About Clicker Training (Part 1 of 2, continued in Gem of a Pet)

A brief comment on Clicker Training: I don't fault this TOOL, but have issue with those who claim that it is a METHOD, or that it's a quick-fix formula to replace real, qualified, competent training. Training happens in your head and between you and the dog, not in a party favor.

How it works: The dog is given praise and/or treats while the Clicker is sounded. This creates a Pavlovian association between the sound of the Clicker and the good feelings, equating the sound with the reward. In order to continue that association (and keep the human end of the bargain,) once it is learned that the sound means Reward, the actual reward is postponed until the dog (or other animal) comes to accept that the reward WILL be coming... eventually. In effect, the click gives them the same warm-fuzzy feeling, then, that the praise or food did, and so the clicer's sound becomes the reward. The animal has then been programmed to be pleased to hear the sound. This is why I say it's still Pavlov's dog. (Pavlov, a behavioral scientist, noted that if you ring a bell when you feed a dog meat, in short order the dog will salivate when it hears the sound of the bell even if there is no meat present.)

To use the TOOL, then, one first programs the dog to think of the sound as a reward (or a promise of a reward soon to come,) and then makes the Clicker sound at the moment that the dog is performing a desired behavior.

What the Clicker compensates for is that many trainers, especially novices, are simply moving too slow, taking too long to realize that their pet has done the right behavior. By the time they realize, for example, that their dog has indeed put its butt to the ground and they pet or give food, the dog has since risen its butt from the ground and is now leaping up and off. The problem, of course, is that you've now just rewarded the dog for leaping up and running off, rather than for sitting; if you're too slow, you end up rewarding bad behaviors. The clicker solves this problem.

The Clicker is also good for reinforcing behaviors at a distance. One may not be able to pet the dog while the dog is running an agility course, for example. By using the Clicker, one can encourage the correct/desired behaviors, and it seems to be less distracting than heaping praise on the dog by telling it how good it is (which can result in the dog leaving off the exercise to go over to you to get praised.)

It's true that this can make teaching a behavior faster and easier... but we're still talking only about TEACHING it. That isn't all that training is about - not hardly. I can TEACH a behavior in very short time... but proofing that behavior, making it a Given that the dog will do as it has been taught, is another matter entirely. Rewarding for that behavior is only part of the story and process.

There MUST be a consequence for disobedience. We don't want to focus upon that. As my clients have heard several times, the idea is to avoid having bad behaviors in the first place, so they don't get to become bad habits... and nothing breeds success like success. That said, if the dog knows what Come means and I issue the command only to have the dog hike its nose in the air and trot off with total disregard for me and the command, standing there holding that Clicker isn't going to do much to solve the problem.... and therein lies the first limitation of so-called Clicker "Training" and those who claim to use all-positive methods.

The vast majority of my training and most all of my teaching techniques are positive. To claim that they are ALL positive, that no compulsion is necessary or acceptable, only proves to me that the person is either lying or living in a fairy tale. Dogs obey us because we are Alpha. They KNOW that beneath the good, healthy, loving relationship there IS an "or else".

Remove the Or Else and you'll find that the dog, like any other reasonably intelligent creature on the planet, will soon come to see commands as suggestions or requests. If the boss says he'd LIKE you to be in at 9 am, but you learn it's not required, that you won't be fired over it, you'll soon come to consider anything before 9:20 or so to be "on time". Why would you think the dog would be any less capable of figuring that out?

Continued in "Gem of a Pet " (his is a treatise in two parts)

Boot Camp, Compulsion and Correction

I just saw someone anonymously attempt to appear knowledgeable over in the Pets AD section of the Chicago Craigslist. The post was titled Boot Camp warning or somesuch. The poster started off seeming to have a clue, but quickly went on to fault anyone who " 'pops' a correction on the neck". This person tried to use the methods used with dolphins to prove his/her point that ONLY positive reinforcement should be used.

While I do not condone abusive training methods, allow me to refute:

1) Dolphins aren't canines or felines or goldfish. They're an incredibly intelligent creatures (by most accounts perhaps smarter than humans) which outweigh and outswim us. (Though I don't agree with it, I can also tell you that the US Navy has used compulsion with dolphins in attempts to train them to knowingly kill human beings. Those attempts were unsuccessful, even when the compulsion caused the death of the dolphin.) Even dull-witted military-minded humans will eventually learn that something doesn't work.

2) A "pop" on the neck needs to be much better defined. What sort of collar is being used? What behavior is being demonstrated by the dog? How hard is that "pop"? I don't use choker collars. I do use prong collars. Though they LOOK medieval, they actually work psychologically, by simulating a mother's teeth, lifting the scruff of the neck - akin to your mother calling you by your middle name. Want proof? Put one on your arm or neck and pull or pop a correction. No harm, no foul, not even dents, let alone punctures - and dogs have much tougher skin than we do. Moreover, that brief "pop" is far more humane than the near-constant pulling the dog around by the neck with a choker collar. Think of it this way: Would you rather have an occasional brief reprimand that's over in an instant, or have the same boss nagging at you constantly? Which is worse? As usual, one is best served by knowing what they're talking about and WHY they do what they do.

3) Anyone who thinks they can train reliable behavior without negative consequences is deluded. I TEACH behavior through neutral and positive methods, but there MUST be a consequence for not obeying to proof that training. This has two aspects to it:

a) If the dog is taught with no compulsion, when a squirrel or rabbit flushes, where is the reason for that dog to obey the Come, Stop, No, Here, or whatever else you're yelling out as it gets creamed by a truck?

b) The reason it's called a Correction is that you're correcting the dog's misconception of appropriate behavior. In teaching Heel, I will give the dog every reason in the world to be at my side... praise or treat in the beginning, to teach the notion, my hand down alongside the knee to make them WANT to come to the right position for the affection. I'll define the area which is properly Heel by issuing Correction when the dog goes outside of that area, til they comprehend that I mean "stay within a foot or so of my left knee." Without a correction, I could encourage the position, but couldn't define the extent of the range. This would leave the dog with the equivalent of Come as its understanding. There again, without a consequence for disobedience, the dog comes over to get petted, then does what it feels like otherwise.

The extent of the Correction depends entirely on the dog and its character, threshholds, etc. For a sensitive dog that's trying to please, often a simple sharp disapproving sound ("Aaaht!") is plenty. Anything more might be too much pressure. Some very sensitive dogs might even fold under physical compulsion. That would be counterproductive, and so I wouldn't dream of using it. Other dogs can be hit with a 2x4 and ignore you (not literally, of course.) I had a very tough Belgian Malinois who was pushed further into Drive by any correction. That dog was a challenge in many ways, but a combination of Consequence and Reward was what worked. The difference between a real trainer and someone parroting (a trainer's methods inappropriately) is found in his/her ability to determine which is appropriate and to be creative in combining them to get the desired behavior.

If there is no negative consequence to disobeying the command, it is no longer a command. It is a mere suggestion or request and the creature is welcome to ignore it if some other suggestion or desire seems more interesting at the time. These are dogs. Most don't comprehend the dangers of man's world, and their instincts won't suffice to protect them. That's where we come in. We're supposed to be smarter than the dog we're raising. Ignoring the difference is done at your heart's peril and the dog pays the consequence. I see ads every day from people who didn't bother to train the dog properly and now want to give away a 1.5 year old that's "mostly" housebroken. No crate, that would be a jail, don't you know? No leash training. Not even the basic obedience, and they can't figure out why the dog doesn't fit in well with their lifestyle.

In the wild, pack and herd animals have Alphas (leaders) and a pecking order beneath that lead position. The Alpha administers corrections, whether it's a canine or a horse. Why on earth would anyone think they can override such basic hardwired aspects? My guess is that they don't actually think. They certainly don't know. They just put stuff out there in pseudo-smart fashion.

Please, if you see someone hanging a dog off the end of a leash when the dog hasn't attacked them first with its teeth, feel free to intercede or report it to animal cruelty. But don't go running off at the mouth (or fingers) as though you understand training with such generalizations.

I offer a Boot Camp for the few people who truly too busy to train their dogs (after we have met and trained at least once together.). I do NOT spend 20 minutes a day for 2 weeks and use harsh methods to cram obedience down the dog's throat. That wouldn't work. The dog would fear me, and do whatever it wanted to do with its mommy & daddy. I've seen people who claim to be trainers doing that very thing. One mark is that the dog is nervous, fearful, and cowers at almost nothing. The dogs I train greet me warmly, happily, are glad to see me show up every week. Their owners see them working happily, even after a correction. Their tails are most often up, not hid between their hind legs. THOSE traits are far more telling than the mere presence of a Correction.