Why does my puppy nips and bite?
Why does my puppy jump up all over me?
Do you have a Puppy? This answers the questions above rather succinctly. Something people don't realize about puppies is that they're little attention hounds. If they get attention for something, they do it more. Any interaction with a puppy is a chance for a training exercise. Puppy runs up with a toy, most people don't bat an eye; same puppy goes and grabs a sock or shoe and all heck breaks loose. So what does that puppy learn? Playing with your toys, gets me attention, so, I'll do that! After all, now your chasing me around the house and talking to me, so that's good and fun!
We need to stop trying to think about what we don't want the puppy to do (of course there will be management needs you will have to deal with, but this isn't teaching the puppy not to do things, it's not giving them access while they learn the right things to do). Teach the puppy what is good (chewing on Kongs and other toys; food enrichment games - Buster cubes and other things that dispense treats; interactive training that turns behaviours into a habit, not just a trick - Oh, you have food!? I'll work then!). So what about our puppy myths?
Nipping - All puppies need to nip; I ask a lot of questions when someone tells me their puppy doesn't nip. Puppies need to learn self control and that teeth on human skin is a bad thing (humans are wimpy fleshy creatures, they can't handle the teeth!). In order to do that, they have to actually be allowed to make some contact with human flesh. A good breeder will have taught puppies that human skin is frail and all their fun ends if they make contact with skin (if you've never been nipped by a puppy, it's like little needles). If the breeder didn't do it, then I want to know what they people have done to keep the puppy from nipping - the last thing I want to hear is something like "we give them a smack on the nose." If you want to create a dog that is a dangerous biter, never let it make contact with human skin; if you want a dog that may put it's mouth on humans, but never bare down any weight, teach it to nip properly.
Jumping Up - Puppies jump not because they want to dominate you and take over the world; they want attention. Just ignore the puppy (Mom did this with the puppy as well a LOT more than she had to reprimand them). Mom easily jumped out of the area if she found the puppies to annoying. Problem solved: Puppies wanted to play, Mom didn't. So, puppy jumps, ignore puppy until they do something nicer (sitting, play bow, down etc) and reward THAT. Better yet, just teach the puppy something that gets lots of attention instead of Jumping (automatic sit when they come to a person, for example).
Saturday 25 August 2012
Saturday 18 August 2012
Positive What and Negative Who???
One way to think about training is to figure out for yourself what kind of person you want to be to others; human, canine, porpoise or lion. The principles of learning theory generally hold across species, it's the reaction that might be different.
Lets say we want to bully a human around (likely Positive Punishment). The reaction might be to leave, cry in a bundle on the ground, or to call the Principle/boss or get a divorce. A dog, depending on it's temperament might fight back, or it might cower in submission trying to end the unpleasantness. A porpoise will simply swim away. A lion might just eat you.
Nagging can work with a person (Negative Reinforcement), but it rarely works with any other species. You can't nag a dog into sitting "Sit... Sit... Sit... SIT... SIT!! SIT!!!!" If you've gotten to that point, go back to basics and teach the dog to sit (see the second post :) )
Removing something a person wants can be useful, if they understand what it's being removed for (Negative Punishment). Stopping and telling someone that did something wrong 3 years ago and now you don't want to be with them anymore is somewhat pointless... even more so is not telling them why at all. One example that might work on a child is they do something wrong (screaming and yelling at you) then immediately taking the XBox/PS3 etc and putting it out of reach; assuming the child cared about it at that moment. A jumping up puppy can often be taught not to jump by simply turning and ignoring it; a dog that has been reinforced for jumping up though, may continue to do this for a long time with this technique before it figures out what's going on.
If I gave you a cookie (or piece of chocolate) every time you read over one of these posts (and you liked cookies or chocolate, or wine) then you would likely come back and read more... or maybe even the same post over and over (Positive reinforcement). Reward a dog for sitting ever time it comes running up, and it is more likely to happen. Give a porpoise a piece of fish ever time it jumps through a hoop, more likely to happen. This is again, contingent on if it's something the animal actually likes at the moment!. A porpoise coming up to you might just want a stroke, and so might that dog.
So, completely confusing? Negative == removing something; Positive == adding something. Reinforcement == makes the behaviour increase in likelihood; Punishment == decreases the likelihood of the behaviour. Still likely clear as mud.
Positive Reinforcement. Probably the easiest one to figure out. Get a reward for doing something, you want to do something more often (getting paid at the end of the week is deferred, so it doesn't work the same way though, sometimes even makes the thing happen less!). Get a hug for taking out the trash (assuming you like hugs!), you might feel better about taking the garbage out. Ask a dog to sit and he gets something he likes in return - increases his likelihood of sitting.
Negative Punishment. Somewhat easy to think about; when you were a child, and you acted up and something you were playing with got taken away, you realize it's a bad thing to act up; your fun stops. Similar to a puppy jumping up, or nipping to get attention. If the attention immediately evaporates, then the game is over, fun ends. If I bark my head off while meals are being prepared, my person leaves, and I don't get food... hmmm Slightly tricker to figure out, but the pup gets the pattern quickly if you're timing is spot on.
Negative Reinforcement. Trickier to explain. Say the pup doesn't like pressure on its rear end. You put pressure on it's rear, and it moves it's butt to the ground to get away from the pressure, and the pressure stops! Voila, the puppy sits, but who did all the work? You. If you did all the work, how fast is the puppy really going to learn? Slowly. Negative reinforcement isn't always just applying something annoying unfortunately; a lot of people use things that hurt or are at best uncomfortable to manipulate animals. If it's something you wouldn't use on you, your child or other loved one, don't use it on a dog or other animal.
Positive Punishment. Adding something to prevent the things you don't want. The classic example of this in old dog training was yanking a chain until the dog sat. Everything it did wrong it got a yank, until it eventually sat. Not a lot of fun, and the dog has to figure out what not to do! Not the ideal learning condition; think about learning the alphabet this way.
Why did praise (sometimes Positive Reinforcement) work so well in the old days? Because it was one small piece of a larger puzzle. Mostly methods that espouse "praise based" training rely on Positive Punishment/Negative Reinforcement, followed by praise. So dogs likely assumed that if they did what they got praise for, then the bad stuff wouldn't happen. Unfortunately, this can still be seen on TV, even though the techniques are 50 years out of date and probably only came into favour after the World Wars.
Refer to Ian Dunbar for his history on rediscovering lost books from the 1800's that described the basic concepts of Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment together in animals before the scientists coined the terms with Pavlov et al.
Lets say we want to bully a human around (likely Positive Punishment). The reaction might be to leave, cry in a bundle on the ground, or to call the Principle/boss or get a divorce. A dog, depending on it's temperament might fight back, or it might cower in submission trying to end the unpleasantness. A porpoise will simply swim away. A lion might just eat you.
Nagging can work with a person (Negative Reinforcement), but it rarely works with any other species. You can't nag a dog into sitting "Sit... Sit... Sit... SIT... SIT!! SIT!!!!" If you've gotten to that point, go back to basics and teach the dog to sit (see the second post :) )
Removing something a person wants can be useful, if they understand what it's being removed for (Negative Punishment). Stopping and telling someone that did something wrong 3 years ago and now you don't want to be with them anymore is somewhat pointless... even more so is not telling them why at all. One example that might work on a child is they do something wrong (screaming and yelling at you) then immediately taking the XBox/PS3 etc and putting it out of reach; assuming the child cared about it at that moment. A jumping up puppy can often be taught not to jump by simply turning and ignoring it; a dog that has been reinforced for jumping up though, may continue to do this for a long time with this technique before it figures out what's going on.
If I gave you a cookie (or piece of chocolate) every time you read over one of these posts (and you liked cookies or chocolate, or wine) then you would likely come back and read more... or maybe even the same post over and over (Positive reinforcement). Reward a dog for sitting ever time it comes running up, and it is more likely to happen. Give a porpoise a piece of fish ever time it jumps through a hoop, more likely to happen. This is again, contingent on if it's something the animal actually likes at the moment!. A porpoise coming up to you might just want a stroke, and so might that dog.
So, completely confusing? Negative == removing something; Positive == adding something. Reinforcement == makes the behaviour increase in likelihood; Punishment == decreases the likelihood of the behaviour. Still likely clear as mud.
Positive Reinforcement. Probably the easiest one to figure out. Get a reward for doing something, you want to do something more often (getting paid at the end of the week is deferred, so it doesn't work the same way though, sometimes even makes the thing happen less!). Get a hug for taking out the trash (assuming you like hugs!), you might feel better about taking the garbage out. Ask a dog to sit and he gets something he likes in return - increases his likelihood of sitting.
Negative Punishment. Somewhat easy to think about; when you were a child, and you acted up and something you were playing with got taken away, you realize it's a bad thing to act up; your fun stops. Similar to a puppy jumping up, or nipping to get attention. If the attention immediately evaporates, then the game is over, fun ends. If I bark my head off while meals are being prepared, my person leaves, and I don't get food... hmmm Slightly tricker to figure out, but the pup gets the pattern quickly if you're timing is spot on.
Negative Reinforcement. Trickier to explain. Say the pup doesn't like pressure on its rear end. You put pressure on it's rear, and it moves it's butt to the ground to get away from the pressure, and the pressure stops! Voila, the puppy sits, but who did all the work? You. If you did all the work, how fast is the puppy really going to learn? Slowly. Negative reinforcement isn't always just applying something annoying unfortunately; a lot of people use things that hurt or are at best uncomfortable to manipulate animals. If it's something you wouldn't use on you, your child or other loved one, don't use it on a dog or other animal.
Positive Punishment. Adding something to prevent the things you don't want. The classic example of this in old dog training was yanking a chain until the dog sat. Everything it did wrong it got a yank, until it eventually sat. Not a lot of fun, and the dog has to figure out what not to do! Not the ideal learning condition; think about learning the alphabet this way.
Why did praise (sometimes Positive Reinforcement) work so well in the old days? Because it was one small piece of a larger puzzle. Mostly methods that espouse "praise based" training rely on Positive Punishment/Negative Reinforcement, followed by praise. So dogs likely assumed that if they did what they got praise for, then the bad stuff wouldn't happen. Unfortunately, this can still be seen on TV, even though the techniques are 50 years out of date and probably only came into favour after the World Wars.
Refer to Ian Dunbar for his history on rediscovering lost books from the 1800's that described the basic concepts of Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment together in animals before the scientists coined the terms with Pavlov et al.
Saturday 11 August 2012
Training Basics and why your dog is NOT stubborn!
One of the most common things I hear whether I teach a class or over hear people in the park is (with exasperation) "They do it so well at home!" Well, that's partially because that's where they've been taught.
Dogs don't generalize well. What does that mean? If you teach them something in one place, doesn't mean they're going to understand it in a new place (with some dogs, this can mean from the Living room to the kitchen!). It also means that just because they know how to do it in one spot, if new distractions are added, they might get confused and be slow to respond. So what do you do?
Train them in lots of different places, with lots of differing distractions. The more you "proof" them like this, the more likely they are to start understand when you flap your arms around in a certain way or make a funny noise (like "Sit!") it means do that thing.
Numerous repetitions are required for a dog to understand what you want, and in different locations with different distractions. So if you teach your dog to come only in the house, expect when it runs out of the house and you yell "Come!!!!" in a frantic and possibly angry voice that you pooch will look back and go Wow... I'm not going back there until you calm down!. You want to practice a lot with the things you want your dog to be strong in. Think of it the same way a professional athlete does things. Dancing through tires and using blocking dummies is not the same as playing in a scrimmage of football. Always thing to yourself when the pooch is learning something "How can I make you successful?"
Why do you want to make them successful? So they'll learn. Learning theory is scientific. If anyone tells you that a dog needs to be bullied, dominated or otherwise manipulated with force to do something or to react in a certain way, walk away, and find a better way to teach them. Dogs learn quickly when they are shown what the RIGHT thing to do is, instead of constantly being punished for doing the wrong THINGS. Yes, one or two right things, and a potentially infinite number of wrong things.
If you want to reward your dog for doing the right thing, instead of rewarding him for NOT doing an endless list of bad things, then follow "positive principles". The same principles will work on people too -- The Big Bang Theory had an episode that featured this type of training.
So, basics: Repeat repeat repeat! Add distractions so the dog is continually successful, reward for success; increase the level of difficulty. If they aren't successful, ask yourself: What Can I Do, to Help you Be Successful?
Monday 6 August 2012
About me, and Why I do what I do.
This is the first of what I hope are many (and I also hope at least weekly!) thoughts, ideas and training tips related to the world of Dog Training (and Instructing) and Dog Walking, both as a professional and as an avid dog lover.
I have 4 dogs at home at the moment. Fezzik, who is the oldest of the bunch and started my wife, Laura, and I on the path to Positive Scientific based training. He is now roughly 13 years old, and a curmudgeon at heart. He's an American Eskimo x Corgi (best guess) and we got him when he was about 2 years old.
Sóley is our little "lady". She, along with the other 3, are Icelandic Sheepdogs (and no, "they must [not] be huge!" At 26ish pounds, Sóley is a little bundle of love and affection, unless one of the other 2 get in her hair the wrong way, then she'll the queen of the house and isn't afraid to back it up. Sóley is a CKC Champion and has trained in a lot of sports like Agility, Frisbee and loves doing tricks... when she isn't asking for tummy rubs.
Tindra, also a CKC Champion in Conformation, is Sóley's first daughter. She is a bundle of energy herself, around 23 pounds. She practices agility, Rally-O and enjoys a good game of fetch (or chase her friends as they run after the ball too).
Tinni is a good boy, with lots of potential and came to us when he could not longer stay at his home in Iceland. He is a work in progress and continues to work on his focus and excitability.
I've been a Dog walker since 2004, in the fall (if you remember that Fall) and I currently run Sundog Pet Services. Since that time I've helped people raise their puppies from 8 weeks all the way to now. I've taken on dogs as walking clients that had issues with noise and vehicles and using positive reinforcement turned them into dogs that didn't care if a big scary bus or dog-eating-garbage truck passed by.
In the Spring of 2006, I started working at Puppy People as an assistant training [instructor]. In 2008, I started instructing classes. In my time as an instructor, I have had taught everything from Puppy socialization classes, to Advanced obedience classes and Tricks classes. I currently instruct at both Puppy People, and All About Dogs, as well as doing my own private training with Puppies and Adult dogs (really though, to be honest, it's more about teaching people!).
I'm a strong advocate of Positive based training for two reasons: 1) It works, faster, and quicker and the dogs understand better in the long run and are more willing to work; 2) It's scientifically based. I have a B.Sc in Biology, and although at the time I didn't take many animal behaviour courses, I understand the usefulness of the Scientific Method. The current fade (on TV) is for Dominance - Bullying - and use of force on dogs. This has been proven time and again to be at best a way to get a dog or animal to do something for you, but more often than not, to either shut down, or even turn an animal against you!. Muzzle hits, check (choke) chains, prong collars and hanging dogs until they nearly loose consciousness is not a way to build a trusting relationship and it is not way to teach a dog to learn. Don't believe me, try it on your significant other [person]...
My goal with this blog, is to inform, educate where I can, and to try to bring a little levity into the dog obedience world along with a strong foundation of Positive based training. Feel free to comment and share.
I have 4 dogs at home at the moment. Fezzik, who is the oldest of the bunch and started my wife, Laura, and I on the path to Positive Scientific based training. He is now roughly 13 years old, and a curmudgeon at heart. He's an American Eskimo x Corgi (best guess) and we got him when he was about 2 years old.
Sóley is our little "lady". She, along with the other 3, are Icelandic Sheepdogs (and no, "they must [not] be huge!" At 26ish pounds, Sóley is a little bundle of love and affection, unless one of the other 2 get in her hair the wrong way, then she'll the queen of the house and isn't afraid to back it up. Sóley is a CKC Champion and has trained in a lot of sports like Agility, Frisbee and loves doing tricks... when she isn't asking for tummy rubs.
Tindra, also a CKC Champion in Conformation, is Sóley's first daughter. She is a bundle of energy herself, around 23 pounds. She practices agility, Rally-O and enjoys a good game of fetch (or chase her friends as they run after the ball too).
Tinni is a good boy, with lots of potential and came to us when he could not longer stay at his home in Iceland. He is a work in progress and continues to work on his focus and excitability.
I've been a Dog walker since 2004, in the fall (if you remember that Fall) and I currently run Sundog Pet Services. Since that time I've helped people raise their puppies from 8 weeks all the way to now. I've taken on dogs as walking clients that had issues with noise and vehicles and using positive reinforcement turned them into dogs that didn't care if a big scary bus or dog-eating-garbage truck passed by.
In the Spring of 2006, I started working at Puppy People as an assistant training [instructor]. In 2008, I started instructing classes. In my time as an instructor, I have had taught everything from Puppy socialization classes, to Advanced obedience classes and Tricks classes. I currently instruct at both Puppy People, and All About Dogs, as well as doing my own private training with Puppies and Adult dogs (really though, to be honest, it's more about teaching people!).
I'm a strong advocate of Positive based training for two reasons: 1) It works, faster, and quicker and the dogs understand better in the long run and are more willing to work; 2) It's scientifically based. I have a B.Sc in Biology, and although at the time I didn't take many animal behaviour courses, I understand the usefulness of the Scientific Method. The current fade (on TV) is for Dominance - Bullying - and use of force on dogs. This has been proven time and again to be at best a way to get a dog or animal to do something for you, but more often than not, to either shut down, or even turn an animal against you!. Muzzle hits, check (choke) chains, prong collars and hanging dogs until they nearly loose consciousness is not a way to build a trusting relationship and it is not way to teach a dog to learn. Don't believe me, try it on your significant other [person]...
My goal with this blog, is to inform, educate where I can, and to try to bring a little levity into the dog obedience world along with a strong foundation of Positive based training. Feel free to comment and share.
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