21/05/2024
Do head over to the blog. Lots of good info!
I have been blogging intermittently on DogStarDaily since 2007. Last week we moved a bunch of the blogs to DunbarAcademy.com. I've realized that I need to start over and re-do what I did in 1982: Re-popularize the natural way of training dogs. Simply put, off-leash, lure-reward training is the easiest, quickest and most effective reward-training technique for teaching cued-responses, i.e., teaching dogs ESL — English (or Spanish, or Japanese) as a Second Language, so we may give clear (understandable) instructions from the outset, oodles of praise for a good job well done (or still in progress), and especially, precise verbal guidance when dogs err, e.g., Sit, Settle, Shush, Steady, Tranquillo, or Watch, etc. Verbal guidance transcends any aversive technique. When working as intended, aversive punishment merely inhibits targeted behaviors, whereas verbal instruction decreases and eliminates undesirable behavior by getting the dog back on track, i.e., doing exactly what we would like them to do. We need to bring our voice back to dog training.
https://www.dunbaracademy.com/pages/blog
When I look back on my 50-years in dogs, I thrill at the golden years ('82 to '05) and the joy of watching dogs learning at the speed of a whippet in off-leash puppy and adult dog classes and workshops, heeling on sidewalks, walking off-leash on trails, excelling in obedience competitions and working trails, demoing on stage and lying beside attendees at dog conferences, and frolicking in pop-up play-training sessions in dog parks and K9 Games® events. I feel that we need to return to that time of quick and easy, highly effective, fun and games, from-the-dog's-point-of-view, results-based, off-leash, lure-reward dog training, that made teaching dogs ESL (English as a Second Language) a priority.
Yesterday, I realized that today, I need to start over and re-do what I did in 1982 — re-popularize the natural way of training dogs — off-leash, lure-reward training — the quickest, easiest, and most effective reward-training method for teaching cued-behaviors, i.e., teaching dogs the meaning of the words we use for instruction and guidance.
In 1903, dog training was formalized and 'went on-leash', primarily for military and police dogs and later for obedience classes. Commands and leash corrections were the primary training tools. In 1982, I taught the very first off-leash, puppy socialization and training classes. The SIRIUS® Puppy Training video spread the word and quickly revolutionized dog training around the world.
Owners learned off-leash control from the outset, regularly testing response-reliability allowed us to monitor progress (comprehension of verbal cues and motivation to respond), and training tools were phased out: food lures in the first session, and food rewards were drastically reduced, as they were replaced with considerably more powerful life rewards, such as resuming play, sniffing, and walks, and interactive games.
Most important, being off-leash, puppies freely socialized with many people in class, (a boon for single owners and those without children at home), and after their month-long, doggy social vacuum, puppies immediately bump-started dog-dog play and learning social savvy with other puppies. Fear of people and dog-dog reactivity were simply a non-issue. Incipient signs of fear, (such as a puppy backing away from a child, ducking their head when reached for by a man, or hiding under a chair), were all nipped in the bud. Any shy, standoffish, or fearful pups were singled out for confidence-building exercises, and over-the-top pup-pup play-styles and scuffles were toned down. Puppy graduates seamlessly slotted into off-leash older puppy, adolescent, and finally, adult play-training classes, and then trained for the K9 Games.
However, the past two decades have witnessed many changes in companion dog training. As I see it, the biggest have been:
*Dog Training has Gone Back On-leash Off-leash puppy classes are rare and hence, there are virtually no off-leash adolescent and adult classes and so, the bonuses of acquiring bite-inhibition, and of dog-person and dog-dog socialization are lost.
*Individual Training Consultations are Replacing Classes. Consequently, the bonuses of acquiring bite-inhibition, and of dog-person and dog-dog socialization are lost.
*Treatment of Existing Problems is Replacing Prevention. Considerable time is spent rehabilitating fearful, anxious, and reactive adult dogs — because predictable problems have not been prevented, even though prevention is quicker and easier than rehabilitation.
*Teaching ESL is No Longer the Prime Directive for Teaching Basic Manners. As luring went out of favor, puppies and dogs are seldom taught the meaning of verbal instructions until much later in training. (Whereas, after a few Sits to interrupt play, in puppy class, we start teaching puppies a test sequence of seven verbal cues simultaneously. Teaching dogs a wide vocabulary enables owners to give clear instructions prior to task, and precise verbal guidance when dogs err. The mere notion of any aversive techniques, even minimally aversive, is simply unnecessary. When we use our voice to communicate to dogs, training transcends to a whole new stellar level. If a dog jumps up, simply instruct "Shush" and Praise.)
*Praise has been Largely Replaced by a Click. Yet, a word of praise, e.g., "Yes", or "G'Dog" is hands-free and a combined precise marker and primary reinforcer, and one that acquires enormous secondary reinforcing power with each use in real life. Shaping is brilliant for refining responses, teaching behaviors that are not in a dog's natural repertoire, and increasing duration of Stays, Off, and Watch, but shaping is unnecessary complicated and extremely time-consuming for teaching basic manners, such as Come, Sit, Down, Stand, Stay, Heel, Rollover, and Playbow.
*Fewer Trainers Phase Out their Reliance on Temporary Training Tools, such as, food lures, food rewards, leashes, specialized collars, halters, harnesses, clickers, and shock collars. Most become permanent management tools.
*Trainers Focus more on the Nature of Training rather than its Effect on Behavior. Reward and punishment are both defined by their effect on behavior, yet few trainers quantify Response-Reliability Percentages or Response:Reward Ratios to monitor improvement: Did training work? How well? How quickly?
*Our Century-Old Learning Theory Has Become a Creed, even though, derived from computers training captive rats using food pellets and shock, the theory has little relevance or practical use for people training dogs off leash (at home and in parks). There are numerous rewards that are far more powerful than food, and there are several reinforcement schedules that are far more powerful and easier to calculate and administer than the traditional CC, FI, FV, VI and VR, all of which, reinforce just as many below-median-quality responses as above-median-quality responses. (Wow!) On the other hand, praise gives us the ability to provide ongoing, analogue feedback to reinforce long-duration behaviors, such when teaching Off, Watch, Stays, and Walking (on-leash and off-leash), and of course, when dogs are playing. Behavior is in a state of constant flux, and our level of praise constantly varies to reflect ongoing changes in the quality of behavior.
*Creating and Promulgating the False Binomial — Reward and Punishment was the biggest crime of laboratory learning theory. Aversive stimuli never belonged on the same stage as Rewards. Not even backstage. Nor in the understudy's dressing room, (or toilet). The rabbit hole of punishment-research blunted scientists' creativity and distracted them from questing the Holy Grail of Dog Training — the most powerful rewards and reinforcement schedules to create an internally-reinforced and self-motivated trainee and so, render aversive stimuli obsolete and unnecessary.
Basically, present day reward-training is a shadow of its former self: unnecessarily complicated, time-consuming, overly technical and theoretical, impersonal, and therefore, less effective. All of this has allowed the use of aversive stimuli to make a comeback and fuel divisiveness within the profession.
There is one thing that hasn't changed though. No dog profession is universally informing prospective and new puppy owners vis a vis the urgency and importance of all they must do during the pup's first four weeks at home. Trainers have the information, and Breeders, Veterinarians, and Pet Stores have the opportunity and means; these professions all see new puppy owners and the optimal time for receiving educational 'vaccination'. Moreover, Shelters have Newsletters for broadcasting the information to adopters and prospective puppy owners in the community. Remember, every rescue dog was once a puppy, simply begging for an education. Several of my puppy training books are available for anyone to download (for free) dissemination by anyone at dunbar.info/freepupbooks Please download these books, post them on social media and your own websites to share with everyone.
We so desperately need another dog training revolution. Given the reach of social media, this time it won't take as long, because we have archived all my seminars, workshops, books, and DVDs at DunbarAcademy.com, which probably, has become the largest online resource for dog behavior and training.
Lure-Reward training is described in detail in many of my books and illustrated in a dozen DVDs and hundreds of hours of training video. More recent innovations in dog training, most notably, non-aversive 'punishment', are described in detail in my Science-Based Dog Training (with Feeling) seminar and in my latest book, Barking Up the Right Tree. (Most books, video, and seminars are all available of at DunbarAcademy.com and Barking Up the Right Tree from Amazon.)
So, happily, I don't have to re-invent the wheel. Instead, I am going to post a barrage of blogs and podcasts/vlogs in our new blog and iWoofs location on DunbarAcademy.com, to go into more detail about the above issues (Our blog and video/audio iWoofs have been posted on DogStarDaily.com since 2007.) I am busy editing oodles of our archived training footage to create several hundred videos clips of me Explaining while Training, plus I have decided to schedule a few seminars for later this year — three or four in the US and six in the UK. And so, Watch this Space!
