# It's What Our Dogs Think That Matters



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Here's an interesting thought from Jane Killion in WHEN PIGS FLY. 

"Reinforcement" and "Punishment" are tricky concepts. What you have to remember
is that reinforcement is anything that tends to increase behavior, while
punishment is anything that tends to decrease behavior. What is a reinforcer and
what is a punisher will depend on the dog's opinion. For instance, you may think
that, if your dog is barking in his crate in the other room, it is punishment if you
run in there and yell at him. If the dog was barking because he did not want to be
isolated, your running into the room (even in an angry way) is reinforcing because
the dog got what he wanted—i.e., not to be alone. Since barking worked to end
his isolation, he will do it again next time. In this case, yelling at the dog was a
reinforcer, since the dog's barking will increase. Conversely, you may think that,
if your dog sits, giving your dog a nice scratch behind the ears is reinforcing. If,
however, your dog is afraid of having his head touched (maybe he was hit in the
face at a previous home, or maybe he is just shy) he will avoid doing the thing
that led to the ear scratch—in this case sitting. Thus, the friendly ear scratch is
punishment because it will decrease the behavior of sitting.
The key concept is that you cannot make any assumptions about what is reinforcing
or punishing to your dog. You have to relax and observe how your dog is
reacting to things to know what is reinforcing/punishing to him. This is unbelievably
difficult for people to do. Our cultural/species biases are so profound that we
find it hard to see clearly what our dogs find reinforcing/punishing. We think that
yelling at our dog for barking is punishment and we think that a scratch behind
the ear is reinforcing, so it takes some patience and practice to see beyond our
assumptions."


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

People should do some reading about Applied Behavioral Analysis, (ABA) used with autistic children. IT is exactly this principle... You can't KNOW what a person's (particularly a non-verbal person's) motivation is. You need to carefully observe what is happening before, during and after a behavior to figure out what the reinforcement is. Then you need to replace the unwanted behavior with a preferred behavior by NOT reinforcing the behavior you want stopped, while rewarding the behavior you want to encourage.



davetgabby said:


> Here's an interesting thought from Jane Killion in WHEN PIGS FLY.
> 
> "Reinforcement" and "Punishment" are tricky concepts. What you have to remember
> is that reinforcement is anything that tends to increase behavior, while
> ...


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## DorothyS (Aug 11, 2009)

This concept is interesting. Our Rascal is going through a period right now where he is leery of strangers, to the point of growling and leaping at people passing in the street (fear agression). What we are doing to change this behaviour, as recommended by our dog trainer, is that every time we see someone coming, we move onto a nearby driveway or sidewalk and start feeding treats. He is distracted by the treats and ignores the passing stranger. He is also reinforced to think that strangers are good - yummy treats get fed when a stranger goes by. Ditto for skateboards and bicycles!

We have had comments such as, you are rewarding him for his bad behaviour to strangers. But in reality, we are making the stranger seem like a good thing, so lessening the fear factor of the stranger. It is a slow progress, but we do certainly see that this is gradually working, and he is becoming much more tolerant of strangers, skateboards and other triggers.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

DorothyS said:


> This concept is interesting. Our Rascal is going through a period right now where he is leery of strangers, to the point of growling and leaping at people passing in the street (fear agression). What we are doing to change this behaviour, as recommended by our dog trainer, is that every time we see someone coming, we move onto a nearby driveway or sidewalk and start feeding treats. He is distracted by the treats and ignores the passing stranger. He is also reinforced to think that strangers are good - yummy treats get fed when a stranger goes by. Ditto for skateboards and bicycles!
> 
> We have had comments such as, you are rewarding him for his bad behaviour to strangers. But in reality, we are making the stranger seem like a good thing, so lessening the fear factor of the stranger. It is a slow progress, but we do certainly see that this is gradually working, and he is becoming much more tolerant of strangers, skateboards and other triggers.


Yes Dorothy, what you're doing is classical conditioning. It's usually done in conjunction with desensitization ie. keeping your dog at a distance that he is comfortable with . Don't worry what others say. They know nothing. They are the ones that probably think flooding is the way to go. Eric Goeblebecker has a recent article on this . I'll be back once I find it. .Here is part of it. Follow the links to related articles. http://www.dogspelledforward.com/on-leash-greetings If you want an excellent book (inexpensive) get Fiesty Fido by Patricia McConnell. at Dogwise.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

DorothyS said:


> This concept is interesting. Our Rascal is going through a period right now where he is leery of strangers, to the point of growling and leaping at people passing in the street (fear agression). What we are doing to change this behaviour, as recommended by our dog trainer, is that every time we see someone coming, we move onto a nearby driveway or sidewalk and start feeding treats. He is distracted by the treats and ignores the passing stranger. He is also reinforced to think that strangers are good - yummy treats get fed when a stranger goes by. Ditto for skateboards and bicycles!
> 
> We have had comments such as, you are rewarding him for his bad behaviour to strangers. But in reality, we are making the stranger seem like a good thing, so lessening the fear factor of the stranger. It is a slow progress, but we do certainly see that this is gradually working, and he is becoming much more tolerant of strangers, skateboards and other triggers.


You're not rewarding bad behavior... you're reinforcing good behavior as long as you've started the treating BEFORE the dog starts to agress.


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## DorothyS (Aug 11, 2009)

krandall said:


> You're not rewarding bad behavior... you're reinforcing good behavior as long as you've started the treating BEFORE the dog starts to agress.


Exactly! We are always scanning the immediate area where we're walking so that we can "pull over" and get him focussed on the treats before the person or skateboard arrives. If we leave it too late, it's hard to divert his attention.


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## DorothyS (Aug 11, 2009)

davetgabby said:


> If you want an excellent book (inexpensive) get Fiesty Fido by Patricia McConnell. at Dogwise.


Thanks for the advice - I have ordered the book for my kindle. I see she has some other interesting books too, so may check them out also.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

DorothyS said:


> Thanks for the advice - I have ordered the book for my kindle. I see she has some other interesting books too, so may check them out also.


 Yes Dorothy, Trish as she's know by professionals is one of the best certified applied behaviorists in the world. You'll enjoy the book. This key to giving the treat in this case is to give it the instant they see the trigger,. Enjoy.


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