Steve Huxter's blog

Discipline Defined

Steve Huxter — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:42:01 +0000

discipline (disiplin) n. 1. training or conditions imposed for the improvement of physical powers, self-control, etc. 2. Systematic training in obedience to regulations or authority. 3. The state of improved behaviour, etc. resulting from such training or conditions. 4. A system of rules for behaviour, methods of practice, etc. 5. A branch of learning or instruction.

Excerpted from Collins English dictionary.

While it is true that if you read through the entire definition of “discipline” in the Collins English Dictionary, you will find one of the definitions as; “punishment or chastisement”, the above definitions are the premise of discipline that I prefer to act under. I don’t punish… ever. I prefer to teach.

The discipline communications I demonstrate to my dogs are probably better defined as; “limit setting communications”. They were taught as pups that when they heard “No” it meant that they were not to do whatever it was they were doing. For example: As a pup, if my Lab “Tucker” mouthed at a chair leg, I simply placed my hand between his mouth and the chair leg and said; “No.” in a calm voice and then drew my hand away. If he again placed his mouth around the chair leg I repeated the communication and again placed my hand as a barrier and said: “No.” and kept repeating the process until he gave up and found something else to amuse himself. I didn’t escalate my tone of voice or reactions to a more aggressive stance; instead I was patient and persistent.

I did the same when he displayed interest in food on the counter or table, picked up a slipper or drank out of the toilet. Soon he came to understand that “Tucker… No.”, was a general communication I used to let him know that what he was doing or displaying interest in doing, was undesirable.

Nowadays, when “Tucker” decides to take advantage of that yummy clump of horse droppings on the trail, a simple; “Tucker… No.”, results in a head up and look toward me, a glance down at the snack he’s missing out on and he happily moves away. No cringing, no submissive posture; just acceptance and move on to the next point of interest.

This is what I describe as discipline. I could just as easily have chosen a different word to send my message. If taught consistently, he would respond the same if he understood that on hearing; “Tucker… Carol.” it meant that he is doing (or about to do); something he should not. Despite the negative connotations of the word, I chose and recommend to my clients, the word “no” simply because it comes to our tongue readily and it encourages a lower tone of voice.

Some might say I could expect the same result by teaching him to “leave it” or “drop it” but these are signals that elicit a response and require a consequence to reinforce the behaviour. I’ve had a few clients whose dog learned to do something undesirable in order to get praise, attention and perhaps a treat for “Dropping it”.

By building a consistent “limit setting” communication that requires no consequence, the undesirable behaviour is interrupted and done consistently, without consequence, will eventually extinguish the behaviour. In Tucker’s case… his desire to snack on those delicious, fresh snacks that the horses kindly share.

This is the “discipline” I teach.

No punishment, no “pinning”, swats, jabs, electric shocks, yelling or threats. A simple communication to interrupt, set limits and extinguish undesirable behaviour.

NEXT WEEK…

“Alternatives to NO. Define the rules, find a different approach and make lemonade.”

A Sense of Fairness in Dogs?

Steve Huxter — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:03:39 +0000

While quickly flipping past the reality shows on TV the other evening, I came across a documentary examining Empathy and Fairness in animal behaviour. One portion of the documentary demonstrated a test to see if dogs had “a sense of fairness”.

A researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria, Friederike Range, and her team performed a series of experiments with dogs who knew how to respond to the command “give a paw”. In the experiment, a Border Collie was asked repeatedly to ”Give a paw.” and place its paw in the handler’s hand. The experimenter cued the Border Collie 30 times in a row and did not reward/reinforce in any way each time the dog complied. The dog responded consistently each time and without hesitation.

A second Border Collie was then brought into the room and placed next to the first Border Collie. The first dog was asked to “give a paw” which it did without hesitation. The second dog was given the same cue. When it responded and placed its paw in the hand, it was immediately praised and given a food reward. After five times of the second dog being rewarded but the first Border Collie not getting a reward, the first Border collie started to hesitate and then stopped responding altogether.

When the researchers repeated the cue to “give a paw” to the first Border Collie, it hesitated, shifted position a little and started to whine but did not offer its paw. From this lack of response by the first Border Collie, the researchers interpreted that “Dogs have an intuitive understanding of fair play and become resentful if they feel that another dog is getting a better deal.”

“Amazing!” I thought and then was distracted by an experiment on researching “empathy” in rats.

A few days later I related the story about the two Border Collies to a client whose dogs were not getting along. I’d just been talking with the client about interpreting their dog’s behaviour and being cognizant about the dog’s perspective when interpreting their actions. An image of those two Border Collies sitting together came to mind and especially the behaviour of the first Collie when it wasn’t getting praise and food for presenting its paw.

I remembered that after the second delivery of praise and food to the second Border Collie, the first started watching the handler more intently and its gaze tracked back and forth between the handler and the second Collie that was getting a reward. The first Collie squirmed, shifted its paws, seemed slightly anxious and whined a bit before it stopped offering its paw when asked. My instincts were telling me that what I saw, was a dog that was anxious and confused, as though it didn’t know what it was supposed to be doing.

Whereas, the researches had interpreted the behaviour as a “resentful” refusal to comply; leading them to an assumption that dogs do have a “sense of fairness”.

In retrospect, my eyes saw a dog that was confused and stopped offering its paw because it didn’t understand what it was supposed to be doing. If I were to anthropomorphize (I love that word), I would say that in watching the second dog getting a reward, the first couldn’t figure out what it was doing wrong that didn’t qualify for a reward. It wanted to benefit from the praise and food but just try as it might, couldn’t learn what to do and became anxious, confused, started to whine and just shut down and stopped trying.

The question is; which interpretation of the first Border Collies behaviour is correct?

Resentment and a Sense of Fairness

Inaction, due to Confusion & Anxiety.

In my always hesitant opinion… it could be either. And some of you might have different interpretations than these.

The University of Vienna researchers were perhaps themselves being anthropomorphic (still love that word) in that they drew a specific conclusion, when there is a possibility of other explanations for the first Border Collies refusal.

For me this was a reminder that when determining why an animal behaves as it does…

Keep my mind open to all possibilities and don’t let behavioural prejudice cloud my observations.

The Why, When & How of saying no to our dogs.

Steve Huxter — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:09:22 +0000

This is my first posting on the new Victoria Adoptables website (congratulations Carol and Adam on a beautiful job of redesigning and build the site.) and I would like to say a sincere thank you to Carol for the opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences from my many years of helping animals and their guardians.

This is the first of a three part entry. The Why, When and How of Canine Discipline.

Likely the most discussed and disagreed upon subject in guiding and teaching our canine companions.

It’s one of those facets of dog behaviour about which it’s said; the only thing two trainers might agree upon is that the third trainer is doing it wrong.

A significant percentage of behavioural issues I am called upon to resolve are based on discipline that has been applied with aggression/force, inconsistently or the more common… little or none at all. Many people have an instinctive dislike for the thought of “dominating” their dog and with no other tools offered, apply little if any discipline.

It’s unfortunate that too many dog owners easily fall into the role of aggressively dominating their dog.

Whether working with killer whales or rabbits I have always been a “positive” based teacher. These are my particular thoughts, at this time, as to Why, limit setting discipline communications can be beneficial to our relationship with our dogs.

Human-animal relationships are a complicated social interweaving, especially with our dogs. We spend a lot of time together. Since it’s possible that we are the more intelligent of the two species, the responsibility is ours to build clear communications. We need to be the teacher.

By teaching our dog that when they see us looking at them and they hear their name and a calmly delivered… “No” or “Uh Uh”, it simply means that; “This is something I shouldn’t be doing or touching.” It is a “limit setting” communication if taught calmly and with consistent certainty. It will become a “punishment” communication if the lesson is taught with aggression. If our dog rushes forward to grab that chocolate bar that just hit the ground and we are able to calmly say; “Rover… no.” and then redirect their focus, you will have avoided using punishment.

Granted, using aggressive punishment can yield quicker results because the dog was fearful but at what cost? If you drop the chocolate bar, your dog rushes forward and you angrily yell… NO!! and grab them by the scruff; sure you’ve protected them from eating chocolate and getting sick but how will they react to your touch when you go to pet them a few minutes later

There are relationship benefits to being able to set limits and tell our dogs no… but we also need to do so in a canine familiar style and structure. This does not include swatting with a newspaper, squirting lemon juice in their face or “pinning” the dog to the ground. If we discipline our dogs too aggressively they will fear, not respect us. People who rely on dominance theory to train their pets may need to regularly threaten them with aggressive displays or repeatedly use physical force. Conversely, dogs subjected to threats or force may not offer submissive behaviour, instead, they may react with aggression, not because they are trying to be dominant but because the human threatening them makes them afraid; they are simply protecting themselves.

Dogs are no different than any other social species on our planet in that they benefit from an understanding of the limitations and boundaries of their social environment. If someone is not there to set those limits and teach them as to where the boundaries lay the consequences could be grievous.

The Dominance Theory effect.

For decades dog trainers have relied upon the theory of social dominance behaviour in Wolves as the cornerstone of training and managing dog behaviour. We were taught that we must be tough disciplinarians with our dogs otherwise they will run amuck.

I heard of one trainer who taught his/her students that all dogs are potentially aggressive and yearn to dominate you. If a dog was stubborn and disobedient it was necessary to badger the dog until they became aggressive in order to physically exert dominance and have the dog understand who the “Alpha”, in the pack is.

This treatment is not the behaviour of a “pack” leader. This is the behaviour of a malevolent dictator.

Dominance and leadership are not synonymous.

Leadership should be attained by more positive means—by rewarding appropriate behaviours and using desired resources such as food, toys or affection as reinforcement for these behaviours. Leadership is established when a dog owner can consistently set clear limits for behaviour and effectively communicate the rules by immediately rewarding the correct behaviours and preventing access to or removing the rewards for undesirable behaviours before these undesirable behaviours are reinforced. Dog owners must avoid reinforcing undesirable behaviours and only reinforce the desirable behaviours frequently enough and consistently enough for the good behaviours to become a habit.

With so much focus on dominance and discipline we spend more time saying No and not near enough time guiding our dogs by teaching them what it is we desire from them.

More recent research on Wolf social behaviour indicates that there is indeed a pack leader but rather than a hard as nails General in charge of the troops; the leader is more like a patriarch/matriarch and the pack is akin to a family unit. There is dominant and submissive behaviour within the pack members but the expressions of the behaviour are subtle.

We do need to say No to our dogs but we need to do so with patience and persistence rather than using force and coercion.

“Because fear and anxiety are common causes of aggression and other behavior problems, including those that mimic resource guarding, the use of punishment can directly exacerbate the problem by increasing the animal’s fear or anxiety. Overall, the use of dominance theory to understand human-animal interactions leads to an antagonistic relationship between owners and their pets.”

(American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior - 2007.)

Because each dog has a different personality and the circumstances and motivation for the undesirable behaviour differ; the use of discipline and the form it takes needs to be carefully considered. Puppies need to be treated much differently that adolescents or adults. Some dogs are very sensitive others are very confident and self-minded.

Usually, a calm discipline communication followed by “redirecting” the dogs focus is the most effective technique. In other cases it might be more effective to deliver the discipline communication and simply stand your ground until the dog learns that you are firm in your resolve.

Each and every dog is a unique individual with varied learning needs. The style and structure of your communications need to match your dog’s ability to learn. If we find that we are spending more time delivering discipline than praising; it’s time to step back, think about what’s going on and take a different approach.

At my next posting I’d like to talk about the WHEN of saying no to our dogs.

If you have comments or questions, please address them to: [email protected]">[email protected]