Behavior Chains

John asks me in the morning how he can best teach Rio to jump from a “pretty” position. A pretty position is a dog sitting on her hind legs with the torso erect. As you can appreciate, this requires quite a bit of core strength and stability. I give John a few pointers - mostly what not to do :) and I leave it at that.

A few days later he shows me the progress with Rio, who is more than happy to oblige. A true case of me doing most of the feedings, the training, the care and the worry, and John being the one that gets lots of goo-goo eyes from Rio.

What John has taught Rio is a perfect example of a behavior chain. A behavior(s) chain is a number of behaviors that are executed in the exact order one after the other. The interesting thing about behavior chains is that the behavior to follow is a reinforcer for the previous.

Behavior chains happen often. Sometimes unbeknownst, people train their dogs to perform a behavior chain. One that they wish not to have in the first place. So let’s look at when we want behavior chains and when we don’t!

We want to train behavior chains when we have a specific and desirable goal in mind, like John’s. When each of the behaviors in the chain are taught to fluency (the dog can perform the behavior in a myriad of situations and has proven to understand the cue with no guessing on the part of the dog) they are then put into the “chain” or order of events. There is more to this technique than I am describing here, but for now this suffices.

Great examples of chains are the ones found in agility. The dog has learned, and is also aided by the handler, to perform one obstacle after the next. During trials since neither food nor toys are allowed while the team is running the obstacle field, it is the engagement with following the obstacle that will provide the reinforcer for the dog to continue working with no other motivation at hand. This can be achieved by teaching the dog, while training, to tackle each one of these obstacles without fear and enjoyment. Of course, running full speed is highly reinforcing for most dogs so this might be another component in motivating the dog to run the agility field.

Now, for behavior chains that are not so desirable abound. Here are some examples: Dog is taught to sit after jumping on someone. Now, the dog jump/sits! Dog demand barks. Owner treats the dog the nanosecond the dog stops barking, the dog resumes barking, the owner treats the dog immediately after the dog stops barking, dog resumes barking… and around, around we go… And my favorite one (not!)

Dog pulls on leash, dog release the taught leash to come back to owner’s side; dog pulls again to self-correct into a loose leash. This is called the “yo-yo” effect.

What is the trick to NOT end with an unwanted behavior chain as described above? First, observe what the dog is actually doing: jumping, barking or pulling, then decide what we want the dog to do instead. Now, with these specifics we now separate the reinforcer (treat, game, etc.) from the first action, so that it only serves as a reinforcer for the behavior we want – the second one.

If I want the dog to sit when saying “hi” instead of jumping and sitting, I wait until the dog has remained in a sit for at least 2-3 seconds and then I pay. So the question is: what am I paying the dog for? Sitting! And not jump/sit.

This is where the fact of consequences having to be pretty immediate after the behavior we want to increase helps us out.

Once a behavior chain is established, it might take a while for the dog to learn the new routine. Be patient with your dog, since after all, you probably taught the behavior chain in the first place.

Do sharpen your observation skills and the timing of reinforcing, and in no time your pup will be executing behaviors you actually want.

Still Learning

I am working with some clients and their dog in teaching the dog not to pull on leash. They had come to me after a frustrating full-time pulling outing with their dog.

I take the dog’s leash from my client’s hand and we take off walking, the dog was barely pulling and very interested in what I have to offer him.

My clients who are standing nearby can’t believe their powerful dog is not interested in pulling and jokingly (and probably happy to see their dog can learn) tell me that they are not making stuff up… that the dog was really pulling! I tell them that I know they are not “lying” and that I believe that their dog was pulling because most dogs will pull if they have not been taught otherwise.

As I describe to them what I am doing and why the dog is now not pulling, one of my client’s offers that she thinks her dog is walking nicely without pulling because I am assertive. I tell her that it is not so much that I am assertive (which I am but not the main reason for my nice walking on leash “success”) but that the main reasons are:

1. I know what I want the dog to do. In other words I have a clear picture in my head of what walking nicely on leash is. So I can aim for this goal with less work and more rapidly. Similarly to having good directions when not familiar with a destination.
2. I am paying the dog handsomely for tiny success of him remaining semi-close to me or at least walking in front of me with a loose leash - the opposite of a taut one.

I turn to her and I tell her… the “trick is to recognized that Rover is still learning how to walk nicely on a leash." He is in effect in the first of four stages of learning; the Acquisition stage.

When a dog is in this first stage of learning the dog must learn what we want him to do. What exactly will produce a reinforcer. In order for our learner to move into the next stage we must provide ample feedback (read: treats, smiles, praise etc.- any good stuff that will make the dog want to continue learning and working with you).

Fluency is the next stage. In essence the dog becomes capable (or fluent) in his ability to perform the trained behavior as if on “auto-pilot”. At this stage we are seeing more and more correct responses and as the responses go up in number also the number of times the dog is reinforced for “good answers” and because reinforcement increases the behavior that has been reinforced… the number of correct behaviors continues to increase.

Now we can begin stage 3: Generalization. At this stage the dog learns that the new learning has many relevant applications (or context in which it needs to be performed). In our example of walking nicely on leash the dog is now able to walk without pulling not only in a semi-distracting environment. Say, when being walked in front of his home, a familiar location, but in addition, the dog learns that walking on a loose leash when seeing a familiar dog, getting a scent of an interesting smell etc. is the way to go. I know, it sounds almost impossible but it happens all the time!

The final stage is that of Maintenance. At this last stage our learner is consistent in offering the correct behavior in all sorts of instances or environments.

Now, I just described to you what the learner is learning and the process of learning, but what is the role of the “teacher/coach/ trainer/owner" as we teach our dog to engage in desirable behaviors?

There are so many important skills and knowledge base that is needed in order to teach anyone with efficacy and empathy- dog training is no different! And that is in part what makes it so interesting to some of us and such a big challenge to most people.

The one skill I want to focus on is that one of providing feedback to the dog.

One of the biggest misconceptions in training dogs is that the dog learns by the use of a verbal cue (command). In reality dogs learn in two main ways and one of them is by consequences - good and bad.

What I mean by feedback is the use of a reward (reinforcer) as a form of “payment” to the dog but most importantly as a motivator – something the dog wants or would work for, for doing what I want him to do!

There, the big secret is out!

So what I was doing with my leash-pulling friend was reinforcing him for very small successes that kept him wanting to not only pay attention to what was earning him the reinforcer, but also able to continue to work for me for a longer period of time - so learning was taking place. Trainers often hear the following question: How long will I have to continue feeding my dog? The answer is that is depends.

It all depends on the stage of learning your dog is at for that specific behavior. Yes. It is more complex (and fun) than the description above but in essence that is correct. As the dog becomes successful in what we are aiming to teach him we can scale down on reinforcers.

Curiously enough, this in itself will maintain the behavior going strong - under learned circumstances. Once again, the science of animal learning is much more complex than saying “pay lots at the beginning and then pay less.” The devil is in the details and in the understanding of a few principles that will enable our learner to learn and for everyone involved in the process to enjoy it.

Single child (dog)

Our friend’s Robin and Lisa come over for dinner and they bring along Skylar who is one of Rio’s and Deuce’s BFF. The dogs are excited to hang out together - first inside as it was still hot. Just as the sun was setting we all step outside to go to the field and let the dogs play hard. They run and take turns chasing balls. My eye caught Rio at least twice politely deferring to Sky her big red ball. Good girl Rio! I told her as I smiled with motherly pride. They continue to play for a bit and now the ball is back between these two. We are all kind of gathered around the dogs when a spat took place between Sky and Rio. It did not last long. We quickly remove the ball from the field.

They keep hanging out and I see that both dogs are back to “normal”. Good, their relationship is intact.

Afterwards I am thinking about single child/dogs and if they are at a deficit when it comes to learning how to share with other dogs. Similar to some single (human) children who find it difficult to do so. I sustain this thought for a few minutes and I reach the conclusion that any being that is alive will have to learn to share resources and protect them as well. Yes, it is true that when there is more than one dog in the household the dogs get daily practice in negotiating all sorts of stuff such as places to lie down, food and other goodies.

It is also a fact that some dogs really like their toys and they might not be as happy about sharing with others. Here is the case of Sky and Deuce. I am not sure if this is an ongoing problem between Sky and her other doggie-pals because this was the first incident of her guarding the ball from Rio. Or perhaps Rio was the one who began the posturing because she was not willing at that point to have Sky keep the ball. Who knows; it all happened kind of fast.

Deuce, for example, is so good about sharing almost everything. He totally looks the other way when Rio (food monger - per excellence) steals his half-eaten chewy or a Kong. However, I need to separate them when I roll out food-dispensing toys (with the exception of the Kongs - go figure!).

If I don’t separate them, Deuce will give Rio and the food-dispensing toy a hard stare and begins to vocalize in a very high pitched tone. If Rio remains close to the toy, he will go towards her and sort of peck on her with his muzzle. Since I know this, I just don’t expose Rio to this sort of nonsense. So they get to eat and play with the food-dispensing toys always apart. Now, Deuce and Rio have a toy box filled with all sorts of goodies that they can access at any time. They each have their favorite toys, with balls ranking # 1 for Deuce. Rio loves them all!

I don’t recall if they have ever felt possession over one of these toys. Perhaps because there are so many to go around that there is truly no need to guard them.

Conflicts between dogs are potentially dangerous for them. That is why for the most part, (unless the dog has learned that pulling his weight around pays off) most dogs tend to exhibit ritualized behaviors that never escalate too much. It is evolutionarily advantageous to remain injury free.

Either way, I try really hard to keep the relationship (yes, it is a true friendship what these two have) between Deuce and Rio as conflict free as possible and the same goes for their other doggie-friends. Playing it smart and anticipating any possible conflicts pays off and will allow for many hours of fun play with or without a precious ball.