Friday, 12 March 2010
Dog training methods - 1. Compulsive/manipulation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqCXBjkmzBk
The more traditional methods of training a dog is by manipulation, physically putting the dog in position.
Examples of this
Sit
Push the dogs bum till he sits
Down
Push on the dogs shoulders till he lies down
Paw
Pick up the dogs paw
Stop
Stop dog with lead
Recall
Reel dog in on lead
In the video above you can see the guy tugs down on the dogs lead to make her lie down.
This is the way many animals in the past have been trained and it does work for some animals.
It is fairly simple for the human to understand, put the animal in the position you want enough times and it will slowly learn to go into the position.
There are several problems with this method.
Firstly it is actually using punishment to train the dog, the shoving is something slightly unpleasant for the dog (I know its not like beating it) so he learns to avoid being shoved to get into the position. Often the dog can even look happy once they have figured this out and the trainer thinks they have a dog who works for no rewards and is so motivated they love to work for you.
Sorry to burst your bubble, if you train with punishments then for your dog its reward is the avoidance of the punishment, your dog is happy because he isn't getting shoved or yanked.
Also it is not natural to go where you are shoved.
Try it on someone, if you push then gently then to remain upright they push back a little. You can see in the clip even with a 'trained' dog when he is pulling on the lead she is resisting and being dragged down.
Over time you could injure growing joints with a battle to push your resisting puppy to the ground until they understand they have to go the way you are shoving.
You can get around that by teaching your dog to respond to pressure. A good way is to have your dog on the lead and stand behind them and give very slight pressure on the lead. Wait. When the dog turns to face you click and treat. The dog will learn that pressure on the lead means to go where the lead directs.
Compulsive methods are thought to work more slowly than other methods because the dog does not have to engage its brain.
A good example was my mum trying to teach Ben to give a paw.
He sat nicely, happily let her pick up his paw and then give him a treat. He just seemed v happy, crazy lady picks my foot up then gives me food. It never seemed to occur to him that he could speed up the process by lifting his foot himself.
Using a combination of methods but most of them compulsive it took aver six months for Ben to give a paw, and even then he is slow and not overly confident giving a paw.
Using different methods for Mia to give a paw took less than a minute and she is very happy to show her trick.
I am sure we all at some point use some compulsive methods, take a dogs collar, pull on the lead or something. Many dogs dont mind but it can make a dog shy to have its collar taken and other methods can use your dogs brain more and make them happier to learn and perform their trick
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Most people who own a staffy already know that manipulation doesn't work! If Tilly doesn't think something is worth her while there's no way I'd be able to manhandle her into doing it. I think the 'hands off' method is much more rewarding anyway and looks impressive when you're in the park and getting your dog to do loads of things without seemingly doing much yourself at all ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat this kind of stuff is presented in some corners of the internet as the way the "experts" do it is so completely absurd. That poor dog looks so spiritless.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness things have evolved from the dark ages of dog training! :)
Sarah, good for Tilly :D Mia just wouldnt respond to anything like that either, even trying to take her collar and move her somewhere she wriggles, sulks, yips, tries to flip over and lick your hand - no way is she learning where you are trying to make her go.
ReplyDeleteMutts, I know it is so sad, all this stuff is put out there as if they are 'experts' He even calls her his buddy but she is just so unhappy with the training methods and he cant see it. I put another one of him up with him showing how to heel with the choke chain, the poor poor dog is cringing and flinching
A positivly trained dog's tail is wagging happily, they are grinning with their eyes shining, why would you want to train any other way??
So true! We soon learnt that it was useless trying to manipulate our greyhound Max into a 'sit'. Although very few greyhounds sit naturally, on the few occasions that Max did this, we used 'capturing' & (probably because he is THE most food motivated dog I've ever come across!) he now sits on demand & also uses it as a way of telling us that he wants/needs something like to go outside or play! Jx
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