The good, the bad and the ugly of behaviour modification

Those of us sharing our lives with reactive dogs have a number of things in common. A love of routes off the beaten path where few people go. The ability to spin through 180 degrees and powerwalk in the opposite direction, chanting ‘Let’s go, this way!’ in a cheery voice despite our stomach plunging to our boots. A neck that turns further than seems biologically possible through much practice at scanning the horizon in all possible directions for triggers appearing. One thing we definitely all want is access to ways in which we can help our dogs’ relationship with the world.

Many of us would love to see our dogs able to do something like this

Behaviour modification sounds scary. To someone that has a sometime love of schlocky horror movies, it conjures up images of haunted mental hospitals and straightjackets, with terrifying things being done with huge syringes. I fully admit to having a thoroughly overactive imagination though! Behaviour modification can be done in harmful ways. To break it down, behaviour modification involves modifying behaviour. Usually when discussing behaviours that guardians want changed, we are looking at behaviours they want to decrease. This leads us to look at how we can affect whether a dog repeats a behaviour or not. I wrote on this in a previous entry which can be found here, with a funky diagram from Foul Mouthed Fido that demonstrates it nicely. The technical explanation in that post goes as follows:

‘The use of rewards in dog training is what is called positive reinforcement, and positive reinforcement is one of four ‘quadrants of learning’ based on something called operant conditioning. There is an explanation of what operant conditioning is, with mention of Pavlov and Skinner, but to cut a long story short, it relies on the principle that actions have consequences and these consequences can be good or bad. Good consequences make a dog more likely to repeat a behaviour, bad consequences make repetition less likely.

The consequences are described as positive or negative. These words are used purely in the scientific sense in this context, so positive means to add something in, negative means to take something away. Behaviours will responded to with either punishment or reinforcement.

The quadrants sound complicated when you start looking at all of the terms individually, but they really are not so bad once you start looking at the definitions for each of the four. So, here we go – from the least humane, useful and constructive to the ones that will get results in a force free manner:

Positive punishment:

This is really bad. Like really, really bad. Undesired behaviours are met with loud shouty voices that scare the dog, or smacks, kicks, ‘corrections’ on a collar (AKA jerking the collar). Something that the dog considers aversive. So something bad (punishment) is added (positive) after the behaviour to make it less likely to happen.

Negative reinforcement:

Also very, very not good. Something painful is taken away after the dog offers a desirable behaviour. An example would be the use of a prong collar for loose leash walking. The dog does not pull in the hope that the sharp metal prongs will stop digging into their skin and hurting. Something bad (the effect of the prong collar) is taken away (negative) to reinforce the behaviour and make it more likely to be repeated.

Negative punishment:

This one is not brilliant but can be used sparingly as part of a force free programme. If the dog offers an undesired behaviour, something he likes is taken away. A toy, a play session, something that he enjoys. The nice thing being taken away (negative) is the punishment as he no longer has access to the good thing, meaning the behaviour is less likely to happen again.

Positive reinforcement:

Here we are – the good stuff. The dog does something we like, he gets something great as a reward. He sits on cue, he gets a treat. He does what we want and is rewarded (positive) meaning the behaviour is more likely to happen again (reinforcement).’

So that’s the science of how dogs learn. A good trainer or behaviourist will work as much as they possibly can in the positive reinforcement sector, with minimal dips into negative punishment but using impeccable judgement and timing to avoid undesired consequences. Negative punishment will make a behaviour happen less but should be used as little as possible. Positive reinforcement will make a behaviour happen more. This leaves what appears to be a paradox – how to stop a behaviour happening?

There are a number of TV programmes that involve behaviour modification of animals, some specifically dealing with dogs. (No, I’m not going there with THAT so called trainer. I would hope that anyone reading my articles would know where I stand with regards to that person.) There is a new one that is currently being shown in the UK with a ‘master dog trainer’ who charges nearly £700 for one on one training lasting 3 hours. Over £200/hour. Yes, after that consultation there is phone or email support available but still, £200/hour. For outdated, frankly ignorant advice that does not in any constructive way help the animal, and further, shows a lack of understanding of how dogs actually think and how to help them. Lead ‘corrections’ and flooding are NOT ways to result in a happy dog. All these methods do is suppress behaviours, not actually tackle the difficulties that the dog is having with the situation. Following that route is either going to lead to learned helplessness where the dog just gives up trying (easy to confuse with behaving well) but still has the emotional trauma, or a dog that feels cornered and that he needs to lash out. As a side note, to become a master dog trainer, all that is required is 5 years experience, having trained 100 dogs and a payment of £75 a year. Nothing concrete and externally assessed and verified regarding how those dogs are trained, quality of the trainer’s knowledge or their skill levels. To prevent me ranting and because this is an excellent piece that dissects the problem with these TV behaviour gurus, I’m just going to drop a link to a superb article by Emma Judson of Canine Consultant Training and Behaviour HERE. Go and read it, and you will never look at these programmes the same way again.

And breathe…

So how do we stop a behaviour from happening? The answer is in fact incredibly simple. Teach a behaviour you DO want to see instead, preferably one that is incompatible with the unwanted one. If your dog is jumping up at people, teach them to sit when new people arrive. If they’re pulling on the lead, teach them that walking closer to you results in the greatest time they could possibly have (I know it’s not as easy as it is to write, but it will get there in the end. This is one that does require perseverance!) The thing to remember is that these TV programmes promise quick results. They lie. There are no quick results in behaviour modification. There are no short cuts. Not that work properly and will result in a happy dog and guardian. Changing behaviours takes time, as any of us that have broken New Year’s resolutions know all too well. TV editing can make anything seem possible, and cut down hours of work into a 15 minute segment or however long they wish it to be, and not show whatever they don't want the audience to see.

Before anyone points it out to me, yes there are shows in existence that show ethical methods being used. Exercise the same caution when watching trainers and behaviourists on TV as you would when choosing one to work with face to face with you and your dogs. It really is not worth the risk to use the bad ones. At best, you might stop the behaviour you want to stop for a while. At worst, you might end up with an unhappy, stressed dog that will eventually feel like he has to lash out to be heard as all communication attempts to that point have not been acknowledged.

In happier news, I am thrilled to say that I have recently fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition and published a book. It is an extension of the information contained in the articles I write here, collated together and with more depth in places. It is called ‘Fight or Fright? A Reactive Dog Guardian’s Handbook’ and is available on Kindle. It is listed on Amazon worldwide – here’s the Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk links. The link can also be found in the page 'Fight  or Fright?' accessed via the button at the top of the page. Paperback versions can be found HERE for the UK and HERE for Amazon.com.

Here's the Kindle cover