Reflexive behaviors

Can we teach our dogs a behavior or behaviors that are so ingrained that the dog will perform with 100 % accuracy?  This is what everyone apparently wants, but where do we fall short? 

I am talking to one of my clients about this proposition. We are discussing recall and the ability of a dog to come back to us no matter what the level of distraction.  I describe to her what I mean when I refer to a behavior being so ingrained in the dog’s repertoire that it happens when requested without a “second thought.”

The analogy I use is of a professional athlete at the top of their game.  If you ask her (okay, him too) what are the steps they took for their massive tennis return or climbing a wall without falling, in perfect harmony and economy of movements, they might tell you they really do not know all the tiny decisions and steps it takes to perform at that level of finesse. Their movements have become reflexive. Here is the thing: this athlete has had thousands upon thousands of opportunities for practice. Most likely, they have also submitted to intense mind training in the form of previsualization, mindfulness and the like. Modalities that as far as we know, our dogs cannot do.

I propose that, just like the athlete that performs with such proficiency, our dogs can too. The caveat, of course, is that we must give them thousands upon thousands of opportunities for learning and practicing the behavior until it becomes a reflexive response to a given stimulus.

Take for example Ian Dunbar’s PhD, DVM “emergency sit.”  The idea behind the “emergency sit” is to teach the position of a sit- defined as the dog placing its butt on the ground, in as many environmental circumstances we can muster. 

We need to train so that our dog generalizes that when “x” happens and we ask for a sit- either verbally or by using a visual aid/cue, the dog sits. No matter what!  Dr. Dunbar’s idea is that we can stop a dog from chasing cars, wildlife, or our dog running towards an unknown dog, if the dog has learned a very solid sit under all these set of circumstances. Not bad, huh?

My intention, in this blog post, is not to fully describe how one can achieve this, but to make us aware of what is possible first. Then decided under what circumstances we need the behavior to take place before we decide how to go about teaching it.

I have written in the past about Deuce’s compulsion for tugging and how that simple behavior has turned into my most solid avenue for a recall no matter what. 

 A friend of mine and I are walking our dogs off-leash when we hear dogs that belong to a home in the near distance. We had not seen the dogs approach us because of thick vegetation, but heard them loud and clear when they were just a few feet away from us.  At this moment, Deuce began to trot towards the dogs. I noticed that these two are really not very welcoming!  So I called Deuce back with my verbal tug cue “take it.” As he heard it, he turned around immediately and we got the hell out of there, hoping the dogs would stay behind and not come after us. The difference between Deuce’s reflexive game of tug and a dog that loves to tug and does it well, is that Deuce will tug anywhere. Most dogs will only tug when certain conditions are met: only inside the home, backyard, with this toy but not that one, only with this person, etc.

Thus the question remains:  are we willing to give our dog tons of practice so that behaviors that are important to us become so well practiced and refined that they become reflexive?

Asking for too much?

As part of my ongoing education, I attend monthly webinars that touch upon different topics surrounding behavior and training. This month’s topic related to the questions of: Are we asking too much of our pets? And, if so, what specific environments or concepts can put a pet’s well-being at stake?

Funny that this particular topic was being presented as I have on my own focused in my private practice and with my own dogs in making sure that our dogs are not paying the price for our endless ideas of what they “should” do or be.

I think most people mean well, but are just uniformed about the true nature of DOGS. For example, why is it that people decide to adopt or purchase a dog?

Is it because they hope that their new pet will fulfill a particular need? What happens when we think of our furry pets as children? Or a replacement for human children?

These are important questions to ask ourselves. To clarify, there is nothing wrong in my view to welcome a pet into our family based on some of our needs - this is true of any relationship. The important thing though is to take stock as to the impact our needs might have on our dogs on a day-to-day basis!

Case in point: I get an email from a potential client explaining to me that his dog… “needs to learn to sit and stay”, “needs to come when I call him.” I had to smile when I read this because even though I knew exactly what he meant: the owner has the need of having his dog sit/stay and come when called and these are really not his dog’s needs or wants we have grown used to thinking of our pets as an extension of our wishes.

Another example is the expectation that our dogs MUST like everyone! And even be polite and with good manners with every single person we choose to engage with.

Dogs must be comfortable with having anyone reaching out to pet them… as if dogs don't have a need for personal space!

Dogs should play nicely with all dogs we choose to introduce them to. And they should never (start) a fight. Good dogs don’t fight.

They should have a strong and consistent work ethic, day in and day out, regardless of the environment, how they feel, how tired they might be, etc.

We have grown accustom to having dogs be there for us no matter what! But the question still remains: Are we asking too much of our dogs?

Using Food as a Reinforcement, Part 2

One of the most salient mistakes people make when using treats in training besides using treats as bribe or agonizing if to continue using food, as discussed on the last post, is not fading the food lure soon enough so that the dog learns to work for food as a consequence for behavior instead of only working when food is in the picture.

A lure could be anything that either helps position the dog in a certain way. For example, to teach a dog to sit we place a treat just above the dog’s nose so that when the dog lifts its head to get the treat, his butt hits the ground. In other words the dog sat!

Luring is a crafty way of doing this. The dog follows the food and we can then very gently and clearly, when done well, teach all sorts of things such as sit, down, stand, etc.

If one is to use food in this way, we also need to teach the dog to trust that we will pay once he has done what we want him to do. At this stage the dog must learn to take a leap of faith! When the dog learns that he will get “paid” for doing something his confidence in the process and in us is established and he can begin to relax and “work for us” knowing that we will keep our end of the bargain.

The eminent outcome in failing to remove a food lure, or any other type of lure, in a prompt manner is a dog that will only work when food is present. As a result, we have placed ourselves in a corner as the dog now has to re-learn to trust the process and this will most likely be frustrating for both the handler and the dog.

As I mentioned previously, we also must be crafty enough in our use of food when training because once the dog has learned “x” behavior (in that context) we are ready to begin to pay the dog with food in what it is called a variable schedule of reinforcement. In other words, the dog will only be paid sometimes instead of every time for that specific behavior. Learning how to use schedules of reinforcements continuous, variable and a few others, takes time and critical thinking.

The effort invested in understanding different schedules of reinforcement and how to use them is worth it. Because when appropriately used, the dog will perform with more readiness.