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Introduction: Dogs Trust Approach to Training & Behaviour Nico Joiner Senior Training & Behaviour Adviser Daniel Thompson- Training & Behaviour Assistant Ethics Ethics are individual We should seek to enhance the lives

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Introduction: Dogs Trust Approach to Training & Behaviour

Nico Joiner– Senior Training & Behaviour Adviser Daniel Thompson- Training & Behaviour Assistant

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Ethics

  • Ethics are individual
  • We should seek to enhance the lives of

the dogs we work with

  • Through understanding and

compassion we can create a better relationship

  • We have to be happy with the way we

interact with our dogs

  • Equally, our dogs should be

comfortable with our interactions

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Where do we begin?

What is dog behaviour?

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What affects behaviour?

Species ethology Previous experiences Current environment Moods, emotions and motivations Medical problems

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What affects behaviour?

Species Ethology

  • Common dog behaviours
  • Predation
  • Chasing
  • Scavenging
  • Digging
  • Playing
  • Chewing/mouthing
  • Vocalising
  • Social interaction
  • Communicating
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Genetics

  • Personality
  • Beware of assuming behaviour due to breed

Previous experiences

  • Stress of mother
  • Socialisation period (3-12 weeks)
  • Learning what works!

Current environment

  • Known or new?
  • Does it meet the dog’s needs?
  • Stress

What affects behaviour?

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Medical factors

  • Pain
  • Disease
  • Medication

What affects behaviour?

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  • Non-associative Learning
  • Associative Learning

How Dogs Learn – Two Basic Ways

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Non-associative learning

Response to a stimulus due to repeated exposure:

  • Habituation
  • Sensitisation
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If something which is meaningless to a dog is repeated frequently enough they will stop paying attention to it

Habituation

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Sensitisation

Increased response to stimulus each time it is presented (opposite to habituation)

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Associative learning

New response associated with a certain stimulus

  • Classical conditioning
  • Operant conditioning
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Classical conditioning

  • Imagine that two events happen close

together in time; one of these causes an “automatic” response in an individual, while the other doesn’t

  • Over time, even in the absence of the

event causing the automatic response, the other event will cause a response

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Operant conditioning

  • If something good happens, the likelihood of

the behaviour being repeated increases

  • If something bad happens, the likelihood of

the behaviour being repeated reduces Good and bad is according to the INDIVIDUAL’S (DOG’S) perspective! What happens after a behaviour occurs matters as it may affect the likelihood of it occurring again

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Examples…

Pleasure Relief Fear Frustration

Positive Reinforcement

+↑

Negative Reinforcement

  • ↑

Negative Punishment

  • ↓

Positive Punishment

+↓

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Sensitive periods for learning

Socialisation period:

  • 3-12/14 weeks of age
  • Learns what is ‘normal’ in life
  • Things that the dog has good experiences of are likely to

be seen as positive in later life

  • Things the dog has no or bad experiences of a likely to

cause fear or anxiety in later life. Habituation to ‘normal’ stimuli during this time. E.g. traffic, car travel, rain, etc.

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So how do we socialise appropriately?

  • At the dog’s pace
  • Not overwhelm/ ‘flood’
  • Dogs
  • People
  • Traffic
  • Other animals
  • Noises
  • Handling
  • Different environments
  • & more !
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Socialisation of puppies

  • 0-2 weeks: daily handling,

scents, sounds

  • 2-3 weeks: surfaces, visual,

sounds, handling, toys/novel items

  • 3-4 weeks: time away from

mother, other dogs, handling, play, training

  • 4+ weeks: interaction with

variety of people and dogs, away from litter (where safe and no disease risk)

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Consequences of poor socialisation

If the dog has a poor socialisation period, lack of habituation, or bad experiences, we may see the dog develop anxiety or fear-related behaviours. For example:

  • Anxiety when introduced to new

things/situations

  • Growling at strangers
  • Barking at other dogs
  • Fear of household noises
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What about adults?

  • Is it too late to do anything

about a dog with problem behaviours?

  • Why might a dog show

aggressive behaviour?

  • What can we do about it if

we don’t know their history?

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Problem behaviours

  • There are a number of things we have to consider
  • Is it a learnt or natural behaviour?
  • Is the behaviour rewarding?
  • How long has the dog been practicing the behaviour?
  • These are just a few!
  • There is no one size fits all training programme
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Training

There are various methods used in dog training and behaviour. You will find advice from many sources:

  • The media -T.V, internet,

magazines

  • Vets
  • Research – science,

reference books

  • Pet shops
  • And more…
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Different approaches to training

  • From the point of the trainers &

behaviourists there has been a divide for some years now.

  • Some on the dominance theory side

while others choosing the ethology, learning theory, physiology approach.

  • And variations on these themes
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Dominance/hierarchy theory

  • Focusing on dogs wanting to

achieve a higher social status

  • ver dogs or people
  • Assumes behaviour motivated

by dog’s desire to ‘dominate’ the

  • wner
  • .
  • Based on early studies of

captive, unrelated wolves

  • Led to humans wanting to use

certain techniques to suppress unwanted behaviour

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Pleasure Relief Fear Frustration

Positive Reinforcement

+↑

Negative Reinforcement

  • ↑

Negative Punishment

  • ↓

Positive Punishment

+↓

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Punishment-based methods

  • Aims to suppress the unwanted

behaviour

  • Use of punishment can lead to

conditioned suppression and spontaneous recovery (very

  • ften the behaviour will be

stronger).

  • Spontaneous recovery occurs

when the threat is too severe and the dog can no longer supress their fear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u09RWvvtCqs

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Problems with punishment-based methods

  • Dog associates owner/handler/all people with punishment
  • Dog associates other stimuli at that point with the punishment
  • Leads to fear of people
  • Suppression of warning signals

A more fearful dog, more likely to show higher levels of aggression, without warning

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Dogs Trust Approach

  • Using learning theory and a

good knowledge of the species to shape a dogs behaviour

  • Understanding why the dogs is

doing the behaviour

  • Promoting a new behaviour and

rewarding that instead of suppressing behaviour

  • Using primary reinforcers to

mark wanted behaviours

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Aims when dealing with problem behaviour

  • Practice makes perfect- good and bad behaviours!
  • Therefore stop the unwanted behaviour being practiced
  • And then…
  • Teach another response
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First steps

  • Avoidance of the ‘scary’ stimuli where possible
  • Management – avoidance of practicing behaviour
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Teach an alternative

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Using appropriate rewards

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Equipment in Dog Training

Discussion with Items

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Signals and Signs What are dogs trying to tell us?

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Objectives

  • Understand how dogs

communicate

  • Understand how to interact

appropriately with dogs

  • To improve welfare for the

dogs we deal with on a regular basis

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Canine Communication

  • Three main systems for communication:
  • Visual
  • Vocal
  • Smell
  • We are mainly focusing on the visual

signals as these are the easiest for us to learn to recognise

  • It’s our job to listen to what dogs are

telling us!

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How well do you speak dog?

What do you think these dogs might be trying to communicate?

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How well do you speak dog?

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How well do you speak dog?

Appeasement gestures

  • Also referred to as calming signals
  • Purpose is to calm the situation and avoid potential conflict
  • Early signs that a dog is not comfortable with the situation
  • Can be quite subtle
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Appeasement gestures

How well do you speak dog?

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Appeasement gestures

  • What gestures and body

language are we seeing here?

  • Is this dog grinning?
  • Would you approach

and interact with this dog?

  • Often we see an

escalation of these behaviours

How well do you speak dog?

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How well do you speak dog?

(Shepherd, 2009)

https://youtu.be/PHLnjiISsOo

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Displacement behaviours

  • Normal behaviours performed out
  • f context
  • Can occur when a dog is frustrated
  • r conflicted

How well do you speak dog?

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How well do you speak dog?

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Features to be aware of..

Eyes Ears Mouth and muzzle Tail position and movement Body posture Vocalisation

How well do you speak dog?

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Ears

  • Pushed forward, erect

= interest and confidence

  • Slightly forward, erect

= interest

  • Flicking/moving

= conflict, uncertainty

  • Flat sideways, folded

back = anxious, fearful, non-threatening

How well do you speak dog?

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Eyes

  • Pupil size

= sign of physiological arousal

  • Direct eye contact

= threat, confident

  • Looking away

= avoidance

How well do you speak dog?

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Eyes

  • Wide, rounded

= threat or fear

  • Narrow, closed

= fear, avoidance, appeasement

  • Look for tension in the eyebrows

How well do you speak dog?

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Mouth and Muzzle

  • Open or closed mouth?
  • Tense or relaxed?
  • Visible teeth? Lips pulled back?
  • Shape of mouth – narrow

and long slit vs pulled forward

How well do you speak dog?

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Mouth and Muzzle

  • Play face
  • Panting
  • Excessive salivation
  • Not taking food

How well do you speak dog?

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Tail position and movement

  • Look for tension in the tail and

it’s position

  • Harder to read dogs with no

tails

How well do you speak dog?

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Body posture

  • Look for muscle tension,

position of the dog in relation to the ground and speed of movement

  • Watch for ‘the calm before

the storm’

How well do you speak dog?

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Body posture

  • Don’t forget laying down… spot the difference:

How well do you speak dog?

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Vocalisation

  • Occurring in a positive
  • r a negative context:
  • Bark
  • Growl
  • Occurring in a negative

context:

  • Whine, whimper
  • Howl
  • Can you think of

examples of when these might occur?

How well do you speak dog?

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Vocalisation

How well do you speak dog?

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What do you think these dogs might be trying to communicate?

How well do you speak dog?

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How well do you speak dog?

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What else might we need to consider for these dogs?

How well do you speak dog?

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Why?

  • First and foremost… your Health and Safety!
  • Experience, but no formal theoretical knowledge, does not

necessarily make people effective at reading dog body language (Tami and Gallagher, 2009)

  • Dogs show appeasement gestures in the 20 seconds preceding

bites (Owczarczak-Garstecka et al, 2018)

  • Ensuring good welfare for the dogs
  • Implications on future interactions –

remember how dogs learn!

  • Advocates for Dogs Trust

Importance of appropriate interactions

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Thank you for Listening! Any questions?

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References

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(online). Available: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201202/social-dominance-is- not-myth-wolves-dogs-and?page=1&collection=88967. Accessed: January 8, 2018

  • Boersma, G. and Tamashiro, K. (2015) Individual differences in the effects of prenatal stress exposure in
  • rodents. Neurobiology of Stress, 1: 100-108.
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its control. In Practice, 22 (4) 170-175.

  • Bradshaw, J. and Rooney, N. (2014) Dog social behaviour and communication. In, Ed. Serpell, J. (2017).

The Domestic Dog: its evolution, behaviour and interactions with people. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

  • Cornelissen, J. and Hopster, H. (2010) Dog bites in The Netherlands: A study of victims, injuries,

circumstances and aggressors to support evaluation of breed specific legislation. The Veterinary Journal, 186 (3) 292–298.

  • Dess, N.,Linwick, D., Patterson, J., Overmier, Bruce. and Levine, S. (1983) Immediate and proactive

effects of controllability and predictability on plasma cortisol responses to shocks in dogs. Behavioral Neuroscience, 97 (6) 1005-1016.

  • Freedman, A.H., Gronau, I., Schweizer, R.M., Ortega-Del Vecchyo, D., Han, E. and Silva, p.M. (2014)

Genome sequencing highlights the dynamic early history of dogs. Plos Genetics, 10 (8), e1004631.

  • Hect, J., Miklosi, A., & Gacsia, M. (2012) Behavioural assessment and owner perceptions of behaviours

associated with guilt in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 139: 134-142.

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References

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Behavioural Processes, 8: 447-452.

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The Domestic Dog: It’s Evolution, Behaviour and Interactions with People. 2nd Ed. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

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References

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human and dog behaviour preceding dog bites and the context in which bites occur. Scientific Reports, 8: 7147

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interactions on walks with their owners. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 134: 170-176

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clients with Type 1 diabetes. PLoSONE, 8: e69921

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Feline Behavioural Medicine. 2nd ed. BSAVA: Gloucester.

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Divergence of Domestic Dog Ancestors and Admixture into High-Latitude Breeds. Current Biology, 25 (11) 1515-1519

  • Tami, G. and Gallgher, A. (2009) Description of the behaviour of domestic dog (Canis familiaris) by

experienced and inexperienced people. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 120 (3-4)