Dog Training and Positive Reinforcement

Dog Training, Science, and Positive Reinforcement

There are myths about positive reinforcement and dog training. Common myths are that you have to use food to train and that your dog won't listen if you don't have food available.

Why use science for dog training?

At first, it seems impersonal - even cold - to apply principals of science to getting our beloved dogs to do what we want. The truth is, we have always used science to determine how we treat dogs. Before the 19th century and scientific methods, animals were believed to be unfeeling. The introduction of scientific methods did not instantly create respect for animals. It has taken years, but it was because the scientific method discovered animals had neural pathways which processed pain that we believe our animals have emotions. This lead to other studies which revealed how indepth and complex animals were and consequently allowed humans to acknowledge that animals could indeed feel.

Darwin

Since Darwin's time and his introduction of the scientific method, science has split into many categories. Each category brings new perspectives and research to the table. This is one of the reasons we end up with varying perspectives on animals. Biologists, Mammalogists, Behaviorists, Ethologists, Veterinarians, Geneticists, and others each provide a part of the animal picture. With few exceptions, all research is done for the benefit of humans first and second for the animals.

Dominance, Alpha dog, and pack theory.

The scientific research that gave us dominance, and related dogs to wolves, was years before DNA sequencing was readily available. The correlation between wolves and dogs has been hypothesized for centuries, but until recently we thought the connection was direct. It turns out that dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, but it didn't happen the way humans first thought - that wolves were directly bred and the outcome was a domestic dog. It turns out it's much more complicated than that.

The greater understanding we have about ancient cultures and the more we learn about dogs placement within those cultures the better clues we have to understanding our pet dogs history.

We have learned that wolves do not follow a strict heirarchal social make-up as science thought back in the 1960's. This is important for a two reasons. The first is the obvious - that if wolves do not follow a hierarchy and if we used that as a model for our domestic dogs - then the model must change. The second part is that if the social structure is not hierarchal then what is it? One answer is that their social structure is complex, and because it is complex labels (alpha, dominance, submissive, etc.) are no longer useful to describe what is happening.

Science changes much faster today than ever before. What took years to analyze in the past now may take a few months. What we understood as scientific fact 30 or more years ago became a household word before newer methods disproving previous data were published. Part of understanding the scientific method is understanding that it may take years to disprove a hypothesis because their may be no way to test a hypothesis until the technology catches up. This is why some philosophies surrounding dog training feel like they are common sense, but really they are old hypotheses that were disproven over time.

Positive Reinforcement in Dog Training

Positive reinforcement is a specific term. It means to add (positive) something good to increase (reinforcement) behavior. Sometimes reinforcement and reward are interchanged, but reinforcement is technically correct. Notice how food is not the focus of reinforcement. Reinforcement can be anything the animal likes - a favorite toy, attention, going for a run, playing frisbee, etc. Food is often the easiest reinforcer to use, especially with zoo animals, which is why it is so commonly used.

Force

Imagine for a minute you are working in a zoo and you need to do foot care on the elephant. This is a dangerous job. Not too many years ago (and sadly, it still happens today), in order to work on an elephant foot, zookeepers disciplined elephants with a bullhook. A giant fish hook capable of piercing elephant skin used to force an elephant to cooperate. After the introduction of positive reinforcement, elephants considered aggressive and difficult to work with became cooperative and pleasant. The bottom line - force of any kind is unnecesary to get the job done.

Species and Learning

Humans are not mice and dogs are not wolves. It's true that studies do not always apply to other species, but reinforcement and learning theory works for all species. What was originally studied in dogs has been tested on hundreds of species including humans with incredible results. Learn how positive reinforcement is applied to children with autism. Here's how positive reinforcement helped captive pandas. Positive reinforcement and elephants and an article about training dolphins.

Pavlov and Skinner

What's important about Pavlov and Skinner? Their work set the stage for humans to understand that both nurturing and nature take place in learning. Through their work, it has been discovered that we do not have to cut animals open to find out what is going on inside of them in order to change their behavior. We don't have to know what an animal is thinking to get the behavior we want. In fact, we can give dogs a choice in the matter by setting up their environment up so they succeed, and the only muscle we have to flex in the process is our brain.

Dog Training and Science

What science doesn't mean to dog training is that our animals are robots or that our love for them is not real. Quite the opposite, science has proven that our animals are complex beings that respond to their environment based on many factors, not simplified hieracrchical mechanistic examples of gene expression.

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