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Force-free, science based dog training and behavior consulting
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17 Training Tips for First Time Dog Owners by Zazie Todd, PhD Click HERE for original post Getting a dog for the first time is a wonderful experience but also a hard one. Having a dog in your house is a lot of work, and many first-time dog guardians struggle in those early weeks and months. It takes...
What are Reward-Based Training Methods for Dogs (and Cats)? By. Zazie Todd, PhD Click HERE for original post Dog training methods can basically be divided into those that use fear and pain and those that don’t. Or aversive methods and reward-based ones. What do we mean when we talk about reward-ba...
To each their own!
Happiness is…
Emotional support dog registration is provided by a letter from a licensed mental health professional that your dog emotionally supports you.
Trader Joe’s Employee of the Month❤️
Great poster from Canine Arthritis Management
Doodle fest!!! 😍😍😍
Thank you for the photo ❤️
We would like to invite you to a free webinar on August 10 with Cameron Scallan, BCBA, and Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz.
In this webinar, Cameron and Jesús will discuss their recently published article: “The Constructional Approach: A Compassionate Approach to Behavior Change.”��
We’ll talk about what it means to be compassionate, what it means to be constructional, and why all of this matters.
The webinar will be held on Thursday, August 10, 2023 from 2:00–3:30 p.m. Central Time.
You can find more information, including registration information and a link to the article, on our Behavior Explorer website:
https://behaviorexplorer.com/explorations/compassion-webinar/
Please share this email with friends or colleagues who would also be interested in attending. ��
We hope you can join us.
FREEDOM AND THE PINK BOOTS
Goldiamond and Layng use degrees of freedom (df) to discuss the topic of choice. In statistics, degrees of freedom are the number of values free to vary, given one or more constraints. So, for example, if the constraint we’re given is that a set of 100 numbers must sum to 100, then 99 numbers are free to vary but the last number is locked in – it can only be the number that results in a sum of 100. The general formula for calculating df is n – 1 (where n is the number of total values). Thus, df in this case is . . . anyone? 100 – 1 = 99. YESSSS! Let's do it again: If we are given a set of 50 numbers and the constraint given is that the 50 numbers must sum to 75, df = 50 - 1 = 49. Good practice!
As clear as mud?
Let’s connect the dots back to our wheelhouse: Contingencies (i.e., antecedents-behavior-consequences) to see how df fit into modern animal care.
It starts with asking, what do we mean by choice? The penny really dropped for me when Joe Layng described Goldiamond’s distinction between choice and genuine choice. This is a practical and important distinction.
Let’s consider a dog who readily sits for a liver snap, a high value reinforcer for this pup's behavior. If the available contingencies are 1) sit and get the treat, or 2) don’t sit and forfeit the treat, we could say, conventionally speaking, that the dog has a choice – either do or don’t do, get or don’t get.
But Goldiamond pointed out that do or don’t do (get or don’t get) choices aren’t genuine choices because there is only one way to get the reinforcer. A genuine choice has more than one way to get the reinforcer.
The degrees of freedom for the “do or don’t do” choice is 1 – 1 = 0, because there is only one way to get the liver snap. If the dog doesn’t sit there isn’t another option that leads to the treat. Zero degrees of freedom is not a genuine choice.
Here’s another example. Compare these options: “Put on the pink boots or we're not going to the park.” df = 0, yes? We may call it a choice, but it isn’t a genuine choice because there is only one way to go to the park – by putting on the pink boots.
Alternatively, how about this approach: “Put on either the pink boots or the yellow boots, and then we’ll go to the park." Here df are 2 -1 = 1. Two ways to get to the park – a genuine choice. This is cool.
With or without the calculation of df here’s the bottom line: Generally speaking, 1) more than one option for accessing valued reinforcers improves the quality of life. And 2) big skill repertoires are needed to benefit from genuine choice (choice-rich) environments.
The concept of choice vs genuine choice is worth considering carefully and creatively: How can we offer more genuine choices to the learners in our care? How can we arrange environments to support more genuine choices? This isn’t an all or nothing proposition. Some husbandry and medical behaviors may be better taught with df = 0. It is a lifestyle of genuine choice that is the basis of freedom as I understand it and one of the big picture goals of modern training.
See de Fernandes, R.C., & Dittrich, A., (2018) for a comprehensive discussion of freedom as considered by Goldiamond, https://link.springer.com/article/10.5210/bsi.v27i0.8248
Here's a wonderful description of degrees of freedom as it relates to statistics and hats if you want to dive a little deeper: https://tinyurl.com/2uewxk8j
Look up! Love is in the air!
Foxtails are everywhere right now. Make sure to keep your pets safe!
What are foxtail foreign bodies? Takeaways Foxtails are spiked seed heads found on some plants and grasses. Foxtails can enter the body and migrate into tissues, causing abscesses and infections. Foxtails are especially dangerous to pets in the summer months when they have dried out and hardened. Th...
Marketplace sent the DNA of two mixed-breed dogs, one purebred dog and one human to four different dog DNA companies. Nearly all the results were different.
TTouch has been around a while and here’s a great way to learn more about it!
Learn Tellington TTouch
Happy Thanksgiving from Luigi & Lucky
Here’s another remark often addressed to reinforcement based trainers, sometimes in a mocking tone, sometimes seriously: But we don’t give our kids a cookie every time they tie their shoes or pay them a nickel every time they say thank you! The writer often further implies that to do that with c...
Hello! We are Behavior Vets. Welcome to our page!
We are a practice that focuses on excellent client care, both human and animal. We are also an educational resource for professionals and the private sector. We believe in and stand by the positional statement of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB), as you will see in the image.
That being said, we are also a safe space to engage in conversations with folks, even when we disagree. We cannot move forward in what we care about by operating in an echo chamber. We must engage all sides in order to make the difference we want to see in the world. This is how we work with our clients who come to us with their dogs on prong collars or e-collars. We address them with respect and grace, while helping them see the value of moving towards a force free way of engaging with their pets. We also engage with other professionals in the same way, regardless of background.
Communication is how to change the world.
Here are two recent articles where one of our doctors was quoted on why we DO NOT use or recommend equipment such as prong collars, choke collars, or electronic collars when working with our clients:
https://www.thedodo.com/dodowell/dog-shock-collar
https://www.thedodo.com/dodowell/dog-choke-collars
Research shows that dogs and humans suffer when a dog is pulled here and there.
Truth.
The purpose of this research study by Jennifer Vonk, Professor of Psychology, at Oakland University, is to explore the factors influencing decisions surrounding euthanasia for cats and dogs.
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