As some of you know I was creating a dog training video a day for the month of march.
It was a whole load of fun and really had me thinking. Subjects from behavioral terms like explaining the quadrants of learning, to what I feed and other random ramblings - I hope you enjoy
I hope you enjoy these, thank you so much for all your support. I dont know if I will do a video a day again :D but it was well worth it
If you are interested in more (better) information then check out this book (Im not selling it, its just an affiliate link - which dosent cost you anything) I really enjoyed it
Sadly there is next to no regulation in the dog training industry.
Anyone can call themselves a behaviourist or a 'dog psychologist'
There are some amazing ones out there who have spent years studying, researching and then gaining hands on experience, who also still continue to learn the most up to date methods.
In the UK these people can be found in organisations like the APBC's
Sadly there is another group of people who call themselves dog psychologists.
And they spout some stuff that can sound good - about treating your dog like a dog and things like that.
But
They actually know nothing about psychology - or just enough to be dangerous
Psychology is the scientific study of how the mind works and how that can effect behaviours.
Often a person will go to a 'behaviourist' with aggression issues - dogs barking/lunging or even fighting with other dogs.
An actual behaviourist is interested in finding out what is going on in the dogs mind and then changing the reason for the aggression which in turn makes the aggression go away
A phony behaviourist tries to address the barking and lunging without any thought for what is going on in the dogs mind
It is like going to a doctors with a compound fracture and the doctor putting a sticking plaster on it
You cant see the fracture so it must be fixed right?
It may still hurt like hell - but that dosent matter, its fixed
It may actually heal itself eventually - but that is very much not the best way to deal with the problem.
Lets think of it in terms of the dog
Most aggression is based in fear - if your dog really wanted to kill every other dog in the world he would not shout his intentions, he would be quiet and wait for his chance. Aggression is a warning, the dog is shouting 'get away from me!'
So the dog is most likely very scared
A phony will put the dog into a situation where they start to show aggression and then they punish the dog
They punish the dog harshly enough that the dog learns that barking gets punished and they stop barking
They are still scared of the other dog, they now have no way to tell anyone they are scared
And of course their poor owners dosent know any better and thinks their dog has now been 'fixed' from their 'naughty' behaviour and so they are safe to take everywhere - to be around lots and lots of dogs
So the dogs life has suddenly got lots more stressful.
Nothing is fixed - it is just hidden
A true behaviourist will try and work to teach the dog that other dogs are good things, they will work at a distance where the dog dosent feel the need to shout at the other dogs
Over time the dog will learn to be happy around other dogs and will not need to bark
He will be able to be taken to lots of new places and he will be happy and calm with other dogs around.
Dont 'fix' the unwanted behaviour, treat the underlying mental issues and the behaviour will go away
Forgot I haddnt shared this here yet
Many of you have followed Mias story, starting off with her being scared of about everything, hating all other dogs and trying to run off whenever offlead.
Well Im not saying she is 'fixed' but the other weekend she did something I never thought
She competed at a fun agility show in a public park with dogs all around her!!
First run I was even brave enough to let her off the lead
Fat is caused by consuming more energy than you burn
Its as simple as that.
So yes if you give your dogs lots of treats and dont reduce their meals or exercise them more then your dog will gain weight.
But many pet owners give their dog some kind of treat, I know lots of people who will give their dog a dentistick or boneo or something in the evening to keep them occupied. This is WAY more than my dogs get for training, I give my dogs lots of treats when training that is true - but - they are tiny treats. For example something the size of a cocktail sausage gives my dogs up to about 25 treats or I use tiny slivers of dried liver 1/2 the size of my pinky nail.
Mental exercise uses energy as well - so learning things IS exercise
Also if you train your dog to walk nicely with you or be happy in different situations then you are able to take them more places and walk them for longer walks so they are less likely to get overweight.
Myth busted - overfeeding/under exercising dogs makes them fat
I honestly dont know when this myth started. I know lots of followers of a certain TV celeb seem to strongly believe he is the last chance for many aggressive dogs because other trainers would just have the dogs put to sleep.
This is as far from the truth as is possible. But before I go into that lets look at the fact that yes, many dogs are put to sleep
In the world today we have more dogs than we have homes for and so it is a sad fact that in some rescues some people have to make the difficult decision to put dogs to sleep.
That is not a failing of the rescues - and it has nothing to do with any trainers - positive or otherwise. The blame there is firmly on the heads of the people producing too many dogs.
Yes often it will be aggressive dogs or dogs of a certain type who are put to sleep, there are two reasons for this, it is harder to find good homes for these dogs, there are plenty of homes for small fluffy puppies so it makes sense when you have to free up space to go for the dogs that are unlikely to find a home anyway. Also if a dog has bitten in the past many re-homing centres have policies of not rehoming these dogs incase they bite again, not only would the people in the centre feel responsible they also may end up being sued and that will have a cost impact on how many dogs they can help in the future.
Some trainers may refuse to work with aggressive dogs, that does not mean they are saying the dogs need to be put to sleep, just that they either do not have the experience to work with this type of dog or their insurance does not cover them for this type of work.
That is fair enough, there are specialists in every walk of life, you dont go to a pet dog trainer to teach your dog to be an obedience champ, dont expect all dog trainers to be aggression specialists.
Referring you to someone else is NOT saying the dog needs put to sleep.
For a behavioural issue you need a behaviourist (try the APBC in the UK, these people have to be qualified to a high level with lots of experience in the field as well - remember anyone can call themselves a behaviourist but not everyone has any qualifications in the subject)
A GOOD behaviourist wont even see you till you have seen a vet to rule out any medical issues.
So do behaviourists tell people to get their dogs PTS?
Lets think about this - someone whos job is to help dogs with behavioural issues telling people to put the dogs to sleep - do you think these people would actually be in a job long if they killed off all their clients?
When talking about options they may well mention it as an option - IF the owners dont feel they are willing or able to do the work required to help their dog. Even using punishment methods to 'fix' a dog takes time, the TV celeb often takes 'difficult' cases away with him to work with them over weeks or even months.
Issues like seen on TV shows are bread and butter to good positive behaviourists, you dont see thousands of films of them helping because it is actually very dull to watch, no man v beast fight, the dogs are kept calm and taught how to not only act calm but to BE calm around the thing that they used to be aggressive about.
If you still doubt positive trainers help aggressive dogs then have a look at all the literature that is out there to help people with problem dogs - I will link a few below
Thousands of positive dog owners quietly rescue and help difficult dogs all over the world, just get chatting to people ringside at an agility show or have a look at the many forums and facebook pages for positive training and you will see what an amazing supportive community there is for people helping others with difficult dogs
5th of July 2013 is the first Positive Dog Bloggers Action day. Please try and post on or around the 5th July to be guaranteed to be included, If you are later I will include your link when I get to it.
Your post it to be on 'What is positive training to you?' (or force free, reward based or whatever you call your training :) )
I haven't done a ranty post about training methods for a while - so here is one
All too often I am hearing people who train using punishment tools saying they have to for certain behaviours because (real examples) 'How safe would it be for me to be trying to bribe with cookies when my dog is playing in the traffic' or 'wagging chicken in-front of his face when he is attacking another dog is not going to work'
The problem with the thinking of punishment based trainers is they have to see the behaviour and then punish it
So they think positive training would be the same - see the 'bad' behaviour and then bribe the dog with food or toys in the hope they would learn to not do those things
And of course the problem is in some cases that is what they might see positive trainers doing - except at that point they are not training
For example imagine the case of positive and punishment trainers walking along a path with an untrained dog. One day there is an unexpected hole in the fence that the dog sees before the trainer and darts into the road
Of course as the dog is untrained he has no recal
A punishment trainers course of action may be to yell for the dog to come back, which of course will not work, then have to run into the traffic to try and grab the dog - and possibly even punish the dog when they reach them - which by that point the dog does not realise they are being punished for going tru the gap in the fence.
Later that trainer may walk to path beside the fence and punish the dog any time they start to move towards the hole
Or train a recall by punishing the dog while they are away from them and stopping the punishment when they choose to come back
A positive trainer may try to get the dogs attention with some food or a toy so they can grab the dog and get them to safety - THEN knowing about a problem they will work on training the dog a behaviour they do want
So most likely a whiplash recall in lots of different locations
and a nice heel command so the dog can walk nicely with them past a danger
AND clip the dog on the lead while they pass this point on the walk so the dog is kept safe and does not get to practise the unwanted behaviour.
So if you look at the above both for positive and punishment trainers the first point of the dog running into the road is not actually training - it is the trainers seeing that there is a training problem/opportunity
'bribing' with something nice is just a way to hopefully deal with the immediate danger and get the dog to safety.
Actually giving a cookie to the dog for running into the traffic would not work as training - if you did it often enough then your dog may learn to run into traffic to get a cookie.
Positive training is NOT letting a dog do the wrong thing then bribing them with food
Get the dog safe (manage the situation at hand) THEN realise you have a gap in your training and work on fixing it
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
The Association of Pet Behaviour Councillors has issued this statement against Cesar Millan and his methods.
The APBC are a major body in the UK, if you have a behavioural problem with your dog and are referred from your vet it will be to one of their members. As such every day they work as the last chance for aggressive dogs so they really know what they are talking about.
Like many they are concerned that the advesrsive type training Cesar Millan uses not only compromise the welfare of the dogs but they can in the long run make the dogs more aggressive as the problems are not addressed and fixed just suppressed.
I find it really sad that for many years positive trainers have been changing the face of dog training with kind and effective training and behaviour modification which does not stress the dog and is safe for everyone to practise, but with one flashy TV show dog training has been put back 20 years.
Why is it so natural to the human species to enjoy the spectacle of a man wrestling an animal to the ground?
Interesting where you can get inspiration for dog training.
Today on 'The Wright Stuff' on TV this morning I got some amazing advice from Joe Mangle from Neighbours.
They were talking about raising children and how some children are so out of control.
He had a amazing point
It takes time and energy to be consistent, to teach our children (or dogs) that actions have consequences and that we mean what we say.
It is far easier to give in and give the sweetie when the child is chucking a tantrum (or let our dogs pull on the lead because we are in too much of a rush to teach them to walk nicely on the lead)
Then we get angry with their behaviour and yell or punish them. This is confusing, sometimes they get what they want, sometimes they get punished.
If we are fair and consistent, make sure they know what we want from them, let them know when they are doing the right thing and, when needed, show them the consequences of doing the wrong thing (naughty step, no pudding, dont get to keep walking forwards on lead) then children and dogs will be better behaved, less confused and everyone will be happier
Lots of people dont treat their dogs - Ben thinks this is really sad.
Arguments against include
'If I treat then he will become too focused on me'
Fantastic!! Your dog is really motivated by food!! Now he just has to learn that he has to earn his treats. Try carrying food in your pocket and surprise your dog when he does something really good, he will learn that treats arrive out of nowhere if he is good.
'he should want to work for me'
None does something for nothing! Even if its only the fuzzy nice feeling it gives you when you do something nice for other people. Some dogs are more motivated than others, some find a pat on the head or a smile from you really rewarding, but still why not have a nice treat for extra special behaviours - its like a bonus at work, it tells them that that thing they did was really great
'I cant always be carrying treats about with me'
Well actually you can - but you dont need to. The amazing thing of training with rewards is the more a behaviour is rewarded then the more the dog actually enjoys just doing the behaviour. Mia gets fed in her crate, she gets lots of treats in her crate, and many times during the day she just goes into her crate because it is a really great place to be. So can be walking to heel, sitting when asked, recall, anything.
Also food isnt the only reward in the world. Anything your dog enjoys is a reward, so you can chuck a ball, pat on the head, play a chase game, send them to play with friends, these are all rewards too
'He will only do something if I have a treat in my hand'
If that is the case that is because you have not faded out the lure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19SZTwQkpEw Or your dog has learnt that he only ever gets a treat from you if he does something when you have a treat in your hand. Start hiding treats and surprising your dog with them, he will soon start working without the visual cue
'He isnt food motivated' Yup that possible, but unlikely. Food is important to a dogs survival, if it dosent eat it wont live. But if food is always lying about (If you free feed) and you just give out treats all the time for no reason then treats are not exciting. Dogs actually enjoy having a job to do so build the importance of food, only feed at meal times, dont leave food lying about any other times and always ask for something before you feed them. Get some really really high value treats, roast beef, chicken, cheese, or garlic sausage when your dog is hungry and reward it for simple behaviours, over time your dog will learn to love learning and food.
'I dont want a fat dog' For me training treats are tiny! 1/2 the size of a fingernail or smaller. Compare that to a dog getting a huge bonio every night. Also you can use some of the dogs food, meals dont always have to come in a bowl! In the wild animals have to work for their food, they enjoy it in captivity.
'He should KNOW how to behave, why should I reward him for that?'
This one saddens me the most. People who assume dogs come fully trained and so anything they dont expect is the dog being bad and is punished Sure the dog learns that way too - but its not really nice or fair
Dogs dont know how to live in our world, our rules are strange to them. Based on their personalities dogs just do what seems most sensible to them, then they see what happens. If something nice happens then they are more likely to do the thing again, if something bad happens then they are less likely to do it again. I prefer not to punish as it isnt the dogs fault. But if your dog has been lying calm for 2 hours, playing happily with their toys for a while and you ignore them, then you only pay attention when they go to chew your shoe you have not only missed lots of chances to let your dog do the right thing you have also taught them that grabbing your shoe gets your attention and lying calm or playing with toys is ignored.
The aim of this web-site is to provide the media and members of the public with more information about the behaviour of dogs, the possible consequences of using aversive training techniques, and where to go for appropriate advice on training and behaviour issues.
It contains some great information and links for finding good dog trainers and behaviourists in the UK.
It explains the problems with using aversive punishment training on dogs and has a list of all the experts and bodies in the UK who are specifically against Cesar Millan, his teachings, his TV show and his tour of the UK.
It is sad that so many experts in the UK voice concerns of the dangers of using these types of confrontational methods and yet he is still coming to the country, his shows still get the airplay on the TV.
If you have a problem with your dogs behaviour please please contact an expert, do not try and follow advice from a TV entertainer
I took the dogs for a great long walk. It was lovely the dogs were perfectly behaved, we did lots of playing together, trick training and the dogs sniffing and zooming about.
Perfectly lovely walk, until..
5 min before home I see Bens paw is bright red. No yelp, no limping no crying his paw is just bleeding.
I get him home and clean it up and its stopped bleeding but there is a big cut there
So we had a long wait in the vets and now he is sporting a lovely lamphade, and his skinny wee leg is shaved.
Poor wee guy - he must have been feeling left out with all the vets attention Mia was getting.
On the great point for the day tho - I got word back that the venue I was looking at is fine for me to run training classes. Initially for Mia and some of her friends but if they go OK I might be taking my first steps into becoming a behaviourist
(well the 2nd steps - just one more essay to go on this module for my diploma!)
I know (but totallydont understand) that there are people out there who dont like the idea of positive training, they doubt the effectiveness of especially treat training. I had heard that people use choke chains to teach dogs heelwork but I just couldnt figure out how you could really teach a dog using that method. A quick you tube search showed me just how (and lots of other things people do to their dogs in the name of training) If you are not convinced then have a look here. First we have a guy training his dog with the choke chain - and when he stops he teaches the dog to sit by whacking it on the bum with the other end of the lead. Take a look at the poor dog during all this, panting, licking its lips and avoiding eye contact and when he hits her with the lead she cringes and flinches. Not a great looking heel, not a happy looking dog - and an owner who is only looking out for the dog doing the wrong thing and punishing it for that - at no point does he praise the dog for doing the right thing.
Compare and contrast to these dogs The position of being in heel is so rewarding to the dogs that they just love it, no matter where she walks the dogs are glued to her side, other commands are followed as fast as lightning and for those of you who complain that treats make a dog that is too focused on the reward and has to be treated all the time - look at how much her dogs do for a tiny treat or a game of tug. They are working with her because working with her is fun and rewarding. If I come back as a dog I hope it is to a trainer as good and kind as her http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtkTJ6ZvlH0
Dogs can be pretty bad at generalising the meaning of things You might think you have trained your dog really well to sit but what exactly does your dog think you mean.
You like to think that 'sit' means dog still with its bum on the floor and legs straight Its not as easy as that
Your dog might have learnt that when you are in the sitting room, with a treat in your hand, lifting the treat above its nose, when its all quiet and saying 'sit' means the dog goes from standing and puts its bum on the ground until it is told 'good boy' and given the treat then it can do what it wants
Dogs can be as specific as that
So decide EXACTLY what you want your command to mean I want sit to mean go into the sitting position from standing, lying down or upside down. Do it from infront of me, to the side, behind or at a distance. Do it in the sitting room, kitchen, hall, outside, wherever. Do it when I say and/or give the hand signal, do it no matter what distractions, do it whether there is a treat there or not, and hold the position until I tell you to do something else.
So I have to train for ALL of these things - train in different locations with dog in different positions with different distractions.
So if your dog dosent do what you want ask yourself have you actually trained it how to do that SPECIFIC thing?
Today in the park I was watching a whole load of people train their dogs to do the exact opposite of what they wanted.
One dog running off was called to come back when his recallwasn't good enough and the other dog more interesting, another being told to be quiet when it was barking.
As I have already covered, dogs don't speak English, although we like to think they do and then assume they are being bad when they don't do what we ask.
Dogs learn associations with things.
Person says 'sit' I put my bum on the floor person is happy, person says 'Fido come' that seems to mean when I get close to them they will shout at me and put the lead on.
The way a dog will learn best is to ask it to do the thing when it is already doing it.
So if you are trying to teach a recall and your dog hasn't really got it yet it doesn't help much to call the dog when it is running away from you, call it back when it has finished what it was doing and is already running back to you at full pelt.
I accidentally got a great emergencyrecall for Ben that way. In agility I have an 'in' command - it means come in towards me - it was taught when he was sent around a jump and I stood still or turned away he naturally turned in towards me - every time I did that I said 'in' and it became a habit for him.
Also as a pup when I came to a fork in the path and he had gone one way I went they other, just said 'This way' and carried on walking. He lost sight of me and so came running to find me, he learnt 'this way' meant I was about to disappear if he didn't keep his eye on me.
The same goes for barking. When a dog is barking people often tell it to 'shut up' or something. If you haven't taught what the word means then the dog will learn to associate 'shut up' to mean to actually bark.
It is really sad today that people think owning and training a dog is a battle of wills, that if your dog is bad it is because you are not a strong enough pack leader for it. This is simply not true, a dog is not bad, it is just being a dog, your job is to think like a human and figure out how you can train your dog to do what you would like rather than punishing it for either natural behaviour, or worse still behaviour YOU have taught without meaning too.
I try and do a little with my dogs every day, sometimes just going over things they know quite well making it a bit better and sometimes working on a specific trick.
A training sesh is usualy about 5-10 min per dog and I tend to structure it like this
a couple of mins doing stuff they know quite well
a couple of mins working on a new trick
a couple of mins working on stuff they already know
We also have a great 'Do something' where I ask them to do something and every different trick they do gets a treat - like the lazy mans free shaping :D
Sometimes I get a bit lazy and we dont focus on anything new for a while, but then I have a wee nozy at some blogs or you tube and I get inspired to do something again.
The latest trick I found that I have been working on for a wee while came from here
