Although there are exceptions, often the most publicly visible trainers are not always the most skilled or the best versed in scientific principles of learning and behavior.  And sadly, sometimes dog trainers themselves, and the field as a whole don’t always behave as professionals should.

At a recent veterinary conference where we were lecturing, the booth of one of the better known dog training organizations was empty – not staffed.  While last minute emergencies happen, it was still disappointing that this opportunity to network with veterinarians was lost and likely the credibility of the organization took a hit in the eyes of the attendees who stopped by to learn more and found no one at home.

In our presentations at this and other conferences, we continually encourage veterinarians to do their homework when it comes to identifying behavior and training resources they can trust in their community.  From visiting websites, to asking for resumes, bios and certification credentials, to expecting follow-up reports, listening to client feedback, and even inviting local trainers or behavior consultants into the practice to deliver presentations and demonstrations, veterinarians are hearing repeatedly that they can no longer just rely on using whoever drops off business cards or goodies.

A recent article in the APDT Chronicle states that one of the findings from their education survey is that “many” members are not renewing their certification credential (there are a variety to choose from!) because they don’t see it as a good investment that helps them grow their business.  If this is true, this is a distinctly bad trend and a singularly bad individual choice.

While the “alphabet soup” of certification in the dog training field continues to cause confusion, our message to veterinarians when we speak at conferences is that if they look for someone who is certified by one of the three most visible certifications (outside of the only two having any educational degree requirement – CAABs and DACVBs) they will avoid people who are doing bad things to dogs and who are most likely to be up to date with the most current dog training knowledge and methods.  

Assessing the direct value of maintaining one’s certification may be difficult to do.  But in our opinion maintaining one’s certification from a credible body with appropriately stringent requirements will only become more important in the future.  Conducting oneself in a professional manner and continually adding to one’s resume are also crucial to standing above the crowd and becoming the “go to” trainer in your community.

We all know that anyone who has written a book has almost instant credibility in the eyes of many.  Being a published author conveys the message that one has acquired sufficient experience and knowledge to have something important to share with others.  Do you think the people you want to encourage to refer business to you would be impressed if they knew you’d written a book?  In the past, book authorship may have felt out of reach to most of us.    But that’s no longer true. 

If there was truly an easy way for you to create your own book based on what YOU know and what you repeatedly share with YOUR clients on a regular basis, that wouldn’t take enormous amounts of your precious time, wouldn’t require you to be a good writer and wouldn’t require a big monetary investment – would you be interested?  

We really want to hear your thoughts on this subject.  Because we know how valuable your time is, in return for completing this brief FOUR question survey, we will give you access to a 10 minute portion of the recording of Dr. Hetts’ recent lecture “The Bright and Dark Side of Dog Training:  Guidelines for Identifying Dog Trainers You Can Trust” in which we advise veterinarians on what to look for in training and training referral resources in their community.  

Click HERE to take the survey and get access to the recorded lecture.

And in addition, we’ll give you a 15% discount on a package of three On Demand webinars on business related topics that will help you meet the criteria we tell veterinarians to look for.    Members of our Behavior Education Network have access to SEVEN – we are not kidding – seven additional Member Only Webinars on business related topics. 

After you complete the survey, you’ll be taken to the page with the audio recording, details about the three webinar courses and how you can register and receive your discount.  On that page, we’ll also list the Seven Webinars available in BEN.

In recent years, a large body of evidence has accumulated showing that stress can not only affect the physiological but also the psychological well-being of animals and people. Animals that don’t get enough food, or are exposed to high temperatures can have their welfare compromised, but also dogs repeatedly exposed to thunderstorms, dogs left alone by their owners, or dogs that are repeatedly threatened by other dogs can, under some circumstances, also have poor welfare.

Not all stress is bad. Running an agility course may be stressful to a dog, but he may have adequate ways to cope with the stress. If so, then running the course may be good for the dog providing exercise and mental stimulation which in the long term are advantageous to the dog’s welfare. Stress responses that actually threaten or cause harm are known as distress.  Many people, including scientists themselves, often use the terms stress and distress to mean the same thing, contributing to confusion.

It isn’t the amount of distress that an animal experiences that is the most important, it is the ability of the animal to cope with that distress.  So helping our animals cope with the stressors that all of them face on a daily basis will go far in improving their well-being. Here are some things that can help:

• Social buffering – by providing social support and companionship, from people or other animals, the the negative emotions and distress responses can often be reduced.
• Providing environments where animals have some control over their situation also helps animals to cope.  Providing a safe place where the family dog can get away from the children when they become too much not only helps the dog to cope, but makes things safer for both dog and children.  (For more about creating safe interactions between pets and children, read our article about Supervision.

This isn’t the whole story about stress, of course.  We’ve written a more comprehensive article about the distinctions between stress and stressors, the relationship between distress and negative emotions, such as fear, for members of our Behavior Education Network. 

We also provide more recommendations on ways to help our animals cope and reduce their distress. (By the way these tips also work to help you and your loved ones cope with your daily distresses as well!)  If you’re not a member of BEN you can join now by going to www.BehaviorEducationNetwork.com.
 

When Suzanne stepped onto her treadmill, a person was just finishing a workout on the treadmill to her right.  The equipment didn’t stay vacant long, as a young woman stepped on a few minutes later.  She pushed the start button once and nothing happened – the belt didn’t start immediately.  Quick as a flash, she was off that treadmill to try another one.  Suzanne watched this happen with three different women who all appeared to be in their 20s.   None of them pushed the ‘start’ button more than once or attempted any other action to try and make the treadmill start.

We knew the treadmill worked because we’d both seen it operating properly as we started our workouts.  After a few minutes, a fourth woman, who we judged to be in her late 30s or early 40s, stepped on.  She put in her headphones, set her towel and water bottle on the shelf at the front of the treadmill and pushed start.  Nothing happened.

Rather than instantly bailing out, this “older” (more mature is perhaps a better term!) woman pushed the start button a bit harder several times, studied the control panel for a few seconds, next pushed the reset button, then pushed start again, and voila, in less than a minute had the treadmill going.   

So how does this relate to dog training?  In recent months a common theme in conversations with and emails we’ve received from trainers, has been frustration with the lack of “client compliance”.  This issue certainly isn’t unique to the field of dog training.  Veterinarians, human mental health professionals, physicians, dentists (do you floss regularly?) and others face the same problem.

It’s not that we don’t share your frustration, but hopefully we’ve learned to be more realistic.  People are conditioned to expect instant gratification in many areas of their lives.  And this may be heightened for the younger generations that have never known a world without cell phones, texting, the internet, and more digital gadgetry. 

If someone won’t take an extra few seconds to even push a start button on a treadmill more than once before giving up and moving on, it’s not too surprising that they have a limited amount of patience, persistence, and willingness to follow through with what are often relatively complicated training procedures that may also require significant changes in daily routines they are accustomed to with their dogs. 

So, what’s the take home lesson here?  First, don’t waste mental and physical energy lamenting over what you wish your clients would do.  Stewing about other people’s behavior stifles your creativity, makes it difficult to have a positive outlook, and interferes with your productivity. 

Second, re-evaluate what you are asking people to do.  Make sure you are making it as easy as possible for people to consistently do the homework exercises you give them.  Deliver your recommendations in bite size pieces.  Break a program down into daily “to dos” or action steps.  Examine your communication techniques and your follow-up procedures. 

Consider getting feedback about your training plans from friends and family who aren’t ‘in the business”.  Often, what seems easy to a professional really isn’t easy at all for clients.  Make the best use of your time and energy by maximizing the quality of your interactions with clients. 

By the way, if you want more proven strategies for better communication with clients and for having a successful behavior and training business pick up a copy of the “Pet Pro Behavior Guide: 7 Key Strategies to Build an Effective and Profitable Behavior and Training Business that Enhances Your Professional Reputation.”  Visit www.PetProBehaviorGuide.com today.
 

When Suzanne first started training dogs professionally (and she’s both proud and reluctant to admit how long ago this was) in the late 1970’s, the only “philosophy” she ever heard at the time was the importance of being “dominant” over your dog and being “the pack leader”.  In those days as well, the use of food in training was strongly discouraged and very few people routinely incorporated treats or toys into training programs.

In the ensuing years, great debates have erupted over training techniques as the field in general has moved more toward using treats and toys to both elicit and reinforce desired behaviors.  Clicker training has gained a huge following as well.

The terminology used to describe this shift in focus however has often become inflammatory, confusing, and upon careful analysis usually inaccurate both from a lay and scientific sense.  Some claim to not use “punishment” at all.  Yet if one is using positive reinforcement, by default negative punishment is also being used. 

And who hasn’t stepped in front of their dog to block his movement, said “no”, or delivered a threatening stare?  Any or all of those consequences could be defined as punishing.  We recently explored the confusion surrounding punishment in several recent articles all of which stimulated good discussions (Adult Discussion About Punishment a Guest Post by Dr. Frank McMillan, and Punishment and "Corrections"). 

But we have another purpose for this article, from a business perspective.  Who wants to know about your training philosophy?  Pet owners who might hire you? Other pet professionals who want to refer people to you? Are you attempting to position yourself in your promotional and marketing materials as adhering to particular methods and avoiding others? 

You might first ask yourself what the person asking the question really wants to know.  Perhaps the person asking believes a choke chain is the best tool to teach a dog to “heel” and hasn’t been able to find a trainer who uses one effectively.  Maybe the pet owner has gone to someone who uses an abundance of treats and now is frustrated because the dog “won’t do anything” unless there is a treat involved.  Or possibly the owner wants to be sure you aren’t going to use physical “corrections” because the last trainer was entirely too harsh with the dog. 

If you are having a direct conversation with an individual who asks about your “training philosophy” you will be able to give a better answer if you first ask in return what the person’s concerns are.  Knowing the person’s concerns allows you to target your answer and also provides an opportunity for discussion to see whether you and your services can be a good fit for the pet owner.  

In your answer, you’ll want to use words and terminology that make sense to the pet owner.  Talking about positive and negative punishment probably won’t be helpful to anyone but other professionals.  You might instead want to get across that you prefer to give dogs the most feedback about what TO DO, so they do more of it.  And at the same time make it more difficult for dogs to do what isn’t wanted – whether that’s with response prevention, environmental management, or substituting a new behavior for the unwanted one.  HOW all that gets done is what the owner pays you to discover.

By the way, if you are looking for additional creative ways to promote and grow you dog training or behavior business, you’ll be interested in our new Pet Pro Behavior Guide.  While providing effective services which meet the needs of customers and clients has always been important, in the tightening economy, you must also be able to communicate the value of your services AND know how to spend your time (your most important resource) wisely.  The Pet Pro Behavior Guide shows you how. 
 

We now have over 60 hours of webinars within Behavior Education Network.  This one is called "Everything You Wanted to Know About Crates and Confinement".  The entire session was about 100 minutes – we are giving you access to the first 45 minutes.  We hope you enjoy it as our early Christmas present to you.  Want to hear the rest and get access to over 60 hours of webinars?  Join the Behavior Education Network today!

Want more?  Join Behavior Education Network today.  For about the cost of one dinner out/month, you can give yourself the gift of scientific education in pet behavior and training at your fingertips.

AND for another special Christmas offer – Grab a personally autographed copy of Rocky Mountain Steel Bands Christmas CD – this is the band we play in!   Watch us play Winter Winterland, one of the songs on the CD.   Get the details and purchase your copy at AnimalBehaviorAssociates.com/blog.

Jill and Amy gave a brief introduction to Nose Work and then put five or six dogs from the local animal shelter through three rounds of working with treats stashed in various configurations of cardboard boxes.  It was intriguing to watch.  In their introductory remarks, the two women mentioned that nose work reveals much about a dog’s nature or temperament.  I thought that was an interesting piece of information but was a bit skeptical about just how that would be the case.  I discovered the answer when we watched the dogs.

What sets Nose Work apart from other canine activities is that no training is involved – at least in the beginning.  Instead, it’s creating a setting that allows the dog to make use of his olfactory abilities.  In doing so, the dog reveals how comfortable he is in his immediate surroundings.   And because the dog is free to choose how he approaches the task, rather than specific behaviors being elicited, controlled, or shaped by the handler/trainer, by paying attention to the strategies dogs use, we can gain insights into how they deal or cope with the world.  It’s almost as if we can see how the sum total of their previous life experiences influence how they react to the task before them when they are free to choose what to do.

Several dogs at the workshop were quite confident, and immediately began using their noses to find the food.  Some were quite methodical, sniffing each box in turn.  A few were like a bull in a china closet, knocking boxes all over the place.  One “bully-breed” looking mix decided the better strategy was to jump on the podium and pull down the entire bag of treats rather than wasting time on the few hidden in the boxes!

And one small, Bichon-looking mix was in some ways the most memorable.  He wandered around a few of the boxes and then simply lay down in the middle of the pile and looked up at the person holding the leash.  The clear interpretation was that this dog was accustomed to looking to his owner to take care of things for him.

To me, that indicates this dog had an owner he trusted to “run interference” for him and who would take care of things for him.  Another interpretation was that this dog was indulged or “spoiled”, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.

On the spur of the moment a few weeks ago I decided to see what our Irish setter Coral – who is likely one of the most indulged dogs on the planet – would do if I dropped a treat in a box that was lying on the floor.  This was not a planned “nose work” session, just a spontaneous opportunity with a box, some treats, a dog, and a video camera. 

I wasn’t too surprised that Coral was reluctant to put her head into this relatively deep box.  And clearly first displayed her frustration about the treat not being readily available (barking and scratching the floor), and secondly her default strategy which is to rely on me to get her what she wants (pawing at me).  You can see her behavior in the accompanying video clip.

So I think K9 Nose Work® is worth learning more about.  I also like the fact that only one dog works at a time in classes – a great plus for dogs that don’t do well with other dogs and thus many canine sports are trying experiences.   While I’m not a nose work expert, I hope to have the chance to ask a local instructor about the “whys” of a few of the procedures I observed at the workshop.  And I’ve started to collect cardboard boxes of varying sizes so Coral and I can dip our toes (and her nose!)  into this sport in coming months! 
 

"While much effort has been made (in both human psychological and animal behavior fields) to clarify the definitions of positive and negative reinforcement and punishment, the distinctions remain unclear. The main problem is the distinction between “positive” (meant to indicate the “giving” of something to the animal, be it a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus or experience) and “negative” (meant to indicate the “removal” of something from the animal, again, either a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus/experience).

But in terms of the individual’s internal experience of net pleasure, the “positive” and “negative” are often not distinguishable, for 2 reasons: (1) defining what is “given” or “removed” is often a matter of semantics, and (2) the giving and removal depend on where the animal is positioned on a pleasure—pain continuum, which is not always knowable.

Consider these examples for each. (1) If an animal is outdoors in freezing weather and is allowed indoors where it is warm, this would (in most cases) be a reinforcement for whatever behavior immediately precedes it. However, is the reinforcement a “giving” of warmth (“positive reinforcement”) or a removal of unpleasant cold (“negative reinforcement”)? If a dog performs an undesirable behavior and is immediately confined in a room by him/herself as a punishment, is this a removal of social companionship (“negative punishment”) or a giving of social isolation (“positive punishment”)? (2) If pleasure can be modeled on a continuum running from extremely pleasant to extremely unpleasant, then where the animal “sits” on this continuum defines the “positiveness” and “negativeness” of any reinforcement or punishment. 

Consider the reinforcement of a tasty food treat. If the animal is in a state of discomfort (i.e., hungry), then eating the food treat is the animal’s attempt to lessen the hunger. In this case, the reinforcement is a “removal” of the hunger (the same thing could be accomplished if the dog had a permanent feeding tube surgically installed in his stomach – inserting food through the feeding tube would “remove” the dog’s hunger). However, if the animal were in a state of comfort (i.e., not hungry), then the dog would eat the treat because of the pleasurable taste (like the person who, even though not hungry, pulls the ice cream out of the freezer and chows down). Here the dog is not trying to rid himself of the unpleasant feeling of hunger, but is rather simply trying to increase the pleasant feeling of tasty food. 

In this case, giving the dog the treat is not “removing” hunger, but is instead “giving” pleasure. Therefore, the reinforcement provided by the tasty treat is a “negative reinforcement” if the dog is in a hungry state (on the unpleasant side of the pleasure—displeasure continuum) at the time the treat is offered, where the treat is “removing” the hunger.   Conversely, the treat is a “positive reinforcement” if the dog is not in a hungry state (on the neutral or pleasurable side of the pleasure—displeasure continuum) at the time the treat is offered, where the treat is “giving” pleasure. 

Hence the “positiveness” and “negativeness” of the reinforcement is wholly dependent upon where on the pleasure—pain continuum the dog’s current mental state exists. In all cases the dog will behave in a way that moves him toward pleasure and away from displeasure, but in each case of being offered a reward the dog will be “starting” at a different place.

As a further explanation, consider 2 scenarios: as you continue to provide treats the dog becomes “full,” which ultimately then reaches the point of satiation and the additional consumption of treats loses its reward value (and can even become an aversive if the treat were forced); and the old technique of “increasing the reward value” of a food treat by withholding the dog’s regular food is simply moving the dog further toward the displeasure end of the pleasure-discomfort continuum, such that the dog’s need to “remove” the more intense hunger feeling makes him “more motivated” to behave in a way that gains him the treat.

A final comment is that very often the reinforcement is a combination of both “positive” and “negative,” meaning that the dog eating the tasty treat is attempting to both alleviate (“remove”) the unpleasant state of hunger – and hence make the reinforcement “negative” by definition – AND gain pleasure from the tastiness of the treat – and hence make the reinforcement “positive” by definition."   by Dr. Frank McMillan

We discuss this very issue in our "Fundamentals of Animal Learning Course".  Although the argument has been made by some (Baron and Galizio 2005)  that there is no difference between negative and positive reinforcement, Murray Sidman (Sidman, 2006) and others disagree. 

 We want to thank Dr. McMillan for his thoughtful comment and for his permission to post it here.

In this special webinar session with our friend, colleague and small business marketing coach Ms. Deb Miller, MA,MOQ/OE, you’ll discover WHAT mobile marketing is and WHY it’s important for your business, especially in a slow economy. 

Do you know if your website is "mobile friendly"?  If prospective clients are looking for you or your business on their smart phones and your site displays in tiny print or users have to scroll left to right to see it, they will probably give up trying to find or contact you.  

But for your site to even come up in a search, it must be GPS targeted.  Is your site optimized for your location? 

Many of you have expressed concerns about client compliance.  Do you know how you can use one type of mobile marketing as a method to increase client compliance?  Whether you have a physical facility or not, you can use QR codes to encourage people to contact you. Not sure what a QR code is or how to get one?  Then that settles it – this webinar is for YOU!

Here’s what a few people who attended LIVE had to say: 

"Great information, logically presented in a friendly, encouraging way. Thank you also for the discounted consultation, I will use that. So many wonderful suggestions were presented!"  Lola C.

"You can start today!!! (Even those who don’t have a smart phone can use text messages starting today!! Others should at least get a QR code today!"  Kelly M.

 CLICK HERE to register for this ON DEMAND course through PetProWebinars.com

Behavior Education Network Members:  Log into the Members area for your ongoing access!

In a description of an electronic training collar, the catalog stated that these devices weren’t meant to PUNISH a dog, but to “correct” undesirable behavior.  It’s clear that in this case the word "correct" means to suppress or stop a behavior from happening.  It also states the collars can be used to help reinforce acceptable behaviors.  Could this collar "correct" a behavior without punishment? 

The answer is no.  In psychology and animal behavior punishment has a very specific definition.  It is the delivery of some (presumably) noxious stimulus or the removal of a (presumably) pleasant stimulus that causes a behavior to decrease or stop. Punishment is a process or event defined by the outcome.  If the delivery of the unpleasant stimulus (shock), described in the catalog as a "correction", results in the behavior decreasing or stopping completely, by definition this is (positive) punishment.

In every day language punishment often means doing something that is painful, fear-provoking, horrible, or harmful, regardless of  its effect on behavior frequencies.  The advertisers in the catalog want their product to sound safe and friendly so they say their product delivers a "correction" rather than a shock.  No matter what it is, if it stops the behavior, it’s punishment.  It doesn’t help people understand how products work by confusing these terms.

While learning theory terminology of positive and negative punishment and reinforcement may be confusing to the uninformed, as professionals it’s what we have to work with.  Our credibility is affected if we can’t use these terms correctly or if we insist on trying to “make up” our own terminology. Yet we see examples of this on the web all the time.

We ran across a blog article* on a dog training site that was attempting to re-define “punishment” and “correction”.  The author stated that there is no place in “positive reinforcement” dog training for punishment, but there is room for “correction”.  He then goes on to define “correction”, based on freedictionary.com (definitely a professional publication ha!)  as “a change or substituting something for a mistake or a fault.” 

To further confuse the issue, the author then gives examples of “corrections” including withholding a toy the dog wants, ending a play session, giving a dog a “dirty look” or yelling NO at the dog.  Lo and behold – these are examples of negative and positive punishment (assuming the affected behaviors decrease in frequency).  Talk about a circular argument with no purpose!
And substituting a different behavior for a “mistake” could be counter conditioning, differential reinforcement of an incompatible behavior (DRI) or of any other behavior (DRO). 

The question to ask is – does use of the general term “correction” to encompass all these very different behavior modification procedures add to, or detract from, our understanding of training procedures and our professional credibility?  We’ll leave the answer to you. 

We should not be afraid of using the word punishment or of using appropriate punishment procedures.  Use of positive reinforcement in training essentially mandates the use of negative punishment.  And positive punishing stimuli don’t have to hurt or scare pets to be effective.  Our Irish setter Coral will stop mouthing her leash when she’s excited if we just say “AGHGH” to her.  In fact, research has shown that if punishing stimuli are too strong and cause pain or fear, the pain or fear may interfere with learning. 

Finally, can electronic collars that deliver an aversive stimulus be used to reinforce acceptable behaviors as the ad in the catalog claimed?  Yes, if we are talking about negative reinforcement.  A dog can be taught to “come’ rather than chase cars, IF coming allows the dog to avoid the aversive stimulus delivered by the collar.  But, use of this approach is fraught with the peril of creating frightened and confused dogs if the timing and intensity of the shock is incorrect.  It is much more advisable to use positive reinforcement to teach an appropriate behavior than to depend upon negative reinforcement of an escape or avoidance behavior.

If you want to delve more deeply into these and other topics any pet professional working with behavior issues MUST KNOW, there’s still time to register for our live 5 session webinar course, “Fundamentals of Animal Learning.” The class started October 23rd, so you can easily watch the first session via replay before we meet again on Sunday the 30th.  On-demand replays of all the sessions will be available for one week after the last class (members of BehaviorEducationNetwork.com who purchase the course have ongoing access).  Register TODAY at PetProWebinars.com (Pro BEN members should register from within BEN).  Registration fee is at it’s lowest EVER and we will not offer the course at this discounted price again.

**If you want to read the complete article – go HERE.

Read a comment to this article by guest author Dr. Frank McMillan.

Howell, T.J. & Bennett, P.C. 2011.  Puppy power! Using social cognition research tasks to improve socialization practices for domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 6, 195-204.