Kathy Sdao Seminar: Working Spot!

The seminar was set up as a series of mini-lectures, and between each one, we were paired up with another dog/handler team and several auditors. The working dogs would make a plan and then train, while the observers would help with data collection and then have a small group discussion on how things went, what to change on the next round, etc.

As the title implies, Maisy and I had one of the working spots. Although she was amazing, I was not. Sigh. I was so frustrated by the tasks set to us. Truthfully, it had very little to do with Maisy, the tasks, or the seminar. Remember: the seminar happened back in early October, which was about two months after I had separated from my (now ex-) husband. There were a lot of adjustments to be made during that time, and honestly, I probably wasn’t in the right mind-space to be training a dog.

Each day had a separate training task. The first day had to do with targeting; to be honest, I forget exactly what we were supposed to be doing now, but I remember trying to get her back feet on a piece of carpet. Utter failure. (Short legged dogs are hard!) The second day was a bit better; Kathy showed us a commercial of a dog who took a chicken strip from his owner, held it until given some sauce, then dipped it in the sauce and ate it. We were to work on this in whatever form we wanted. This went better; I worked on having Maisy hold a dog biscuit without eating it.

Here are some of the things that really hit home with me. I’m not sure that these were new things, exactly, but they were things that I understood in a new way after the seminar.

Train in Short Sets

I’ve heard this about a billion times before, but somehow I never do it. You get on a roll and don’t want to stop, or just lose track of time. We got around that in the seminar by deciding how long we were going to train (usually between 30 and 90 seconds), and then having someone time us. And even then, some of us had a tendency to do “just one more rep.”

Training in short sets is important, though. Part of this is because you can only concentrate for so long; good dog training requires you to both SEE what the dog is doing and then to MARK it with good timing. This is hard work, and something people often underestimate. Taking regular and frequent breaks allows you to rest between sets, and thus keep your eyes (and thumb!) fresh.

Training in short sets also allows you to think in between. This is incredibly important when it comes to…

Criteria and When to Change It

First, keep your criteria the same throughout each set. Since your sets are going to be short, it should be easier to resist the temptation to change it midstream. The problem with trying to change it on the fly is that it tends to throw off your timing. In addition to seeing and marking, you’re now analyzing performance and deciding what to click. I don’t know about you, but my brain just cannot do that much at once!

Raising criteria can be done based on the rate of reinforcement (Kathy recommends doing so when you get into the double digits per minute), the percentage correct (most people do so at around 80%), or by the density of reinforcement. This last one comes in to play with duration behaviors where you can’t get reinforcement rates in the double digits. Instead of giving one treat per click, you give a larger amount so that the dog would end up with roughly the same amount per minute.

Once you’re ready to raise criteria, do so by looking at the responses you are currently accepting. You’ll have “technically meets expectations, but nothing special” on one end of the continuum, “average responses” in the middle, and “outstanding!” at the other end. Raise criteria by clicking only average-to-outstanding behaviors, and drop the “technically meets standards.”

If something unexpected happens- either super good or super bad- STOP. End the set and think because…

Planning is Important

Perhaps the most important thing I learned was how specific you should be in order to train well. Many of us had the tendency to state “I am going to work on duration now,” but that really doesn’t say a whole lot. Instead, Kathy challenged us to be very specific in what we mean by duration. Much better to say “I’m going to click when she holds the dog biscuit centered and lengthwise in her mouth without mouthing it for a minimum of two seconds.”

In other words, know what you’re going to click. There should be no guesswork about whether or not something meets criteria.

So, even though I felt sad and frustrated the entire weekend, I learned enough to make it worthwhile. I am fortunate to have a dog who will keep working for me even when I’m not feeling up to par. So, it was a great seminar, and I’m so glad I got to have a working spot with Kathy!

Kathy Sdao Seminar: Letting Reactive Dogs Choose

The overall theme of this seminar was choices. Early on in this series, I talked about how our dogs need to have choices. I also alluded to the fact that this can be hard to do when you have a reactive dog who might make dangerous decisions. Thankfully, Kathy talked about this! Her acronym SMART (See Mark And Reward Training) actually includes a sneaky second S: Set up.

Setting up means that you control the environment and not the dog, and refers to both training sessions and life outside training. Kathy told us that so much good training can be undone if the dog practices bad behavior outside training sessions. She gave us the example of a dog who barks at windows when people pass the house. Even if you train for an hour every evening, the eight hours your dog spends barking out the window while you’re at work will have a stronger and longer-lasting impact on his behavior.

Good set ups mean that you limit the dog’s activities so that he can’t rehearse the very behavior you’re trying to change. It’s kind of like a bucket of water: if you don’t plug the holes, the water will leak out. No matter how much water you add, you simply won’t make progress.

Not drowning!

This is especially important with reactive dogs. We talk about keeping them “under threshold,” and again, this applies to both training and life. Kathy used a drowning analogy. If a child can’t swim and falls in the deep end of the pool, you not only want to pull him out of the pool but you also want to prevent him from going near the deep end again. This means that reactive dogs often need to be heavily managed or even confined early on during their training.

With a controlled environment, we can help our reactive dogs make good choices, making the neural pathways for the desirable behavior stronger. Then we can slowly add in distractions, which can become cues to perform the behavior we want. This allows us to “retire from the full-time job of cueing!”

Having lived with a reactive dog and as a result been very vigilant about possible problems, I love that phrase. In fact, this is why I eventually stopped taking Maisy to trials for awhile. As hard as it was, I couldn’t control the environment and was exhausted trying to constantly prevent her from going over threshold. Worse, I failed, meaning that the reactive neural pathway in her brain was constantly activated. Truly, going slow was actually much faster in the long run.

What have you done to set up your dog’s environment- and his life- so that he could be successful?  

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: See and Mark the Behavior You Like!

If reinforcing behavior is the most important thing you can do when training a dog, then marking that behavior probably is the second most important. But then, the trainer’s ability to see behavior is also important. Honestly, it almost feels like a chicken-and-egg argument; you could make an argument that they are equally important.

Kathy thinks that teaching people how to mark behavior takes precedence over sharpening their observational skills. Of course, marking behavior does require seeing it, but she likes to backchain when training humans as well as animals, so let’s talk about marking first.

Kathy works with a small group on their skills!

Marking is important, Kathy told us, because figuring out which behaviors are correct is harder for the animal if the reward is functioning as both information and the reinforcer. It’s just not as clear. And of course, a marker like a clicker has a number of other benefits. Kathy identified four: the clicker acts as information (yes! That is the behavior I want!), a secondary reinforcer (which strengthens the behavior), a bridge (making a promise that reinforcement is coming), and also as a cue (to eat).

Good markers are SURE:

Short, preferably only a fraction of a second.

Unique and unlike any other signal the animal will recognize.

Reliable or consistent across trainers, contexts, and times, and

Evident and easily distinguished from other stimuli.

Once you have an effective marker, you need to protect it. Markers become weak when they don’t provide information, have become poisoned or infected by use during anxious situations more often than calm ones, or don’t actually mark anything. They can also become weak if the trainer requires the dog to do more behavior after the marker has been given.

But marking a behavior is only worthwhile when the timing is good, which requires us to clearly see what it is we are marking. Good timing is essential because otherwise you run the risk of inadvertently mark and reward the wrong thing! It’s also challenging to have good timing because there is an inevitable time lag between seeing the behavior and the physical action of clicking. Assuming absolutely no cognitive processing time, the nerve impulses needed to travel from the eye to the brain and then the brain to the fingers is about 125 milliseconds. It may not sound like much, but remember that you will need time to think and then your animal will need time to process the sound.

Which means that good timing requires you to be able to see a behavior before it happens; you’re clicking the earliest precursor to the behavior. You also need to pay attention, which is, let’s face it, harder than it sounds. You need to be very clear about what you’re looking for and give your full brain power to the act of seeing even the tiniest of changes.

You’ll need to get past your judgment and analysis, past talking and prompting, past labels and preconceptions, and past the audience effect (people watching you) if you are to see clearly. Really, seeing requires you to be fully, completely present, something that is far more difficult to do than it sounds.

See- Mark- Reward. All important, all dependent on one another. And all skills that you can not only learn but also improve. So, what do you do to improve your ability to train effectively?

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: So Many Choices!

As trainers, we make lots of choices. We talk a lot about what behaviors we want to teach, and how we are going to get those behaviors. We talk about our criteria, when to raise it, and the best way to set a dog up for success. We talk about how often and how long we should train. We talk about whether or not we will choose to use punishment at any point in this process.

What we often overlook, though, is that we aren’t the only one making choices. There are two living, thinking beings involved in training, and it’s important to realize that our dogs have “agency.” This means that they have the ability to act independently and make their own choices. In fact, our dogs encounter dozens of “choice points” every day, and Kathy argues that we should not prevent them from making decisions when they arise. If we do, our dogs might become overly dependent on us, or worse yet, they might learn that their behavior doesn’t make a difference in the world, which can lead to anxiety or learned helplessness.

I let Maisy decide to explore this tree branch.

So we need to let our dogs make decisions. Because they live in a human world, most of us will train our dogs so that they make decisions we like. This is really fairly simple; all we need to do is notice when our dogs make choices and reinforce the ones we like. As Kathy pointed out, we have to feed our dogs anyway, so we might as well take advantage of it! Even better, Kathy urged us to become “choice architects.” This fun term means that finding clever ways to get our dogs to choose the option we want.

Choice architects typically manipulate the environment so that when a dog comes to a “choice point”- a situation in which the trainer will allow him to make a decision- he makes the correct decision. Sometimes this is done by making the behavior that the dog prefers (and that trainer dislikes) harder for him to do. Sometimes it’s done by making the choice that the trainer would prefer easier for the dog. Often, it’s best to do a combination of these; using just the first choice is often inefficient or unsuccessful.

A choice architect will set things up so that when the dog comes to a choice point between a good choice and a bad one, the bad one is harder to engage in than the good one is. A really good choice architect will not only create this situation, but also pay close attention to the dog and reinforce him as frequently and generously as possible when he makes a good decision.

This is different from management; we aren’t preventing bad behavior. Management effectively takes the choice away from the dog so that the trainer is the only one making decisions. And while it’s important to allow dogs to learn that their choices and their behavior matters, management does have a place in training.

For example, untreated, my dog’s anxiety and reactivity could have become dangerous; she threatened to bite children on several occasions. I used management to prevent her from doing so. At the same time, I set up very controlled situations (read: safe) so that Maisy could learn to make good decisions when she was feeling scared or anxious.

Over the years, Maisy has gone from heavily managed to being allowed to make many decisions on her own. Because I built these new skills up slowly, gradually generalizing them to more and more difficult situations, she was able to develop confidence her in ability to make good decisions. These days, I allow her a lot of latitude; I will ask if she wants to meet someone or not, which direction she wants to go on walks, and what she wants to eat at mealtimes. I am a choice architect.

But I’m getting off-topic. Kathy was talking about training in general, not the specifics of working with reactive dogs. That’s just my area of interest! Anyway, reactive or not, how do you act as a choice architect? What do you do to make the behaviors you want from your dog the most attractive option?  

Kathy Sdao Seminar: Introduction/Outside the Seminar

Author’s Note: This post was written shortly after I attended the seminar. I knew I could wait until later to write about the content of the seminar because I take excellent notes, but because this post is about how Maisy did while we were there, I wrote it right away because I wanted to be sure I remembered all the details. Maisy has blossomed over the last year, so some of the things that I was amazed by back then are things I take for granted now! Still… this was an important step in our journey, so while it’s much belated, I want to preserve it.

In October, I saw Kathy Sdao for the third time (assuming you count the sessions at Clicker Expo as one). This meant that much of what she presented was review for me, so I probably won’t post as comprehensively as a result. But even if I’d heard it before, I had a great time anyway. She is such an amazing, energetic, intelligent, dynamic speaker that I think I could listen to her read from the phone book and still enjoy it.

This time was even more exciting because Maisy and I had a working spot. I was very excited for Maisy to meet Kathy (although Maisy seemed to prefer Dorothy Turley, Kathy’s assistant. Seriously, Dorothy took this picture of Kathy, Maisy, and I. It didn’t turn out well because Maisy was so squirmy, trying to get to Dorothy).

Because the seminar was held in Urbandale, Iowa, a five hour drive away, today I'm going to tell you about our traveling experiences, as well as how Maisy handled the whole thing in general. While this isn't technically about the seminar, I'm so proud of her that I just have to share.

We left just before noon on Friday afternoon because I have an Iowan friend whose house was on the way that I wanted to visit. Maisy and I spent about two hours with my friend and her 11-year-old daughter who decided Maisy was the best thing ever. Which means that Maisy spent two hours repeating the same three or four behaviors over and over and over and over again... for like five Cheerios total.

I watched Maisy pretty closely, and she was surprisingly happy throughout the visit. I did enforce a few breaks even though Maisy didn't really seem to need them. It just seemed prudent. Maisy was relaxed and responsive the entire time, which is a far cry from the dog who threatened to bite kids a few years ago. Like I said: proud.

We drove down to our hotel, checked in, and then found a park to walk in. We were surprised by an off-leash dog, and Maisy just wiggled at it, excited to say hello. Seriously? Who is this dog? Note: Ha. This behavior has become very typical of Maisy. It doesn’t surprise me at all anymore.

At the hotel that first night, Maisy barked once at the door. I decided to give her some clonidine, but I don't think she really needed it. Honestly, she did a lovely job handling all the strange noises (including another dog down the hall that barked all night long), and slept through the night soundly.

The seminar was a bit more difficult. I'd guess that there were around fifteen working teams, and probably thirty or forty people there in all. We were supposed to crate at our training stations, but I set Maisy's crate up next to me in the seating area so I could keep an eye on her. There were a few dogs who might have benefited from something similar; one barked quite frequently throughout the day- when people walked past, or there was a loud noise- in turn setting off nearby dogs.

Despite all the noise, Maisy settled in and ate her trachea treat (she won't eat chewies if she's too stressed), and then stretched out on her side and fell asleep. That's right: she slept in her crate at a dog event. I don't think that had ever happened before. Yeah, I was proud.

Still, it did take its toll on her, and she did a small bark and hop (not really a lunge, but not nothing, either) at a Golden at lunch, and later in the afternoon, growled and lunged at an adorable prick-eared dog. Although I found this disappointing, I was able to quickly redirect her back to the task at hand.

That night at the hotel was a bit more difficult; she probably barked a total of three or four times. Most were in the evening, but one was in the middle of the night. Still, she did sleep quite well. Interestingly, during the most difficult part of the evening, she chose to sleep in the bathroom away from me, returning after she had rested up to spend the rest of the night closely pressed up to me. Note: I’ve noticed this trend over and over again since. When Maisy has had a hard day, she needs space to decompress. It’s been a great way for me to gauge if I’ve pushed her too hard.

Sunday at the seminar was surprisingly good. She was quite clear that she needed to be crated in the car instead of the building (she couldn't chew or rest inside but could in the car). Still, she was eager and happy to come in to work, and didn't have any reactivity during the day. It probably helped that Sunday's training task was easier for us both, meaning that my attitude was more upbeat. Maisy feeds off emotional energy from me like crazy. Note: Okay, yes, I was frustrated during the Saturday training task, but I think there was more to it. My close friends will know what I mean when I say that this is about the same time that the fall started to get hard for me. For everyone else, suffice it to say that getting divorced is emotionally hard. Maisy reacted to that.

We drove home that night, arriving home around 10pm. Although I worried that she'd have difficulty settling in, she really didn't. She barked once, and then slept solidly until 10am the next morning, when I forced her to go out for a walk (which was really more of a stagger). I didn't see any residual stress, which is so different from the days where she needed five days to recover. Of course, I kept things low-key for several days anyway.

So she wasn't perfect, but I was so proud of how well she did. It was a really difficult situation for her to adjust to, and she did a really lovely job. Maisy will never be a “normal” dog, but she fakes it pretty well. Note: Ha. I pretty much think of her as normal now. 

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 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...

Clicker Expo 2011 (Chicago): Kathy Sdao- The All-Seeing I

I almost didn't go to Kathy Sdao's presentation on observation. I've been told- and generally believe- that I'm a pretty observant person, but I enjoyed her other presentations so much that I went because I wanted to see her one more time before the weekend was over. I'm glad I did. I learned a lot... mostly that my skills, while good, aren't as good as I thought. I will definitely be working on improving them.

But if I'm already pretty good, why bother? Well, as Kathy said, the most important training skill is timing, especially that of consequences. Behavior flows continuously, which means that consequences- the click and treat- can just as easily attach to the wrong behavior as to the right one. Easier, maybe, since fractions of a second can matter. I realized this recently when I began capturing a full body shake with Maisy. Once she started to offer the behavior, it became incredible clear exactly the point at which I had been clicking. The shake stops at the same part of her body- about halfway down her back- every time. It looks ridiculous, and absolutely proves that old adage “you get what you click.”

The goal, of course, is to click at the exact moment the dog is doing the behavior. Unfortunately, there will always be a lag time between when you see the clickable behavior and when your thumb reacts. Pure reflexes have a lag of about .120 to .130 seconds; it simply takes that long for your nerve impulses to go from your eye to your brain to your clicker thumb. It gets worse once you add in processing time; an average person's click is going to be .215 seconds late. If you want to know your lag time, you can test it out here.

Although you can improve your timing, the only way you'll ever get that number down to zero is if you can predict the behavior and decide to click just a fraction of a second before the behavior actually happens. You will sometimes guess wrong, of course, but Kathy says that's okay- the results for clicking too early are usually better than for clicking too late. And to do this, you need to learn to see the precursors to the behavior.

This, of course, means that you need to learn to see small behaviors. The very best clicker trainers are the ones who can break down the goal behavior into small, attainable increments. This is widely referred to as “splitting.” The opposite- called “lumping”- happens because the trainer literally doesn't notice the smaller behaviors. The so-called lumpers need to learn to see their dogs, not just look at them.

So what influences your ability to see? Kathy identified four broad areas:

1. Your labels and preconceptions. Research* has shown you don't see what you don't expect. So, guess what you won't see your “bad” dog doing? If I expect Maisy to behave reactively, doesn't it seem likely that I will see and fixate on any example of reactive behavior, even to the point of ignoring her calm, relaxed behavior? Have you labeled your dog? Is he stubborn? Was he rescued from an abusive situation? What are those labels making you see? You need to move beyond the backstory. Move beyond your expectations. See who your dog is now. Expect good things.

2. Judgments and analysis. As important as it is to analyze your training, don't do it while you're training. Just do it.. or rather, just see it. If a click is late, don't berate yourself, don't even think about it, just pay up and keep going. Constantly thinking about and evaluating what you're doing is going to interfere with what the process, and you'll miss seeing some pretty awesome things from your dog as a result.

3. Talking and prompting. Like thinking, talking and prompting gets in the way. The truth is, people just aren't that good at multitasking. On average, people won't see unexpected stimuli 30% of the time. When asked to multitask, this rockets up to 90%! Avoid having this happen to you by remaining silent while training. This includes avoiding the use of a marker word if possible- they engage your “talking brain.”

4. The audience effect. Being watched changes our performance- ask anyone who competes in dog sports! To move beyond this, I really think we need to go back to Kathy's second point. Don't judge yourself- or worry about how others might be judging you. Simply be in the moment. Harder said than done, I know.

Although you can't significantly alter your attention span or ability to multitask (those things are hardwired into your brain), you can change how you attend to things. In other words, you can practice paying attention. Kathy showed us tons of videos, and while I couldn't find most of them online, a Youtube search for “observation test” led to a lot of interesting clips. (This channel has some good stuff, including some of the things she showed.) Along those same lines, take videos of your dog and then watch them. Watch them at normal speed, then slow them down. Learn how your dog moves.

Do an ethogram on your dog. The next time you're watching television, reading a book, or surfing the web, look at your dog once every five minutes. Write down what he's doing. After an hour (or more, if you're patient), look at your log. Do the results surprise you?

Finally, become a “choice architect” while training. Manipulate the environment so that your dog can choose correctly most of the time. This helps cut down on visual distractions (for you). Then decide what to look for, and pay attention! Give your dog your undivided attention.

I hope these suggestions help you. This was a very participatory session, and it's hard to describe the videos in writing without totally wrecking the experience for you in case you are lucky enough to make it to one of her seminars. And even if I did write about them, I think the impact is lost if you aren't experiencing it yourself. Anyway, please let me know how these suggestions work for you! Comment with videos you watched and enjoyed, the results of your dog's ethogram, or any other ideas about observation skills that you might have!




* Much of the research and facts cited by Kathy came from the book The Invisible Gorilla, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. I haven't read it, but I certainly want to!

Clicker Expo 2011 (Chicago): Kathy Sdao- What a Cue Can Do, Part 2

In my last post, we established that cues are important. They tell our dogs they should do a behavior. They help get all that crazy behavior-throwing under control. And trained positively, they can even act as reinforcers! Today, let’s discuss Kathy’s cue tips, as well as how to attach a cue to a behavior.

Even the most motivated dog will not perform a cue at times. Have you ever wondered why? Some trainers think it’s because they’re dog is “stubborn” or “blowing them off,” but if we consider Kathy’s analogy of how a cue is like a green traffic light, it becomes clear that there are lots of other reasons. Quick: if you’re at a stoplight that turns green, why might you choose not to go?

Kathy identified 10 different reasons, and while I can’t list them all here (hey- I have to give you some incentive to go to one of her seminars, right?), here’s a few: Sometimes, you can’t see the signal. This time of year, the sun is rising as I’m driving to work, and it’s so bright that I literally can’t see the traffic light. Other times, it’s not safe to go, like when a car runs a red light in the other direction. Maybe there’s something in your way, like a car broken down in front of you, or heck, maybe it’s your car that’s stalled. There are tons of reasons you might not go when you see the cue- how many more can you think of? Because the same is true for our dogs, too, which is why Kathy presented her four cue tips to improve the odds that they will be able to respond when we ask them to.

Cue tip #1: Make each cue salient.
This means that every cue should leap out from the background of human blabbering or extraneous body movements. We tend to be very noisy when we train and cue our dogs, whether it’s excessive chattering or just moving our body around a lot. Shifts in weight or even where we’re looking can confuse our dogs. Make it obvious what's a cue by reducing the background noise. Be quiet and remain still.

Cue tip #2: Make each cue distinct.
Words should sound different from other cue words, and hand signals should look different from other nonverbal cues. Think about how similar “down” and “bow” sound, even to the human ear. How difficult must it be for our dogs to tell them apart? Humans tend to choose cues that are easy for us to remember, but is that fair to the dog? Create a cue dictionary, and when you’re ready to name a new behavior, consider if the new cue is distinct.

Cue tip #3: Give each cue consistently.
Use the same word, said in the same inflection, with the same tone and intensity. Make your gestures and body language the same. And for heaven’s sake, make sure that each family member uses the same cues you do!

Cue tip #4: Minimize the use of compound cues.
This means that you avoid using both a spoken word and a hand signal at the same time. There are two reasons for this. First, it is possible that your dog will decide that only one cue is relevant, and thus will block out the other one. If you then try to use that other cue, it will fail, because the dog has learned to ignore that as background noise. On the other hand, your dog might learn that the word and the signal together are the cue- he learns it as one cue instead of two separate ones. If that happens, you’ll always have to give both in order to get the response, which is like needing two keys to unlock a door. What a pain!

Once you’ve thought through what your cue is going to be, it’s time to add it. Remember that you always always always get the behavior first. If you add the cue too soon, you’ll run the risk of attaching it to a substandard behavior. Once the dog is offering the behavior correctly and regularly, you’re ready! However, you shouldn’t wreck that awesome cue you’ve spent time picking out by giving it when the behavior won’t happen. It is up to you as the trainer to only give the cue when you’re willing to bet $100 that your dog is going to do the behavior in the next 1-2 seconds.

The easiest way to do this is to get the dog offering the behavior like clockwork, one repetition every 5 to 10 seconds. That makes it easy for you to bet when he’s about to do it, and thus easy to add the cue. You can also become astute at observing the small muscle movements that predict he’s going to do the behavior, but that’s much harder, and typically slower.

Would you be willing to bet $100 that this dog 

is going to target the frisbee in the next few seconds?

Here’s Kathy’s five steps to adding a cue:

1. Click and treat the behavior a few times without giving the cue. This gets your dog in the behavior-offering-groove.
2. Once your dog is offering the behavior in a rhythmic/predictable way, give the cue just before you think it’s going to happen. Do this several times.
3. Then do nothing. Don’t cue the behavior. Your dog will likely offer the behavior anyway. Do not click and treat. (Also, don’t be alarmed if your dog has an extinction burst. He doesn’t realize that you didn’t click because of the absence of a cue; he probably thinks you just didn’t see him do the behavior.)
4. Wait until your dog pauses (probably to give you a “what the heck? Why aren’t you clicking me?” look). In that moment, give the cue, and click and treat when your dog responds. This reinforces the dog for waiting for you to give the cue.
5. Take a break! This is a lot of thinking for your dog.

This whole process should take no longer than 1 to 2 minutes, and you should repeat these steps as many times as you need to until your dog knows the cue. Then you can start testing the cue in other situations. If your dog doesn’t respond to the cue, don’t repeat it! Since cues can be reinforcing, repeating the cue reinforces not responding to the cue. Each time your dog learns a cue, it gets easier to subsequently teach him a new cue. This is good news, because teaching those first few cues can take a bit of time.

 And that concludes Kathy's sessions on cues, and I really do have to apologize: As hard as I might try to summarize Kathy’s talks well, I know that I will never capture her enthusiasm and knowledge. There are also so many interesting stories and nuggets of off-topic gold that I just can't fit into a post! If you found anything in the last two posts useful or intriguing, please do yourself a favor and go to one of her seminars. She’s absolutely amazing. If you can't get to one of her seminars soon, don't worry- I have one more post coming up about her presentation on observation skills.

Clicker Expo 2011 (Chicago): Kathy Sdao- What a Cue Can Do, Part 1

The fabulous Sara and Layla demonstrate "breathe."

Believe it or not, Sara actually taught Layla to take a deep breath when cued. 

Kathy’s session on developing cueing skills changed my life. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but it was possibly the best session I attended all weekend. I have to admit, I suck at getting behaviors on cue, so I knew going into it that this would be full of great information. Even so, I was not expecting to feel so devastated about my subpar skills. In a panic, I begged my way into her lab on cueing skills so I could see it in action. I'm glad I did!

In my last entry, we talked about how to get behaviors. That is the first job of a trainer, and despite my feelings to the contrary, Kathy said it is the most difficult part. Personally, I think getting the behavior itself is far more fun than the tedious process of getting the behavior on cue. This is probably why Maisy has virtually nothing on cue (at least not reliably). That’s not her fault, of course- as Kathy pointed out, the reliability of the dog reflects the reliability of the trainer.

Despite the not-fun-ness of it all, it’s important to develop reliable cues so that you can get the behavior you want, when you want it, and also so you aren’t getting the behavior when you don't want it. (This is also called "stimulus control.") Who hasn’t seen the clicker dog offering behaviors willy-nilly? It’s kind of exhausting of watch, and having one of those dogs myself, it is also kind of frustrating. Still, I created this monster, so I can’t get mad at her. It’s time to fix (um, okay, get) those cues!

Let’s start with some information on cues in general. Cues don’t make the dog do the behavior; astute readers will remember that in Kathy’s talk on shaping, she said consequences drive behavior. Those consequences- the reinforcers- provide the motivation for the dog to perform the behavior. Cues simply provide the clarity of “now would be a good time to try that behavior.”

Throughout her talk, Kathy compared the idea of cues to a green traffic light. If you’re sitting in a car at a green light, you don’t go because the light makes you, you go because you want to, and the green light is a cue that gives you permission. What’s more, you can’t go at a green light if you don’t know how to drive, so you always have to get the behavior first, and then attach the cue.

This is different from how people used to train. In the past, trainers would say a word like sit and then make the dog do it by physically manipulating or luring him into position. Kathy calls these words “commands,” which she distinguishes from “cues.” Commands carry an implicit threat: do it or I’ll make you. Cues are simply an opportunity; if the dog doesn't do the behavior, he won't be forced. However, he needs to do do it if he wants to earn reinforcement, and assuming the dog has been adequately reinforced in the past, he should be excited for that opportunity.

It is this last point that absolutely fascinated me. If cues are an opportunity to earn reinforcement, then they should be pretty awesome things, right? Trained well, a cue should be like a release word. They tell the dog, you no longer have to wait, you can do that behavior now, and when you do, I’ll click and treat you.

The cues therefore become reinforcing in and of themselves because they become what’s called a tertiary reinforcer. Primary reinforcers are things that the dog likes inherently. Dogs don’t need to be taught to like hot dogs, they just do. Secondary reinforcers are things that predict a primary reinforcer. Clicks or marker words tell the dog a piece of hot dog is coming through the process of classical conditioning. The tertiary reinforcer predicts the secondary reinforcer which predicts the primary reinforcer. The cue predicts a click which predicts a piece of hot dog. Cool, huh?

Anyone who wants their dog to do complex behaviors, or a chain of behaviors, will recognize the value in having a cue act as a reinforcer. Agility or obedience dogs often need to do a series of behaviors with no primary (food) reinforcer. Being able to reinforce a behavior simply by giving the cue for the next exercise or obstacle will help sustain motivation and ensure that the dog continues to perform over the long-term.

However, there is a catch- in order for a cue to act as a reinforcer, that cue must always predict a good thing. If you mix in corrections, the cue is then sometimes associated with unpleasant things and no longer acts as a reinforcer as a result. Therefore, Kathy said that training positively is not about fairness to the dog- it’s about giving yourself more tools. Losing a reinforcer by using punishment is a big price to pay.

Whew! Who knew there was so much to say about cues? But there’s so much that Kathy talked about them for 90 minutes, and then did two 90 minute labs about them! I only attended one of those labs, but in my next post, I’ll share her cue tips with you, as well as information about how to add a cue to a behavior. In the meantime, I can't wait to hear what you guys think. Have you ever used a cue as a reinforcer, or does this concept just blow your mind? Let me know!

Clicker Expo 2011 (Chicago): Kathy Sdao- You're in Great Shape!

You guys, I loved, loved, loved Kathy Sdao. In fact, I loved her so much that I went to four of her sessions (the equivalent of a third of the weekend). I skipped sessions that I’d planned on seeing in order to attend her sessions. And I wanted more. Someone bring her to the Midwest, please; I’m dying for a working spot with her.

Why did I love Kathy Sdao so much? Well, she’s wicked smart and has had tons of practical experience, including training dolphins to do defense-related open-ocean work for the US Navy. How cool is that? Her lectures are just packed full of great information and fascinating stories. She’s energetic and engaging and enthusiastic and entertaining! Go see her… and take me with you.

Okay, enough gushing. Dog training is all about changing behaviors, right? The thing is, though, we can’t manipulate the behavior directly- the behavior belongs to the dog. So what we need to do is manipulate what happens both before and after the behavior.

There are many ways to get a behavior to happen from the front end, everything from physically prompting or luring the dog to capturing or shaping the behavior. The method you choose is up to you, and Kathy said that you should understand the science so that you can choose the method for yourself instead of letting someone else decide for you. However, no matter how you decide to train, remember that the fundamental law of behavior is that consequences drive behavior. No matter what you do on the front end, your power as a trainer comes from being a reinforcer, not a commander.

In fact, that’s so important that I’m going to repeat it: Your power as a trainer comes from being a reinforcer, not a commander. If you are labeling your dog in some way, be careful! Dogs that are “distractible” and “stubborn,” say more about you than about them. Specifically, those labels say that you don’t reinforce them enough! Awesome dogs come from awesome reinforcement histories.

Although there are lots of ways to get the behavior, as the title implies, this session was about shaping. Kathy defined shaping as “teaching new behaviors by use of differential reinforcement, systematically reinforcing successive approximations toward the goal behavior.” Or, to put it simply, teaching a dog to do something one small step at a time.

Kathy demonstrates shaping.

Shaping can take place through either reinforcement or punishment, but it should go without saying that Kathy focused on the reinforcement side. Click, then treat. You don’t need to punish wrong responses, you don’t even need to mark them with a No Reward Marker. The opposite of reinforcement is not punishment, after all- the dichotomy is reinforcement versus no reinforcement. You’re either clicking the dog for getting it right, or you’re not clicking.

So, why shape? Well, of course it’s based in the science of operant conditioning, which means that it takes advantage of using consequences in your favor. But it also makes the dog an active participant- there’s two of you present, so why not use both brains? What’s more, it gives the dog a sense of control, and can help him make sense of a seemingly random and punishing world. It allows him to find a way to make the world work in his favor, thus creating a sense of internal motivation and desire to interact with you. And of course, sometimes it’s the only way to get a complex behavior the dog wouldn’t offer otherwise.

Once you’ve decided to shape a behavior, there are a few pre-requisites. First and most importantly, you need to know what your goal behavior is. Be specific- does “come” simply mean “move towards me,” or does it imply that the dog will move towards as soon as you call, quickly, and directly? And what should he do when he arrives- stick around or dash off again? Know what you want.

Once you know what the completed behavior is, you need to know what the first criterion is. What sliver of behavior will you be clicking for in the first 60 seconds? That sixty seconds thing? Yeah, she means it. Your job as a trainer is to choose the criteria, do a brief bit of training, click when it happens (and withhold the click when it doesn’t), and then stop and ask how it went. In fact, that was sort of the refrain throughout the weekend. Many of the presenters I saw recommended working in really short bursts with lots of thinking time in between.

What are you thinking about? Well, you need to assess your dog’s progress and then plan the next 60 seconds. You’re trying to figure out what your criteria will be the next time around. Kathy recommended making the job easier when your dog is getting it wrong half the time, or if he’s getting less than 8 clicks and treats a minute. That’s one click every 8 to 9 seconds- not much time! But it helps underscore just how small your steps should be during shaping. If your dog is doing well, getting 8 to 11 clicks per minute, and getting things right somewhere between 60% to 80% of the time, you’re on the right track. Continue working on that criterion. And if your dog is getting it right more often than 80% of the time, or is getting clicked every 4 to 5 seconds, it’s time to move on to the next step!

Incidentally, if you’re working on a duration behavior and can’t get in enough repetitions in order to get a high rate of reinforcement, you should increase your density of reinforcement so that the dog is getting the same amount of treats- 12 to 15 per minute’s worth of behavior. Deliver them however you want- all at once or one at a time- but make it worth the dog’s while to do that behavior.

Kathy also covered Karen Pryor’s ten laws of shaping, paying special attention to number 5 (stay ahead of your subject by having a plan) and number 8 (don’t interrupt the session gratuitously, which includes talking. Don’t be more distracted than you expect your dog to be!). She also noted that Karen herself says that number 3 (put the current response on a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement before raising criteria) isn’t necessary with dogs, which I thought was fascinating, and relieving- I’ve never done it!

Remember that when you’re shaping, your main job is to sit back and watch your dog. You should not be doing the moving, your dog should. If your dog stalls out and gets stuck, your response should not be to help him out. Instead, have faith in your reinforcement history. He can figure it out. If need be, go ahead and reduce your criteria, but resist the impulse to help him out by pointing or luring him.

And that’s shaping in a nutshell. I feel like I glossed over so much of what she said- her sessions really are just jam packed with great information- but this should give you a good idea of what she said. Even though I shape a lot (I find it addicting, even if I’ll never use that behavior), I still took a lot away from this session.

I have to admit, I’m not very good at the planning/assessing piece. I just sort of… sit down and click. I usually don’t end up where I’m planning to go, either. That’s fine for casual sessions, but I’ve got to admit, it impedes my progress for tricks or competition behaviors. But between this session and Kathy’s presentation on cuing skills, I think I’ve figured out what I need to do! In fact Kathy’s cue seminar was amazing, and I cannot wait to share it with you.