The Surprising Similarities Between Dogs and Toddlers and How We Can Use Them to Make Us Better Pet Professionals
by Judy Luther In this post, I give a little insight into how dogs are much like toddlers when it comes to emotions and learning, and how teaching them like we teach toddlers can be so beneficial. It was 2016 and I was heading to session #2 with a client who had a new puppy. During the first session, the mom confided she felt like she made a mistake getting a puppy with a toddler in the house, and she was considering sending the puppy back to the breeder. When… Continued
How to Become a Better Animal Trainer
By Karolina Westlund Ph.D. of PPG corporate partner Illis Animal Behaviour Consulting It took me years to realize this, but there are some approaches that really propelled my learning about animal behaviour management in general, and animal training specifically. Here are the four tactics or concepts that I’ve found most useful: 1. LEARN FROM MANY TEACHERS I still remember the goosebumps I got when I first came across a professional animal trainer and got to see her in action. I saw a monkey change his behavior over the course of a short… Continued
Behavior Modification — A Case Study of a “Difficult” Dog
By Maren Jensen Ph.D. and Angelica Steinker M.Ed. CDBC PDBC PCBC-A The Joy and Journey of Rehabilitating a Dog with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Pica, Separation Anxiety, Noise Sensitivity and Aggression Rumble was a normal puppy. He investigated, pounced and loved all. Rum, as he is affectionately known, socialized with confidence and happiness, starting at nine weeks. He learned how to learn playing games. Maren, his owner, is a dog trainer and dog sport coach. Everything seemed on track for Rum to make a spectacular entrance into the dog sport… Continued
A Cry for Attention
By Lara Joseph Foraging is defined as searching for food. From my observations, however, much more is involved than the mere hunt for food when a parrot carries out this behavior. I am fascinated with watching birds forage because it has such a profound impact on their behavior in so many ways. It seems to come naturally to some companion parrots while others need to be taught. Incorporating foraging opportunities in our birds’ cages, rooms, aviaries and other environments can really help engage and stimulate their minds and fill their… Continued
PPG Summit 2020 Sessions: Do Scientists Really Know What They’re Talking About?
BARKS presents session details from PPG’s 2020 Summit and Workshops in Phoenix, Arizona *Early bird discount available if you register before January 31, 2020! Session Details: Presenter: Dr. Karolina Westlund Session Title: Do Scientists Really Know What They’re Talking About? Session Type: General Session (1 Hour) In the last 100 years, what we know about animal behavior, learning and cognition has been completely rewritten. But how many of today’s assumptions will hold true another 100 years from now? Which areas need further study? What claims are yet to be refuted as… Continued
Resolving Destructive Behaviour in Your Pet
By Karolina Westlund Ph.D. of PPG corporate partner Illis Animal Behaviour Consulting Destructive behaviour can be extremely frustrating. Image: concept by ILLIS ABC, drawing by Pyrrth Destructive behaviour from your beloved pet can be a nuisance. Assuming there’s not an underlying medical condition or the behaviour isn’t anxiety-related, let’s look at some ways of addressing these types of behaviour, regardless of whether you’re a dog dude, a cat gal or a parrot person. Or hang out with any other critter, for that matter. I’m going to use cat furniture scratching as… Continued
Dog Play and Prediction Error
Dog play is comprised of “ritualized aggression”, and aggression is rooted in fear. In ritualized aggression, there are varying degrees of fear/stress/aversions, along the spectrum from slight stress to possibly full blown fear, that results in a fight or bite or an attempt to flee. The fun, enjoyable parts of the “dog play stress spectrum” are positively reinforced, and intrinsically so, by their very nature. These are behaviors that are reciprocated and or result in play being accepted by the other dogs. Play bows, shoulder rolls, invitations to be chased,… Continued
Book Review: Puppy Training
Recently I read a Kindle book on the subject of house training a dog, written by Alexandra Santos. I recognized her from a Pet Professional Guild webinar I attended on August 6, 2019 titled Fear Learning and How to Work With Fearful Dogs. Santos is a professional canine behavior consultant who graduated from the Animal Care College in the U.K. with a Diploma of Advanced Canine Psychology. She has previously written Puppy Problems and Puppy and Dog Care books, among other things. During her fearful dogs webinar I was impressed with… Continued
To Chase, or Not to Chase?
I live in the countryside on a 25 acre parcel surrounded by farmland. We developed our property to support wildlife. Needless to say there are critters of all kinds and in all directions. My dogs love it as much as I do. The major difference is I have no hard-wired impulse to chase the critters. My Labradors, on the other hand, face temptations every day. A little Angel sits on one shoulder preaching self-restraint while a little Devil sits on the other shouting the contrary. To chase, or not to… Continued
Behavior Suppression Is Not the Same as Behavior Modification
By Jenny Efimova Reactive behavior is the tip of the iceberg. It’s what we see: the lunging, the barking, the snarling, the growling, etc. It’s what’s above the surface and it’s what we often want to stop. What we don’t see and what’s driving this behavior is the rest of the iceberg below: the fear, the anxiety, the stress, the frustration. So if we want the behavior to change, we need to look at the root cause, not just the symptoms. When we change how a dog feels about a… Continued
Does Your Animal Have Control?
By Karolina Westlund Ph.D. of PPG corporate partner Illis Animal Behaviour Consulting Many animal trainers, veterinarians and pet owners highlight the importance of controlling animals. Controlling them, as in restricting the animals’ movement, their choices and their opportunities to control their environment through their behaviour. Sometimes you have to, for safety reasons. Obviously. But often you don’t – and more often than you might think. Actually, the trend in modern animal training is to deliberately and strategically shift control from the handler to the animal, while still staying safe. Giving control to the animal… Continued
Herrnstein’s Matching Law and Reinforcement Schedules
When we bake cookies, some reinforcement is on a variable interval schedule. Have you heard trainers talking about the matching law? This post covers a bit of its history and the nuts and bolts of what it is about. I am providing this rather technical article because I want something to link to in some other written pieces about how the matching law has affected my own training of my dogs. In 1961, B.J. Herrnstein published a research paper in which there was an early formulation of what we call the matching law… Continued
The What, Where and When of Rewards
By Lily Mickleburgh The use of rewards in dog training is becoming increasingly popular as an effective way of encouraging desired behaviours. However, subtle differences in what you use as a reward, where and when you reward them, can all change depending on your end goal. This may also vary depending on breed traits, age of the dog and whether you want to build energy or encourage calm in your goal behaviour. WHAT is the motivator? Toys are a great way of building energy and enthusiasm for something like heel work or recall,… Continued
A Quadrant by Any Other Name is Still a Cornerstone of Operant Learning
This 2003 edition book is $4.89 on Amazon. Contents: priceless. There is a science that deals directly with how organisms learn and how to use that information to change the environment in order to change behavior. It’s called applied behavior analysis (ABA). It is the applied version of behavior analysis, which was referred to as the experimental analysis of behavior earlier in the 20th century. It is descended from the work of the behaviorists such as Skinner and is a sub-discipline of psychology. It is a rich field of study.… Continued
Which Pavlov Is on Your Shoulder?
The trainer Bob Bailey is often quoted as saying that when one is training an animal, “Pavlov is on your shoulder.” He is reminding us that while we are training operant behaviors (sit, down, fetch, weave), there are also respondent behaviors and respondent conditioning occurring. Respondent behaviors are behaviors that are generally involuntary and that include reflexes, internal surges of hormones, and (probably) emotions. But there’s another part that is not quoted as often. Bob Bailey also says that while Pavlov is on one of your shoulders, Skinner is on… Continued
Career Aptitude Testing … for Dogs
What if there were a test that could tell you whether a dog would make a good assistance dog or detection dog or search & rescue dog … or whatever career you hoped the dog would choose? Researchers Evan MacLean and Brian Hare are working on it. Their recently published study, “Enhanced Selection of Assistance and Explosive Detection Dogs Using Cognitive Measures,” describes initial attempts to create a sort of career aptitude test for working dogs. What I love about this study: It recognizes that dogs’ cognitive abilities a) exist,… Continued
Five Days from Fear to Fun – Classical Counterconditioning
By Yvette Van Veen I decided to spend some recent holiday time working on a whistle recall. This is when a dog learns to come to the sound of a whistle. Pamela Dennison has a number of resources on how to teach this skill for anyone who might be interested. Unlike other whims, I remembered to grab my camera. When I blew the whistle for the first time, Karma tucked her tail and ran. I probably should have been a bit more thoughtful in my introduction of the whistle. However,… Continued
The Power of Desensitization
Desensitization is a tool I use in my armory virtually every day – it’s ultra powerful, versatile and it works well, that is IF it’s applied correctly! Here I’m going to take a look at this ‘behaviour fixer’ in a bit more detail because if it’s worked with in the right way, you’re just not going to get the results you want and even worse, the dog may relapse. What’s Desensitization Anyway? I have a definition that I use for Desensitization or (to give it it’s full name) Systematic Desensitization.… Continued
Ringing the Bell to Go Out: Avoid These 4 Common Errors!
Zani learns to ring the bells This post is for the people who have tried–and failed–to teach their dogs to ring a bell to go outside. I suspect there are a lot of bell ringing failures out there. Not that it’s so hard to teach a dog to poke a bell with his nose or paw. But it can be tricky to teach him when to do it, to let him know that this is a way to communicate with you about a certain thing. I went through the top hits… Continued
Why Your Dog Doesn’t Know Sit
By Yvette Van Veen When I was a young girl, my grandmother would send gifts of books from Czechoslovakia. The books were filled with stunning moving pop-up illustrations. I learned a lot from those books. I learned how those illustrations popped up. I learned how one moving part operated another moving part. What I failed to learn was how to read Czech. My attention was so fixated on the illustrations that I memorized the words. I recited the story based on the illustration. I never focused on the letters. Illustrations… Continued
Reaching the Holy Grail of Training
By Yvette Van Veen Years ago, I taught our Kiki a formal recall using targeting. Systematically I proceeded to work through the exercise. Much to my delight, Kiki developed the most fantastic competition recall. People gasped at her speed and enthusiasm. Her formal recall never failed us over the years. You could say that it had behavioural momentum. Domjan, in The Principles of Learning and Behavior describes behavioural momentum as, “response persistence in extinction.” In non-technical language, behaviours with momentum are enthusiastic, despite distractions. They are highly resistant to extinction. … Continued
Reading List for Dog Owners
When I got my first dog in 1983 I knew nothing about living with dogs, so naturally I got a puppy. Needless to say I knew even less about raising a puppy. Samantha relied upon me to teach her, and I relied upon the only source available at the time: a book. If there were local dog trainers or puppy classes in particular I was unaware of them. There was no internet to search nor a Pet Professional Guild to inform me. I bought the best selling dog training book… Continued
Ask Your Dog Questions – Overshadowing 2
By Yvette Van Veen How to ask your dog questions…overshadowing part two. My last blog introduced the concept of overshadowing by offering a simple example to illustrate the point. For an explanation of the concept, you can read that blog here. But that basic understanding doesn’t go far enough in my opinion. Many unusual variations exist and can interfere with training. To recap, animals are more likely to attach meaning to information that is more important and noticeable – the more “salient.” Abstract variations can be hard to spot. It’s… Continued
Pet Guardians Need Help Finding Professionals
As a professional dog trainer taking behavioral cases I see how confusing it can be for pet owners to know what sort of help they need and where to find it. Lack of regulation and transparency in the industry can lead pet guardians into pitfalls. This happened to a client whose dog was fearful of other dogs during leash walks. He would bark and lunge, but then retreat. The owner sought help from a trainer who took her dog into his care for several days. The trainer called her a… Continued
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