Pawsitive = Fear Free, Force Free

Why we do not use aversives in the delivery of any of our services.  

Originally published October 24 / 2017.

First and foremost, we want to build a rapport and a positive relationship with your pet.  

No bad first impressions, please!  If your pet's first experience with us were to be one of discomfort (say, a jerk on the leash or the pop of a choke collar), then they will likely associate us with that negative experience.  We want your pet eagerly awaiting our arrival for whatever service we may be providing.  We want them to look forward to seeing us, just as we look forward to seeing them.

Secondly, we can deal with unwanted behaviours in a kinder, gentler way.

I promise.  We're not just bleeding hearts, there is decades of research to support an evidence-based and rewards-based approach to modifying behaviour.

Although some behaviours can be frustrating and hard to live with, and punishment may be a tempting way to quickly suppress the behaviour...  doing so is like playing a game of whack-a-mole.  If you don't deal with the underlying factors contributing to the behaviour, it will just pop up somewhere else and repeatedly punishing behaviours can lead to a fearful or shut-down dog.

September 2018 Adendenum:

An experience we had during our summer holidays reminded me of this blog post, and I wanted to add a personal anecdote that reinforces everything I wrote above. 

This summer while on vacation as a family, we stayed at a hotel-style suite on a lake.  A quirk about this place was that all of their smoke alarms were inter-connected and also highly sensitive, so that if one room set off their alarm, every room’s alarm would go off.  

One morning our son was about to go brush his teeth and the alarm went off just as he entered the bathroom.  This scared him, of course, and he came running out.  We comforted him and assured him that everything was fine, it was just the alarm had been set off by someone making their breakfast in another unit.  We checked around and everything was fine. 

Our son was afraid to re-enter the bathroom despite the fact that the alarm had nothing to do with brushing his teeth.   Because the two events had occurred at the same time, his brain made a connection between the two, and caused his “warning system” to activate when he headed towards the bathroom again.  

With loving support and reassurance from his parents, our son was able to overcome this anxiety and continue with his routine, but the next time he needed to go into that same washroom he hesitated.  After a few times he was able to understand that the timing was coincidental, but it took many more times to undo the fear than it did to create it.

This is yet another example of why aversive conditioning is dangerous and can very easily have unintended side-effects, and why we will never, ever use shock collars, choke chains, or other painful or scary stimuli when working with animals (or humans, for that matter!).  A mistake in timing while administering punishment can lead to long-term problems, and why take that risk when evidence-based training has long since demonstrated that there is a more humane (and more fun!) way.  

Additional Readings: 

Aileen Anderson wrote a great blog post about the fallout of aversives which can be found at https://eileenanddogs.com/fallout-aversives-punishment-negative-reinforcement/

If you are struggling with your dog's behaviour, please view our blog post on finding a compassionate, qualified trainer at http://pawsitivepooch.blogspot.ca/2016/04/finding-trainer.html 

If you would like suggestions for alternative methods or tools, please feel free to ask us, we are here to help!

Learn more about us via our Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/PawsPetMB

Visit our website at www.PawsitiveCare.ca

Jillian has been studying animal behaviour since 2009.  She is a certified professional dog trainer, a certified fear-free animal trainer, and a member of the pet professional guild.  To learn more about Jillian's qualifications and experience, please visit PawsitiveCare.ca/about-the-owner

 

To read more about the risks of aversives, Eileen Anderson also has a blog post summarizing her research and writings on shock collars available at https://eileenanddogs.com/shock-collar-info/ 

Hallowe'en with Pets

Tips for keeping your pets safe and reducing their stress at Hallowe’en. 

Have you ever come home wearing a new hat or sunglasses and had your dog react strangely to you until he realized who you were?  Dogs are very sensitive and perceptive to changes in their environment and, just like humans, dogs react to changes in different ways.  Some easy-going dogs might actually enjoy hallowe’en and the excitement of people coming and going, but please know that they are in the very small minority.

Many dogs will be quite afraid of the costumes and will be quite riled up by repeated knocks at the door or the ringing of the doorbell.  If your dog is in that majority, or if you're at all unsure, I recommend setting up a quiet room for him where he can relax. 

Here is the plan we follow:

• During the day when it’s still light outside, we take the dogs for a nice long walk.  We enjoy the Fall colours and allow the dogs to sniff and explore, to get as much exercise and enrichment as possible before dusk.

• We delay the dogs’ dinners until the Trick-or-Treaters start to come out and then we provide our dogs their dinners in stuffed Kongs.  For more about stuffing Kongs please visit our Thunder Phobia blog post and for other ideas for keeping your dog(s) entertained, please visit our Boredom Busters blog post. 
  

• Our dogs are kennel trained, so they go into their kennels (as far as possible from the front door) once the costumed children start arriving.  If your dog is not content in a kennel you can use an X-Pen or a quiet room with the door closed.  We put on some calming music or talk radio to help drown out the sounds.

• One of us is on “door duty”.  We keep the front door within our view, so we can see the kids coming before they ring the doorbell, and show up with their candy before they’ve had a chance to knock.

If you have kids who will be dressing up, or if you like to dress up yourself, I highly recommend allowing your dog to get used to the costumes well in advance.  Put on different pieces of the costume (start with the bottom and work your way up so your dog can still see it’s you) and give your dog treats or play with him for a little while, then take it off again.  Later add another piece of the costume and do the same, and so on, until your dog has seen you in the full costume.  If you’re wearing a mask or something that covers your face let your dog watch you put it on so he sees the change in front of him, then give him his very favourite treat then remove the mask quickly.

For cats, consider a safe room as well.  If you are opening your door repeatedly it is possible your cat could sneak out, then get spooked with all the costumes, and it could be difficult to get her back home.  This could be very traumatic for your kitty and for your family!

Hallowe’en only comes once a year, so if you don’t need your pets to get used to the costumes, the bright lights, the sounds, the scary music, the kids screaming, and so on, consider giving them a safe space and letting him skip this strange human custom altogether.

For more tips and information on Halloween with pets, please visit Family Paws’ blog post on the topic at https://www.familypaws.com/halloween-and-hounds/

Happy Hallowe’en!

 To learn more about us, please visit us on Facebook at Facebook.com/PawsPetMB

 and visit our website at www.PawsitiveCare.ca 

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

...if you'll kindly excuse the terrible pun.

This blog was written in two parts, so please excuse the disjointed writing style.  As more and more evidence mounts regarding the fallout of force-based training we absolutely must advocate for a kinder and more effective approach. 

March 2019 Addendum:

In order to utilize punishment-based training, the animal first has to make a mistake so that you can punish the unwanted behaviour (or worse - be set up to make the mistake just to be punished for the sake of learning).  This sets the animal (and their human) up for failure and ensures the animal continues practicing the unwanted behaviour unless it is sufficiently punished out of him.  This is reactive, unnecessarily harsh, and harms the human-animal bond and trust.  

To utilize rewards-based training you need to manage the environment to reduce the likelihood of the animal practicing the unwanted behaviour, then replace the undesirable behaviour with something you'd prefer and reward it like crazy so that it happens more often.  This is proactive, requires some creativity, is so much more fun for everyone, and improves the human-animal bond and trust.  

For a practical and common example: the dog barks at the front window when another dog passes by. In punishment-based training you wait for the dog to bark, then yell at him, smack him (or worse) so that he stops.  He stops for that hour or maybe for that day but then usually resumes, or at least continues the behaviour when you're not in the room.  

With rewards-based behaviour you might put up curtains or a frosting on the window to reduce the dog's ability to see passersby.  Then you might set up training sessions where he sees dogs go by and you make this a cue for something else, such as go lie down on your mat, then you reward the dog like crazy for laying down on his mat.  This may take dedication and practice, but with time and consistency your dog will be more likely to go lie down on his mat than bark at the front window because you have made one behaviour much more rewarding than another.  

Even Adults Will Work For Gold Stars!

Let's talk specifics for a moment.  Some proponents of the prong collar claim that it does not hurt the dog, it merely causes “discomfort” and/or distracts and redirects the dog.  Experts disagree, but let’s pretend this is true.  How well do you learn when you’re uncomfortable or anxious?  How well do you think you would learn if you were worried about an unpleasant correction?  

Now how well do you learn when you’re having fun, enjoying the process, experiencing success, and receiving rewards?   

I recently got a new activity tracker and immediately improved my running performance.  Did I get faster overnight?  No.  This fitness tracker provides a high rate of reinforcement with frequent alerts telling me when I’d reached certain distance or pace goals.  This encouraged me to speed up, keep going, and rewarded me for my efforts (yes, adults will work for gold stars!).  This is what happens for your pet when you use positive reinforcement training and provide frequent rewards.  You’re giving your pet a message when he is getting the behaviour correct, encouraging him to keep trying, and rewarding him for the desired performance.  This is what motivates all animals, including humans, and including your dog.  This is also a much more effective (and kind) way to build your bond and have a fun working relationship.  

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

originally published in March 2017

There is sentiment being expressed by some in the "balanced" trainer world (balanced is a term some trainers use to describe using both positive reinforcement and positive punishment in their practice) that we, the trainers, have failed dogs by being too politically correct.  Some say we're too afraid to recommend aversive tools such as prong collars and shock collars because they are taboo in the positive reinforcement training community.  Some claim that when a dog is totally out of control it is better for them to be trained using pain than not to be trained at all; better to hurt that dog in the name of training than to have him hurt a person or another dog; better to use pain to train than to have to euthanize that dog.

Firstly, we're focusing on the wrong thing.  Why does a person have an out-of-control dog in the first place?  Were they allowed to adopt a dog that in no way should have been adopted to them?  Did they purchase or adopt a dog whose needs were beyond their capabilities?  Does the dog just need some impulse control training, which can be done using positive reinforcement?  Can we manage the situation and environment while working on the behaviour?

Why do we keep trying to go backwards in the progress we've made away from harsh, unnecessary, and sometimes cruel means of changing behaviour in dogs?

I've seen some argue in favour of correction because dogs correct each other, and Mama dogs correct their puppies.  Guess what?  Dogs know we are not dogs, we're not fooling them or anyone else.  Not to mention the fact that dogs' reaction time and accuracy are far greater than ours.  Even if we could convince our dogs we were one of them, we could never match the speed and precision of their corrections.  Dogs learn when events are paired closely together in time.  A correction delivered late punishes the wrong behaviour, or worse, punishes randomly leaving the dog bewildered and feeling a complete loss of control.

Secondly, aggression begets aggression.  I'm so tired of hearing (or reading) people claim that force is the only way to control an aggressive or potentially dangerous dog.  Using painful methods to try to suppress behaviour is extremely dangerous in itself.  Either the dog becomes more aggressive as a means to defend itself against the threat, or the dog stops the outwardly aggressive behaviour and is a simmering pot of frustration just waiting to boil over.  Punishing the behaviour does not remove the underlying feelings, emotions, or motivations: The fear or frustration are still there, under the surface.  Punishing the outward behaviour only makes the dog more dangerous because now we cannot predict when he may finally snap.

Let's pretend the dog doesn't snap.  Is it fair for the dog to live with that kind of turmoil lurking just under the surface, harshly corrected with shock or prong whenever he tries to communicate how frustrated he is feeling?  Is that any quality of life for a dog?  Not only is he now more dangerous to his family and community, he lives a life of suffering, his ability to communicate completely cut off.

Instead of focusing on the end result and being reactive, we need to be proactive.  We need to focus on preventing these behaviours from developing in the first place, and shelters and rescues must make every effort to ensure an appropriate match is made at time of adoption.  And yes, we do need to teach the public that there is a better way, and that they can make a difference using positive reinforcement.  If a dog's behavioural problem is too complex for the owner to handle on their own, they need to seek expert advice from an evidence-based trainer, and we need to make sure they can get it.  In the mean time, we can help that owner use management to keep herself, her dogs, and others safe while she receives professional assistance in addressing the issues.

Instead of turning to antiquated, inhumane practices simply because a situation is not manageable in its current state, we can use our intellect and creativity to set the person and dog up for success.  We can and we must do better.  We are only failing dogs, and the people who love them, when we don't use the vast scientific resources and knowledge at our disposal to improve the quality of life and the relationships between people and their dogs.

If you are struggling with a reactivity or aggression in your dog, you may find one of these blog posts helpful:
Reactive Dog Myths: http://pawsitivepooch.blogspot.ca/2014/12/dispelling-reactive-dog-myths.html
Understanding Reactivity: http://pawsitivepooch.blogspot.ca/2015/09/understanding-dog-reactivity.html
Classical Conditioning: http://pawsitivepooch.blogspot.ca/2016/02/remember-pavlov.html
Finding a Trainer: http://pawsitivepooch.blogspot.ca/2016/04/finding-trainer.html

-Jillian Enright, CPDT-KA

About the Author:
Jillian is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed, and a Fear-Free Certified Professional.

Jillian has been studying psychology and behaviour since 2003 and has been a professional pet trainer since 2010.

For more information, please visit our website

We're on Facebook at Facebook.com/PawsPetMB

Psychology Today Article on the topic of prong, choke, and shock collars:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/201904/should-dogs-be-shocked-choked-or-pronged