Research In Dog Training

E-Training for Dogs is founded by a previous university professor and has a unique following/clientele of dog enthusiasts, breeders, and professionals. Most of our students are hungry for MORE information, BETTER information, so they can become better trainers and other canine professionals. As such, one of our most popular series is our Ethology and Canine Behavior Lecture Series. This series is presented “Live” online the first Thursday of every month from 8:00-9:30 PM EST. The Live lecture is about 60 minutes in length and 30 minutes is allowed for a question and answer session at the end with the Speaker. It is also recorded so those who cannot view it can attend it “ondemand” at a later time or date. This month’s (January 5, 2012) Lecture is titled: Research in Dog Training: Current Projects and Future Directions Speaker Nicole Dorey, Ph.D.

So, why should dog trainers care about “Research” anyways?

Well, in general, research should inform practice. What does that mean?

• It means that when someone does research it should be able to be applied to a real world “question.”
• It means that you KNOW that if you do “this” then “that” will happen.
• It means that you KNOW that if you increase or decrease “this” then “that” will increase or decrease.
• It means that you KNOW that if you change the amount of doing “this” then “that” will change in a certain amount.
• It means that though our non-“research” ways of “knowing” are valuable (typically based on experience, observation, experiment, values or ethics) ….chances are we might be wrong.

Of course… experience, observation, values, and ethics are very important. In addition, sometimes research is just silly and not useful…it does NOT inform practice. However, unless someone actually researches the variables of behavior and behavior change, we really are making best guesses. Fortunately, there are canine professionals doing more and more research all the time on those variables.

Dr. Nicole Dorey is one of these researchers. As a graduate student at the University of North Texas, Nicole became interested in animal training and specifically decreasing problem behavior in animals. One of her first endeavors was an olive baboon that was engaging in self injurious behavior which caused huge lacerations on its arms and legs. With Nicole’s knowledge of behavior analysis, her first thought was to see what was maintaining the baboon’s problem behavior and to conduct a functional analysis. From the data collected with this method, she was able to eliminate the self injurious behavior and found that the cause of the problem was the keepers telling the baboon to “stop doing that” that was acting as attention and increasing the self injurious behavior. This was the first time this method had been used with an animal and has since been used to determine the maintaining variable of self injurious behavior in other captive primate species. After this project, Nicole was hooked. Although her Ph.D. at the University of Exeter was focused on investigating social learning in a variety of zoo animals and dogs, in her spare time she consulted on training and decreasing problem behavior at the Paignton Zoo and successfully co-organized a zoo training workshop. Her recent research focuses on developing a line of research that will serve the dog training community and seek to find a deeper understanding of the factors that underlie problem behavior.

Researching what method works best and when and with this or that dog, in this or that situation, etc. is not going to be the answer to ALL questions, but it will INFORM us. These are exciting times for canine professionals as they hunger for the RIGHT answers and demand the proof is now. Come join us ONLINE to find out what the cutting edge research is saying. A recording of this lecture will be available ondemand. You can get it HERE.

Awareness > Attention > Learning > Behavior

To elicit a behavior from a dog, the dog has to first be aware of a cue or some stimulus, pay attention to it, learn it and then DO it.

This is the general order of how all learning occurs.

In the world of dog training and canine behaviorists, especially as it relates to trying to teach a dog a new or different behavior, the study of the “distracted dog” is the probable equivalent to the human behaviorists study of “attention.”

Attention and distraction are, obviously, inextricably interwoven psychological phenomenon. To a “distracted dog” two things in the realm of “attention” are happening…

1. He is not paying attention to something that the human may be wanting him to pay attention to, and

2. He is paying attention to something(s) that are distracting him.

For the dog trainer and the canine behaviorist, it is important to work with the dog to encourage him to be able to “pay attention” even through distractions…especially for a working dog or a dog competing in a sport.

Attention is usually seen as having two components: (1) direction (what the attention is on) and (2) intensity (how much mental effort goes into it).

What are some of the factors that should be considered when working with a distracted dog and trying to get him to pay “attention?”

Salience Dogs, like people, can pay attention to more than one thing in their environment and NOT give equal attention to each of those things. For example, a dog in a show ring may be focusing on the liver treat in the handler’s hands, but he is also aware of the dog in front of him, behind him, the dog outside the ring playing with another dog, the people, the flooring, the smells of the hotdogs in the concession stand, etc. BUT he may be paying MORE attention to that piece of food than any of those other stimuli as it, RELATIVE to these other stimuli, has more salience to him. What if the last time the dog was in a show ring, the judge accidentally stepped on his paw, would he find the judge more salient than the liver treat and become distracted by the judge?

Vividness is related to salience, but whereas salience is determined by the relation of paying attention to one object as it relates to all the other objects/stimuli in the environment, VIVIDNESS is inherent in the stimulus itself. What if a dog comes to class and a Pudelpointer (no offense anyone!) attacks him. A Pudelpointer is a dog with a bearded face. So this dog that was attacked by a bearded dog, now is easily distracted when any other bearded dog is near him. It is both salient and vivid to him. The main difference between SALIENT and VIVID is that VIVID information, according to the research, is more easily recalled.

So getting a dog, who is distracted, to pay attention, it may be useful to think about the following:

• What is distracting the dog?/What is the dog paying attention to?
• How distracted is the dog?/How much attention is the dog paying to the thing that is distracting him?
• How salient, relative to all the other things going on, is the distraction (the thing he is paying the most attention to?)
• How vivid is the distraction (the thing he is paying the most attention to?
• Knowing the above, how can you make the distracted dog pay attention using the concepts of salience and vividness?

We have an excellent webinar to help you if you have a distracted dog and want to find ways to get him to pay attention to you:
The Distracted Dog

Here is a sample video from the 60 minute, ondemand class-

The Attention Exercise

Renea Dahms, DipCBST, RMT, an early childhood educator and dog trainer in North Central Wisconsin since 1995, specializes in helping people work with getting their dogs’ attention…Distracted Dogs. She has developed a very down to earth, easy to understand, easy to apply, webinar for us called: The Distracted Dog.

Honey

I always carry honey when hunting or training or judging. It is my  “go to” remedy. Not only is it a life saver in hyperthermia (heat stroke), it is scientifically proven to be effective on wounds, burns, skin ulcers, boils, and infections.

Honey is one of nature’s oldest folk remedies  used by many ancient civilizations to help heal wounds.

Scientific university research is showing the reason why honey could assist natural healing. Results of a University study showed that unprocessed honey healed wounds and external ulcers in all but one of 59 patients. Honey, keeps sterile wounds sterile until they had time to heal, while infected wounds became sterile within a week. It provides a moist healing environment yet prevents bacterial growth even when wounds are heavily infected.

First Aid and CPR

True story: I am a judge for the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) and travel all over North America judging hunting dogs. As a Senior judge (one of the three judges must be the “Senior”) I find myself often in charge of tests. This means I am responsible for executing the test from the test logistics to the dogs to the handlers to the spectators. A couple years ago in southern California I had an experience that I will never forget.

First of all, the temperatures were 103 degrees Fahrenheit by 11AM all 3 days of the test. In the tests, we do field work, water work, and tracking. The field work is 20-30 minutes long, so we tried to get all of that out of the way first thing in the morning. However, we did not get to the tracking portion until the end of the day. Tracking USUALLY takes no more than 2-4 minutes for dogs in the test we were doing…Utility. We do not call it tracking, as the dog is only expected to follow the scent of a person dragging a dead duck behind them about 100 yards and then leaving it there for a dog to find and return to the handler…so you can imagine, the scent of that is pretty strong, and the distance is not far for an upland bird dog to run out and back.

Judging Team Southern Cal NAVHDA, 2010
Greg Weiss, Herbert Schoderer, Senior Judge Cheryl Asmus
Aprentice Judge Gabriel Awbrey

Well, that day was so hot and dry and the wind…the wind was gusting about 30 mph. Each judge takes turns dragging the duck and then hiding in the woods. It was my turn. I dragged the duck out about 140 steps, left it there, and went to hide in the shaded woods (after looking for rattle snakes that might have the same idea!). The other two judges then brought out the handler and his dog who had been out of sight to the spot where the “track” started. He unleashed her, a young solid liver German Shorthaired Pointer, and she tore off down the track. Due to the wind, the track scent had blown a good 60 yards to the right so she got off the actual track air scenting landing her a good 60 yards downwind of the bird laying on the ground. She started searching, she ran and ran and ran. It was about 9 minutes into it at that point and I finally saw her run by me and pick up the duck….she was not well. I knew that instantly. I am not sure what I “saw” in the brief glimpse, but I instantly stood up and started sprinting toward the spectators, owner, and other judges. I was screaming “Get some water” “Get some water”…the wind blew my voice away.  The dog stopped about 10 yards from the owner and just stood there. By this time, someone heard me, and a spectator bolted from the crowd and yanked the duck out of the dog (which was covering its tongue…the place a dog sweats from), swooped her up and put her in a tub of cool(er) water in the shade by his truck (we had tubs of water everywhere to keep the dogs cool).

I ran to her and held her head up in that water as she was too weak to hold it herself. She was in shock but conscious. Her rectal temperature was over 105 when we first took it. We took her temperature every 5 minutes until it was normal. After her temperature dropped to under 103, we dryed her off and put her in an air conditioned car and off to the vet. She ended up being fine.

One other thing we did, was we gave her small amounts of honey on our finger and put it inside her cheek …about 2 Tablespoons in all over the 30 minutes in the water.

Honey-don’t leave home without it!

James Serpell is the Marie A. Moore Professor of Animal Welfare at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, where he also directs the Center for the Interaction of Animals & Society. He received his bachelor’s degree in Zoology from University College London in 1974, and his PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of Liverpool in 1980. In 1985 he established the Companion Animal Research Group at the University of Cambridge before moving in 1993 to his current position at the University of Pennsylvania where he lectures on veterinary ethics, applied animal behavior and welfare, and human-animal interactions. His research focuses mainly on the behavior and welfare of dogs and cats, the development of human attitudes to animals, and the history and impact of human-animal relationships. In addition to publishing more than 100 articles and book chapters on these and related topics, he is the author, editor or co-editor of several books including Animals & Human Society: Changing Perspectives (1994), The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behavior & Interactions with People (1995), In the Company of Animals (1996), and Companion Animals & Us (2000).

Lecture December 5, 2012 (Available recorded): Measuring Behavior and Temperament in Dogs: New Methods and Applications

Schutzhund is the ultimate sport if you are truly interested in not only learning the difference between play and aggression; between prey and aggression; between fear and aggression…but becoming a SCHOLAR of understanding aggression and how to know when it is and when it isn’t. I urge you to study some of the videos by Ivan Balabanov as he truly understands how to shape the natural drives of a dog with a no conflict method.

Schutzhund is a sport and a training system for a working police dog. It is a 300 point test, with three levels. 100 points are TRACKING; 100 points are OBEDIENCE; 100 points are PROTECTION. They must qualify in all three areas. A Schutzhund dog would not be very good if he tracked a lost person and then bit that person at the end of the track. A Schutzhund dog is required to heel off leash through a mingling crowd under gunfire. A Schutzhund dog is at heel, off leash, when a crowd of people walk quickly toward him and hover over him. He must show NO fear or aggression.

These dogs have exemplary temperaments. They would not get very far in Schutzhund if they did not have SELF control in any situation, no matter what is happening. Training SELF control is not achieved by force or aversion. It is achieved by shaping their natural drives. Sound familiar?

A Schutzhund dog must be able to be called to a drop in mid air after launching for a bite. They are taught to bite through the use of building their PREY drive starting with a burlap sack and tug of war with it. The reward, even after the dog has reached the highest titling possible, for that dog, is to parade around with the sleeve in his mouth, tail wagging…like he is carrying his favorite toy. When the DEFENSE drive is brought forward it is very carefully done always ending with the dog winning and ending with PREY. I believe a lot of people might learn a lot about dogs if they took a dog through the rigors of Schutzhund.

To join a sanctioned Schutzhund club and work in the three areas…my opinion…nothing better for a person or a dog…even a pet dog.

Here is a great video if you want to understand true Schutzhund training. Carefully watch the very dance these two do. I love it.

I hope you will note that the training is all motivational and when the dog is biting, at first, the helper always turns away from him building only on the PREY drive. Toward the middle-end, he briefly begins turning full frontal on the dog BRIEFLY and that turns on the defense drive, but he quickly either turns away again (prey) or lets the dog win (lets go of the burlap roll). The body language between this “helper” and this dog is incredible. Imagine people learning to read and respond as well as this “helper.” I even love the term “helper” as they are not considered trainers…they are, and think of themselves as helping shape and build a dog’s drives.

I also want to point out that Schutzhund is not JUST teaching a dog to bite. It is an organized sport as much as agility or herding. Isn’t one of the positive ways to deal with biting puppies to let them bite and then teach them how much is too much and when to quit? This is the same thing, only better.