Behavior Learning – Dog Puppy Behavior Training Help

November 25, 2009October 31, 2017

Limitations of Rewards Based Dog Training

Animals that already own rewards will not perform behaviors to receive the same rewards they already own.

Animals that receive rewards without any behavioral requirements will not examine and modify their own behaviors in order to receive the same rewards they already have.

This means dog training success via positive reinforcement depends on your ability to

Identify – Manage – Deliver – Withhold – Add – Subtract

Rewards

CLICK HERE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – Companion Animal Behavior Counselor and Trainer, Canine Specialization

How’s Bentley – Memphis, Collierville, Germantown TN

21st Century Canine Relationship Solutions

Private Dog Training in Memphis, Collierville, Germantown, Cordova, Bartlett TN

Reactive Dog Specialist

October 22, 2009November 28, 2009

Positive Reinforcement & Dog Training: Identify and Manage the Reinforcers!

Reinforcers include anything your dog currently desires.
Food is a primary reinforcer.
Attention, touch, toys, opportunities to interact, playtime, training sessions, opportunities to receive adrenaline and many other objects, events or actions can be reinforcers.

The bottom line is: if the animal wants it and you can control it, it can be used as a reinforcer. Rewards can be added or subtracted. They can be delivered during or immediately after a behavior to increase the behavior (positive reinforcer) OR they can be removed or withdrawn to decrease behaviors (negative punisher, i.e. time out). The best trainers use a variety of reinforcers.

If you want to increase behaviors using positive reinforcement, you must have something of value to that individual animal.

Do you think Donald Trump will be motivated to give you advice for $10? Do you think laboratory rats will run through a maze to get food if they just ate lunch?

Animals that already have rewards will not perform behaviors to receive the same rewards they already own.
Animals that get rewards without any behavioral requirements will not examine and modify their own behaviors in order to receive the same rewards they already have.

Identify and Manage Reinforcers

Before you can implement dog friendly training methods, you should:

Identify reinforcers in the environment
Manage the environment to control the delivery of reinforcers
Identify reinforcers you own
Manage reinforcers you own and you will “become relevant” to your dog

Identify Reinforcers in the Environment

Many reinforcers are in the environment, but not in our control. We are constantly competing with these environmental reinforcers!

Two of many reasons that dogs dig are to stimulate their olfactory senses and to regulate their body temperatures. We cannot control the odors in the soil or the temperature of the soil that reinforce digging. We cannot control the flow of adrenaline our dogs receive when they bark out-of-control at the postman or when they chase vehicles. Heck, we can’t even control our relatives that insist on petting our dogs when our dogs rudely jump up! Even though we can’t control these reinforcers, it’s important to recognize them.

Manage the Environment

Although we cannot control the reinforcers in the environment, we can manage our dogs’ opportunities to receive the reinforcers.
In some cases, managing the environment is the most effective method to prevent our dogs from repeating undesirable behaviors.
Ideally we should modify our dogs’ perceptions and modify our dogs’ behaviors and eliminate the problem behaviors.
In the short-term, we must manage the environment so our dogs’ unwanted behaviors are not reinforced

We can manage our dogs’ access to flower beds. We can provide our dogs with wading pools and warm shelters to regulate their body temperatures. We can manage our dogs’ access to postmen and moving vehicles. We can manage our relatives’ access to our dogs.

Identify Reinforcers We Own

We own and control a few reinforcers that most normal dogs desire. These are food, attention and touch or FAT.

Food – Food is a primary reinforcer, something a dog naturally desires. If your dog has conditional access to food, the value of food as a reinforcer will increase and your significance to your dog will increase.

Attention – Our attention (interactions with our dog) is another strong reinforcer. Dogs are social animals and seek social interaction with their humans. You do not have to teach your normal socialized dog to seek your attention. Dogs that have unconditional access to your attention learn to perform attention-seeking behaviors like barking when you are on the phone. That’s just rude! Once you teach your dog acceptable behaviors for earning your attention, barking for attention is not necessary. If your dog has conditional access to your attention, the value of your attention as a reinforcer will increase and your significance to your dog will increase.

Touch – Touch or tactile stimulation is another reinforcer and rounds out the top three reinforcers over which we have control. To social mammals, touch is grooming and grooming is performed by the subordinates. If your dog has conditional access to your touch, the value of your touch as a reinforcer will increase and your significance to your dog will increase.

Access to territory is another reinforcer that we can control. Dogs that have free access to FAT are more likely to disregard their humans because they have no idea that the humans own the FAT. Often times, animals (and people) are unaware that we are delivering good stuff to them. Your dog may have no idea that FAT comes from you!

For example, can you tell me who is directly responsible for managing the utility crews who deliver your water? Of course not! Although you value water, you don’t really need to know who is responsible for delivering this great resource. You turn the handle and water comes out. The crew chief is not significant to you. You probably never think of the manager even though he or she is indirectly delivering water to you several times each day. Details about the manager are not relevant to you.

Now suppose your water service is interrupted. When you phone in to discuss your situation, the customer service rep tell you that you must find out who manages the crew and you must give that person a gift that they will like – before your water service will be restored. Your behavior will change; you will make an effort to find out who is in charge and what they like. You will examine your own behaviors and carefully choose to perform behaviors necessary to get your water service restored. Now the manager is very significant. Now you are very aware who is delivering the good stuff to you!

Manage Reinforcers We Own

Some dogs who have unconditional access to FAT can become pushy and demanding.
Teaching dogs how to earn these reinforcers adds structure to their environment and contributes to a balanced relationship.
Dogs are less anxious when they learn how to earn food, attention and touch.
Learning when and how to deliver or withhold these natural reinforcers is important for developing your relevance to your dog.

Avoid situations in which your dog demands and receives FAT from you without any behavioral requirements.

October 21, 2009October 21, 2009

Tips for Making Your Dog’s Behaviors Reliable

Here are some ideas on how to get your dog to perform anytime, every time!

Loose Training – Practice the behaviors in many different areas, while adding distractions

Discriminative Stimulus – only reward for learned behavior when signal or cue is given

Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement – use intermittent schedules

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcers – vary the rewards

Food Treats – fade treats ASAP – move the treats off your body – place treats in other places. Place treats on your body and do not give your dog a treat.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – Memphis TN

Reactive Dog Specialist

October 21, 2009November 28, 2009

Schedules of Reinforcement

Schedules of reinforcement are consequence sequences or rates for teaching and maintaining behaviors. Different schedules are used at different stages of teaching and maintaining behaviors. There are three schedules of reinforcement.

Extinction
Continuous
Intermittent

Extinction – when a previously available reinforcer is withheld or no longer available

Some trainers suggest extinction to reduce unwanted behaviors like barking and jumping up. Extinction will reduce the long-term frequency and magnitude of a behavior, but will increase the frequency and magnitude of the behavior in the short-term.

For example: suppose your dog barks when you are talking on the phone. You tell her to ‘shhhh’ or pet her and she does for one moment, but resumes barking in a few moments. Remember, any behavior that is repeated is being reinforced. In this example the touch and ‘shhh’ is reinforcing the barking behavior. To use extinction, you would remove the reinforcers and just ignore the barking.

When you remove the reinforcers that were previously available, your dog will increase her short-term barking efforts to get your attention before she discontinues her long-term ‘barking strategy’. This is called an extinction burst. Your dog will bark at a different pitch or bark louder or add jumping and nipping, or any other behaviors that she considers to be magnifications of the barking behavior. The extinction burst signals that the reinforcers have been successfully removed and your dog will soon abandon her ‘barking while you are on the phone’ strategy, but not before she increases her efforts. If you can survive the short-term increase, you will successfully reduce the ‘barking when you are talking on the phone’ strategy.

Trainers often suggest that clients place ‘jumping up’ behavior on extinction. Dogs jump up for our attention, so the idea is to remove the reinforcer of attention. Just ignore the dog. The problem is that the behaviors during the extinction burst may become dangerous. The dog will jump higher, make more bodily contact, nip, grab clothing or whatever else that dog considers to be in the same response class as jumping up. Suppose the person cannot survive the behaviors during the extinction burst, so the person ‘gives in’ and gives the dog attention. Now the dog has learned that in order to get the person’s attention, she must jump hard, jump high, grab clothes and nip! How rude! It is not advisable to place ‘jumping up’ on extinction if your dog is large enough to knock you over!

In addition to the extinction burst, there is another problem with using extinction to reduce unwanted behaviors. Your dog may very well give up on her barking strategy and replace it with something worse, such as destroy your furniture, counter surf, jump on your table, chase your cat, nip at your child, et cetera. It is much more efficient to teach a polite behavior that is incompatible with the unwanted behavior!

Behaviors that are reduced through extinction are subject to spontaneous recovery. They may reappear later but can usually be extinguished more quickly than before.

The schedule of extinction and the resulting extinction burst is a helpful tool for trainers that use shaping. Trainers place a desirable behavior (that has a history of reinforcement) on extinction and the behavior increases in magnitude and frequency. The trainer waits until the magnified version is closer to the target behavior. If the trainer can reinforce the magnified behavior at the correct instant, the behavior will be repeated. It’s tricky and requires excellent planning, timing and patience.

Continuous – each instance of the behavior is reinforced

Continuous is used for teaching new behaviors or when your dog is extremely distracted. To use a continuous schedule, reinforce the behavior anytime you give the cue and your dog gives you the behavior. You’ll switch to an intermittent schedule as soon as your dog has learned the new behavior well.

Intermittent – the schedule between extinction and continuous, of which there are four sub-categories – variable ratio is the most useful for family dogs. Intermittent schedule is great for maintaining behaviors because we teach our dogs that reinforcement may not occur each time, but it will occur sometimes.

Behaviors that have been placed on a intermittent schedule are much more difficult to extinguish than behaviors that are continuously reinforced. This principle applies to unwanted behaviors as well. If you sometimes give your pup attention when she jumps up on you and sometimes you ignore her, she will keep jumping up – forever and ever! There are four sub-categories of intermittent schedules.

Fixed Ratio – reinforcement occurs after a specific number of desired behaviors
Variable Ratio – reinforcement occurs after an average number of desired behaviors
Fixed Interval – reinforcement delivered the first time a behavior occurs after a specific amount of time
Variable Interval – reinforcement delivered the first time a behavior occurs after an unpredictable amount of time

Schedule Thinning – changing from continuous to intermittent schedules

Methodically changing from a continuous schedule during teaching, to an intermittent for maintenance is called schedule thinning. Behavior that is reinforced on a continuous schedule will not continue if the reinforcement is removed. For example if you place $1 in the soda vending machine and do not get a soda, you are not likely to keep feeding the machine dollars because you are accustomed to a continuous schedule (you always get a drink when you perform the “money insertion behavior”).

On the other hand, slot machines at the casino deliver an intermittent schedule of reinforcement and people offer the “money inserting behavior” for many trials without any reinforcement. If our dogs learn that the reinforcement comes intermittently, they will continue offering the behavior –even if it is not reinforced every time. A behavior that is placed on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement is resistant to extinction.

Schedule thinning should be done in a deliberate exacting process or the behavior will reduce in magnitude or become extinct. Use Continuous schedule when teaching new behaviors, when your dog is slow to respond or when you are warming up at the beginning of a session. Intermittent schedules should be used after the behavior is well established and you have already added the cue. Let’s suppose you are ready to place a behavior on an Intermittent – variable ratio schedule. The idea is to slowly increase the average number of responses before you deliver reinforcement. For example, first you will reinforce an average of 4 out of 6 responses, then you will reinforce an average of 3 out of 6 responses, then 2 out of 6, et cetera. You may need to thin it more slowly. For example, first you may reinforce 19 of 20 responses, then 17 of 20, etc. Mix it up so that your dog never knows if you will reinforce or not, like a slot machine!

Choose the best performances to reinforce when thinning the schedule. If your dog starts to ignore the command, you should increase the rate of reinforcement.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – Memphis TN

Reactive Dog Workshops

October 8, 2009October 21, 2009

Dog Training & The ABCs of Instrumental Conditioning

There are three distinct pieces to a voluntary behavior, called the ABCs.
The “B” represents the behavior.
“A” is for Antecedent, which is anything present in the environment before a specific behavior. The A precedes the behavior.
“C” is for Consequence, which is the immediate result of the behavior.

Here’s an example of the ABCs of a voluntary behavior. A dog jumps up on a counter and gets food.

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Dog gets food.

A B C

The A – food is on counter, dog has access to the counter area, dog is hungry
The B is the behavior, which is any response to any stimulus.
The C is the immediate consequence of the B.

Suppose you would like to reduce “jump up steal food off counter” behavior.

In order to change a voluntary behavior, we modify either the events / environment before the behavior (antecedent), or we modify the events or environment immediately after the behavior (consequence), or both.

You could modify the antecedents and the behavior would be less likely to occur. For Example: attach a leash or tether, place the dog outside of the area, teach the dog to sit or go to place while you make a sandwich, and so forth. Some of the changes could happen immediately, others require that you train your dog.

Now let’s take a look at a few consequences and how they might influence behavior.

Types of Consequences

If consequences are to have an effect on the preceding behaviors, consequences must occur during or immediately after behaviors. Consequences are grouped into two categories, reinforcers or punishers. For consequences to be considered reinforcers or punishers, their effects on behaviors must occur now and anytime in the future when the animal is presented with similar circumstances.

Reinforcers increase behaviors.
Punishers decrease behaviors.

Consequences can be added or subtracted.

A consequence that is added or begins is called a positive consequence.
A consequence that is subtracted or stopped is called a negative consequence.

There are four possible consequences for any given behavior. Two of the consequences will increase (or reinforce) the behavior, and the other two will decrease (or punish) the behavior.

Positive Reinforcer – add or begin to increase behavior
Positive Punisher – add or begin to decrease behavior
Negative Punisher – subtract or remove to decrease behavior
Negative Reinforcer – subtract or remove to increase behavior

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Dog gets food. In this example, the behavior of “dog jumps up” is being reinforced (assuming the dog likes the food). A stimulus is added and the consequence increases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a positive reinforcer.

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Dog gets squirted with water. In this example, the behavior of “dog jumps up” is being punished (assuming the dog dislikes being squirted with water). A stimulus begins and the consequence decreases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a positive punisher.

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Human makes food disappear. In this example, the behavior of jumping up is being punished (assuming the dog wants the food). A stimulus is subtracted and the consequence decreases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a negative punisher.

Dog on counter is being squirted with water  Dog jumps off counter and onto floor Squirting of water is stopped. In this example, the behavior of “the dog being on the floor” is reinforced (assuming the dog dislikes being squirted with water). A stimulus is stopped and the consequence increases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a negative reinforcer. Negative reinforcers usually include escape and avoidance behavior.

Dog friendly training focuses on using positive reinforcement and negative punishment to teach our dogs desirable behaviors. Although we will use all four consequences, dog friendly training focuses on using positive reinforcement and negative punishment to teach our dogs desirable behaviors.

Alan J Turner – Dog Training in Memphis Collierville Germantown TN

How’s Bentley Aggressive Dog Seminar

May 13, 2009October 23, 2009

Interrupters: Squirt Bottles, Newspaper Swats, Shake Cans – Are They Effective for Changing Dogs’ Rude Behaviors?

Interrupters are corrections people use to momentarily stop their dogs’ behaviors. Examples of potential interrupters are shouting “no”, squirting with a water bottle, shaking a can with pennies, tossing keys on the floor, swatting with a newspaper, or holding a pup’s muzzle closed.

Interrupters can stop a behavior for the moment. Great, sometimes we need to stop a dog or puppy from misbehaving! Unfortunately, interrupters do not necessarily decrease the likelihood of the behavior reoccurring in the future.

Interrupters decrease behaviors for the moment and can be very useful short-term tools when we are unprepared. Interrupters do not efficiently modify behavior over the long term.

Many of my clients with serious problems unknowingly intensify the problems via the improper use of interrupters.

If you answer “YES” to any of the following questions it is very likely that you are using interrupters inefficiently and/or your methods of communicating and teaching are flawed.

Have you used the interrupter on many occasions to stop the same behavior(s)?

Is the behavior occurring as often today as it was yesterday?

Will the dog cower at the sight of the interrupter, even though he or she is not misbehaving?

Does the interrupter need to be visible, or held in your hand, before the dog will comply with your wishes?

Are you constantly carrying the interrupter with you, or purposely placing the interrupter within easy reach?

Using constant interrupters as teaching tools has unwanted side effects, the least of which is a confused, distrustful dog. In addition, interrupters do not teach the dog which behaviors you do want.

Interrupt – Redirect – Pay

You can use interrupters effectively if you complete the thought and tell your dog what is acceptable. Interrupt –> redirect –> pay is the most efficient use of interrupters.

Anytime you say “no”, ask yourself these two questions. What exactly would I like my dog to do at this moment and exactly where would I like him to do it? Once you have these answers, you’ve just identified your redirect behaviors and your next training goal. Teach your dog to perform the redirect behaviors in that specific context. Do this when you have complete control of the environment.

For instance, suppose your dog jumps up on the dishwasher door and licks dishes when you are loading your dishwasher. Ok, you’ve defined the problem, now decide on a solution.

What exactly would you like your dog to do when you load the dishwasher? Where would you like him to do it?

You’ve decided that you’d like your dog to lie on the kitchen area-rug when you load the dishwasher. Here’s a summary of your training plan. Variations of this exercise can be used to address other problems such as bolting out open doors and stealing food from counters.

Remember, you can’t teach your dog when life is calling the shots! Set aside some time and teach your dog this specific skill.

First, teach your dog “Go to Place (place is the rug)”.

Gradually increase the time he must stay on the rug before you pay him.

Add the distractions of the dish loading process – one step at a time. Have him stay while you bend down and touch the handle, while you operate the door handle, while you open and close the door, while you place a dish inside, et cetera.

After a few short sessions, your dog will know exactly what to do, when you load dishes, and he will know exactly where to do it!

The next time your dog jumps up on the dishwasher door, tell him “no”, immediately cue him to Go to Rug, then release and pay him – after you are through with your task.

Better yet; before you begin to clean up, tell your dog to “Go to rug”. Don’t forget to pay him after you are finished cleaning up!

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – Companion Animal Behavior Counselor & Trainer, Canine Specialization

Private and Group Dog Behavior and Training Services

Memphis, TN

How’s Bentley