BEHAVIOURAL TRAINING
PRINCIPLES
To successfully teach your pet, you must first have an understanding of what their natural instincts, desires and fears are, as well as knowing how to communicate with the animal on its own level. You need to develop an attitude and desire to try to see things from the animal's point of view.
When you are new to training or to a particular species, it is you, not the animal that needs to do the majority of learning!
Positive reinforcement and correction may mean different things to different animals, and at different stages. Money is only reinforcing to humans. Food treats may be a very good positive reinforcer most of the time for most animals, but may mean nothing to a full or fussy animal. Withdrawl of attention may be terrible for a puppy, yet a horse may not care. A dog generally enjoys being patted, yet most horses dislike but learn to endure it. Water is a good thing for a duck, but a bad thing for a cat. It is up to the trainer to work out what is Good or Bad for that animal at that time.
As with people, positive reinforcement (reward, attention... Good Stuff) is what motivates and teaches an animal the 'right' behaviour - in other words, earning the desirable things in life. Corrections, (verbal or physical pressure, withdrawl of attention...) - in other words, the things the animal wants to avoid - teach him what not to do.
Animals do what works and quit doing what doesn't work.
Basically, all animals learn in the same way - a behaviour that works (is beneficial to us) will likely be repeated and become stronger. A behaviour that never works (has no benefits and may also bring corrections) will become weaker and eventually fade away.
Notice that a behaviour that you wish to extinguish doesn't neccessarily have to be corrected. So long as it isn't at all reinforcing to the animal, it will eventually stop.
Rewarding 'good' behaviour is generally far more important than correcting 'wrong' behaviour. If a behaviour is somehow reinforced - such as chewing furniture - even with strong corrections, it will be hard or impossible to eliminate. You must first find a way to take away the motivation and reinforcement.
Training should be fun and rewarding for you and your animal.
Take the mindset that training is play, not work. Patience is part of this. Not having deadlines for tasks will help. Start the session with the attitude "Let's see what we can do today" instead of "Today you will learn to heel". Trick training is also great, because it's hard not to have fun with a dog learning to crawl, or a horse learning to fetch!
As soon as you or the animal become bored, stressed or you feel yourself losing your temper, you've gone too far. Try to end a lesson before you get to this stage.
There's a difference between 'correction' and 'punishment'.
Punishment is something bad that happens to an animal after it has done the 'wrong' thing. It cannot change that behaviour and doesn't help the animal to learn the 'right' behaviour. Punishment also carries undesireable side effects. Learn about punishment here.
There is no need for punishment in training.
Corrections are given during the 'bad' behaviour in order to stop it and refocus the animal toward the 'right' answer. A correction will guide the animal from it's mistake to the 'right' answer. A correction is as firm as necessary but as soft as possible. Usually very little firmness is required if the message is clear and 'right' answers are well reinforced.
People often confuse the two terms and mistake punishment for correction. Eg. when training with a choke chain. In order to be fair and effective, be sure you understand the difference.
Stress and fear are counterproductive to learning.
Think of stress as straws on a camel's back. Each stressful moment may only be tiny, but if you keep piling them up, then something's got to break! Even a too long lesson can be stressful. Always end the session before either of you tire of it. If you feel yourself getting short tempered, STOP! Even if you've been at it only a few minutes. It's important to start out with the animal as comfortable as possible and keep lessons short and sweet. It's also one reason for avoiding punishment wherever possible. The higher the level of stress, the less the animal can take.
For eg. my dog was beaten up by a big black dog when she was a puppy. Because of her lack of general experience with strange dogs at the time, she was very frightened in the proximity of any dog, not just big black ones. Not only did I make sure she got extra special treats as reinforcement when we were around other dogs, but I had to start out at a distance she was only a little uncomfortable with and keep these sessions short. Gradually we got to be closer without her freaking out, until she finally learned that most dogs were OK and fun to play with. But this took lots of time and patience and on the occasions owners allowed their dog to come too close, this 'training' was set back and I had to start from further away again.
If we want to teach something that is not fun or comfortable, such as accepting veterinary care, we must make sure the positive reinforcement is strong enough to motivate the animal to want to repeat it, and there are many more good steps along the way than uncomfortable ones. How many people would continue to accept abuse or work hard for a boss that only paid you $1 a day?
A behaviour that is constantly reinforced in the same way will become boring, whereas if it's occasionally reinforced, or rewarded with different 'prizes', it will be interesting and become much stronger. That is why gambling is addictive but vending machines aren't, and why women married to violent but occasionally charming men often stick around.
This principle can be used to cause your animal to be addicted to 'obeying' you! It also illustrates the importance of consistancy, especially in regard to behaviours we wish to extinguish. Even if a certain behaviour seldom works and may even be punished, if it does work at all, it will become stronger. For eg. the dog who scratches and cries at the door to be allowed in. If the dog is let in occasionally when he does this, the next time if he doesn't get instant results he just thinks he has to scratch harder or cry longer for it to work. The same method will teach a child to whinge.
'No' must mean no - at all times!
If you say no, mean it! Don't give in if you want your animal to pay attention and beleive what you say. By the same token, "Good" means good and should be reinforced in some way. Don't lie to your animal.
Behaviours become stronger or weaker, not 'known'.
Something isn't 'known' until, with many, many repetitions, it can reliably be performed on cue regardless of circumstances, and it is not performed without the cue. If someone says their animal is 'naughty' because they know not to do something, they are mistaken. The animal is demonstrating the need of more training if the owner expects reliable behaviour.
You can't reinforce or correct a behaviour that is not happening at that time.
Unlike people, animals do not have a language capable of expressing abstract thoughts and ideas. They don't have any concept of past or future with regard to training. Therefore, they have little reasoning powers and training is about the here and now.
Timing is vitally important.
If you wait till your dog comes to you before punishing him for earlier disobedience, you are actually punishing coming. If you ask for and receive a good sit-stay, and then call the dog to you to be rewarded, you have not reinforced the sit-stay.
Even with people, reinforcement and correction is much more effective at the time of the behaviour. Receiving a fine in the mail weeks after running a red light might make you think twice before running that red light again, or may make you look for cameras, but having an accident as a result of your 'bad' behaviour will likely stop you repeating it anywhere, anytime!
Another example for an animal might be a dog who digs in the garden when the owner is out and gets punished later when the hole is discovered, even though he may have been asleep or playing with his own toys at the time. This is worse than meaningless, as the dog will feel it is being punished for his behaviour at that time.
Not only is timing important to an animal that has little reasoning ability, but place and details make a difference too.
While it's best to begin teaching in an area that is comfortable to your animal and with the least amount of distractions as possible, for them to truely 'know' something, you must repeat the lesson in many different environments, until it is obvious that they have learned to generalise it. This may seem like starting all over again, but it's worth the effort and it progressively becomes much quicker to teach.
When I first started learning to train my horse, I'd get so cut at him for showing me up when I took him somewhere to show off a behaviour that he 'knew'. Because I only ever trained him at home, he didn't understand that the same rules applied when he was away.
Another example is the dog who is well trained and reinforced at home and in class, but runs the other way at the park. He has learned that coming when called at the park is not reinforced, but it is actually 'corrected', as he is put on lead and taken home.
Praise is not an innate reinforcer.
Well, at best it can be a very weak reinforcer on it's own. Through repeatedly linking it to a reward, it is a learned signal that means a reward is likely to happen. If this is not understood, praise can be meaningless. Verbal reprimand is similar, although in both cases tone of voice and certain sounds may have some innate meaning to that animal.
It's all about understanding and teaching the basics.
No matter whether you want to teach your dog competition agility or teach your horse high school dressage, it comes down to how well he has learned the basics. Advanced exercises are built of many simple steps.
A good human analogy for this principle might be teaching spelling to a four year old child. While the goal might be someone literate enough to write a book, we start at kinder, not college level. We teach the child the alphabet first, one letter at a time so that they are motivated by success to try for more. Books, after all, are just the alphabet being utilised effectively.
Set the animal up for success, not failure. Don't start with the goal.
The lesson needs to be easy enough for the animal that he gets it right and is reinforced first go and most of the time thereafter. The way to ensure this is to break a behaviour down into baby steps and concentrate on each step separately before beginning to recombine them. It also means that you don't ask for perfection, rather you reward every little try.
Introduce 'cues' only after you get the behaviour.
Animals learn by association. The behaviour needs to be instantly associated to the cue or cue for the animal to learn what it means. For eg, in teaching a dog to sit, you lure, wait for or place your dog in a sit. While he's sitting, lable the behaviour. Say "Sit" and give him a treat. You repeat this again and again before trying the cue before the behaviour. If he looks blank, the word is still meaningless to him and you must work more on the association.
By the same token, if you think you're training your dog to come when called, be aware that whatever he's doing at the time you lable it is the meaning it acquires... such as chasing a rabbit! Of course, if that behaviour isn't consistant, the word will have no meaning at all.
Never repeat a cue. This will only tell the animal that you don't really expect the response on the first cue, rather "trot, trot, trot, trot, TROT!" means trot.
Be in control
Always be in the position to reinforce or correct before any cue is given. Set up the situation so that you can ensure control. This might mean teaching your horse or dog to come to you on a long line before asking him when he's free, and to come in a small yard before graduating to the paddock or park.
This means you don't give a cue unless you know it will be followed, one way or another. The more an animal has a chance to ignore a cue, the more meaningless that cue becomes. If you can't ensure the dog will come when called, don't call. Just go get the dog.
You are, or at least can be, in control of all the Good Things in your animal's life. Utilise this in training, don't waste it! Eg. use your dog's desire to go play with another dog as a reward for a good heel.
To grasp the above concepts and know how to apply them will make you an effective trainer, no matter what the animal, or the exercise you wish to teach. Let's look again at the key points...