Training Methods

It is scientifically proven that with punishment/dominant training methods, physical

manipulation does little to correct behaviour problems and can elicit aggressive responses.
At the end of the day a dog is a dog, if it doesn't like something, feels threatened he will bite,
it's his defence mechanism after all.

More than 200 years ago the philosopher John Locke described learning as forming an
association, which is actually a mental connection between events that occur in some
sequence. learning an association between an action and in outcome, such as learning that
clicking a wall switch turns on the room light, while sticking your finger in the electrical outlet
produces a painful shock.

Science demonstrates that it is never necessary to use force/punishment/dominant methods

to train a dog. Not only is it unnecessary, but there is also ample evidence that using them
can cause severe physical injuries, as well as dangerous behavioural problems, such as
aggression. Aversive training has been associated with detrimental effects on the human–
animal bond, problem solving ability, and the physical and behavioural health of the dog. It
causes problem behaviours and hastens progression of behavioural disorders in distressed
animals. Aversive techniques are especially likely to cause damage to fearful and aggressive
patients and often suppress signals which may lead to a more aggressive response. The
only reason why people used punishment/force training methods as traditionally it was
thought that because dogs ascended from wolves that we need to be the alpha/leader of the
pack for the dog to respect and listen to us. However we now know with scientific research
that this is not the case.

” some will argue, “look at all the dogs who have been successfully trained throughout the
past century using the dominance techniques. Those trainers can’t be all wrong.” The
problem with these techniques is that they are good at shutting down behaviour’s (learned
self-helpless), they punish the dog for using their only way of communicating to us and
therefore masking a problem, they intimidate a dog making it fearful and psychologically
damaged. They may erupt aggressively again the next time a human does something violent
and inappropriate to them. Under the dominance-theory training, those dogs are often
deemed not suitable for the work they’re being trained for nor safe as a family pet, and often
put to sleep. Had they never been treated inappropriately, many might have been perfectly
fine.

In a new, year-long survey (Meghan E. Herron) dog owners who use confrontational or
aversive methods to train aggressive pets, veterinary researchers have found that most of
these animals will continue to be aggressive unless training techniques are modified. Also
dogs brought to the vets for aggressive behaviour towards familiar people were more likely
to respond aggressively to some confrontational techniques. The study showed that using
non-aversive or neutral training methods such as additional exercise or rewards elicited very
few aggressive responses.

Dogs learn via instinctive behaviour, pain, experience, one trial learning and through
reinforcement such as reward. Dogs do not behave in certain ways because he thinks he's
more infere of us and doesn't respect us. Dogs don't think like that they weren't born to
respect us they were born to survive just like any of us. Is a dog pulling on a lead acting like
an “alpha dog”? No; he’s simply untrained. Pulling hard has enabled him to reach what he
wanted to reach in the past, so he’s trying it again. A police Dog jumping up and biting
someone is acting like an Alpha Dog? No, he’s been cued to do that.
A dogs instinctive behaviour is to hunt for food for survival so for instance you leave some
food on the kitchen side the dog jumps up and eats the food. His behaviour for jumping up
on the kitchen top has been reinforced by the food he's pinched so he will repeat as it's been
a good outcome for him. It's not because he doesn't respect you and that he doesn't think
the owner is the leader. In order for dogs to be able to live harmonious with humans we need
to teach them how we would like them to behave otherwise how are they expected to know.

I’m going to use an example which many of you will have more than likely come across and
that using a water spray or one of those aerosols that make a loud noise when pressed.
People use these to stop dogs barking, and it won't be long before you only have to pick up
the spray can and show it to him for him to be quiet. Yes the dogs stops barking as soon as
he sees the spray can so you think this has worked, but when you don’t have the spray can
his barking will occur again as you’ve not taught him how you want him to behave. Not only
this you’ve also told your dog to be fearful of something.

Today, educated trainers are aware that canine-human interactions are not driven by social
rank, but rather by reinforcement. Behaviours that are reinforced and repeated will
strengthen the behaviour. There is a form of learning called "classical conditioning". This is
where associations are formed between events occurring and reflexes or emotional
responses in the individual. Classical conditioning was first studied by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov,
a Russian physiologist. He was studying the salivary secretions in dogs and knew that when
he put food in an animal's mouth it would always salivate. He also observed that the dog
would begin to salivate when it observed things associated with food, such as the food dish
or even the sight of the person who normally brought him food. Pavlov recognized that the
dog's response showed a special form of learning because it involved a response that can't
be controlled voluntarily. An involuntary action (salivation) that is usually triggered only by a
certain class of events (food) which was now being controlled by a new stimulus (the sight of
the experimenter). During training he presented a neutral stimulus (one that doesn't cause
the dog to salivate) such as the sound of a bell, immediately before he puffed a bit a meat
powder into the dog's mouth to trigger salivation. A few repetitions of the sequence "ring-
puff-slobber" would then be followed by a test with just the sound of bell. The bell which
originally had no effect on the dog, would now cause it to salivate. The important thing was
that now the dog was responding to it as if that stimulus was the meat powder-by salivating.
The dog doesn't have to want this to happen, or participate actively in the learning process, it
will just happen on its own. The truth of the matter is that we are not interested in drooling
the real importance of classical conditioning is that it is the way which we learn to attach
emotional responses to things. All we need is to have a sequence where we encounter a
stimulus, which is followed by an event which triggers an emotion. A few repetitions of
"stimulus-event-emotion" will soon have the stimulus itself trigger the emotion because of
classical conditioning. Something you will all say at some point, "how does my dog know
he's going for a walk, as I've not even mentioned the word?" That's because the dog pairs
and links certain events together , in this case he will chain together your routine that you do
before you take him out, or he may link a certain coat you wear with going for a walk. Dogs
are very good at making associations with events hence why the dominance training can
escalate behavioural issues.

The most famous example of how classical conditioning can produce learned emotional
responses was provided by John Watson who conducted an experiment that would never be
allowed now. He took an 11-month-old baby, named Albert, and showed him a white rat.
Albert demonstrated no fear of it at all. Next Watson showed Albert the rat and at the same
time had someone bang two metal rods together to cause a loud clanging sound. This
startled Albert, frightened him, and caused him to cry. After a few repetitions of this
sequence of "rat-clang-fearful cry," just the sight of the white rat would cause him to cry and
try to crawl away. He not only acted afraid of the rat, but now Albert seemed to be afraid of
any furry objects, including white rabbits, stuffed toys, fur coats and even a Santa Claus
beard. Albert did not have to want to learn, or actively participate in trying to learn this
fearfulness, it happened automatically simply due to association of the stimuli with
something that triggered his emotional response. Classical conditioning of emotions provides
one reason why reward-based training procedures should work better and establish a
stronger bond between the dog and his trainer, than punishment based systems. Every time
you give the dog a treat, or some other reward, you set up the event sequence "sight of you-
treat-pleasant feeling." Every instance of reward makes it more likely that the dog will feel
better about you because you are actually conditioning the emotional response "sight of you-
pleasant feeling." On the other side is the use of punishment of harsh corrections. The sight
of you, or your hand, or the training leash and collar immediately followed by pain or
discomfort will ultimately come to be associated with negative feelings and avoidance.

A study by Dr. I. J. Makowsk, found that training with aversive-based techniques led to more
stress-related behaviours in the dogs compared to training with reward-based techniques,
Stress-related behaviours persisted even after the dogs were trained and the aversive
stimulus was no longer used, suggesting that the verbal cues themselves had become
aversive, The study found that the more frequent use of aversive-based techniques,
whether alone or in combination with reward-based techniques, was associated with more
frequent reporting of aggression and other problem behaviours. In contrast the more
frequent use of reward-based training alone was associated with less frequent reporting of
aggression and other problem behaviours." The Study also conducted on the use of shock
collars reported yelping and other vocalizations in response to shock, those with a shock
collars initiated more immediate stress-related behaviours then dogs trained without a shock
collar and the study reported long-term negative effects in dogs trained with a shock collar
and found lower success in training by those who used shock compared to reward based
methods.

A study showed that "Whilst the proportion of reward-based methods showed significant
associations with benefits such as enhanced ability in a new training task, dog wants to
engage with you, your dog is more motivated, strengthen behaviour’s, and your dog is not
going be scared of trying to work out what you are asking and builds a strong bond with a
foundation of trust between you and your dog. Where as the study showed that punishment-
based methods only showed associations with potential detriments such as reduced
interactivity during play and lower levels of interaction with new people, frightened of trying to
work out what your asking, distrust of the person. Thus, we conclude that for dog owners,
the use of reward-based training appears to be the most beneficial for the dog's welfare,
since it is linked to enhanced learning and a balanced healthy dog–owner relationship."

Fear reactive dogs are very close to my heart. I could talk ages on this topic but I will try to
keep short. A dog that's fearful of other dogs may bark. So when the dog barks you give the
dog a yank on his neck. Yes the dog will stop barking at the other dog as you've caused
pain to the dog which he will want to avoid. Just because a dog doesn't yelp doesn't mean
you've not caused that dog any pain. If it’s caused an immediate effect on your dog, question
yourself 'why has he stopped immediately'? It’s certainly not because you’ve emotionally
changed his response, it’s simply because you’ve caused the dog physical pain, otherwise
why would he stop barking? Any living thing will avoid pain as avoidance keeps us all safe
from getting hurt from something that may cause harm. Because you don't see him barking
anymore you presume your training is successful. But now you have another problem, the
dog still has his fear of dogs as you’ve not changed his emotional feeling towards the other
dogs, so now on top of that every time he sees a dog he's going to initiate it with pain and
punishment due to the pain he’s had from collar, so now the dog sees others dogs as
punishment so he's mentally going to fear them even more. So you think he's ok now with
other dogs now as he doesn’t react, you walk past a dog and without warning he bites the
other dog. Now you have a bigger issue. You’ve been punishing him for barking which is his
communication of letting you know that he is uncomfortable, so he’s not going to want to
bark as he knows pain will be inflicted so instead he will go straight to the next level which is
snap/bite. So now he's become unpredictable as you don’t now know when he’s not happy
about something. This then may lead to another issue, he's not going to want you to put a
collar and lead on as he knows it's going to cause some kind of unpleasantness so he may
become fearful and may start growling, running away , nipping etc. And then another issue
may occur he may not like his neck being touched so again he may growl at you when you
go near his neck. As you can see the list goes on and on and you become in a vicious circle.
Fear is a natural response, without fear you will potentially get hurt or even killed. So
punishing a fear response is certainly not the way to go about it. You need to mentally
change the way your dog thinks for you to see a physical change, just like we as humans do
if we have a fear of our own. Forcing your dog by inflicting pain will only escalate the
problem.

I’m probably going to get slated for this but I’m going to say it anyway. In today’s society
everyone wants quick results, they want everything now and everyone is in a rush. Instead
of taking your time, finding the route cause of why the dogs behaving the way it is and
emotionally changing the dogs way of thinking which in return will change the physical
response to change. If you are using any form of force/dominance to train a dog, yes you will
physically see an immediate response, as after all dogs will avoid pain, but you’ve not solved
the underlying problem, so your dog is never going to be comfortable with what ever he
dislikes/fearful of which of course can lead to other behaviour issues and more dangerous
behavioural problems.
Reward based training has many benefits, its a fun way to train, wanted behaviours are
strengthened, dog wants to be around you, your bond and trust grows. Reward based
training It is the most up-to-date, science-based training approach. Service dogs such as
police, dogs for blind, detection dogs are trained with reward based training. With so many
advantages of reward based learning, why would you want to use old fashioned
punishment/force training methods due to being the 'alpha' of the 'pack' when we now know
scientifically that there is no alpha leader, and that dogs are not a pack animal and that the
dominant training methods are proven to escalate the behaviour of the dog. Surely It’s our
job as trainers to keep up to date with the scientific research so that we are able to give the
correct up-to-date advice to dog owners and to able to help the dog in the best way possible,
not only for the dog but for the owners too.

Lastly I know some of you will disagree with what I’ve said and that's completely fine but
"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong".