Reaching the Holy Grail of Training
By Yvette Van Veen Years ago, I taught our Kiki a formal recall using targeting. Systematically I proceeded to work through the exercise. Much to my delight, Kiki developed the most fantastic competition recall. People gasped at her speed and enthusiasm. Her formal recall never failed us over the years. You could say that it had behavioural momentum. Domjan, in The Principles of Learning and Behavior describes behavioural momentum as, “response persistence in extinction.” In non-technical language, behaviours with momentum are enthusiastic, despite distractions. They are highly resistant to extinction. … Continued
7 Ways to Get Behaviour
Guest Post by Karolina Westlund Ph.D There are two important questions to ask before teaching an animal a new skill. In another blog post, I discussed the first question, one that is extremely basic but often overlooked: “what is the cost/benefit of the behaviour”. Is it useful, useless, abuse or an ethical dilemma? Once a behaviour has been found to be useful, it’s time to consider how to best go about teaching it. The second question. Which is the best technique to teach the animal how to perform a new skill? You know the… Continued
Ask the Experts: But I Hate Marketing!
By Veronica Boutelle Part of the distaste around marketing for most positive reinforcement dog professionals is the seedy feeling of selling ourselves. But with strong content-based marketing like a newsletter, you don’t have to sing your own praises so much. Readers will be able to experience your professionalism and expertise just by enjoying the advice and insights you share. You can use newsletters to market more widely. Because you’re offering good, solid reading material, you can leave newsletters outside normal marketing channels. Put yours in dentist offices and hair salons and… Continued
A Positive Impact
By Pam Francis-Tuss A five-week program that meets three days per week, Adolescent Learning Powered by Humane Advocacy (ALPHA) pairs incarcerated teens at the Sacramento Youth Detention Facility with shelter dogs for the purpose of training. Twice a week, with the assistance of a team of volunteers, the teens work in pairs, at my direction, collaborating with one another to train their dog. The third day each week is spent engaging with guest speakers who work with animals to expose the youth to animal related careers such as shelter workers,… Continued
The Three C’s of Enrichment
By Lara Joseph Shaping challenges in an animal’s environment is something I see caretakers struggle with on a regular basis without even realizing it. Any environment can get stagnant over a period of time if it does not change. In my experience, the more an animal’s environment stays the same, the less he tends to interact with it. The less he interacts, the less he manipulates outcomes, and the less he manipulates outcomes, the fewer choices he makes. What effects do these restricted choices have on the animal and his… Continued
The Miracle Mutt
By Gail Radtke …when [Lanie] was a year old, I applied to the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program in Maple Ridge, BC. This is a Canada-wide program that involves certified handlers and dogs volunteering their time to visit hospitals and senior care homes in their area…The conditioning process in a graded-task approach was vital to having a dog who can work with noise, yelling or anything startling. We had to ensure that we worked below Lanie’s startle threshold and maintained a positive association with whatever we were exposing her… Continued
Performance Anxiety
By Kathie Gregory People such as the vet and the farrier need to get the job done in a timely manner. They do not have a lot of time, and waiting for as long as it takes for a horse to respond is not always viable; something we are well aware of. But knowing this creates a problem because we think our horse must do what is needed immediately. We are now in a state of anxiety, and sometimes embarrassed at the thought of not being good enough to achieve… Continued
Think Outside the Cage
By Amy Martin Parrots thrive in an environment worthy of investigation. In fact, healthy parrots require this. No matter how large a parrot’s enclosure is, it is still basically a modified jail cell. There needs to be a variety of ways for each species of parrot to play and actively engage with their environment as they would choose to do in the wild. Consider how the parrot could safely navigate his world inside and outside of his enclosure. Not only could many parrots benefit mentally and physically from time outside… Continued
Slowly Does It
By Patience Fisher There are many challenges for shelters in finding adoptive homes for cats. As an adoption counselor, I always found it disheartening to have a cat returned to the shelter for not getting along with the resident cats. During the adoption process, the concept of slow introductions was explained, but upon the cat’s return we often found out that the introduction process had been rushed. As a result, I saw a need for a very simple, short, how-to brochure for introducing a new cat to a resident cat.… Continued
Aggression from Hearing Impairment?
By Morag Heirs In the case of early or late-onset deafness where the presenting dog was not born deaf, but has become deaf due to ear infections, trauma or deterioration in old age, we may find that a change in behavior is attributed to the deafness…In fact, an interesting paper by Farmer-Dougan, Quick, Harper et al. (2014) reported that, based on a sample of 461 dog-owners, hearing- or vision-impaired dogs were less likely to show aggression among other undesirable behaviors. With this in mind, I am going to present a case… Continued
August 28, 2018: UK Kennel Club’s #BanShockCollars Campaign Comes to Fruition
The United Kingdom Kennel Club has announced the successful outcome of its 10-year campaign to ban the use of electric shock collars in animal training, adding that, with an estimated 5 per cent of dog owners curently using electric shock collars, “a complete ban on their use across the UK should mean half a million dogs will be saved from being trained by these highly aversive devices.” Read article.
Pet Professional Guild Responds to the UK Government’s Decision to Ban Electronic Shock Collars in Pet Training, Care, Behavior Modification, and Management
The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) fully supports and applauds the Government of the United Kingdom’s decision to implement a nationwide ban on the use of remote control electric shock collars for the training, management, and care for pets. Further, PPG is in full agreement with the U.K. Kennel Club (2018) that “the use of electric shock collars as a training method has a long term negative welfare impact on dogs.” There is a growing body of peer-reviewed, scientific research that shows, whether discussing dogs, humans, dolphins or elephants, that electric shock… Continued
“No-Kill” Shelters Are Not Enough
An article I read recently in the New York Times (online) talked about a downside of a heavy emphasis on no-kill policies at shelters: By focusing on getting dogs and cats into new homes, the shelters might be neglecting the reasons many of those animals are in the shelter in the first place. Many people abandon their pets because they cannot afford to feed them or house them or provide needed veterinary care. I don’t for a minute think that that is the only reason animals end up in shelters, but… Continued
August 27, 2018: British Veterinary Association Welcomes England Shock Collar Ban
The British Veterinary Association hails “big win for animal welfare in England” and calls for similar legislation in Northern Ireland and a “UK-wide ban on the sale and import of electronic training devices.” Read article.
August 26, 2018: England to Ban Electric Shock Collars for Dogs and Cats
UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove is set to announce a nationwide ban on the use of electric shock collars as training devices for dogs and cats this week. The collars have already been banned in Wales, while Scotland initiated moves towards stop dog owners using the devices earlier this year. Read article.
August 23, 2018: New Study Tests Parrots’ Ability in Economic Decision-Making
The study, Economic Decision-Making in Parrots, tested the ability of four different species of parrot to weigh up differently beneficial alternatives to maximise payoff, sometimes forgoing “their desire for immediate satisfaction.” Read study.
How to Make Your Training Work!
All dogs can learn amazing things. Sometimes it’s us (maybe more than sometimes!) who don’t allow our dogs to fulfill their full potential, for whatever reason – time, other commitments, know-how etc. I want to look at a few things here that can help you make your training work better, just little things that will make that difference. Use Positive Power This one kind of goes without saying! If you’re battling with your dog, using punishment, chastising him and relying on aversives, then you’re only serving to cause fear and… Continued
Pet Professional Guild announces junior membership and accreditation program
New levels aim to ensure next generation of pet professionals is educated in force-free, ethical, scientifically sound training methods; first 20 to register sign up for free NEWS RELEASE – WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. – Aug. 22, 2018: The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has launched a junior membership program to help educate the next generation of pet professionals in the application and practice of humane, scientifically sound training methods. As such, membership is now open to children, teenagers and young adults in order to help them learn and understand the fundamentals of pet care, behavior and… Continued
The Best I Can Be
By David Shade Unfortunately, I have seen firsthand what happens to a dog when a misinformed or unaware owner practices what one might politely call questionable training techniques, such as alpha rolling and positive punishment (a.k.a. aversives). As professional trainers and PPG members, we are aware that many dog owners have good intentions but simply do not realize that the application of outdated dominance theory can be incredibly damaging to a dog’s psyche. Indeed, when owners try to establish so-called dominance over a dog to prove themselves to be the… Continued
Project Trade at Work
By Susan Kendrick As a network, our goal is to teach, guide and coach animal caregivers how to use force-free methods, rewards, and respect to build a bond of mutual trust and love with their pets. I am happy to say we stayed busy all day with interested pet parents wanting to learn more about modern, scientifically sound training methods…As soon as people saw our no pull, no pain alternative for enjoying a walk with their dog, they were sold. People willingly wanted to do the right thing for their pet,… Continued
Dogs Don’t Write Checks
By Mary Jean Alsina I think it would be fair to say that most trainers get into dog training because they adore dogs and want to spend as much time as possible with them. However, unless dogs acquire credit cards, bank accounts and opposable thumbs, trainers must learn to work in tandem with humans. Forming relationships and connections with humans and being able to communicate what to do with the dog is an area in which trainers need to excel in order to be successful in the dog training arena. As… Continued
A Language for All Species
By Beth Napolitano I continued to observe my new baby’s behavior during several daily play sessions to make sure she was feeling amenable and having fun. We took turns mock chasing each other, sometimes with my hand and other times with her personal small stuffed toy. If she hunched up her back and intermittently hopped around or chased my hand, I knew she was enjoying it. Usually play lasted a few minutes and I let her tell me when it was over. If she stared or backed away, that was… Continued
Agility with a Difference
By Morag Heirs There are many successful deaf dogs taking part in fun agility, weekly training sessions and competing at all levels. In most cases, spectators would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the deaf dog and the hearing dog…Says Gibbs: “Horus and I started agility within a couple of months of his adoption as a 2-year-old, solely because I thought it would help us communicate and bond. There was never any intention of competing. I thought it would be impossible with a highly reactive deaf dog. Entering… Continued
The Long Way Home
By Lara Joseph It became clear to me that, during Koko’s time at the zoo his interactions with humans had commonly been paired with aversives, so I agreed to take on the challenge of working with him. It was my goal to get him out of his cage and make it a pleasurable experience for him…I was not comfortable putting my hands near Koko without cage bars between us or without him having his beak targeted between the cage bars. I had observed that he was not comfortable with large… Continued
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