March 3, 2014

Monday Musings: Why Positive Reinforcement Training Was the Right Choice For Me

Where's my cookie?

I grew up riding horses.  My first horse was a red Welsh-Arabian mare called Tinker, and had previously been my grandmother's mount.  She was sturdy, steady and safe - the perfect partner for a young girl to learn and grow with.  At some point Tinker developed what is known as "barn-sourness," when a horse is reluctant to leave or in a hurry to return to its herd-mates, employing any number of evasive behavior tactics to achieve this goal.  Tinker's evasion of choice was to pull the reins out of my hands on the way home, by lowering her nose to the ground and shaking her head, all the while increasing her speed.  One day she ran away with me up the driveway to the pasture gate in such a manner, and in an adolescent tantrum, I leapt yelling off her back and slugged her in the neck.  Her chestnut head shot up in shock and her deep brown eyes widened in surprise.  I was immediately horrified by what I had done and threw my arms around her neck sobbing my apology into her mane.  I promised to never do such an unfair thing again, to let my emotions get the best of me or to physically punish an animal.

My continued interest in horses led to an education and early career spent riding and training them.  It's true that you can't avoid the physical with horses - we're sitting on their backs, they outweigh us tenfold and even the gentlest training methods use a leather conduit to a noseband or a metal bit in their mouths - but I was always drawn to the "ride with your mind" and "less is more" philosophies, the trainers who employed soft hands and low voices.  I was easily offended by horse professionals who jerked on horses' mouths or smacked them with lead ropes, and I endeavored to avoid those methods.

By now you're asking "Isn't this a dog blog?" and I'll transition from the equine to the canine, although it's surprisingly not so different.  The horse is a prey animal and the dog is a predator, but both experience the same range of emotions, and with reactive dogs we are so often dealing with fear and insecurity.  Until I got Ruby I was not so interested in dog training.  I was happy for my dogs to be my constant companions, and so long as they were not destroying the furniture or nuisance barking, I wasn't concerned with tricks or obedience.  I'm going to make another confession now...despite my early experience with my horse Tinker and my vow to be a kinder, gentler animal handler, for a while I used a prong collar for my dog, Lasya.  She was a bad puller, and it was suggested to me by someone - I can't even remember who, now.  As Lasya got older, she became easier to manage and I eventually switched her to a regular slip-lead.  She had a very thick coat and that big Chow Chow lion's ruff, but I'm still sorry I used that medieval collar on her, because I know better now.  

When I adopted Ruby I knew that I wanted to work with her using purely positive, force-free training methods, and hired a trainer with a philosophy in line with my own.  I had heard of clicker training and even had a clicker lying around that a friend had given me, but for some reason I always thought of it as cheating.   My first experience with it was in Ruby's group obedience class (which we promptly flunked out of due to her emerging reactivity), and I quickly realized it was not a gimmick.  It is simply a more efficient bridge between the cue and the behavior, a quicker, more consistent way to say "good dog!"  Ruby picked up on it immediately and I nearly always use the clicker to introduce new tricks.  I take treats on walks and a squeeze bottle of peanut-butter in the car.  If a problem behavior develops, I ask myself what I'd rather see her doing, and take the steps to reach that goal.  I offer alternatives and encourage her more desirable choice.  Positive reinforcement is more akin to essays than true and false, and the results are not as fast or as flashy as certain celebrity trainer methods or the increasingly out-dated pack/dominance theory.  Positive reinforcement feels more fair and honest to me, it's a conversation instead of a diatribe. It's funny to me that the same trainers who keep choke chains and e-collars (a sneaky name for a shock collar) in their toolbox consider clickers and cookies "crutches." Wouldn't you rather your dog work for the currency of treats and praise instead of out of fear of discomfort or pain?

As I've gotten older I'm able to more closely articulate the kind of relationships I want with my animals.  I am not interested in being the boss, in receiving a rehearsed answer to every question I ask.  I want a partnership in which my horse or dog thinks for itself, offers questions of his or her own.  It's in the moments where we're listening that the real magic happens.   Existing with and training dogs is a learning process, and it is our responsibility to evolve with the knowledge available to us, to better ourselves and our relationships.

Further Reading:

Why Dogs Are More Like Humans Than Wolves from Smithsonian

De-Bunking The "Alpha Dog" Theory from Whole Dog Journal

Dominance Myths from the Association of Professional Dog Trainers

The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller

Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor


15 comments:

  1. Love this post! I wish more people would see the benefits of positive training. I haven't always used positive methods. In fact, I grew up with parents who were anything but kind to their dogs in training them. But somehow, even back then, I knew it was wrong. I'm grateful that there are at least a handful of positive reinforcement trainers. I stopped fostering for a rescue group because of the trainer they used who is, basically, a barbarian when training dogs. They frowned on my use of more positive methods for a dog I was fostering who had a lot of issues, some of them beyond what I was capable of helping her with. At one point, I even offered to pay for classes for my foster dog using a trainer that was highly recommended and used only positive methods - the rescue turned my offer down flat. It's a long story and some things happened and I ended up returning the dog to their rescue.

    I'm glad you, like I, learned from your mistakes and realized how much more beneficial positive reinforcement is in building a loving, give and take relationship with any animal.

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    1. I think it's slowly gaining ground, thanks to some visible professionals and the research that is continually coming out. I really admire anyone who has changed their ways and adopted more positive, progressive methods! When you already have a timid dog, it's just heartbreaking to think of instilling any more fear into their lives.

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  2. Great post. And I appreciate your honesty. Many of us didn't start out understanding the importance of positive reinforcement. It's what gives me hope that eventually it will be seen as the primary way of training any animal.

    In truth, behaviorism is proven to be effective in many types of training. It's the most successful treatment of depression in humans, for instance. And yet it's not the treatment of first resort for many.

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    1. Right in line with your "Good for the Dog - Good for You" theme!

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  3. We really enjoyed our training class for reactive dogs, which presented a balanced approach involving plenty of treats and positive reinforcement and also some tools from the more dominance-based training methodologies - for instance, to break a reaction, we step in front of our dog, tighten the leash, and back him up until he is looking at us. This really is not a very harsh action, and it truly helps redirect Spartacus from his trigger and gets him back under threshold instantly. We don't consider this harsh treatment, but we understand others might disagree. Of course, the best measure is to always set our dogs up for success and avoid them ever going over threshold entirely, though it's not always possible. Out of curiosity, how do you use all positive based methods while your dog is reacting?
    We love the idea of using all positive reinforcement if we can find ways to disrupt Spartacus mid-reaction if you have any suggestions.
    Thanks!

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    1. *when Spartacus gets truly fixated on a trigger, he ignores his highest value treats for the most part...

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    2. I have to admit that I sort of object to the "Balanced" label on training methods because I find it is often a way to sneak in more aversive methods and also paints pure-positive as some sort of wacky extreme. The daycare I took Ruby to, who I too-late found out subscribed to dominance-theory and believe played a part in Ruby's reactivity surfacing, scoffed at me when I said I used clicker-training. Nothing is black and white of course. If Ruby is chasing the cat and I'm in position to do so, I will physically block her or stop her with my hand. I don't have treats and a clicker on me at all times, but I still always like to ask myself if there is a better, kinder way to get the same result.

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    3. I want to clarify that I didn't mean your class seemed that way or that the method you describe to increase distance was terribly aversive, I just notice some trainers that use some of the tools I described such as e-collars are touting themselves as "balanced" now that people are becoming more aware of the terminology.

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    4. If a trigger surprises or sneaks up on us, we utilize emergency U-turns and in extreme situations, I pick Ruby up (and am lucky she's small enough to do so). Ruby also ignores treats when she is in the height of a reaction, and of course in some instances there is tension on the leash when we are trying to make our escape, which is not perfectly force-free. We are at the stage now where avoidance and management is working the best for us - while I want to keep moving forward I have to keep a balance between progress and stress for us both. I don't often take the clicker on walks (one more thing to juggle) but I'm going to start experimenting with that, and also with her favorite tug toy, which is a huge motivation for her and one I've used instead of food to teach some tricks.

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    5. Hi Lara,
      I totally hear you that the "balanced" approach is going to ethically conflict with all positive training. I understand 100% where you are coming from, and while I'm still navigating the world of training philosophies, I prefer to work with only positive interactions with my dogs who I adore. Our training center does not fall anywhere on the extreme of any particular ideology. They offer an all positive class but not for reactive dogs. The trainer we worked with advocated the importance of rewards and avoiding punishment, as opposed to, say, Cesar Millan. She never mentioned choke chains or shock collars. She's actually trying to put together a clicker course for reactive dogs if there's enough interest. I think given the short amount of time of a training class for reactive dogs and considering many people would probably not be able to seek further training for financial reasons, etc, she wanted to give us enough tools to manage our reactive dogs rather than seeing them end up at the pound. Using some aversive techniques seems to have quicker results, and if it keeps dogs from the pound, I still see value in it.
      Picking up Spartacus when he's reacting is impossible, and before we took this class, we've been in situations where he accidentally hurt us while reacting. Not to mention, a strong dog lunging at something tightens the leash on themselves when they pull forward, and Spartacus ignores that sensation completely when he's reacting. The method we were taught to back our dogs up saves his throat a lot of struggle compared to how we would act uninterrupted, if that makes sense. We haven't been able to find a better way to interrupt him mid-barking, growling, lunging, and a toy doesn't seem like a good option for him when he's already so over stimulated. Ideally, we can back him up without any pressure on the leash, which I don't think is considered aversive but maybe I'm wrong.
      I'm reading The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell and am trying to find a copy of Click to Calm by Emma Parsons, so I'm clearly really interested in phasing out all punishment techniques. Hearing you talk about an all positive approach is very inspiring and it sounds like you are making a lot of progress with it!

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    6. Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply! I agree with you that the backing up does not sound particularly aversive - having come from a background of horse training, that sort of use of personal space/body blocking could be underutilized in dog training. I'm lucky that Ruby is small enough to make picking her up an option - it's really saved us in some sticky situations. Her reactivity is extreme and I'd be in serious trouble if she was a large, powerful dog. I also agree with you that if these other methods are saving dogs from the shelter fate, it's the lesser evil. I've accepted Ruby's issues and while I hoped to not have another reactive dog, I've dealt with it before and know that it isn't the end of the world. Reactivity and pure positive makes for a long road, and one that is sometimes one step forward, two steps back, but Ruby is such a sensitive, fearful girl that I know any sort of punishment or rough treatment would likely permanently damage her. She was "gotten after" at her daycare where they employ CM type methods (I found too late, and will never know the full story as we of course never went back) and that incident unfortunately coincides with the emergence of her reactivity to people.

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    7. I'm glad that though Ruby's reactions are pretty bad, she's not so red-case that she's redirecting onto you. A Jack Russell mix in our class would redirect, as in bite, his owner when he got worked up. It's always helpful to consider the whole spectrum of dog reactivity and realize your dog could actually be a bit worse, you know? Anyway, that's horrible that the daycare center made matters worse. Delilah isn't reactive but she is very fearful also, and we can only get responses from her if we talk in a very peppy, friendly manner. She came to us so shy, and we would be devastated if anyone set back her progress with the slightest ounce of meanness. Spartacus is anxious and probably insecure, but I've only seen truly fearful body language from him a handful of times in three years. Diagnosing his personality is so confusing.
      Ruby is lucky to have someone advocating for her and working patiently to help her overcome her fears. We look forward to following your progress, including the set-backs that we know all too well!

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    8. It really can be so confusing trying to get to the root emotion of the problem (fear, frustration or aggression). I believe Ruby is at heart a true "frustrated greeter" and for that reason, although she appears to be a Tasmanian Devil, she doesn't redirect on me. Sometimes she seems almost grateful to have the security of me picking her up. It's like she doesn't know what to do with herself. In every instance where she's been allowed to meet and interact with other dogs, she does very well and only wants to play.

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  4. Great blog and an fluid topic. I see so much evolution in the horse/dog training world. Lots of us were raised in a more violent way and seeing positive training methods pushes all sorts of old psychological buttons in ourselves. And then this one big thing: Training is an ART. So is patience. (I tell myself with a new rescue who has a high sharp bark and isn't afraid to use it.)

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    1. It really is encouraging to see more and more trainers using brain over brawn - we are so proud of our intelligence, after all... I hope Preacher Man will realize that you are listening no matter what and find his inside voice :)

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