Scaredy Cat, Part 3: From Fear to Friend

My fiance's dog Lola is scared of cats. I have a cat. This presented a problem when we decided to move in together, especially when you consider that we live in a relatively small space with few places for either of them to escape. The relationship needed to be fixed.

We've already talked about the need for management. Management is an ongoing thing that really can't stop. This is especially true when you have a large, powerful, or tenacious dog. Dogs can and do kill cats. As you read today's post about changing emotions, keep in mind that management needs to continue happening alongside this training.

The way we change emotions in non-human animals is through classical conditioning. I've written about classical conditioning before (see here), and you can also click on the "classical conditioning" tab at the bottom of this post and in the side bar to the right. The TL;DR version: we are going to teach our dogs that cats are awesome creatures who bring delicious foodstuffs like chicken and bacon and potato chips. We do this by letting the dog see/smell/hear the cat, and then giving her something super delicious.

Before I go any further, this post is about dogs who are AFRAID of cats. Some dogs don't get along with cats due to predatory behavior. If this is the case with your dog, strict management and a consultation with a professional trainer is in order. And then more strict management, likely for as long as they are both alive.

Doing behavior work with cats can be difficult because cats aren't crazy about being restrained. Most cats are not leash trained or crate trained, cutting out two major ways we tend to restrain pets. But, even for those who are, I don't think it's fair to restrain the cat. Not only has my kitty lived with me longer than the dog has even been alive, kitty knows that he is smaller, and therefore more vulnerable, than the dog. I don't ever want my cat to feel unsafe. Not only does that create acrimony, but it also predisposes the cat to go on the defensive and attack the dog... kind of defeating the purpose.

Rule 1: The cat must always feel safe.
Rule 2: The cat must always have a choice about whether or not to participate.
Rule 3: Management always happens in parallel to training.

Thankfully, we have a very easy way to start the classical conditioning process without stressing the cat out: through smell. The first thing I did with Lola was to rub a cloth all over my cat to get his scent on it. Later on, when the cat wasn't around (because we weren't all living together yet, but also because management, remember?), I presented the cat-cloth to Lola to investigate. After about five seconds, I put the cloth behind my back, gave her an amazing treat, and then brought the cloth back out for her to smell again. I repeated this process until Lola was no longer interested in the smell and was instead demanding cookies.

I repeated this sequence several times, and each time we did the exercise, Lola was less interested in the cloth. At this point, you may want to use a new/different object to hold the cat's scent so that you are actually conditioning your dog to the smell, and not the cloth. I didn't do this, but wish I had.

The next step happened when we all moved in together. We created a "safe room" for our kitty. This room had his litterbox, a water dish, his food bowl, a comfy bed, and some cat nip. I always do this when I move with a cat; it seems easiest for them to adjust if they only need to see one room at a time. However, this gave us the bonus of allowing Lola to be able to smell and hear the cat - but not see him. This is important because it helps keep the dog under threshold by limiting the amount of cat stimuli she's exposed to. Then we just fed them on the other side of the door from each other to help create good feelings.

You'll note that I said that both animals were being fed during this process. Classical conditioning should be done for both animals whenever possible. For our kitty, being barked at was pretty unpleasant, and we wanted to minimize any stress or grumpiness on his part.

Rule 4: Condition both animals to reduce stress on the cat.

The next step was to allow the animals to be in the same room together, feeding and praising them both for calm interactions. For the safety of the cat, the dog should be wearing a leash. If you aren't holding the leash, you should be able to reach it quickly in order to intervene. If you're at all worried that the dog will grab the cat and you'll need to break up a fight (or worse), you're moving too fast. Slow down, take a step back, and then come back to this step when you don't think your dog will eat your cat.


Rule 6: Don't take chances. Cats are small and vulnerable to a physical attack. Move slowly. 

You can gradually increase the amount of time the two spend together, keeping in mind that good management should be going on when you aren't present either physically or mentally. You should continue to tell both animals how amazing they are (and back that up with deliciousness whenever possible) for a long time. Classical conditioning needs to happen for a long time in order to solidify a strong positive emotion.

At some point, though, you will want to begin introducing some operant elements- some purposeful commands that you can give (the dog; cats are trainable, but it's such a pain to do it) that will help direct the dog on what to do. This can be used to get out of some tight spots, or when mistakes happen (and they will). I'll talk about that in my next post.

Kathy Sdao Seminar: 10 Ways to Get Behavior

As presented by Kathy Sdao.

Picture is unrelated. But beautiful!

1. Physical Pressure

Also known as “molding,” this method involves the trainer physically putting the dog into the position you want. To do this, the dog needs to yield to your action. Although this method can work (it’s how I taught Maisy to shake/give me her paw, and how many people teach sit), it does require a cooperative animal. Since the dog is passively allowing the behavior to happen, it can be tricky to get the dog to understand that he needs to offer the behavior.

2. Prompting

Similar to using physical pressure, in this method, the trainer elicits the response by doing something that prompts the dog to take action. For example, if you walk towards a dog that is facing you, he is likely to step backwards. This is a common way to teach the dog to back up. This tends to be used mostly with reflexive instincts.

3. Luring

Kathy actually listed this as 2b because it is a subset of prompting. In luring, we prompt the dog to do a behavior by using food to get the dog to do what we want. Although it is widely used among positive trainers, the dog is acting more passively than some people would want.

4. Targeting

This requires the animal to place a body part against an item. This does require some pre-teaching so that the dog understands what he’s supposed to do when the target item is presented, but once the dog has learned that, it can be used to elicit a variety of behaviors. It can be used in a similar way to luring, although it doesn’t have to be. It’s a great technique for people who want the dog to be an active participant because the dog has to think through the options and make choices.

5. Capturing

In capturing, the trainer can be quite lazy. Instead of figuring out how to elicit a behavior, the trainer simply watches for what she wants and then rewards it. This makes capturing great for behaviors that are already in the dog’s repertoire and that he’s likely to do (such as sitting or lying down). Capturing doesn’t work for behaviors the dog doesn’t innately do.

6. Shaping

This is what many people think of when they think of “clicker training.” In shaping, we allow the dog to offer behaviors and then click/reward small steps towards the goal behavior. It requires the dog to be an active participant in his training, and can often result in very creative behaviors.

7. Classical Conditioning

First discovered and studied by Pavlov, classical conditioning is a method of getting behavior that relies on creating associations between two things to create automatic responses. In Pavlov’s case, he could get the behavior of drooling by ringing a bell. Classical conditioning is used most often in behavior modification, but can also be used for developing strong recalls.

8. Removal of Inhibitors

If something is preventing a dog from performing a behavior, removing that thing will often allow you to get the behavior. Often, the thing that is inhibiting the behavior is something scary, so this is really about allowing the dog to feel safe enough to perform.

9. Modeling or Mimicry

This method of getting behavior involves demonstrating what you want, and then having the dog copy what you’re doing. Although it is possible for dogs to do this, they are not naturally good at it. It’s really more useful for primates.

10. Verbal Instructions

This one isn’t used for animals at all as it requires a shared understanding of verbal language. In other words, it’s only for humans, and only for those who speak and understand the same language! Still, it is a way to get behavior, so I’ve included it here!

Kathy Sdao Seminar: The R in Dog Training

To Kathy, the most essential thing to understand about dog training is that consequences drive behavior. Period, end of story. What happens after a behavior happens is the best predictor of whether or not that behavior happens again. There are other important things, of course, and in fact, Kathy has an acronym for them: “Get SMART,” which stands for See, Mark, and Reward/Reinforce Training. (There’s actually a second S- set up- which I’ll talk about in a separate post because there’s a lot of great material there to apply to reactivity.) But the most important is the “R,” so that’s what I’m going to write about today.

The camera caught me mid-reinforcement!

Let’s start with the difference between reinforcement and rewards. Although it might appear that she’s using the two words interchangeably, she’s not. They aren’t the same thing. Rewards are given to an animal; it’s something he earned. Rewards don’t necessarily affect behavior (although they can create good will and enthusiasm). On the other hand, behaviors are reinforced. Reinforcement both causes the behavior to be repeated or occur more often and are contingent on that behavior happening. Reinforcement, Kathy says, is the trainer’s responsibility, not the animal’s.

Obviously, the more reinforcers you have, the better, and the amount of things you can use as a reinforcer is really limited by your own creativity. Classical conditioning will allow you to create a reinforcer. Or, you can use things your dog is distracted by as a reinforcer (this is basically the Premack Principle, and it’s very potent). And, as I’ve discussed on this blog before, cues can also be reinforcing.

I’ve always found this last bit fascinating, if a bit confusing. The truth is, while it’s awesome that cues as reinforcers gives you a lot more options, there are some downsides. You have to put a bit of work into cues-as-reinforcers; the cue must be familiar and the behavior must be fluent. It also needs to have been taught with positive reinforcement only. And then, if you’ve been lucky enough to create reinforcing cues, you need to be careful. If you give them simultaneously with bad behavior- such as when we try to redirect a behavior we dislike- it can reinforce that bad behavior. Oops.

This isn’t the only way reinforcement can go wrong. Remember how Pavlov’s dogs were conditioned to feel happy when they heard a bell that was followed by food? This can happen to anything. So if there are two events that happen sequentially, the way the dog feels about the second event can go backwards in time and contaminate the first. Sometimes this is awesome; dogs learn to love their clickers because they’ve been followed by treats. Sometimes, not so much. Kathy told us that if you reinforce a dog immediately after you’ve punished him, that punishment will become a reinforcer.

Say what? But… yeah, it can happen. It’s just two events getting associated with one another. For example, if you yell at your dog and then immediately praise him for making a better choice, the dog can learn to anticipate being praised after you yell. Or if you give him a collar correction for pulling on leash and then click and treat for heeling, collar corrections can become an opportunity to earn food. If this happens, every time you try to punish your dog by yelling at him or using a collar correction, you’ll actually be reinforcing the behavior and therefore causing it to happen more often!

This also works the other way around. If something bad happens immediately after you’ve offered your dog a toy or some food, then the bad thing can contaminate the good one. This can create a dog that “isn’t food motivated”- not because he doesn’t like food, but rather, because he’s afraid of what it predicts. And this doesn’t have to be punishment. If you try to help a dog get over his fears by luring him into the situation (for example, luring him to you to get a nail trim or to step on a wobble board), you’ll actually make things worse.

But don’t let all this scare you away from using reinforcement! For one thing, even if you aren’t a clicker trainer, it is impossible to avoid (anything that increases a behavior is reinforcement). Instead, avoid the pitfalls by simply separating reinforcement (good things) and punishment (anything scary or bad) with a pause long enough that the dog doesn’t associate the two.

Okay, so you’re ready to reinforce behaviors. You know how to avoid poisoning your treats. So… how do you give them? Experienced trainers know that the way you deliver reinforcement influences the final behavior. Using a marker (like a clicker) will reduce the impact of food delivery because the marker says that’s the behavior. Even so, that marker becomes a sort of cue in itself: it tells the dog that he has earned his reinforcer and that he should go to the location it will likely be delivered. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that only a clicker will tell the dog this; my Maisy has discovered that praise or even just a smile from me means that she should look for her treat. This is why, whether you use a marker or not, the place you give the treat matters so much.

There are three main places to give the treat: in position (while lying down, in heel position, etc.), in order to set up the next repetition of the behavior (for example, tossing the treat away from the dog’s mat when teaching “go to bed”), or “direction sliding” (where you move the dog to the correct location in order to fix a problem such as forging in heel or to further the dog’s learning such as teaching a spin). The option you choose will depend on both the stage of learning your dog is in as well as your final goal. And you may even switch back and forth between locations!

So that’s the down and dirty on reinforcement, AKA, the most important part of dog training. What have you learned about reinforcement? Worse yet, what did you learn the hard way?

Kathy Sdao Seminar: Some Frequently Asked Questions about Classical or Counter-Conditioning

What is the difference between desensitization and counter-conditioning?While the concepts of desensitization and counter-conditioning are often discussed as if they are the same thing, they're not. Kathy defined desensitization as lowering the intensity of a stimuli enough to enable the dog to eat or play in its presence. This basically changes the trigger from an overwhelmingly aversive stimuli into something closer to neutral. Desensitization is also about exposure only- it does not seek to change associations. Sometimes careful desensitization alone can help a dog learn that there is nothing to fear, but often, you need to add in counter-conditioning (which is about pairing the scary stimuli with something awesome) in order to achieve the results you want.

I’ve decided to start a counter-conditioning program for my reactive dog. Where should I go to do this?
One of the biggest factors that influences the success of a counter-conditioning program is the trainer’s ability to set up the environment for optimal learning. Kathy recommends scouting out a location in advance. You want to find a place where you can easily adjust the intensity of the dog’s triggers. If possible, you want to find a location where the triggers approach from only one or two directions, such as alongside a walking path. This can help prevent the dog from having to worry about what’s behind him. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find a location with “protected contact”- that is, having the trigger behind a fence or other barrier in order to ensure your everyone’s safety. Finally, there should always be an escape route available. You absolutely do not want to get stuck in a corner!

How long should my counter-conditioning sessions be?
Since conditioning does require repeated pairings, you need to get quite a few trials of see trigger-get treat in order to obtain the desired response. However, Kathy cautioned against having too many trials in a row. During a counter-conditioning session, your dog needs some downtime between pairings to relax. Ideally, your dog will alternate between feeling relaxed and a bit concerned (when he sees the trigger). He should not be feeling general nervousness when no trigger is around punctuated with periods of increased fear when the trigger appears. For that reason, Kathy recommends having 12-15 pairings over a 30 minute period of time.

My dog is afraid of men. Should I find men and ask them to feed my dog?
Although people often have the trigger person feed the dog treats, Kathy prefers not to take this approach. She said that dogs who have been treated this way learn to run to the scary person, hoping for food. Worst case scenario, if the person doesn’t have any, the dog can become frustrated, which increases the likelihood of a bite. But even in the best cases, the foodless person will inevitably touch the dog, possibly scaring him, which would be counter-productive. For that reason, Kathy really thinks it’s best for a dog to seek out his person, not strangers, when a trigger appears. And anyway- ultimately, the source of food is not as important as the timing of the food.

I want to start a counter-conditioning program, but my dog won’t take treats! What should I do?
If your dog won't eat, it's because he's stressed and you need to lower the intensity of whatever is going on around your dog. Increasing distance is the most common way to do this, but there are other options. You might start by working with just sounds (the jingling of tags, without a dog attached, for example). You can use stuffed/toy dogs for a dog who is scared of other dogs. Changing the direction that the trigger is facing can help (have that scary man face the other way). Your goal is to work at the edge of your dog’s comfort zone, wherever that might be, and to slowly make it bigger.

What should I do if my dog goes over threshold?
Get him out of the situation. A dog who has gone into the fight-or-flight mode really doesn’t have the ability to think and learn, so there’s no point in training through it. If you need to, you can use some food to lure the dog away from whatever is upsetting him. Then, take note of the situation and do your best to avoid it in the future! While you’ll still want to work on counter-conditioning him, you’ll need to work at a much lower intensity. Kathy said you should avoid exposing your dog to things he can’t handle.

But won’t that reinforce the reactive or fearful behavior?
No. The dog is in a brain state that is not conducive to learning. That said, if you repeatedly expose your dog to situations that are too intense for him, resulting in repeated reactive outbursts, you may get a dog who learns that such outbursts work to get him what he wants. This is not something you want your dog to learn, so it’s really in your best interest to prevent the outbursts in the first place, while gradually working to increase the intensity.

Doesn’t giving my dog food or comforting him when he’s scared tell him that being scared is okay?
Yes and no. You can’t reinforce a feeling, but you can facilitate it. If you are acting panicked or scared, your dog may take that as an indication that he should be upset, too. Kathy also told us about something called “limbic resonance,” which is the ability of mammals to ascertain another’s emotions by looking in their eyes. If you know that you can’t control your own feelings, Kathy recommended against teaching your dog to make eye contact with you in response to scary events. That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with some calm, quiet petting or gentle verbal reassurances. So take a deep breath, relax, and tell him that you're going to protect him. 

Kathy Sdao Seminar: Why That "Treat Thing" Doesn't Always Work

Classical counter conditioning is a great foundation for working with a reactive dog. It's also very easy to do: a scary thing happens, and then you give the dog a treat. Over time, the dog learns that the scary thing predicts good things, which changes his feelings. He's no longer scared, which will hopefully mean that the fear-based behavior will disappear. Still, sometimes you'll hear someone say “I tried that whole treat thing, and it just didn't work...”

And you know what? I believe those people. Classical conditioning, while pretty straightforward, does require that you get some of the details straight. Kathy shared the errors that people commonly make that can prevent progress, or even worse, create even more problems. If you're struggling with that “whole treat thing,” here are eight things you should check.

(If you aren't familiar with the basics of classical conditioning, check out this post, and then this one. Today's entry will make a lot more sense if you do.)

Make Sure Your Timing is Right
This is perhaps the area you can screw up the most. In classical conditioning, the second thing that happens is the most important because it is the one that will determine what kind of association is formed. If that second thing is positive, the association will become positive. If the second thing is scary, though, then the association will become scary, too. In other words, when you give the treat matters, and it matters a lot.

There are four basic ways to pair stimuli. Trace conditioning happens when there is a 1-2 second delay between the two stimuli. For example, if you want the dog to learn that a bell ringing predicts that food is coming, in trace conditioning, you would ring the bell, wait 1-2 seconds, and then give the dog the treat. Delayed conditioning occurs when the first stimuli is presented continuously for several seconds (the bell rings several times in a row), and then food is presented immediately. Simultaneous conditioning means that both stimuli are presented at the same time; you ring the bell and give the food at the same time. Finally, backward conditioning, like the name implies, is when you reverse the stimuli. You give the food and then ring the bell.

Although there are scientific uses for all of these, when it comes to training a reactive or fearful dog, both simultaneous and backward conditioning is basically useless. Simultaneous conditioning will simply have little to no result. Backward conditioning, however, is much worse. Instead of the bell predicting the treat, the treat predicts the bell. This can have devastating consequences. If a scary happens after the food does, then the food predicts the scary thing, and thus becomes associated with fear. When this happens, the mere presence of food can cause a dog to shut down or react. Not a good thing.

Most people don't set out to get this order wrong. We understand how it should work, but where we go astray is in assuming that the dog sees the scary thing at the same time we do. Therefore, you should be sure to give the treat only after the dog has perceived the stimuli/scary thing.

Make Sure You Avoid Rhythmic Trials
We humans are creatures of habit- when we set up training experiences, we tend to fall into patterns. Unfortunately, dogs are very talented at discerning patterns, so we need to make sure that our trials are not rhythmic. Kathy gave the example of working with a dog who is afraid of men. If she were to enlist a male friend and directed him to walk in and out of eyesight, it's likely that he would begin doing so at regular intervals. Unfortunately, what the dogs often learn in these scenarios is not that the presence of men predicts steak, but rather, that steak happens every 20 seconds or so, and if you get a positive association, it's very weak. You will get a far better result if you make sure that your trials are random and varied.

Make Sure There Are No Competing Stimuli
Since the second event matters most, we need to make sure that we know what it is. Sure, we might think the pairing is simple- see scary thing, get a treat- but dogs are highly observant. Does he know he's getting a treat as a result of the scary thing, or is something happening in between those two events? Common pitfalls include reaching in a pocket, or crinkling a treat bag as we get the snack out. Again, associations can and do happen in these situations, but they are weaker than if it was direct, with no middleman. Try to set up the situation to reduce as many competing stimuli as possible.

Make Sure You're Using a High Value Treat
Kathy advises that you use the absolute best thing you can in order to create the most intense response possible. Classical conditioning follows a pretty steep curve, which means that you'll get the strongest response possible fairly early on in training. Don't squander this opportunity by using kibble. Sure, the dog will learn that scary things predict food, and that's good... but it's not awesome. Think about it: do you want an, “Oh, yes, kibble, thank you” response, or do you want the “HOLY COW I JUST GOT RAW TRIPE” response?

Make Sure Your Treat Remains Special
Classical conditioning works best when the contingency is strong. In non-science speak, this means that it works best when the awesome thing that follows the trigger happens only when the trigger does. No matter how much your dog loves cheese, if cheese happens all the time, it becomes meaningless. For that reason, Kathy recommended that you have a treat that you use only for counter-conditioning. Actually, she said that it would be best if all food happened only as a direct result of the scary thing, but since that's pretty much impossible, practically speaking, she recommended reserving the high value treat for your counter-conditioning work.

Make Sure You Aren't Lumping Criteria
Remember what I said about competing stimuli? Well, that counts for the first stimuli as well as the second. Make sure you aren't trying to counter-condition against too many things at once. It really works best to tackle one scary thing at a time. So, if your dog is afraid of men, and he's afraid of people riding bikes, men riding bikes might be too much. Try breaking it down more if you can.

Make Sure the Trigger Always Predicts Good Stuff
Classical conditioning is not operant conditioning. As such, it is not maintained by intermittent reinforcement, and is much more prone to extinction as a result. Instead, for classical conditioning to work, the scary thing pretty much always needs to be followed by the treat. Every time the dog sees a scary toddler, a piece of chicken should follow. Every time. If toddlers appear and chicken doesn't, then the dog learns that toddlers are not a very reliable predictor. If you're lucky, the dog will still develop a lukewarm response. If you're not, though, the dog will not make an association at all, meaning that you're doing all that work for nothing.

Your job is to find a way to avoid the trigger when you're not training. This means either carrying chicken and going everywhere with your dog, or not doing certain things with your dog. And yes, this includes walks and going potty. Speaking of which...

Make Sure You Switch to an Operant Technique
Since classical conditioning requires a near 100% trigger-treat response, it simply cannot be considered a long-term strategy. At some point, Kathy said, you just have to switch to an operant training strategy. This might be something like auto-watches or emergency U-turns, or it might be something “fancier” like BAT or Look at That. The technique you choose doesn't matter as much as the fact that you choose an operant behavior for your dog to perform at some point since that can be reinforced intermittently, allowing you the ability to just relax and enjoy your dog sometimes.


As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities for you to undermine the work you're doing. This is just part of the reason I advocate working with an experienced trainer when you're trying to modify your dog's behavior. I know I certainly made plenty of mistakes along the way- I never did reserve the absolute best treat possible solely for counter-conditioning, and so of course, those treats happened all the time. I'm also often guilty of lumping criteria, and I'm sure I screwed up my timing now and then. Still, we muddled through, and while my efforts could have been better had I understood this information then, we did okay. But what about you guys? Any memorable mistakes? I'd love to know that I'm not alone in my training shortcomings...

Kathy Sdao Seminar: Good Foundations

Pretty much all dog training is based on some form of conditioning, either operant or classical. Since classical techniques tend to be less flashy (read: tedious and boring), most trainers choose to focus on operant ones. Kathy even admitted that while classical conditioning is a bit like watching paint dry, it's so incredibly powerful that it deserves to be the star once in awhile. And of course, Kathy did an amazing job giving classical conditioning the billing it deserves.

Both types of conditioning are built up over repetitions. The difference is that operant conditioning is about consequences, while classical conditioning is not. Operant conditioning seeks to influence the dog's behavior by pairing his actions with rewards like food. The dog only gets the food if he behaves in a certain way. By contrast, classical conditioning doesn't care about what the dog is doing at all- its only goal is to create a direct association between two stimuli. There is no behavioral criteria, and the dog gets the food no matter what he does or doesn't do.

Instead, classical conditioning focuses on the dog's feelings and his reflexes by repeatedly pairing a neutral stimulus with something that elicits a strong reaction from the dog. For example, if everytime a dog hears a bell he gets some food, he'll soon learn to expect some food whenever he hears a ringing sound. Classical conditioning can also be used to change a previously learned association, typically from bad to good. This is called counter-conditioning.

This form of conditioning is incredibly useful when working with fearful, reactive, anxious, or aggressive dogs, but is often poorly understood or glossed over. It does take a bit of time to do it right, and people often try to cut corners, or skip over it entirely. It's a shame, really, because if you can change a dog's feelings about something, the behavior will often change as a result. After all, if children are no longer scary, there's no need to lunge and growl at them, right?

The problem with classical conditioning is that it really doesn't hold up well for the long-term. Yes, you can create associations pretty easily, and you can even change associations with a bit more work, but classical conditioning is incredibly fickle. Unlike operant conditioning, where behavior can be maintained with intermittment rewards, classical conditioning can extinguish quickly if the association is not maintained.

This means that classical conditioning is not a holistic plan. It's simply too exhausting to continually maintain the pairing of scary thing=good thing. The person will get tired, or will screw up. It's also impractical to constantly have treats (or other good things) on you. Ultimately, Kathy said, you'll need to switch to an operant technique, whether that's CAT or BAT or Control Unleashed or whatever.

So why bother with classical conditioning at all? Why not just cut straight to the chase and use an operant strategy from the start? The biggest reason to do this is because most dogs with fear/reactivity/anxiety/aggression issues are okay... until they're not. And usually, once they're “not,” they've gone over threshold, and are now in that fight-or-flight mode where they can no longer think. Then it's too late. You can't teach the dog anything. You can't reinforce an acceptable behavior because the dog isn't physiologically capable of learning anymore. Operant conditioning becomes impossible.

So, you start at the beginning. You pair the sight of a trigger with good things, over and over again, no matter what the dog is doing, so that the dog no longer sees the trigger as a scary thing, but rather, as a thing which results in chicken. You'll know this association has happened when the dog gets demanding- he'll see the trigger, and instead of reacting, he'll be obnoxiously nudging your hand or staring at your chicken pocket. And since he wants that chicken so badly, it's pretty easy to ask him to do something to earn it.

In other words, what classical conditioning does is give you the foundation on which to build those operant behaviors. It helps your dog relax enough to think. It gives you enough time to intervene. It gives you the space you need to begin training the behaviors you want instead of constantly focusing on the ones you don't.

Of course, it's not as easy as I make it sound. If it was, Kathy wouldn't have been able to spend a full day discussing classical conditioning. Indeed, Kathy shared some really interesting- and important- tips to make the most of classical conditioning. If you're going to go through all that work, you might as well do it right! I'll share that info with you in the next post.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from other people with reactive dogs. Did you do classical conditioning as a foundation? What was your experience like?

Ken Ramirez Seminar: Non-Food Reinforcers

 
One of the big objections people have to clicker training is “all that food.” They always want to know when they can stop using it, an attitude that used to baffle me. I mean, I get that people who are active in dog sports need their dog to perform many behaviors for a single treat, but when there are no rules, what's the problem? It's not hard to stick a handful of kibble in your pocket, after all.

Well. Leave it to Ken to not only be entertaining, but to also convince me that non-food reinforcers are both valuable and necessary (mostly because it is much easier to perform husbandry behaviors on a sick animal who is refusing to eat when you have a non-food reinforcer available). He also presented a very thorough method for creating non-food reinforcers, and gave us some tips on how we should and shouldn't use them once they've been established.

Let's start at the beginning: what are non-food reinforcers? Well, obviously, they're not food, but Ken was a bit more scientific than that. When Ken talked about reinforcers, he broke them down into two categories: primary reinforcers and secondary reinforcers. A primary reinforcer is something that is inherently reinforcing; the animal doesn't need to have any experience with it to understand that it is a good thing. Typically, these reinforcers satisfy biological needs, and food is the ultimate primary reinforcer (that's why it is so useful in training). By contrast, secondary reinforcers are something the animal needs to learn is desirable.

Despite the fact that secondary reinforcers are learned, Ken made the point that secondary reinforcers can be very, very powerful. In fact, they can sometimes be more powerful than primaries because of what they represent. For example, money is a secondary reinforcer- the paper itself has no inherent value. However, society teaches us that money is a desirable thing because of what it can buy, and this association is so strong that humans will do some very boring or unpleasant tasks in order to obtain it. In fact, we are more likely to take a job that pays money than one that provides food and shelter.

(As a side note, play can be looked at as both a primary and a secondary reinforcer. Often the act of playing- running or chasing, for example- is innate, making it a primary reinforcer. However, the objects used in play, like balls or tug toys, are secondaries because the dog needs to learn what they are used for. A ball that is not thrown is neither interesting nor reinforcing to most dogs.)

Another way to think of secondary reinforcers is as a “reinforcement substitute,” which emphasizes the fact that secondary reinforcers only become powerful through conditioning. Ken is very, very systematic in the way that he creates secondary reinforcers. His approach is so thorough and slow, in fact, that I suspect some readers will be turned off by it. This is partly because he's found that the more time you spend conditioning them, the more powerful they will be, but also because he believes that if you use secondary reinforcers improperly, it can lead to a lot of frustration. Since frustration is sometimes inherent in training, he tries to minimize it whenever possible, something which is both kind to the animal and practical when working with wild animals who are less tolerant of human mistakes than the domesticated dog.

Ken creates secondary reinforcers in almost exactly the same way he trains a behavior. He starts by choosing a stimulus to act as a reinforcer. This stimulus should be one that is useful- that is, it is easily accessible, and not overly cumbersome to implement. He also thinks it works well to use something that is novel to the animal; choosing something the animal has habituated to and now ignores is going to make things much more difficult. One of his favorite secondary reinforcers is clapping.

Then he does straight-up classical conditioning: he presents the chosen stimulus, and then immediately follows it with a primary reinforcer. So, he claps, and hands over a bit of food. Clap, food, clap, food, until the animal seems to understand that the clapping predicts the food. This shouldn't take long at all unless the animal finds the stimulus aversive (if the animal is sound-sensitive, for example), or if your primary isn't that exciting.

Then he asks the animal for an easy, well-established behavior. This is something the animal already knows well, and has a very strong reinforcement history for. In dogs, the behavior of sit is often a good choice. When the animal does the behavior, the trainer will present the new stimulus, and then give a primary. For example, the dog sits, the trainer claps, and then he gives a treat. Ken will do this daily for several weeks, although the length of time will vary based on the animal, his relationship to the trainer, and his past reinforcement history.

The next step is to cue the same easy, well-established behavior, and then reward with only the new stimulus. Here, it is truly acting like a reinforcement substitute, as the dog will sit and receive only clapping as his reward. Ken will do this a maximum of three times during a training session, and he'll spread it out so that the animal is also getting primary reinforcers for other correct responses in between. Again, he'll stay at this step for several weeks.

This cycle repeats, except now Ken will cue a harder behavior, though it should still be well-established. When the animal responds, he'll give the new stimulus, and follow it by a primary. So, he'll cue, for example, a roll over or a stay, clap, and then give a treat. He stays at this level for several weeks before cuing the harder behavior and using the stimulus as a reinforcement substitute. Again, he continues doing this for several weeks.

Once this process has been completed, you're ready to use your new reinforcement substitute in training... but Ken has a few rules before you do. The most important is the 80/20 rule, which is actually more of a guideline, but basically, he says that you should use primaries approximately 80% of the time, and secondaries approximately 20% of the time. He never uses the same secondary reinforcer twice in row, although he might use two separate secondaries in a row. He always treats the new secondary as a behavior and occasionally “recharges” it so that it retains its strength. Finally, he recommended that novice trainers use secondaries only to maintain existing behaviors, and not to create new ones.

Yes, this is a very regimented way of moving away from food reinforcers, but Ken has a very convincing story to support the importance of being so systematic. It involves a new trainer trying to use tongue scratches to reward a killer whale, with a very poor result. I won't spoil the story for you (and Ken tells it so much better than me anyway), but trust me when I say that I completely understand why Ken is so thorough. His advice is that we never take any reinforcer for granted, and to work to build up as many reinforcers, both primary and secondary, as possible.

If you've found any of this even remotely interesting, you totally need to see Ken speak about it. Imagine this information, only peppered with incredibly funny and informative stories about dolphins, seals, penguins, and yes, even some dogs. He's also got illustrative videos, and I always enjoy seeing familiar concepts used with exotic creatures.

What about you guys? Has anyone used such an in-depth process to create secondaries? Do you see value in doing it with your dogs? What types of non-food reinforcers do you use... or would you like to start using? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Ken and Kathy Seminar: Introduction

At the end of July, I attended a two-day seminar held by Narnia Pets in Chicago. The first day was Ken Ramirez, and the second was Kathy Sdao. It was, of course, amazing.

I think I've waxed poetic about how much I love these two presenters before, but allow me to do it again: I love these two presenters! Both started their careers in marine mammal training before moving on to dogs, and so both have fascinating stories to tell. Both are energetic and entertaining. And no matter what the subject, both leave me with tons to think about.

The theme of the weekend was classical conditioning. Kathy devoted the entire day to it, and specifically how it can help dogs with anxiety or aggression, while Ken's day was broken into three main topics: non-food reinforcers (hint: classical conditioning was involved in this discussion!), problem-solving, and a very fun segment he called “The Evolution of a Modern Trainer.” The latter was more of a review of his career, but goodness, the video footage (which, of course, included some classical conditioning) was amazing.

One thing I really took away from the weekend was how valuable classical conditioning is. This is, in a way, kind of funny. Trainers (well, geeky ones like me) often talk about teaching behaviors in terms of operant conditionig, but we don't really talk about That Other Type of Conditioning. Kathy actually called her seminar “anti-trendy” because most presentations are about operant processes instead.

It also helped me realize just how much I use it. Reactivity work, of course, often has a base of classical conditioning, but simple things too. A few weeks ago, Maisy spent the morning in a crate under my desk at work, and a co-worker asked how I taught her to be so good in her crate. Answer: I feed her in there, so she associates the crate with great things.

Anyway, it was a phenomenal weekend, and I'm looking forward to telling you all about it. As always, if you get the chance to see either Ken or Kathy, take it. Even the best blogger couldn't come close to capturing the sheer brilliance that both Ken and Kathy bring to a seminar, but I'm sure going to try...

Ghetto Supastar, that is what you are, comin' from afar...

It's been a hard week for Maisy and I, and as happy as I was to receive the news that she's healthy, I didn't quite realize that there would be more in store for us. You see, Maisy had to have her belly shaved in order to get the ultrasound, and she wasn't pleased about this. It must have itched, because in the first 24 hours, she had licked herself so much that there was a red, raw spot on her belly.

 This is after several days of healing.

As I consulted with my friends about what to do, I realized that I had a problem: she hates wearing things, and that's pretty much the only way to stop the licking that could lead to a skin infection. I ended up modifying an old white tank top to provide complete belly coverage, resulting in a free, light-weight solution.

It's also a bit ghetto fabulous.

Still, it was just one more stressful thing to add on top of everything else, and while I couldn't do anything about the fact that she had to go to the vet, I could have helped her by preparing her for some of it. In fact, there are many, many things I could (and should) do to help her feel more comfortable: teaching her to accept all types of restraints, including on her side and her back, helping her learn to accept having her temperature taken, heck, I could even desensitize her to getting shots.

But I'm kind of a lazy trainer, so for now, I'm going to limit my focus to wearing things. I chose wearing things as a general category because while being restrained and getting shots are unpleasant, they're also brief. Unfortunately, when a dog needs to wear something, it's typically for a longer period of time.

Here's what I think Maisy should learn to wear:

First, a muzzle. During the emergency visit, the vet chose to put one on her, a decision that I understood given the fact that Maisy's record includes the diagnosis “fear aggression.” Truthfully, I even welcomed her decision, hoping that if they felt comfortable she couldn't bite, they would not feel the need to restrain her as tightly or roughly as they might have done otherwise.

Next, things on her body. As I mentioned, right now she's wearing a t-shirt in order to prevent her from licking her belly, but I think she should also learn to wear bandages (she had one on her front leg after having an IV catheter placed on Thursday). We will also work on wearing harnesses, just in case she ever needs some kind of mobility assistance in the future.

Finally, I want her to learn to wear an elizabethan collar (also known as the dreaded cone of shame). Although I hope like crazy she will never need a surgery necessitating the use of a cone, it seems wise to be prepared for such an eventuality. We've had several bladder issues now, and it seems possible that we might need to do something more invasive in the future. Again, I hope not, but better to have a skill she doesn't need than to be missing one she does!

So how am I going to teach her to do all this? Why, with cookies, of course! There's a great video here about creating a conditioned emotional response to a head halter, and I fully intend to do variations on this theme as I help Maisy learn to cope with (and love!) wearing stuff.

We've already started with her fancy shirt: I give her freeze-dried tripe as I'm putting it on. I don't hold her down or force her into it. I don't even have to drag her over to it or hunt her down. Instead, she chooses to come to me when it's time to put it on. Why? Not because she loves the shirt (although I hope that will come in time), but because it predicts stinky, tasty treats.

Maybe once we've accomplished this we can branch out into other medical procedures. Even if we don't, though, learning to be comfortable wearing things will be incredibly helpful because it will dramatically reduce both the duration and intensity of her stress (and remember, stress stacks on itself, so several days of low-grade stress can be just as bad and one highly stressful event).

What about you? What one thing could you do to teach your dog to be more comfortable during veterinary procedures? I expect everyone will have a different answer (you know, since we all have different dogs), but I'm looking forward to seeing your responses- I might steal a few for myself!

Clicker Expo 2011 (Chicago): Ken Ramirez- Aggression Treatment and Context, Part 2

In part one of my summary on Ken Ramirez's talk on aggression, we discussed aggression in general. Today, I'll tell you what he said about treating aggression, starting with generalities, and moving on to specific treatments.

Ken said that you can organize all of the various techniques by placing each one into one of three categories: broad scientific approaches to learning, scientific principles, and practical procedures.

The first category, broad scientific approaches, refers to the twin concepts of learning theory: classical conditioning, and operant conditioning. I call them “twin” because, as Ken pointed out, while we can choose to focus on just one of these two approaches, “all animals learn both ways all the time.” As the old saying goes, you have Skinner on one shoulder and Pavlov on the other.

The second category is made up of the various scientific principles which have been developed in the experimental lab. Each one generally falls under either classical conditioning or operant conditioning. Under classical conditioning, we have things such as habituation, flooding, and counter-conditioning. Under operant conditioning, we have both methods that provide consequences to behavior (punishment and reinforcement), as well as redirection techniques (the Differential Reinforcement of Alternative behaviors).

Finally, our third category is made up of the practical applications and strategies borne out of one or more of these scientific approaches. Each of these techniques is “a way that a skilled and talented trainer has operationalized the science to deal with aggression.” They typically have components of both classical and operant conditioning.

Okay, let's dive into some of the specific approaches out there. This is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, but it does include some of the more common ways people respond to and deal with aggression.

Positive Punishment
Using pain or fear to “correct” aggression is a method that people often think of instinctively, probably because it's how parents, teachers, coaches, and yes, by dog trainers have responded for centuries. Done correctly, punishment works, however there are risks, challenges, and fallout to using punishment... including aggression. Seeing as how we were at Clicker Expo, Ken did not discuss punishment in depth, other than to say that trainers should understand how and when to use it. Although trainers should not throw punishment out of the toolbox altogether, they should allow that toolbox to remain on the top shelf, collecting dust.

Classical Conditioning
Falling in the category of broad scientific approaches, and having no real specialized names or operational procedures, classical conditioning is often one of the first tools skilled trainers use. Ironically, it is also the one that inexperienced ones often overlook. This is a mistake; classical conditioning, that is, changing the dog's associations to his triggers, is powerful even if it seems simplistic. Seems is the key word here; in practice, classical conditioning requires thoughtful implementation since you need to keep the dog below his threshold. Though simple, it is easy to screw up if you don't understand the science.

Look at That (LAT)
This technique was developed by Leslie McDevitt and described in her book, Control Unleashed. LAT uses a cue to tell the dog to look at a trigger in order to get rewarded. This changes the dog's associations with his trigger, and is thus largely a classical procedure, albeit one with a strong operant component. It is useful prior to a dog having a reaction to a trigger, and is quite versatile as it can be used in many situations. However, it must be trained in advance so that it can be used sub-threshold. It is not a complete strategy in itself and must be used in conjunction with other tools.

Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT)
CAT was developed by Jesus Rosales-Ruiz and Kellie Snider. It is a negative reinforcement procedure which rewards the dog for appropriate behavior by having the trigger (human or canine) leave. It tends to work incredibly fast because it treats the root source of the problem- the dog's desire for distance. It is also highly controversial because it exposes the dog to his trigger for long periods of time. Still, Ken feels it's a useful technique when exposure to the trigger is unavoidable on a regular basis. It requires a very skilled trainer who can set up the situation correctly and direct the trigger to leave at precisely the right moment. It is also not right for every dog as it will only work when you have a thorough understanding of both the specific trigger and context in which aggression occurs. It won't work for a dog whose triggers “stack.”

Click to Calm
Emma Parson's book Click to Calm lays out an easy-to-follow program that relies primarily on redirection techniques such as the differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors, other behaviors, or lower intensity behaviors, but also capitalizes on classical conditioning. What all that scientific mumbo-jumbo means is that the trainer shapes the absence of aggression by clicking the dog when the dog's aggressive display lessens even slightly. This is a highly useful approach because, unlike other techniques, it can be used when the dog is over threshold. However, this does mean that you are clicking the dog for acting aggressively, even if it is for a reduction in aggression. It is also time-consuming and can be difficult for the unskilled trainer. Still, done well, Ken believes it can be a permanent fix.

Training an Incompatible Behavior
This encompasses a broad group of behaviors, including such techniques as “watch me” (where the dog looks at the handler instead of the trigger), U-turns (where the dog is cued to turn and go in the opposite direction away from a trigger), and recalls or whiplash turns (where the dog immediately returns to the handler). Although the behavior itself is different in each case, the goal is the same: to teach the dog something to do instead of being aggressive. If it's trained well, the dog will respond automatically, giving the trainer a chance to intervene and prevent aggression. Unfortunately, it doesn't change the underlying cause, and thus won't cure aggression. It should be followed up by other methods. 

Abandonment Training
Popularized by Trish King, abandonment training is a very specialized tool useful only for dogs whose aggression revolves around their owners. In abandonment training, the dog is on both a leash and a long line. The owner walks holding the leash, and a secondary handler holds on to the long line for safety considerations. When the dog behaves inappropriately, the owner drops the leash and leaves. In scientific terms, this is negative punishment- bad behavior makes the owner go away. Although effective, as noted, it's only effective for a small handful of dogs.

Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT)
Created by Grisha Stewart, BAT has taken the positive training world by storm. Ken really glossed over it since he isn't terribly familiar with it (he's tried at least some version of all the other techniques presented, but hasn't tried BAT yet). All he really said is that it's a negative reinforcement technique that he feels is effective.


These are not all of the ways to deal with aggression, but it is representative of the types of approaches out there. Ken said there isn't any one technique that is the answer to every aggression problem or every situation, which is why new methods are being created all the time. If you are trying to decide if a particular technique would be useful for your dog, you should learn everything you can about it first. Understand the science so you can recognize how it works and compare it to other approaches. Then, decide if it's a good fit with your dog's training history, type of trigger (is it predictable? Controllable?), specific circumstances which provoke the response, the level of risk or danger to all involved, your own experience level (and remember, Ken thinks aggression should be treated by professionals, not the average pet owner), and your own personal ethics.

Personally, I've used Look at That a lot, as well as general counter-conditioning. I've done some work with incompatible behaviors, and although that won't cure the problem, it does allow me to interrupt Maisy before things get out of hand. Maisy is not a candidate for CAT (her triggers stack too much), and her veterinary behaviorist did not think BAT would be a good fit for her, either. Likewise, Click to Calm and Abandonment Training really aren't suited to Maisy, and my ethics do not allow for punishment.

Okay, it's your turn: if you have a reactive or aggressive dog, which approaches have you tried? Did they work? If not, why do you think that was?

Learning Theory 101: Classical Conditioning

Through the process of classical conditioning, Maisy has developed so many 

positive feelings for her crate that she'll try to get in it even when it's folded up for storage!

The behaviorism branch of learning theory says that you can tell if learning has occurred by looking at a living being’s (in this case, a dog’s) behavior. The assumption is that behavior changes because the dog has learned that it is in his best interest to make that change. Behaviorism says that this learning takes place through two types of conditioning. Today, I’m going to tell you about one of them: classical conditioning.

History
Classical conditioning was studied and described by psychologists first, while its counterpart- operant conditioning- came roughly twenty to thirty years later. I assume that for those years, classical conditioning was simply referred to as “conditioning,” and that the prefix was added to differentiate it from that new-fangled stuff B.F. Skinner was doing. It was the “classic” version, hence the name (although it is also sometimes referred to as Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning instead).

Although a general understanding of classical conditioning can be found in fiction as early as the mid-1700s, the concept wasn’t scientifically recognized until Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov began studying digestion in the late 1800s (for which he won the 1904 Nobel prize in physiology). It was during the course of this study that he accidentally discovered that he could cause dogs to salivate upon hearing a bell ring. He first presented a paper on conditioning in 1903. (As an interesting historical note, the father of operant conditioning, B.F. Skinner, was born a year later, and didn’t publish his first paper on conditioning until 1930.)

The Definition
In a nutshell, classical conditioning is the process of transforming something meaningless into something meaningful. If a completely neutral stimulus is paired with one of importance enough times, that neutral thing becomes important by association. The classic example: Pavlov’s dogs began salivating every time they heard a bell ring because they learned that sound happened when food arrived. The meaningless sound became meaningful because of classical conditioning.

The Importance
So why should you learn about classical conditioning? Because training is both an art and a science. Although some people are “naturals,” most of us need to learn how to train our dogs; this is where the science comes in. Classical conditioning is important because it we can use it to create a tool that bridges the gap between the dog’s behavior and the consequences. We do this by teaching our dogs that a certain sound (or sight or smell) predicts a certain consequence simply by associating them often enough.

Clicker trainers do this all the time. The sound of a clicker has no particular meaning to dogs until it has been “charged”- conditioned to mean good things- by pairing the sound with a tasty treat. Dogs quickly learn that the distinct clicking noise actually predicts a treat. But classical conditioning isn’t the sole domain of the clicker trainer. Since the purpose of a learning theory is to describe how dogs learn, anytime training works, learning theory is at work. This means that traditional trainers are using learning theory, too; the metallic sliding sound of a choke chain becomes associated with a collar correction. These sounds, too, have gone from being meaningless to meaningful through classical conditioning.

The Scientific Mumbo-Jumbo
Going back to my definition, you can see there are a number of concepts at work. You’ve got the neutral stimulus, and you’ve got the meaningful one, and when you pair them, you can see a change in behavior. There are terms for all these things.

The unconditioned stimulus (US) is the meaningful thing. Your dog doesn’t need to learn that the meaningful thing is important because it’s been hardwired into his brain. His reaction is called an unconditioned response (UR) because nobody needs to teach a dog how to react to food or pain- he just knows. It’s a reflex, in the same way that pulling your hand away from a hot stove is reflexive for you.

The conditioned stimulus (CS)- the thing that used to be meaningless- becomes important because it was associated with the important thing (the US). The result is that the dog will respond to the neutral thing (the CS) as if it were the important thing (the US). This new response is called a conditioned response (CR).

So, going back to the example of Pavlov’s dogs: they understood what food was, so the food was the US. When they salivated because they saw the food, this response was a UR because salivation is a reflexive response to food. The bell was initially meaningless to them, but they gradually learned that it was associated with food, therefore the bell is a CS. When they salivated when they heard the bell, the salivation became a CR. Clear as mud, right?

The Implication
Don’t worry about remembering all the terminology. While it’s interesting, you don't need to keep it all straight when training. However, I explained it because you should understand that when a dog learns to respond to the conditioned stimulus- to the formerly meaningless but now meaningful thing- that reaction becomes automatic, and the dog can’t stop it any more than he can stop his reflexes. And here’s the important thing: while the example of Pavlov’s dogs describes a physical reaction, it can happen with emotions, too.

In other words: through the process of classical conditioning, we can create certain feelings in our dogs. Classical conditioning can be used to create good feelings, or it can be used to create bad ones. Clicker trainers often note the joy their dogs have in working for that silly clicking noise. Conversely, in 1920, psychologist John B. Watson performed the famous Little Albert experiment, in which he conditioned a baby to be afraid of white, fuzzy things.

What’s more, classical conditioning is going on all the time. Anything can get associated with anything… the trick is getting our dogs to make the associations we want. This is part of why I personally choose to avoid pain and fear in training- I don’t want Maisy to associate those feelings with me, nor would I want her to associate them with anything else that might be present in her environment, like children or other dogs. (To be fair, these mis-associations happen with positive methods too. The first time Maisy met Beckett, I gave her lots of treats in hopes that she would love him. Instead, she loves his person, Elizabeth.)

The good news is that when these associations go wrong, we can fix them through a process called counter-conditioning. I will tell you about that in my next post on learning theory. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions, make corrections (I know I have some readers who are better educated than I am), or share examples of the associations your dog has made.

Sources
In addition to the links in this post, you may find the following websites interesting:
This collection of links. on learning theories as a whole, and behaviorism in specific.
A general overview of classical conditioning.
Another description of the US, UR, CS, and CR.
Pavlov’s lectures on conditioning.
Watson’s paper on Little Albert.

Why I Love My Clicker

Crappy picture is crappy. But I didn't want to spend more
than five minutes shaping this behavior, so this is as good as it gets.

I’ve been thinking a lot about feedback this week. I’ve been thinking about Ian Dunbar’s approach to giving feedback. I’ve been thinking about the way I give feedback, and especially my own shortcomings in my rate of reinforcement. I’ve been thinking about how I react to criticism, and how my dog reacts to being told she’s wrong, too. And after thinking about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that I love my clicker.

Well, I already knew that. Most positive-reinforcement trainers use one. Even trainers who use collar corrections add in clicker work from time to time. It’s a great tool, which is why I was surprised that Ian seemed kind of anti-clicker during the seminar. It seemed to be about more than just the fact that he’s a pet dog person; his criticism of the clicker wasn’t about new students having difficulty with timing or misunderstanding the concept. Instead, he seemed to take issue with the feedback the clicker itself gives: impersonal, sterile, and devoid of emotion and instruction. But in a lot of ways, that’s exactly why I love it!

Is that weird? Maybe. After all, I do understand Ian’s point. All the clicker can do is say yes, you did that correctly. That’s it. It has one setting, one level, one message: yes. It can’t judge quality. It can’t say hey, that was even better than last time. Which is why I supplement the clicker with my voice sometimes, like I did in the chicken video. And if I’m going to do that, why should I bother using the clicker at all?

Because it’s different. Here’s the deal: our dogs hear our voices a lot. I talk to my husband, I talk on the phone, I talk to the cats, heck, I talk to myself. There are even toys that let us talk to our dogs when we’re gone! Of all the times that Maisy hears my voice, how often is it directed towards her? And even then, what percentage of that is meaningful communication versus me just chattering away at her because I love her? The vast majority of the time, my voice is simply background noise with little relevance to her life.

The clicker, on the other hand, is distinct. It’s easy to pick out of the sounds of day to day life because there isn’t anything else in the environment like it. More than that, though, it’s reliable and predictable. That sound always means something good is coming. It may only deliver one message, but that message is unambiguous, easy to understand, and worth paying attention to.

As a result, the clicker is able to get through to my dog much easier than my voice can. When Maisy is distracted or excited, she tends to tune me out. I can almost hear her sometimes: yeah, yeah, I know you’re talking, mom, but right now I’m concentrating so much on those chickens that I can’t be bothered to figure out if your words are for me or not. The beauty of the clicker is that she doesn’t need to think about it at all. She just knows that it’s for her.

Granted, this response happens because the clicker is a conditioned stimulus, not because it’s magic. Any sound can be conditioned the same way, including our voices. In fact, most clicker trainers have a verbal marker that they use, too. However, Lindsay Wood’s thesis found that it takes longer to train a behavior with a verbal marker than with a clicker.

In short, I’ve found that the clicker just relays the message better than my voice does. Of course, that’s still just one message. No matter how good it is at it, it can still only say one thing. I know that Ian really likes to say both yes and no, but honestly? I don’t. It’s not that I necessarily object to saying no- I understand that you need to inhibit behavior sometimes- but I prefer to focus on what’s going well.

I’m a sensitive person. As much as I learn from criticism, as much as I need it and want it, my ego is fragile. I do much better when I’m given positive feedback most of the time. The trainer that Maisy and I work with now is excellent at this, and when I fail, the positive feedback she’s given me previously is able to offset the current negative feedback. It helps me from taking it too personally, and the end result is that I feel generally confident in my abilities and I’m more willing to take risks, even if they might end in an error.

Maisy’s very sensitive, too, so I think she might feel the same way about negative feedback. But even if she doesn’t, and even if my next dog isn’t as soft as her, I know that I’m just not good at giving negative feedback. When I experimented with no reward markers earlier this year, I learned that when I have permission to say no, I quit saying yes. I become frustrated with my dog and with myself. Obviously, this does not help our training.

True, the clicker is just a tool, and like any tool, it has both good points and bad points. But for me, the clicker forces me to focus on the positive. It keeps me on track. It makes me look for success instead of dwell on failure. And most importantly, it builds up my confidence, Maisy’s confidence, and our confidence in one another.

And that’s why I love my clicker.

Ian Dunbar Seminar: Aggression

Ian Dunbar does not like to call a dog aggressive. As a label, he doesn’t find it very useful, and moreover, he finds it unfair. I think he has a good point: people tend to say that any dog that bites is aggressive, even if the dog bites only once during its life, and even if it was the result of extreme circumstances. Part of the reason people are so quick to label dogs aggressive is because bites are so rare- comparatively speaking, more children are killed every year by their own parents than by dogs.

Instead of asking, “is this dog aggressive?” Ian thinks we should ask, “is this dog dangerous?” He points out that simply having a bite history does not mean that a dog is dangerous. Dogs bite for many reasons, and the damage they do varies widely. In fact, Ian uses the damage done as the ultimate indicator of whether a dog is safe or dangerous. After all, every dog has the potential to bite, and until he does, you’ll have no way of telling how dangerous the dog might someday be.

In order to help determine if a dog is dangerous, Ian created a bite scale. This objectively analyzes a dog-to-human biting incident based on injuries sustained.

Level 1: The dog growls, snaps or lunges at a person. The teeth never touch skin.
Level 2: While the dog’s teeth make contact with skin, there are no punctures. There may be some indents or bruising.
Level 3: There is a single bite that punctures the skin no more than half the length of the dog’s canine tooth. Typically the entry wounds are circular or teardrop shaped. If there are slashes, they only occur in one direction because the person pulled away, not because the dog shook his head. Bruising is expected.
Level 4: There is a single bite that punctures the skin more than half the length of the dog’s canine tooth. The dog bit down and held, or shook his head. Slashes occur in both directions and bruising is significant.
Level 5: Multiple bites.
Level 6: The dog consumed flesh or killed the victim.

Ian says that the vast majority of bites happen at level 1 or 2. These dogs have excellent bite inhibition, and are not dangerous. However, these dogs do have a problem, and the problem must be solved as soon as possible to prevent someone from becoming injured.

Dogs that inflict a level 3 bite are probably dangerous, and people working with these dogs should be very careful to ensure they have the expertise needed to treat them.

Level 4 biters should be treated like a loaded gun. There needs to be fail safes in place to prevent accidental exposure to people. They should not leave the house expect to go to the vet, and then they should be muzzled. They need to be locked up when people are over. Ian will not work with level 4 cases. Although it may be possible to help these dogs, he has found that it is too difficult to get owner compliance. People simply do not do the level of management needed to keep the dogs from biting again.

Ian recommends that level 5 and 6 dogs be instantly euthanized.

Astute readers will connect this information with my previous seminar post on socialization and bite inhibition. Without a doubt, Ian used the information on aggression to underscore the importance of both socialization and bite inhibition. Obviously, a well-socialized dog is less likely to bite in the first place, but it is impossible to socialize a puppy to every possible scenario. Teaching our puppies good bite inhibition is the back-up plan. It’s what keeps people safe when socialization fails.

Treating an aggressive dog is not easy work. Ian says that it’s on par with sticking your finger in a dike that’s leaking. It works, but it’s not pretty, and it will never be as good as if the dog had been socialized properly in the first place. Ian discussed three methods for treatment.

First, there’s the obvious stand-by of classical counter-conditioning. I’ve written about this before, so I won’t spend time on it now. However, Ian did say that counter-conditioning should never stop. If you have a dog with a bite history, you should always have a handful of treats in your pocket when you’re out, just in case.

Next, for dogs who bite when touched in certain areas, Ian recommends doing progressive desensitization. To do this, you start touching the dog far away from the problem area, and gradually move closer, pairing each subsequent touch with a tastier treat. If the dog shows and signs of discomfort, start over, both with where you touch, and with lower-value treats. Soon, your dog should want you to move closer to the problem area because it means he gets yummier rewards.

Finally, for dogs who won’t let you near them, he recommended a method called Retreat and Treat. That article has the full details, but basically, this is where you throw kibble over the dog’s head, behind him, so that he retreats away from you. Then, as you move away, drop some liver or other high value reward. The dog will likely come close to you to get the liver, and then you start the cycle over again by tossing kibble over his head. Again, the ultimate goal is for the dog to want you nearby.

Thankfully, Ian acknowledged that this was just scratching the surface of how to treat aggressive dogs. He said he’d need another three days to do the subject justice. Still, I was glad that he spent the time to give us a bit of detail.

Skills Reactive Dogs Need for Trials

Maisy reluctantly shows off her impulse control skills.

We all know that success in dog sports requires a lot of work. Your dog needs to learn a lot of skills- and learn them well- in order to break into the ribbons. But for reactive dogs, learning the exercises is the easy part. Of all the time I spend training each week, 25% of it- at most (and probably less)- is spent on performance exercises. The rest is devoted to teaching my dog the skills she will need to cope with the stress and chaos that you find at trials. What are those skills? Well, I’ve come up with four things that I think every reactive performance dog needs to learn.

Impulse Control
It’s been my personal theory that reactive dogs tend to have impulse control issues. Am I right? I have no idea! But it makes sense to me; if a dog gets stressed and overwhelmed, there are basically two choices: to shut down, or to over-react. It seems logical that the dog who has impulse control issues would be the reactive one. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but a dog who can learn to control his impulses with low-stress things is going to be better prepared to deal with high-stress things than the dog who has no impulse control at all.

My favorite way to teach impulse control is by teaching “wait.” This is not a formal stay- it’s a temporary ceasing of activity- and there are about a million ways you can practice during the day. Wait for your food bowl. Wait to go out the door. Wait while I open the crate or car door. Wait at a street corner. Wait while I throw the ball. Lately I’ve even been able to stop Maisy’s forward motion simply by saying, “Wait!”

There are other great ways to teach impulse control, too. “Leave it” is great for this, and so is “doggie zen”- where the dog has to not only leave an item, but make eye contact with you instead. I tend to take doggie zen to extremes- hold treats in both hands and wind-milling them around crazily, which encourages my dog to ignore both the treats and movement.

Relaxation
There is a ton of down-time at trials, so being able to relax while there is crucial. Maisy and I have done a ton of mat work in class, and I take it with almost everywhere we go. A natural extension of mat work is the Relaxation Protocol by Dr. Karen Overall, which encourages the dog to relax on its mat even while you’re doing crazy things.

There are a number of other options to help a dog relax, too. Maisy gets regular massages. T-Touch is also popular, and the Anxiety Wrap is often used along with T-Touch (although it didn’t help Maisy). I’m a big fan of the Through a Dog’s Ear CDs, and of course, you guys know that I am interested in and use supplements, too.

The Ability to Navigate a Busy Environment
This is a more practical skill, but anyone who has been to a trial will recognize the need for any dog- not only reactive ones- to be able to walk through a crowd. There will inevitably be people and dogs milling about, sometimes right near the ring entrance, and your dog simply has to be able to do this. In fact, while you could get away with managing the relaxation piece (by keeping your dog in the car, for example), unless you have a very small dog that you can carry, your dog simply must learn this skill.

Teaching a competition heel is helpful, of course, but for really tight spaces, I like to use targeting. For taller dogs, I suppose a nose bridge or “sticky target” would be especially useful- where the dog maintains physical contact with you- but I simply point a finger for Maisy to watch. It’s been surprisingly effective and easy, and gives her something else to focus on, which allows us to easily move from place to place while at trials.

A Rock-Solid Interrupt Cue
Part of the trouble with reactive behavior is that when a dog begins to approach (or worse, go over) their stress threshold, their brains begin moving to that “fight or flight” state, and quit processing your verbal cues as well as it should. This means you have to work very hard to create a rock-solid cue that you can use to interrupt your dog’s behavior. (You also have to have the presence of mind to use it, which is another story entirely.)

You can use any cue you want- come, leave it, watch me, whatever- but the cue should be useful in any situation. I think my favorite one is to create a “whiplash turn” to the dog’s name. No matter what you choose, you’re going to classically condition your dog just like Pavlov’s dogs so that they don’t even think about what you’ve asked, they just automatically do it in response to the stimulus.


So, what do you think? Do you agree with this list? If so, tell me how you teach these skills. Would you add anything to this list? Remove something? Tell me about that, too! If you trial with a reactive dog, how much time do you spend on general coping skills vs. actual performance? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

Pat Miller Seminar: Two Ways of Treating Aggression (and Reactivity)

My last entry on the seminar was quite awhile ago, but I really did want to say more about it! Since this blog is about reactive dogs, I wanted to share what Pat said about them.

Pat says that almost all aggression and/or reactivity is based on some sort of stress, whether it’s because someone is threatening the dog’s territory or resource, or because the dog is scared or unsure. Since it’s based in emotions, most people choose to treat it classically, but in recent years, some people are adding operant components to the treatment. Let’s analyze the two, shall we?

Classical Conditioning
Since aggression is based on stress, it makes sense to treat that underlying emotion. If, for example, the dog displays aggressive behaviors when he sees a big scary dog, we need to teach him that bog scary dogs actually aren’t scary. In fact, they’re awesome! We do this by pairing something awesome (usually high value treats) with the sight of the big scary dog.

In order to do this effectively, we must keep the dog calm enough that he can see the trigger and eat the tasty treat. If he displays aggressive behaviors, we need to reduce the stimulus (usually by moving further away) and increasing the value of the treat. Pat recommends working with a single stimulus, at the same intensity, for 20 minutes or longer before switching to a new trigger or a new level of intensity. This helps the dog learn that seeing a big scary dog is actually a predictor of good things.

Sometimes, detractors will say that this is foolish, as we are simply bribing our dogs. Done correctly, this is not the case. We aren’t trying to prevent a reaction or distract the dog. We aren’t holding the treat out as a lure. Instead, we are allowing the dog to form a new association.

Operant Conditioning
Over the past ten years or so, various trainers have been coming up with ways to treat aggression in an operant, yet still “positive” manner. Pat talked about one of the first of these methods: CAT, short for Constructional Aggression Treatment, and showed a video of her doing CAT with a dog named Juni. I’d seen the video before, at the last seminar I saw with Pat, and I have to admit: I didn’t like the procedure then.

To do CAT, you stand with your dog (or you tether him), and bring a trigger to his threshold. You don’t go over the threshold, you simply bring him to the point of noticing, but not reacting. When the dog offers a socially appropriate behavior, or when the dog reduces the intensity of his aggressive behavior, the trigger retreats. Basically, you’re shaping calmer behavior, with the ultimate goal of “switch over,” which means the dog begins to offer affiliative behavior.

The reason I objected to CAT before was because it upset me when the dog did go over-threshold (and anyone working with a reactive dog knows that despite your best efforts, it happens). I didn’t like that the handler ignored her dog while he was upset, either. I also thought it looked like it could be flooding. On seeing the video a second time, though, I concluded that it probably wasn’t. To truly be considered flooding, the dog must be exposed to the stimulus at full intensity, and that exposure must remain until learned helplessness occurs. In other words, the dog would have to shut down emotionally. However, this is not what happens in CAT; it’s a highly regulated level of intensity, and the dog’s behavior controls whether the stimulus remains or not.

CAT is not without its critics, and there are even offshoots of the procedure attempting to make it more positive. Still, I’m no longer opposed to it like it was. Although I don’t think it should be the starting place for treating aggression, it is a useful tool for some dogs.

That, and… during the seminar, I found myself wondering: is this what I did with Maisy? I know that my plan wasn’t exactly CAT, as I did counter classical conditioning along with it, but when I did misjudge a threshold and she went over, I simply ignored it, and waited for a moderate duration (ten to twenty seconds) of calm, appropriate behavior before I rewarded her with attention or treats.

It worked, and it worked quite quickly. It did cause some stress and confusion in the short run, so I suppose that it was part of that 1% of the time where I’m not strictly “positive,” but Maisy quickly reached “switch over,” and has been pretty amazing ever since then. She seems far less stressed and much more interested in social interactions.

Anyway, I really enjoyed hearing Pat speak about aggression again. It’s amazing how much a year’s worth of reading and experience and, well, growth, allows you to take new things away from familiar ground.