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Sophia's Approach to Modifying Behavior of Dogs and Other Animals
We've all heard advice that relates dog behavior to wolf social behavior: "Always eat before your dog and go through doorways first because that's what a dominant wolf would do." "If your dog growls or barks inappropriately or otherwise misbehaves, put him in his place by doing an alpha roll where you force him onto his back until he submits. That way you can be the boss."
20 years ago when I started training, this is the type of advice I gave because it was all I knew. At that time, like everyone else, the choke chain and pinch collar and a well-timed correction formed the cornerstone of my methods. And I thought that dominance was the root of all behavior problems. Combined with a strong ability to read aggressive dogs, a lack of fear of being bitten, and fervor for trying to master the techniques of whomever I could, these methods and ideologies served me well. But I am always searching for something better.
Present Day
Since then, our understanding of dog behavior in relation to wolves, as well as our understanding of dominance and social hierarchies have advanced. Wolf biologists now rarely use the term alpha when referring to pack leaders in the wild. Ethologists have agreed that dominant wolves do not force subordinates into an alpha roll. And studies on the process of domestication and on canine communication are making it evermore clear that a dog is not wolf. |
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The Definition of DOMINANCE
It is also now clear that dominance is not a personality trait in animals, rather it's a relationship between individuals that's established by force aggression and submission in order to gain priority access to resources.
1,2 With this definition in mind it is clear that most of the unruly behaviors we see in our pets are not due to a desire to gain higher rank. Consequently dominance theory is irrelevant for most behavior modification in our pets.
AVSAB Position Statement on Dominance
The Psychology of Behavior
So what is the root of unruly behavior? The psychology studies on learning and behavior of the last 60+ years have shown us that animals behave in undesirable ways because these behaviors have been reinforced. Consequently to change behavior we have to remove the rewards for undesirable behavior and instead focus on rewarding good behavior.
| To modify behavior in our pets we have to focus on rewarding desirable behavior and removing rewards for undesirable behavior. |
The Keys to Modifying Behavior
The approach is simple and changing behavior is easy for the pet; they naturally do whatever is rewarding to them. It's the execution of the plan by humans that's tricky because it involves our modifying our own habits when we are around the pets. Interestingly, this combination of rewarding good behavior and removing rewards for bad behavior also guides behavior modification in children. But with kids we can convey the rules and what earns rewards with spoken language.
"I like how you behaved when we went to dinner" or "When you helped with the dishes, that was very good. As a reward, tonight I'll spend extra time playing with you."
With animals, we have to rely on rewarding behavior as it occurs or within one second for best results and we must remove rewards for bad behavior before the animal is actually rewarded.
Furthermore, while animals may learn individual words, they don't understand human language. They do, however, rely acutely on our body language, even our subconscious movements. As a result we have to be aware of every action and movement we make because they all communicate something. And we have to realize that whether we're aware of it or not, every interaction we have with the pet is a training session.
Learning How to Lead
Once people approach behavior modification in this rich manner it becomes clear that training is like dance. When partners dance as a couple, one leads and the other follows. The lead's job is to decide ahead of time which steps to perform and then guide his partner in a clear manner so that she CAN follow. Partners who have to shout out the steps don't make the cut. With animals the approach is similar. If we have a set rules and a clear picture of what we want, then we can consistently convey this information to the animal through our body language and perfectly timed rewards. It's essential to realize that positive does not mean permissive. We still set all the same rules and limits for behavior. It's just that we convey the rules by rewarding good behaviors as they occur and remove rewards for bad behavior. And we stick to the plan until good behavior is a habit.
What Makes a Good Coach
By now it should be clear that training in animals is like training in sports. It's more than saying something like, "To have a great serve in tennis, just toss the ball up in the air and do this." Rather it's about understanding the big picture and breaking the movements down into little steps. While many trainers are good at training animals themselves, Dr. Yin offers an additional skill. She has studied the effects of handler movement on the pet play-by-play so she can convey the specific skills to you. She routinely has owners perform the exercises first without the pet so that they can develop the mechanical skills they need in order to guide their pet. And her videos show the little movements that can make a big difference in animal response. Dr. Yin also has handlers start the training in silence so they can focus on their body language, rewarding the animal with the right timing, and watching the pet's response.
My invitation
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Footnotes:
- Bernstein, I.S. 1981. Dominance: The baby and the bathwater. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Sciences 4:419-57.
- Drews, C. 1993. The concept and definition of dominance behavior. Behaviour 125:284-313.
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