Tag Archives: dunbar

09/19/12

Separation Anxiety According to Dunbar

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Photo © Ruthless Photos.

To me, Dunbar’s approach to separation anxiety was a little simplistic, but I think this is because Dunbar believes most separation anxiety is actually “separation fun”.  When dogs are left alone, they often find things that they enjoy doing.  Or, if they are used to owners coming home and punishing them, dogs may also have anxiety regarding the reuniting with the owner, and not so much the separation itself.

Regardless, Dunbar believes separation anxiety can be fixed.  His tool is, unsurprisingly, a Kong.  He suggests getting a dog into a Kong routine, where Kongs are associated with good things (not the owner leaving!).  The basic principle is to start a dog in a crate next to you with a Kong, and gradually move the crate further away from you, further away from the room you’re in, and slowly increase distance – all the while the dog having a Kong to enjoy.

For normal dogs, it’s okay to give a Kong as you leave the house.  Upon return, Dunbar suggests you encourage play with the Kong.  The idea that your dog, upon anticipation of your return, may pick up the Kong instead of choosing more destructive avenues for their enthusiasm! (This is one of the best bits of advice I got from Dunbar over the weekend.)

ThatMutt posted on owner-causes of Separation Anxiety and, if Dunbar’s approach seems workable to you, then you may enjoy the strategies put forward in their post.

09/3/12

Food in Dog Training (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Food is very useful in dog training.

My notes are a little brief in this section, but I think (!) that Dunbar described four principle roles of food in dog training:

 

Brindle crossbreed dogs eyes off rawhide treat.

Photograph copyright Ravyk Photography.

1. Lure
Food can be used to lure desirable behaviours.  This is very effective for pet owners, who often do need food to make up for deficiencies in other areas (e.g. poor training, poor vocal control, etc).  Read more about lure-reward training.

2. Reward
Food can be used to reward desirable behaviours.

3. Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is associating something good with something else.  For example, feeding dogs every time they see another dog means that the dog is more likely to associate other dogs with good things.

4. Distraction
Otherwise known as ‘proofing’ in training, food can be used as a distraction in training exercises.

 

What if the dog doesn’t like food?

If a dog doesn’t like food, they should be trained to like food!  Feed the dog by hand instead of from a bowl, or turn food into a secondary reinforce – “you have to eat the kibble for you do be allowed to do fun things”. Food is too useful to not have in your toolbox for behaviour modification.

 

08/31/12

Solving Problem Barking (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Dunbar advocates putting problem behaviours on cue.  That goes for barking, too.  The idea is to teach your dog to bark on cue (through lure-reward training) and then teaching your dog to be quiet on cue (again, through lure-reward).  For example, you could use the sound of the doorbell or teasing the dog with a treat to elicit a bark and act as a lure.  For the opposite, you could simply present a treat to a dog (they normally start sniffing and they can’t bark and sniff at the same time) and you have lured the silent behaviour.

Young border collie puppy barking.

The idea is, firstly, you can tell your dog to quiet if it is barking inappropriate.  Secondly, by putting ‘bark’ on cue and rewarding it, when the dog barks of its own accord, and doesn’t get rewarded, it may realize that is not a desirable option (i.e. negative punishment, the removal of a good reward).  Finally, by having barking on cue, it means you can sometimes give your dog permission to bark!  It is unfair to expect dogs to never bark, but allowing them appropriate venues to bark (when cued) means that you are not denying your dog its natural desire to bark.

Though Dunbar believes dogs should be taught bark/shush as a matter of course, he believes that Kongs are one of the simplest and easier solution to preventing and treating problem barking.  For someone who ‘doesn’t have time’ to teach cues for barking/non-barking, they can easily throw a stuffed Kong to their dogs.

That being said, Dunbar admits that it is difficult to teach an alarm or ballistic barker to quiet.  As always, he advocates prevention through attentive puppy training, rather than trying to remedy a problem barker.

08/29/12

Put your Problem on Cue (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Dunbar advocates putting the 8 big behavioural problems on cue, and then training the opposite.  The idea is that you can cue the ‘opposite’ (non-problematic) behaviour when the dog is displaying the problem behaviour.  The problem behaviour should be taught first, as he thinks dogs are more likely to display ‘the most recently taught’ behaviour.  These 8 behaviour problems, and their opposites, are:

 

Large white and brindle wire haired cross breed sleeping

“Settle down” – a useful behaviour to cue dogs to perform when they’re jazzed up or over enthused.

1. Jazz Up / Settle Down

Often dogs can be over excited, over stimulated, or generally ‘worked up’ and this can be problematic for owners.  For this reason it is useful to have a ‘settle down’ cue, but Dunbar of course suggests that you teach the opposite, too – a ‘jazz up’ cue.  You could turn this into a class game where the winner is the person who settles down their dog the fastest, or meets a 3 second deadline.  Teaching a dog to ‘jazz up’ is also easy, and often inspires and motivates class members to train.

‘Settle down’ is useful when trying to prevent problematic behaviours, such as excitement at the front door, or fence-fighting behaviour.  ‘Jazz up’ could also, potentially, be useful reward in the obedience ring.  Diane Baumann, in her traditional training book Beyond Basic Obedience, encourages owners to have an exciting cue (like ‘jazz up’) to mean an exercise is finished.

 

2. Woof / Shush Continue reading →

06/17/12

Reward Training Techniques (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Dunbar described five reward training techniques:

 

 

Lure Reward Training
He called these ‘techniques that cause the behaviour’ and the ‘Plan A’ of dog training – that is, it should be the first option when teaching a dog a behaviour.  More about this method is outlined in my lure reward training post.

 

All or none reward training
Dunbar created ‘all or none’ reward training after thinking about dogs in shelter situations.  These dogs need to default to good behaviour, or just be ‘good’ without any verbal cues.  In all or none reward training, you just wait for the animal to do what you want, and reward it.  For example, if you have a dog on leash and wait long enough, they’ll eventually sit.  The term ‘all or none’ comes from the behaviour: He’s either sitting, or he’s not.  Dunbar advocates this way for inattentive or ‘crazy’ dogs, and suggests it should be the ‘Plan B’ in dog training.

 

Black and white working cross breed runs with a tennis ball in mouth.

Life rewards: Running, playing fetch. Much better than any boring treat!

 

Shaping (often with clickers) Continue reading →