about the ideal schedule of reinforcement.  Should you reinforce every time? Every few times? Randomly? Only the best performance, etc.  Science generally suggests that a variable schedule will work best, but many trainers feel a 1:1 schedule works best.  There are volumes written on the topic, but here is the short answer: do what feels and works best with your animal.  Start with a 1:1, and vary it slightly from there.  Sometimes skip a few; other times give a huge jackpot for a particularly good performance.  Observe which schedule seems to most increase your animal’s motivation and do what works!

     However, one place that people err is in not varying the bridge as well.  What I mean is this: if you execute a terminal positive bridge you should also provide a primary reinforcer.  If you are not going to reinforce, also do not bridge.

Correct non-performance of the behavior: Correcting your animal for not doing what you asked is a last resort.  It means that you have failed somewhere in the preceding phases.  So go back and fix your mistake and do not hurry!

     Talking about corrections is always difficult because many people have such a strong position on the issue that they do not want to hear anything else.  However, regardless of how you feel about corrections in general, with animals corrections are generally counterproductive.  First of all, animals will often learn mistrust after a single event.  Second, the corrected animal tends to very quickly lose interest in training and become unwilling to try new behaviors.

     The solution to this is often to use “negative punishment” to reduce the frequency of non-compliance: if an animal understands a behavior and refuses to do what is asked, they lose the opportunity to get the treat or to play the game.  Generally this means they are put away in a crate and watch another animal work and get treats and praise.  This has several positive ramifications: the animal’s desire to play the training game is built up and up; they come to envy the other animal and really want to do better next time, they observe the other animal performing the behavior, etc.

Every bit as counterproductive as overcorrection is under-correction or nagging.  If you are not happy with a behavior, you need to communicate effectively to your animal.  If you allow him to continue doing the behavior you create confusion, and if you repeatedly object but do nothing about it, he will learn to ignore you, will respect you less, and will be annoyed by your nagging.  So make sure that when you do correct something you are effective.  

Put your animal away: many people finish up a training session and then give their animal dinner, or go for a walk, or sit with them and rub their bellies.  I suggest the opposite.  When you are finished with a training session, put your animal in a crate to think about what you just worked on for a little while.  You do not want them to anticipate the end of training because they get a big reward; you want the training session to be the reward-the best game possible-and  you do not want them then to become immediately distracted. 

A few secondary techniques that may help:

  • Successive approximations and increasing criteria: If the behavior is difficult, you may want to reward approximations. Reward the animal for doing something close to the desired behavior and then increase your expectations gradually. Over time, raise your criteria for successful performance.
  • Backwards chaining: If the behavior is complex, you need to break it down into parts and train them individually, starting with the last component first. For instance, if you want the animal to stop what it is doing, turn towards you, run to you, sit in front, and look into your eyes, you would start by teaching the animal to look into your eyes. Then you would teach it to sit in front and look into your eyes. Then to take a few steps and sit in front and look into your eyes, etc.
  • Pressure: animals are extremely sensitive to pressure and the release of pressure. Stepping into their space, moving suddenly, staring, forceful energy, and many other actions will create a sense of pressure on your animal. A powerful tool in your training arsenal is using pressure to alter their behavior and using the release of pressure to reward their correct behavior.
  • Premack Principle: more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors. Sounds complicated, but you know it well in different language: “If you want dessert, you have to eat your broccoli.” Have your animal on leash, and throw a great treat out of reach. Make him come to you, sit, or perform another behavior that he already knows before you release him to run and get the treat. This not only reinforces the desired behavior, it develops self-control and focus in the face of distraction.
  • Select training times: if your animal works mostly for food, do not work him after a big meal. Try to train when you will be most successful, particularly at first. As he progresses, he should be able to work reasonably well regardless.
  • Exercise and environmental enrichment: make sure that your animal is getting adequate exercise and is not bored.
  • Stop on a good note: try to end your training sessions with success. Work on something he does well and praise a lot.

Behaviors to work on with your animal

      Anything you can think of! Sit, down, stay, roll over, shake, beg-up, wave, heel, etc.  They are all good exercises that provide opportunities for you to work with your animal and develop him further.  But there are a few behaviors that are particularly valuable and that I encourage every owner to practice regularly with their animal if they can be performed safely:

  1. Bite inhibition: Never apply excessive pressure with your teeth to my body.
  2. Attention: Look into my eyes and wait for a command. Almost all learning starts with attention, so this cannot be overemphasized. Play attention games every day…
  3. Hugging: lie calmly and happily while I lie next to you and gently hold you in place.
  4. Give: Open your mouth and drop whatever is in it.
  5. Crating: relax in a crate for a few hours at a time.
  6. Tie-down: relax when tied to something in the house.

Expectations

What you can accomplish is limited somewhat by the animal you are training and your skills as a trainer, but the single biggest factor that will determine how far you take your animal is how much time you spend working and playing with him, so get out there and teach him something every day!

Share
 February 28, 2009  Posted by at 12:19 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

A lovely training session using the Least Reinforcing Stimulus technique

Jan 012009
 

I just had the pleasure of watching a perfect 20 minute training session using what modern trainers would call the LRS technique, and thought I would share it with the group. It is not new information or insight, just an illustration of effective use of a training method.  The animal being trained was Ansel.  He is an adolescent GSD rescue from Czech lines that is VERY intense and high energy.  He did not get socialized much in his first home, and he is very demanding and easily over-stimulated.  We have been working with him for around 6 months now, and he is getting much better, but still can be very pushy in certain situations.

        The training session was outside, I was sitting nearby watching while Ansel was bouncing and trying to get the trainer to play with him.  He ran up and barked in his face, and the trainer FROZE.  No movement, not even an eye blink.  Ansel did not know what to do, so he pawed at the trainer, then mouthed him.  No response.  Ansel tried for a minute and then wandered off.  The trainer moved, and Ansel came running back over and tried again.  This time he jumped up with both feet and licked and whined and shoved.  Again, nothing.  This cycle repeated several times, with Ansel being pushy and getting nowhere.  Around the tenth time, Ansel quietly sat in front, and immediately the trainer engaged and started playing with him.  Ansel got too rambunctious and the trainer froze, looking away and ignoring Ansel.  Again, Ansel tried demanding attention, but there was no response.  Ansel lay down, and immediately the trainer started playing with him.  This time, the play went on for a few seconds, and then Ansel got too assertive. Again the trainer froze. Ansel stepped back, puzzled.  He could tell there was a rule here that he was not getting and he really wanted to understand so the play would continue.  He lay down and cocked his head.  Again, play.  This time, Ansel was less pushy, less sure of himself.  At one point he got a little too excited, and the trainer gave a gentle verbal cue.  Ansel immediately cooled off.  Less than 20 minutes had passed, and Ansel was playing appropriately, without biting hard or jumping up.  At this point, I ended the session, wanting Ansel to have succeeded.

        The trainer in this session was Loki, a 10 year old forty pound Border Collie :))  He “knew” that if he tried to correct Ansel, a fight would start that Ansel would win.  And he “knew” that the fight would be very rewarding to Ansel. He “knew” that if he ran away Ansel would follow. So he outsmarted Ansel–he made sure that Ansel was not AT ALL reinforced for the negative behavior, and that he was not provoked.  At the same time, he made sure that good behavior got Ansel what he wanted. Simple, effective, lovely….

Share
 January 1, 2009  Posted by at 7:18 pm Tagged with: , , ,