Scheming Minds

In training, it's the thought that counts.

 Imagine learning how to ride a bike only through lecture, observation, or reading.  Even having someone position you on the bike won’t work.  Punishment, intimidation, or fear won’t speed up the process, and anxiety can hinder it.  Encouragement can help build confidence to explore or expand on the experience.  To learn how to ride a bike, what ultimately must happen, is an inner awareness of the word “balance,” something that can only be gained on one’s own, through experience and trial and error.  We know we’ve achieved balance when the bike doesn’t tip and we take a mental “photograph” of that sensation and attach the label, “balance.”  The same thing happens when we first learn how to swim, dive, or tango.  They all require a level of physical awareness.

Everything we want our dogs to do is physical.  Therefore, the most efficient and thorough way for a dog to understand a movement, position, or behavior pattern is for the dog to learn by doing, using experience and trial and error. The dog then takes a mental “photograph” of its physical state and connects that state to the handler’s label.  Clickers, mouth clicks, and to a lesser level, marker words can help our dogs know when to take that mental photograph by combining their physical awareness with a sound.

Because dogs are so aware of their bodies, physically manipulating dogs either with hands or a leash can serve as a distraction rather than a learning tool.  Most dogs don’t enjoy being touched while they’re thinking or working.  They’ll duck their heads or balk.  Using shocks or vibrations also adds stress and additional stimulation when the dog is trying to concentrate on its own physical condition. 

Physical contact with the dog can also muddy the message.  When the command is “sit,” and it’s followed by the handler pushing on the dog’s backside until the dog is in sitting position, does “sit” mean “expect to feel pressure on the hindquarters until in a sitting position?”  What about when the command is followed by a leash jerk?  It sounds silly, but I’ve seen many mature, trained dogs who won’t sit until their handler touches their back end or jerks the leash however lightly.  Even a reward and marker at the point when the dog’s butt hits the ground doesn’t erase or make irrelevant the previous physical contact, the sensation has made that strong of a connection on the dog’s physical awareness with the label.  Training in a quiet area, off leash, letting the dog do the movements on its own volition is ideal.

The dog can perform a desired action without handling by using luring, shaping, and capturing.  In luring, the dog follows a treat or toy until his body is in the “right” place.  The object doesn’t manipulate the dog.  The dog chooses how to follow the lure.  Shaping is adding to a previously successful behavior, which creates a new behavior, such as from touching something with its nose, to putting it in its mouth, to picking it up.  Capturing is giving a pre-existing behavior a label.

Building onto the schema.

The choice of action is what creates the learning experience.  Choice A either works or doesn’t.  If it doesn’t, the dog must make another choice, creating a behavior “tree” or schema of potential behaviors.  If there is no punishment for an unsuccessful behavior, the behavior remains on the “tree” for possible use at a later time.  If there is a punishment, the dog equates the behavior with an uncomfortable physical sensation and it’s taken off the tree.  While that seems acceptable, imagine a dog lying down rather than sitting and being punished for lying down.  Lying down becomes an unpleasant physical state and falls off the behavior schema tree.  So, what happens when the handler wants the dog to lie down? This can be seen in retired racing greyhounds who were shocked when they tried to sit in the starting gates.  It’s very difficult to re-add the behavior to their schema tree and some retired racers won’t ever sit.  Ignoring an undesired behavior during training basically informs the dog that that behavior isn’t wanted at this time.  Over time, dogs can build an expansive mental catalogue of behaviors that are just waiting for a label later in the dog’s training.

What makes behavior trees interesting is that we never know all the behaviors our dogs have attached to their schemas.  Playing games like 101 Things to Do with a Box or Show Me Something New can help us see into our dog’s mind, giving us the opportunity to identify and label a previously undiscovered behavior.  Training our dogs by showing them how to create a cognitive schema not only makes for a better behaved dog, but for a “smarter” dog who’s eager to learn and show us his full potential.