Tag Archives: training

12/9/11

McGreevy on Classical Conditioning

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

 

This is a short summary on Classical Conditioning, as mentioned at Paul McGreevy’s recent seminar.  For a more inclusive approach, please see this post from the Reactive Champion blog or Roger Abrantes’ post on “Unveiling the myth of reinforcers and punishers“.

Classical conditioning is also called Pavlovian conditioning.  In classical conditioning, an association is made between two things.  That is, when I hear the letterbox clang, I associate this with getting mail.  When I walk past a bakery, I associate the smell with the taste of bread.  When I see dark grey clouds, I think about the forthcoming rain.  Sounds, colours, smells, pretty much anything, can be associated with other things.

Puppies are more likely to experience novel events and form strong associations. (Picture courtesy of Yorke Peninsula Puppy Rescue.)

Simply, classical conditioning makes the world predictable with “X goes with Y”, where ‘X’ could be anything and ‘Y’ could be anything else.

The more closely X is followed by Y, the more likely the association will be made.

When an animal makes an association (i.e. “X goes with Y”), and it forms an involuntary response, it is has said to be classically conditioned.  Often, trainers feed dog-reactive-dogs in the presence of other dogs in order to have them associate ‘dogs with food’ and, involuntarily, feel more comfortable in the presence of other dogs.

When this association is novel, then the association is more rapidly acquired because there are no ‘undoings’ to be done.  For dogs, puppies that are attacked by a particular breed may associate that breed (appearance, smell, colouration, body language) with being attacked, and have a fearful response as a result of this classical conditioning.  A single bad experience, if novel enough, can elicit a fearful response for life (this is also true of operant conditioning).

Sometimes, dogs may make associations based on slight cues in the environment.  This can lead to them responding in ways that can confuse human counterparts.  Indeed, during any training and any interactions, classical conditioning may occur.  Some are simple: The dog may associate the car with fun.  Some are more complex: The dog associates your brother with thunderstorms, because that was the context on first meeting.

McGreevy provided some insights into other animals and the classical conditioning that is typical in their species.  He described how stallions used at stud often associate particular bridle gear with sex, and so become aroused and otherwise agitated when that bridle gear is brought out.  (My stud dog associates ‘new little wirey dog’ in the house with sex, which is not always great when it’s actually a male foster dog!)  McGreevy also mentioned how dairy cows associate the sound of the vacuum with releasing milk, and sometimes release milk prematurely upon hearing that sound.

Further reading: Ian Dunbar on Classical Conditioning 

 

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

12/7/11

Myrtle at 6 Weeks

We are very happy to introduce Myrtle, our newest resident.  Myrtle is 6 weeks old and is the daughter of my Clover, out of a dog in Victoria.  She was born a singleton puppy, and we were lucky enough to find two 9-day-old puppies that have been her siblings.  Myrtle is 3 days younger than her foster-siblings.

This mating has been a long time in the making, and so far, we are quite happy with the result.

So here is a video of Myrtle, at 6 weeks (and 1 day) old doing some training.  It is mostly fun – we are playing tug. I was going to edit out the minute where she goes and entertains herself but that, in itself, is quite amusing.  She pretty much knows ‘sit’ and ‘touch’, but and in this video we practice ‘give’ (the tug toy back) and ‘drop’.

I was happy with this training session. We both had fun, and that’s all I really want at this stage.

12/1/11

McGreevy and Non-Associative Learning

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

 

Paul McGreevy spoke a little about non-associative forms of learning.  I found these particularly interesting, as I have not actively considered these forms of learning before, let alone attended a seminar about them!  Though I had heard of habituation and sensitisation before, McGreevy clarified and solidified my prior understanding.

Mostly, the seminar considered classical and operant conditioining.  In both of these forms of learning, an association is made between one thing and another.  For example, if a dog hears the fridge open, they associate this with food, and start salivating.  Similarly, a dog may associate the action of sitting with a toy reward.

Dogs can learn to habituate to water.

However, training can also be non-associative.  Non associative learning uses a single stimuli (i.e. ‘thing’, trigger).  The two forms of non-associative learning, as McGreevy put it, are habituation and sensitisation.

 Habituation

Habituation is the simplest form of learning.  When an animal is repeatedly exposed to a stimuli, and their response decreases on each exposure, then they are habituating to the stimuli.

For example, a dog may startle at the sound of a door slamming shut in the wind initially.  However, as this occurs once or twice a day, the dog begins to startle less and, eventually, barely responds to the door slams. This dog has been habituated to the door slamming noise.

Habituation can occur at different rates.  It depends on the stimulus, the frequency of presentation, and the regularity of exposure.

The stimulus itself can be benign or more alarming. For example, a rock on the ground is less alarming than a bag blowing in the wind. In this way, the nature of the stimulus (i.e. the stimulus itself) can affect the likelihood of habituation taking place, with ‘boring’ stimuli more likely to be habituated to.

The frequency of presentation of the stimulus can also the rate of habituation.  Clearly, if an animal was exposed only once to an aversive stimuli, they are unlikely to reduce their response in subsequent exposures.  For example, some dogs are alarmed by the smell of predators, like foxes.  A dog exposed to fox smell may at first respond in a hyper-aroused or anxious way.  However, over time, the dog may begin to habituate to the smell of a fox if it was frequent (for example, if the dog was frequently walked along a route with fox smell).

Finally, the regularity of exposure is important.  If an animal is exposed to a stimulus only once a year or once every few months, it is unlikely to habituate.  For example, if the exposure was daily, then they are more likely to habituate to the phenomena.  McGreevy made reference to puppy schools, and how they normally happen on an irregular basis (i.e. once a week) and this is not enough for puppies to become habituated to people and other dogs.

Sensitisation

Sensitisation, on the other hand, is the opposite of habiutitation.  During sensitisation, the animal responds more to a stimulus after repeated exposure.  In this case, the stimulus itself has to be intrinsically aversive.  For example, dogs who are scared of thunderstorms can often get more fearful over time.

Our next posts in the McGreevy series will look at Classical Conditioning.

 

Further reading: Dogs deciding whether something is important or not?

 

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

11/22/11

Clover Heelwork – 20th November

I frequently post critiques on other people’s videos around the blogosphere, so I thought I was well over due to upload a training video for others to critique. However, I am probably my own worst critique.

Below is a two and a half minute video of Clover doing some heeling training.

My own comments:

Overall, I am happy with her attitude and willingness to work, especially considering she still has a bit of ‘baby brain’ (her puppy was born 4 weeks ago!).

I am not sure, after watching this video, if I should conduct tug-rewards on this slippery surface. Clover doesn’t seem unhappy about her lack of traction, but I am not sure if it’s great for her body.

I didn’t realise how wonky I am on my feet! There are a few times I look like I’m going to fall over, and my feet go weird ways. Some of this is probably due to the hypermobility of my joints, but I am going to be more conscious of having clear body cues. I think at the moment, Clover has to make some guesses about where I was going next.

I am not quite happy with some of my reward points.I should’ve rewarded her eye contact more, and sometimes she was out of position. Next session will be a food session to help try to pinpoint the heel position.

Keep in mind, we haven’t done any training sessions for at least 2 months! So I am pretty happy with her comeback performance here.

03/27/11

7 Tips for Improving Your Dog Recall

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

 

One of Paul McGreevy’s training insights was his list of “7 tips for improving your dog recall”.  My notes detail his list as the below, however I may have used my own words to describe some of his tips!

    1. Reward continuously until your pup is skeletally mature
    2. Reward intermittently after your pup is skeletally mature
    3. If dog doesn’t want to come back, increase the reward
      One of the focuses of McGreevy’s overall series was to reward with what the dog wants and likes, not what you think it should want and like.  Dogs have personal tastes and they need to be rewarded with what they want – because otherwise the reward runs the risk of not actually serving as reinforcement (i.e. something that increases the likelihood of the behaviour occurring).

Clover recalling to me and waiting for her reward.

    1. Use the best ever jackpots
      Coming back should be highly rewarded, and including jackpots in your reward schedule is a good practice to secure a reliable recall.
    2. Run backwards when dog approaches
      As we know, dogs like to chase things, and dogs like fun.  In this way, running backwards is a fun game to the dog, and also changes things up, making the recall process more exciting.
    3. Use release command
      This is a good tip that is perhaps under-emphasised.  Dogs need to know when they need to come back, and then when they’re free to do their own thing. If they are confused about this, then there is a risk of tarnishing the recall.

Clover, having received a release command, sets off.

  1. Use the premack principle
    The premack principle is basically that behaviours that the dog does not want to do can be reinforced by behaviours the dog does want to do.  That is, you can use what your dog wants to do as rewards.  So if your dog wants to run, jump, swim, etc, you can recall your dog and then reward him by sending him to run, jump, swim, etc.

A blurry Clover recalls

Though these do provide food for thought, I am not sure if I would put these as the top 7 most important things for improving a recall. I also do not think that this list suits the lay-person, the casual dog owner.  Considering these suggestions, and my past experience, I am pleased to announce my very first guest post at AllYouNeedIsLists.com.  This post covers my 7 tips for improving your dog recall, written for the dog-owner and not the dog-enthusiast.

 

Further reading: Seven Steps to Off-Leash Reliability

 

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.