Despite what most people believe, cats can be quite trainable. My cat is clicker-trained and has picked up on almost all the same behaviors that I have taught my dogs in my group classes. Since this is adopt-a-cat month, here is a link to the first how-to video on training your cat to sit on cue:
A few weeks ago I attended the APDT conference in San Diego as part of my continuing education and to maintain my certification. It is important for dog trainers keep up with current trends in dog training and to do continuing education of some form. Attending conferences is also a good way to meet others in our field.
One of the big highlights of the conference (at least for me) was Terry Ryan's (Legacy Canine) Click-A-Chick workshop. This 3 hour workshop involved the art and science of clicker training chickens. You may be asking yourself, "but, you are a dog trainer, why clicker train chickens?" There are many reasons why this workshop is such a big hit amongst dog trainers:
1) Chickens have fast, twitchy movements and it hones the hand-eye coordination needed for effective clicker training as well as help you to become very precise with the timing of your click.
2) Chickens don't wear collars and leashes so it forces you to train an animal using a more "hands-off" approach. Many people who train dogs fall back on popping the leash and other methods of physically "correcting" the dog. When you train other species like birds or cats, you quickly learn that physically correcting or prompting an animal is really not necessary to teach a new behavior (see my cat video below).
3) Chickens will walk or fly away if you do not keep them engaged. So, you have to be on your toes and observant to make sure they are being reinforced for desired behaviors.
4) Training a different species with different mannerisms and body language from canines can help develop your observational skills.
Me and the chicks hanging out before the workshop
Here is a video clip from the workshop demonstrating target training (similar to what we do in class with our hands as the target) and the learning theory concepts of extinction and extinction bursts (I don't know why I am talking to the chicken, probably a habit from training dogs). As you watch the video, think about how some of these concepts apply to dog training:
Here is a clip demonstrating the amazing things you can teach chickens to do (this is from a longer chicken training camp/workshop):
This was an extremely fun workshop and it gave me an appreciation for how different it can be to train non-canine (in this case avian) species. The scientific and learning principles are the same but each species is a little different in how fast they move, their motivators, their level of intelligence and perception and how precise you have to be with timing and reinforcements. Puppies seem to move in slow motion compared to the chickens.
Here is a clip of some of the tricks my cat learned through clicker training. Like the chicken, there is no leash and everything is hands-off. She is learning some of the same skills that I teach in the basic class. More videos to come in the near future:
So if you want to learn more about the science of animal learning and why these methods are effective, here are a few good resources
This last weekend, I attended the Clicker Expo in Newport Beach. The meeting was inspiring, educational and a treasure trove of information. I feel that any dog trainer worth one’s salt should attend seminars and meetings to keep up with current trends and studies in dog behavior as well as brush up on their skills. Going to conferences like this reminds me of skills I need to refine, provides an opportunity for me to meet others in my field and I am always learning something new that will help me tweak and improve my classes. The speakers at this conference were also excellent and one cannot help but be in awe of their animal training skills and expertise.
What was also rewarding was seeing some of my former clients at the expo with their dogs. The Clicker Expo is unique in that it is open to professionals, people who compete in dog sports, hobbyists and dog owners. It is so nice to see dog owners motivated and excited by positive methods of training and using these methods with their dogs. Some of my clients attended the event to improve their dog training skills and others are engaged in competitive sports such as agility. It was really inspiring to see so many dedicated dog owners.
Since this is National Train Your Dog Month, I thought I would share some observations and pearls of wisdom gleaned from the presentations and workshops I attended that have relevance to the average pet dog owner:
1) Positive Dog Training and Punishment – one of the goals of Train Your Dog Month is to promote positive dog training methods. Positive dog training whether it be clicker training or some form of lure and reward training, involves reinforcing wanted or desired behaviors.
Punishment as the word is commonly used in by the average person (an aversive that is applied in response to an unwanted behavior that is aimed at decreasing that behavior from happening in the future) , is not the “go to” strategy in a positive trainer’s toolbox and if used at all is used in very limited and sharply defined circumstances. Resorting to punitive methods of dog training raises the risk of fallout from such efforts such as anxiety, distrust, increased aggression, fearful behavior that may not have previously existed or cause an animal to simply shut down. From a training point of view, punishment is not an efficient form of training as it is usually applied inconsistently and imprecisely by the average person and does not show the animal an appropriate alternative behavior. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior has published a very good statement on the risks of using punishment on animals: http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Position_Statements/Combined_Punishment_Statements.pdf
During the meeting I saw several videos of how positive training methods were used to train large, wild animals. Many of the people who gave talks during this meeting use clicker training to work with large sea mammals. There was an amazing video of a clicker-trained Rhinoceros who can sit and lie down on cue to make it easier for veterinarian to work on him. If you don’t need a choke chain, shock collar or prong collar to work with these huge beasts, why would you want to use one for domesticated canine that has coexisted with humans for thousands of years and is much more attuned to our body language and gestures than any other animal?
2) If you don’t like what your dog is doing, what would you like him/her to do instead? - an important element of positive dog training involves teaching the dog to perform an alternative or incompatible behavior to what he/she was doing previously. If we don’t want a dog to do something, it is only fair that we teach the dog an acceptable alternative. Positive dog training involves rewarding the dog when they perform this alternative behavior. Positive reinforcement with the use of rewards whether it be food, play, a walk or chasing a squirrel, increases the likelihood that the desired behavior will be repeated in the future. I dislike using the word “No” because it is often overused and is used in so many contexts that it seems like it is just the dog’s middle name. Often people are unable to say the word without becoming very emotional and agitated and in such cases, the word itself becomes an aversive. More importantly, the word “No” does not show the dog what he/she should do instead. For example, if you don’t want your dog to jump on you, what do you want instead? Is a sit acceptable? All 4 feet on the ground? Having reactive dogs, I know that teaching my dogs an alternative to barking and lunging is critical to reducing this behavior. In my case, I reward seemingly small but significant behaviors like a head turn or body turn away from the other dog. If my dog sniffs the ground in the presence of another dog, that is rewarded too! If the other dog is too close, I have a pre-rehearsed “get out of Dodge” cue so my dog learns that retreat is a viable option to standing her ground (which is not easy for an Akita to do).
3) Management is a part of dog training – what was a common thread in every lecture I attended was a discussion on the use of management. Some dog owners feel that training should be enough and that management is not part of the equation. However, effective management can prevent bad habits from forming in the first place and prevents the dog from rehearsing undesired behaviors while you are gone. For example, if your dog barks at people passing by, training alone will not help if you allow your dog access to a front window or gate to practice barking while you are away from home. Leashes, fences, pet gates and crates all function to keep your pet safe or if your dog is aggressive, keep others safe. Management should not be seen as a cop out, it is an integral part of responsible dog ownership.
4) Behavior Chains – dogs are very good at making connections and can readily lump together two or more separate behaviors into a single chain or sequence. Sometimes this is intentional on our parts such as teaching a dog to tackle obstacles on an agility course or teaching a dog to retrieve and drop an object. But, sometimes we unintentionally reinforce a sequence of behaviors that we do not want the dog to repeat. For example, when a dog jumps on the couch, we often tell the dog to jump off the couch and then reward the dog for jumping off. Then the dog repeats the behavior and we reward the dog again for jumping off. Pretty soon for some dogs the behavior becomes the following sequence of events, jump on the couch, owner says “off,” dog jumps off the couch, dog gets a treat, dog jumps on the couch again to eventually get a treat. So, before we reward a dog we have to analyze whether we are reinforcing a desired behavior or are we actually reinforcing a sequence of behaviors one or more of which are unwanted? In the couch example, it would be helpful to be proactive and teach the dog an alternate behavior such as lying down in front of the couch on a doggie bed as a separate and distinct piece when the dog is calm and not in couch-jumping mode and reinforcing those times when the dog goes to the doggie bed on his own. Having a break in time between the unwanted behavior and the behavior you are trying to reinforce can also help prevent an unwanted sequence of events from being reinforced.
5) Pay attention to what behavior(s) you are reinforcing – in one of the workshops I attended, I observed people clicking and treating for certain behaviors that were being offered by the dog (the technique is called shaping). On occasion, a dog would offer several behaviors simultaneously and an unrelated behavior was inadvertently reinforced. In one case, a dog was rewarded for putting his head down but he also happened to be scooting his butt when the trainer clicked and rewarded him. While the target behavior was pointing the head down, he repeated the behavior of scooting his butt because he thought that he was also being reinforced for that behavior. Sometimes in my classes when we teach a dog to target or touch the hand, dogs that have been taught to shake may also raise their paw as they touch the open palm with their nose. My dog will sometimes do this and I have to be very careful to ignore the instances where my dog simultaneously raises her paw and touches my hand and only reward the instances where she only targets my hand with her nose so that the raised paw does not become part of the targeting behavior. So, it is important to look everything the dog is offering at that moment to make sure we are not also rewarding an awkward or unwanted “tag-along” behavior. Timing is also something to keep in mind when marking the desired behavior with a click to make sure other behaviors do not sneak in.
These are but a few of the many common themes and observations from the conference. Right now my brain is overloaded with all the information I took in. I am sure that in the coming months, other tidbits will come to mind which will inspire future blogs.
Most dog trainers have several pet projects going on with their own dogs. My 11 year old shiba inu is what you would call a feisty gal. She is the most fearless dog I have ever met. At 6 months old she was part of the Nisei Week parade in Little Tokyo. While we were waiting our turn on the parade route, we were parked next to the Taiko drums. The Taiko drums went off and the other dogs were understandably frightened. Not Mitsu. She looked around as if she was thinking, “hey where’s the party at?” She has been to loud and frenetic places like Las Vegas strip and fireworks do not phase her.
However, she does have one little quirk that I have now made my “pet” project. It is her battles with the dreaded vacuum machine monster. She will attack the machine and will try to bite it and shake it. The loud noise, the lights, the annoying power cord, all of it sets her off. If the vacuum is in another room she does not pay attention. She is not afraid of the machine, she just does not want it in the living room where she hangs out. So how does one deal with the feisty vacuum machine vigilante?
Management: For years, I simply managed the situation. She went into her crate and she calmly waited for the chore to be over with. While in her crate she just fell asleep and did not bark at the vacuum. Sometimes, management is the simplest and easiest way to deal with non-fearful but mildly annoying behavior. However, as you will see in the video below, it did not change my dog's attitude towards the vacuum.
Redirection and Distraction: this year I decided to employ a different strategy; redirection and distraction. My dog has always loved her interactive dog toys so for the last two weeks she has been getting her Kong, Tug-A-Jug or Kibble Nibble when I vacuum. She has been getting these toys only when I vacuum which is very frequent right now because my dogs are blowing their coats. If you missed my review of interactive dog toys, go to: http://pawsitivefeedback.blogspot.com/2010/01/interactive-dog-and-cat-toys.html.
These toys not only distract my dog so I can complete my chores but it also has the effect of associating the vacuum with her fun, interactive toys. Here is a video of my dog before the introduction of her toys (about two weeks ago) and during the process of giving her toys when I need to vacuum the floor:
Note: my dog chose to be around the vacuum cleaner. In the case of the Kong, I kept putting it on her bed and in her crate while the vacuum was running but she preferred to work on it in the middle of the floor. Other dogs may prefer to work on these toys in a far corner, in their pen/crate or in a nearby room.
Teach Your Dog an Incompatible Behavior: another strategy is to teach your dog what you want her to do instead. Ideally, it should be a behavior that is incompatible with what she has been doing. Teaching your dog to go to her bed and stay is an example of a behavior that is incompatible with being on the floor and attacking the vacuum. I also started this training with Mitsu. Make sure your dog is solid with these behaviors before attempting it with a vacuum. In Mitsu's case she has a pretty solid command of "bed" and "stay." Here is an example of the beginnings of this type of training:
Dogs who are afraid of the vacuum: in this case, my dog is not afraid of the vacuum. She views it as an unwelcome, noisy intruder. For some dogs, especially with some young puppies, the vacuum can be a frightening contraption. In such cases, introduction to the vacuum cleaner should be gradual. Let the puppy get used to the vacuum machine being in the room while the engine is off. Let her inspect the machine while it is just sitting in the room. You can even put treats leading up to the vacuum and on top of the vacuum while the engine is off. Leave the machine in the same room for several days and put treats around the machine to encourage your dog to come up to it. Simulate the movement of the vacuum by moving it around in the same room with the engine off. You may want to use a crate or play pen so your dog does not get in the way. Let her get used to the noise when it not as intense by vacuuming in another room. When you begin vacuuming in another room, let the puppy work on a Kong or bully stick to distract her. Do this for a few days so your dog gets used to the noise. If your dog is unperturbed by the noise, gradually start working in a room closer to the puppy and repeat the process. When your puppy is ready, work in the same room as the puppy and make sure she has her Kong or chew stick available in her crate/pen.
Next month, we will see how Mitsu is doing with her old nemesis. Who says you can’t teach an old dog something new!
