Not every dog owner has a background in psychology or animal training. Not every dog owner can afford expensive multi-week training programs at the local dog academy. Despite apparently lacking the necessary education to train a dog the reality of dog training is quite simple. Any individual with patience, time, and a brief introduction to principles of conditioning and dog behavior can teach their dog crowd pleasing tricks.
Principles of Conditioning
In the field of psychology, animal training is encompassed under the headline operant conditioning. This phrase has become something of a buzzword among the hundreds of self-proclaimed animal trainers lurking in every community. Despite its common usage, operant conditioning is largely misunderstood.
Operant conditioning is not, as commonly thought, related to Ivan Pavlov's experience with his salivating dog. Unlike Pavlov's experiment, which dealt with reflexive responses to a stimulus, operant conditioning refers to learning a behavior based of the consequences of that behavior. The most important idea related to operant conditioning is this: individuals will tend to repeat the behavior that is most likely to result in pleasurable consequences.
The principle guiding operant conditioning is manifested in the concept of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is adding something to the individual's environment that will increase the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Negative reinforcement is removing an unpleasant stimulus from the animal's environment as a reward for the desired behavior. Corrections are used to discourage an undesired behavior from reemerging.
Principles Guiding Canine Behavior
Having evolved from wolves, dogs have a very strong relationship with their pack. Within the pack there is a set hierarchy controlled by the alpha. The alpha dog dictates what the other dogs may or may not do. Within the home, you must be the leader of your dog. Otherwise you will be unable to train even the simplest behavior. Depending on the natural inclinations of your dog to be either submissive or dominant, taking charge of your home pack can be easy or challenging.
Dogs are motivated by certain desires called drives. Drives are primarily genetic, although they can be strengthened through training. Drives can be a strong desire for food, play, or to chase cats among others. By knowing what drives your dog, you can most effectively reward behaviors you desire.
Finally, dogs can be either soft or hard temperament-wise. This is an important factor to consider when training an individual animal. A hard dog is going to be more stubborn when it comes to training; you really have to convince it that learning a particular behavior is worth its time. Additionally, hard dogs require strong corrections to deter them from misbehavior. In contrast, soft dogs are easily intimidated by strong corrections and tend to be more inclined to please their trainers.
Putting It All Together
Trainers commonly refer to the ABCs of training. The ABCs are: antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The antecedent is the command or signal. The behavior is the action, correct or incorrect. The consequence is the reward or correction given depending on the action. The method is operant conditioning in action.
Not all behaviors come naturally to an animal, however. So how do we train these? The process used is called shaping. Shaping is the term describing the gradual path taking by trainers as they reward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
With dogs, it takes approximately fifty repetitions to learn a behavior. When you train for maybe five minutes thrice a day it takes a good period of time to learn a simple behavior, let along a complex one. If the dog is particularly hard, timid, or distractible, it may take even longer. Patience is the most valuable trait of any animal trainer.
The steps taken to train a simple behavior are quite simple. First, give the desired command. Next, lead the dog through the action. Reward the dog. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
Complex behaviors are a bit trickier. Complex behaviors, however, can always be broken down into strings of simple behaviors. Say you wish to string three simple commands together to achieve a complex action. The process you would follow is something like this: command one, behavior one, command two behavior two, REWARD. This is repeated until the dog learns to anticipate command two on the heels of behavior one. At this point, the command for behavior two can be removed from the sequence and the original command results in a combined behavior of one and two. Then you can add the third behavior two the sequence.
Training a Simple Behavior: Roll Over
Roll over is a natural behavior for dogs. When confronted with a more dominant animal, the submissive animal will roll over on its back to signal its willingness to obey.
When training the oll over command just remember this little trick: the dog's body will follow its nose. It seems simple, but simple is the key to any aspect of animal training.
When your dog is lying down, take a treat and hold it in front of your dog's nose. Say oll over and move your hand in a wide semi-circle. The dog's nose will most probably follow your hand, and as it attempts to keep track of that delicious treat, its body will roll over. As soon as this occurs, praise the dog lavishly and reward it with the food. Repeat ad infinitum. I didn't say that animal training couldn't be boring at times.
Training a complex behavior: Drop down dead
My sister calls this the gunfight trick since it approximates an old Western where the bad guy is shot by the sheriff and falls down dead. In this trick, the dog is supposed to go from the standing position to a oll over and stopping on her back to play dead.
To accomplish this complex trick, the trainer strings together three distinct commands. These commands are sit, down, and oll over.
To begin with, the trainer must have a clear idea of the commands that will be used as well as the progression required to reach the final goal. In my case, I determined that the distinctive command for this particular trick would be the verbal cue Bang with a hand signal approximating a pistol. (The two cues would be given simultaneously.) The ultimate sequence would be Bang and point, sit, down, roll over.
But first, the sequence has to be broken down. Initially, the focus needs to be on transitioning from the sit to the down to the roll over in reverse order. The down command will be tied to the roll over and the sit to the down. Finally, the whole routine will be polished.
After giving the initial command, request that the dog lay down, and roll over. Leave no time between these commands but instead make the dog complete the next task right on the heels of the preceding one. At the end of the sequence, praise and reward. Over time, try giving the initial command and see if the dog will go through the sequence without being guided. When the dog learns to connect the down to the roll over, you can add the sit to your list.
Using the same procedure as above, ask for the sit, the down, the roll over. Since you have practiced the down and roll over extensively it is very likely the dog will quickly go into the roll over as soon as you ask for the down. With much practice, you will be able to give the dog the initial command and it will go through the sequence of sit, down, roll over in order and without the use of individual commands for each of those actions.
Conclusion
The most important things to remember regarding training are these:
1.) Be patient
2.) Reward often
3.) Break complex actions down into simple ones
See? You don't really need a whole lot of knowledge to teach your family pet a few tricks. You just need a lot of patience and a little creativity. Happy training!
By Leah Christian
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