I was talking to my sheepherding trainer, Mary, about Deuce and his lack of “flexibility” in training and her response was: … “that’s a Border Collie for you”… she continued, “I would not say that he lacks flexibility… they are just focused." This leads to the discussion of “labels.” Pick your own (unflexible,
focused, etc.) but in reality, as I said before, labels really do not tell us much about the dog or the behavior the dog is doing. So I decided to move away from my label of “flexibility” and instead put my trainer’s cap on.
The goal here is to work with Deuce so that the list of his reinforcements expands.
By having Deuce interested in working for other “stuff” I can reward him for desirable behaviors with food (something is not that keen on in the context of training) or other activities besides herding sheep, playing tug or kicking a ball for him.
In order to achieve the above, I will make use of the Premack principle. Named after Premack principle a psychologist who has done much to advance the field of comparative psychology, our understanding of the animal mind as well as human cognition. If you want to learn more about David Premack click here:
http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~premack/About.html
In essence, the Premack principle is about using a more likely behavior, for example, a dog chasing after a squirrel to reinforce a less likely behavior - say dog giving you eye contact when in the presence of a squirrel.
In my example of a dog loving to chase squirrels, chasing squirrels is at the top of the list for the dog. Thus making it more of a likely behavior that the dog will engage in when squirrels are around. I can then teach my dog that if she sits and gives me eye contact first (okay, these are two behaviors not one) then I will release her to chase the squirrel. Once the dog has learned the contingency: sitting and looking with attention produces an opportunity to chase, I can use this new pairing to have some “say” as to when my dog gets to chase squirrels. How fantastic is that?!!
I use the Premack principle often in my own training with my dogs and when designing training plans for clients. Savvy trainers understand that making use of Premack really opens up the possibilities of using environmental distractions as powerful ways to obtain a more desirable outcome (behavior) from our dogs… But, but, you might ask: do I really want a dog chasing squirrels? Well indeed this is not the “end of the story”… I will write more on this topic later as there is so much more to explore!
focused, etc.) but in reality, as I said before, labels really do not tell us much about the dog or the behavior the dog is doing. So I decided to move away from my label of “flexibility” and instead put my trainer’s cap on.
The goal here is to work with Deuce so that the list of his reinforcements expands.
By having Deuce interested in working for other “stuff” I can reward him for desirable behaviors with food (something is not that keen on in the context of training) or other activities besides herding sheep, playing tug or kicking a ball for him.
In order to achieve the above, I will make use of the Premack principle. Named after Premack principle a psychologist who has done much to advance the field of comparative psychology, our understanding of the animal mind as well as human cognition. If you want to learn more about David Premack click here:
http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~premack/About.html
In essence, the Premack principle is about using a more likely behavior, for example, a dog chasing after a squirrel to reinforce a less likely behavior - say dog giving you eye contact when in the presence of a squirrel.
In my example of a dog loving to chase squirrels, chasing squirrels is at the top of the list for the dog. Thus making it more of a likely behavior that the dog will engage in when squirrels are around. I can then teach my dog that if she sits and gives me eye contact first (okay, these are two behaviors not one) then I will release her to chase the squirrel. Once the dog has learned the contingency: sitting and looking with attention produces an opportunity to chase, I can use this new pairing to have some “say” as to when my dog gets to chase squirrels. How fantastic is that?!!
I use the Premack principle often in my own training with my dogs and when designing training plans for clients. Savvy trainers understand that making use of Premack really opens up the possibilities of using environmental distractions as powerful ways to obtain a more desirable outcome (behavior) from our dogs… But, but, you might ask: do I really want a dog chasing squirrels? Well indeed this is not the “end of the story”… I will write more on this topic later as there is so much more to explore!
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