Blog • Page 33 of 37 • Three Dogs Training

French Police to give away free gas to good drivers? Qu’est-ce que c’est?

French police embrace positive reinforcement behavior modification to improve driving safety.

Apparently along the route to the south of France from Paris to Orleans to Limoges to Toulouse drivers during the four weeks of the national “vacances” will be rewarded for good driving with coupons for approximately sixty dollars’ worth of gas.

While the nay-sayers might call it bribery, the fact is that behavior modification is always more effective when a desired behavior is rewarded. It doesn’t even matter if the subjects – drivers in this case – know their behavior is being modified.

Punishing bad driving over the years has not modified the general habits of drivers to make them drive more safely. But it does act as a source of revenue for municipalities – so one wonders who is really getting the positive reinforcement for bad driving. Yes, you guessed it – the city, state, or other local municipality is hoping you will speed through their sleepy little town so they can collect a fine.

They know from years of good, solid behavioral science that punishment will not correct your driving habits – it will just make the subject (again the driver in this case) try to avoid the punishment. So, again from good solid behavioral science they know all they need to do is simply move the speed trap and the whole process starts all over again. They want to keep punishing you not to make you a safer driver, but to make up for budget deficits. They know you will not change your driving habits over the long term for a punishment ticket – and they are happy about that.

However, if you knew that by not tailgating, or not speeding, or by using your blinker, you could end up with sixty dollars’ worth of gas you would actually be happy to see the police and show them what a good job you were doing. Over time you would want to drive safely in the hopes of getting the sixty bucks and this would become your conditioned new behavior.

Positive reinforcement in this case modifies your behavior to drive more safely.

Punishment in this case modifies your behavior to be a better look-out for the speed traps and keep driving outside the rules of the road.

Positive Reinforcement is not just for dog training and, once your mind is keyed to pick up on it, you’ll be amazed by how often it occurs in our own lives. If Chief Inspector Dreyfus realized this when dealing with Clouseau all those years he wouldn’t have ended up in an asylum.

A Touch of Class

The benefits of our positive reinforcement dog training classes and how they can help your dog go from being a pet to a true family member.

Ask Professor Boo is our recurring, positive reinforcement dog training and behavior question and answer column. If you have a question that you would like to ask Professor Boo, please feel free to contact him.

[dropcap]Q[/dropcap]: What’s so important about training classes???

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]: I have mentioned in previous posts that dogs don’t generalize well. I think there may have also been some mention about socialization being very important with both people and dogs even if you have many people and dogs in your home. We also know that when we teach our dogs we are building a communication system that allows us to prevent some behavioral issues that might crop up later in your dog’s life.

Classes allow us to do a little of all of this –

While…

Teaching good behaviors and manners

You…

Build good communication skills between you and your dog

Which Can…

Prevent a good chunk of behavioral problems

And…

Socialize your dogs to other people and other dogs

So you can…

Help your dog to generalize behaviors to a variety of places

And in the end…

Your dog is happier, you are happier, and life is Good!

In short, while classes may not seem like a good idea in times of economic troubles they are usually the most cost-effective way to a happy doggie household since prevention is much cheaper than damage control.

Take a look at the upcoming classes and see if you and your dog might fit into one of these!

Hooray for Hunter’s Helpers!

Hunter, an at-risk dog sheltered at ARF in Beacon, NY, is making tremendous progress thanks to his volunteers!

All of us who have known Hunter since he came to ARF in November 2008 knew very well that he is a loving, devoted and sensitive guy but his shyness has grown since he came to the shelter and has kept him from setting foot outside his run – even into the backyard for fun. With this level of shyness he was in no position to flirt with a prospective new forever human… Hunter had been at ARF for over a year and a half and was getting more and more fearful of the world outside his run. We had to change things for him or he would have spent the rest of his life in that run.

A call went out to my students and good doggie folk in the area and Linda, Feef, Pat and Vicky stepped up to be Hunter’s Helpers. Each of Hunter’s Helpers worked with their skill-sets to help Hunter increase his confidence, joy, and allow his loving nature to expand to more and more people. Vicky and Pat increased his confidence via clickers and massages. While Linda and Feef increased his social network via their relatives and friends who came along to meet Hunter and show him the world is full of nice people – who, by the way all seem to have cheese and hot dogs on them at all times…

His dedicated regular volunteers continued to help Hunter’s Helpers by doing walk-alongs (especially Pete and Charlotte) so Hunter could become happy and used to new people. Great thanks must also go to the volunteer staff at ARF who by continuing to take care of Hunter’s needs as well as the needs of the rest of the animals at ARF allowed Hunter’s Helpers to focus specifically on the behavioral work. Sometimes it takes a Village to help a dog in need, too.

Although Hunter is not yet completely “cured” he is doing much better and working now on transitioning to Feef’s home as his forever home – yeah!!! Remember the dog who would not leave the safe confines of his run or the back room where his run is located? Barb reported to me the following just the other day:

YESTERDAY WAS GRADUATION DAY FOR HUNTER !!

The last dog to be walked last night was Hunter… He was acting itchy, carrying on…

I had the leash in my hand, then opened his gate… He came flying out…ran out to the kennel, stood there…saw the front door open… ran out !!!! Across the parking lot…. down the driveway…to the back “40”…..Flo was standing in the lot talking on the phone…. her mouth dropped open…. we both went to the back… Hunter was walking back to the shelter, sniffing all the brush…wagging his tail….went right by us and back to the shelter…all the way back and jumped in his room !!!! WOW !! How exciting !!

We went at a pace that worked for Hunter and allowed him to slowly learn new people are good and maybe even as good as his two favorites Pete and Charlotte. We gave Hunter some special attention in the form of calming massages. We taught Hunter via clicker training that he can actually control aspects of his world. By doing all of this Hunter has blossomed and is no longer looking at spending the rest of his life in his run at ARF. While ARF loves all of their dogs as their own and cares for them with special kindness – it is still not a forever-home.

Hunter, his Helpers and all the Volunteers at ARF are a shining example of just how much we can help a dog in need find a life of happiness and joy!

By George! A great dog needs your help!

George, a great bull terrier rescued by Big Apple Bull Terrier Rescue, needs your help to find his forever home!

Big Apple Bull Terrier Rescue recently gave me the lovely opportunity to meet George the Bull Terrier in his foster home. I was struck by how affectionate he was, how well he got along with his female k9 housemate (and humans too) and how interested he was in doing anything I asked him to do. George is losing his foster home and it is time this big goof-ball find himself a Forever Family!

George is a funny, silly, lovable, snuggly, quintessential bull terrier boy who would benefit from a fenced yard, lots of long fun walks and a structured life. He would like an active female playmate, too, who will tolerate his knockabout (but not mean) play style – but he would be happy with just his forever humans, too. Everyone who meets George adores him! He is a fast learner, very affectionate and goofy, and loves going places (even to the vet). Like so many bull terriers, George is a lot of dog – but a lot of fun comes with him. George would also make a great “office” dog for the human who can take their dog to work. He could become the “Mayor” of your workplace. Although George is deaf, he doesn’t let it get in his way when it comes to being social – so we shouldn’t either.

George was originally a stray from Long Island. Big Apple Bull Terrier Rescue thinks he is around 4 or 5 years old. Like many deaf dogs, George is like velcro and wants to be with you always. He doesn’t seem to startle too much to his humans in the house, but he does put on a bit of a show when out walking and confronted by something exciting, frustrating or scary. This should be pretty quickly remedied with some good solid relationship building and attention work for FOOD. BTW, George is very food motivated – yeah! He may not hear you, but he smells those treats in your hands… He does not like cats or other small animals and will amuse himself in a yard by guarding against errant chipmunks and assorted varmints.

George does not need a “strong hand” or an “alpha human.” He needs a human who will guide him using positive reinforcement training and give George constant feedback in the beginning (because he’s deaf) to help him focus. He would enjoy going to classes – tricks, agility, nose-work, some-kind of fun that will occupy him both physically and mentally – which Big Apple Bull Terrier Rescue will help pay for with an approved trainer. He has been in foster care for a year…..waayyy too long…. George deserves a real home where he can focus all his love on “his” human(s).

George does very well on his front clip harness (Easy Walk Harness – he does need it upside down like so many big chested dogs). And, because he is deaf, he will need consistent guidance in his new home for a few months until he understands the lay-of-the-land. But once you have built a good relationship and hand signals for George he will be a blast – and snuggly, too!

George has a minor congenital condition called “dry eye” which is treated twice daily with a prescription ointment. Nobody’s perfect!

If you think you’d like to help George please let us or Big Apple Bullies know!

To learn more about living with a deaf dog, visit www.deafdogs.org.

Generally Speaking

How the canine brain generalizes learned knowledge and how to use that to not only help you understand your dog better but to train them.

[dropcap]Q[/dropcap]: At home my dog knows not to jump up on our living room couch, but when we go to visit my parents within minutes he’s up on their couch and looks at me like he doesn’t understand what I’m saying when I tell him to get down. I know he knows not to go up on couches because he’s so good at home, so what’s going on?

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]: While dogs and humans might be great friends and companions, it’s important to never lose sight of the fact we are very different from each other in many respects. Keep in mind that we dogs think very differently about things – like pee and poop, for example. We think chasing a squirrel is great fun – do you? And remember that while we learn via the same four quadrants of Learning Theory that you do, how we generalize that learning is a bit different from humans.

One of the great things about the human mind is your ability to take a concrete action (let’s say sitting on a chair) and turn it into an abstract concept that you can then use to inform your decision making in other situations. For example, once you guys have learned to sit in a chair at home you can – as if by magic – sit in a chair at a restaurant, in a chair at the movies, on a park bench, in a car and more. This type of abstraction is so commonplace to your everyday lives that you lose sight of how amazing it is and it’s actually a very important cognitive talent that not every animal shares.

Unfortunately, that includes us canines to a large extent.

Decades of canine behavioral science have shown us that we just aren’t as good at generalizing as you humans are – we, of course, knew this already about ourselves… We are capable of generalizing quickly in certain situations – for example, if something really scary has happened. Our brains would need to remember that and generalize it to everywhere immediately for survival. But just sitting in a strange places – for example – is not a survival skill (in our heads anyway). But I digress – as I usually do…

To go back to your couch-loving pup, in his mind there is no abstract link between the couch in your living room and the couch at your parent’s and because of that he is not transferring his awareness of not being able to go up on your couch to your parent’s couch. He is not doing it because he’s being disobedient; he’s doing it because he has learned not to go up on your couch at home – he has not learned to not go up on your parent’s couch. He sees that as being two completely different actions.

We see variants of this behavior all the time in our dogs: has your dog ever had a reliable loose-leash walking command at home and then suddenly lose it the minute you’re out and about, say in a distracting pet store? In the dog’s mind, walking politely around your neighborhood is utterly different than walking through a crowded, exciting and distracting pet store and his mind is reacting accordingly. I, for example, used to take treats just fine at home but it took almost a year for my human to get me to take treats when out and about. I was just too distracted, overwhelmed and confused in those situations – but everyone knows I am a special case…

The trick to getting around a dog’s lack of generalization is to have a strong set of basic commands that are not bound to a specific location or set of circumstances. This is achieved by practicing basic commands in a variety of places that are common and strange, mildly distracting and very distracting so that you give your dog the ability to understand that the command works everywhere – not just at home or not just in the training center.

For instance, one of the first commands my human teaches all of us is the “Off” command. (This is different than the “Down” command, which literally means “lay on the floor.”) Also top on her list for us to learn is the “Settle” command – which means lay-down and hang out in a relaxed position where I ask you to and wait for me to release you. I know it sounds complicated, but in reality it is one of the easiest behaviors to teach and one of her most favorite. It’s like an invisible crate, she always says.

So to go back to your example again: you’re visiting your parents, your dog is up on their couch, and because you have practiced that “Off” command in a variety of places strange and common, with and without distractions – your dog hears the command and the conditioning overrides any location confusion and, voila, your dog gets off your parent’s couch when you say “Off.” Then, like the good trainer I know you are, you ask your dog to settle on a pillow or blanket on the floor while you and your parents visit. Your dog happily complies because you have conditioned great enjoyment with that “Settle” command and you have practiced that “Settle” in various places strange and common with and without distractions as well.

By understanding how our canine brain functions and shaping your training around it you will be able to give your dog a set of tools you’ll be able to rely on wherever you are. This makes you the “leader” without force, without fear, and without pain. This will make your dog’s life less confusing and less scary and that makes you the best friend for your dog (and my hope is vice-versa).