It’s NOT Up To You: To treat or not to treat

One of the questions that comes up often is what type of reward (motivation tool) to use during dog training. Some folks swear by affection (The Monks of New Skete for example), some like to use toys (Wendy and Jack Volhard for example), and of course the old stand-by is food reward.

So which one of these (or is there a forth option?) is the best tool. The answer? It’s not up to you.

It’s up to the dog of course. What motivates the dog the most? Your job as a dog handler is to figure that out and then use that.
 
Most dogs are motivated by food, so of course food reward is the old stand-by; however, I’ve worked with dogs (two in particular come to mind) who could care less about food.

One (Lassie look alike) was all about affection. What was little bizarre about it is that Lassie was motivated particularly by male affection. Her owner was female, and her owner had worked with a female trainer before and they didn’t get very far. This dog seemed to respond and work for male affection.
 
The other (Snoopy look alike) wasn't motivated by affection, food or toys, but by interaction. She wanted someone who could match her energy and the level of excitement (the owner was an elderly lady who had another very mellow dog). Once you managed to get as hyper as she was, once we were on the same wave length of sorts, she was very easy to work with.

So how come some trainers have tremendous success always using just one method for all dogs? There are at least two reasons.

First, it is congruent with their personality and they have become technically proficient at maximizing the desired effects.
Second, there are ways in which one can make any of these methods more effective. In other words, we can manipulate the dog's proclivities to our advantage.

We will discuss the first point in another post, for now, we will talk about making whatever method you use more effective.

To that end, whatever is used for training, shouldn't be used outside the training. Why? Because it loses value.

Would you work for money if you had all the money in the world?

Lets drive this point home.

What is your favorite food? Pizza, cake, stake, chocolate...? If you were fed your favorite food 3 times a day, how long before you were entirely satiated and sick of that particular food?

By the same token, if your dog receives treats throughout the day and for doing absolutely nothing, those food rewards will start to matter less.
Affection is a particularly difficult thing to withdraw, however the same principle applies. If you are constantly smothering your dog with affection, he will not work for it. Same goes for toys. I am not saying to deprive your dog of toys, but I am saying that certain high-value toys that are used during training should ONLY be used during training.

Here is a trick some trainers use. This is almost never shared with general public.

Trainers will reward-starve the dog before the training session to make the dog work harder and pay close(er) attention to the handler. This may be a difficult concept to digest for some folks, but its no different than when your doctor asks you not to eat the day before a procedure.

Here is an example.

Lets say we will have a food-reward based training session tomorrow. In order to make the dog a highly cooperative party in this training session, we will choose NOT to feed the dog dinner the night before and breakfast the day of. A healthy dog can last weeks without food, so skipping 1-2 meals is not that drastic. You can bet that a dog who is only somewhat motivated by food will be highly motivated by food if hungry.

Same goes for affection. Trainers will keep the dog isolated for few hours to a day before engaging in a training session. Once the training begins and affection is shared with a dog that hasn't received it in a while, it becomes very valuable.

You can see how taking these techniques to their extreme can be cruel and inhumane, which is why they are NOT shared with general public.
Thinking goes like this. Your average dog owner is probably unable to apply these techniques in effective yet humane way. Besides, most dog owners don't need this level of cooperation. However, knowing about these techniques, how they are used, and how they are applied, should be enough to convince the dog owner to pull-back on treats outside the training times (if treats are used as motivation), or hold-back the affection if affection is used as a reward. Same goes for toys.

I would love to hear about weird dogs you've encountered. The ones that work only for male affection, or the ones who are looking for someone to match their energy level before they start "listening" to you. What motivational tool have you used outside of the big three? (food, affection, toy).

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If Life is Really as Short as They Say, Then Why is the Night so Long?

I came across this song while browsing http://garr.posterous.com/if-life-is-really-as-short-as-they-say-then-w
Awesome post, awesome song, I recommend you check it out.

So I decided to try to answer 2 out of three questions posed in this song.

What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?
How can a man like me remain in the light?

And I'm going to let you guys answer the last one.
If life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long?

Can there really be an answer to such questions? Who knows such things, but life is all about failing forward and if the choice is

1. Not trying and failing or
2. Trying and maybe succeeding

 Then I say we give it a whirl.

 

Q. What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?

A. Re-frame it.

Once I was sitting next to a teacher, much like the one in this song, and he told me about his "wellness knee".

When he was a young man, he severely injured his knee in a car accident and had to get several operations just to be able to walk again. His knee was shattered and it took months of recovery just to be able to walk again. He did recover, but never fully. His knee was never at 100% again.

Now that he was a man of certain age, his bad knee was a barometer of sorts. He called it his wellness knee. If he was eating right, getting enough sleep, exercising, meditating, and generally speaking taking good care of himself, his knee would be fine. If however, he was slacking-off in one of these areas, his knee would start to hurt. His bad knee was an indicator of how well he was living. It was his wellness knee.

I thought that was a brilliant way to re-frame a negative and turn it into a positive.

Can this method be used to glue the pieces of a broken heart back together? I think so.

Whenever it happened to me, I wrote a song about it. My broken heart became a treasure trove of inspiration. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the artist who wrote this song started in a similar predicament.

There are 3 occasions that I remember having a non-romantic pain from a broken heart. Those may not be as intense and can serve as a training ground of sorts. The three times I remember was when Freddie Mercury died, the second when Frank Zappa died and third and very recent when Daddy (Cesar Millan’s pit bull) died.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

I remember having a distinct case of a slightly bruised, cracking at the seams, damn-near broken heart. In these instances I always had a tendency to remove myself from the feelings and observe them at a distance. Later, I’ve learned that in Buddhism, this is known as Observer/Observed. A kind of out-of-body experience that with little bit of practice, anyone can use to take them selves out of a situation (even if you are in the middle of it) and take on a bird’s eye view.

It doesn’t matter if you are observing your feelings and noticing how the pain makes you feel alive; or if you are observing a business meeting and noticing the entire picture, the details, taking in everyone’s posture, the mood, etc.

Final word on reframing. Humans define themselves though suffering, it’s been said.
If you can take something bad and turn it into a wellness knee, then you know what to do with a broken heart.

 

Q. How can a man like me remain in the light?

A. Its not the darkness, it’s the opportunity.

I struggled with this one, as I imagine many of us do. You see, when I was a young man living in Bosnia, Serbian armies had invaded my country. I’ve lost my father in that war, many of my close friends had perished, and I became a refugee living in tenement camps until eventually I landed in the good ol’ US of A. For many years, I’ve carried resentment and pain towards Serbs.

Until one day I heard His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak about a young boy who was forced to flee his land narrowly escaping his prosecutors who did their best to track him down and kill him, for this young boy was the spiritual leader of a nation. That boy of course, was Dalai Lama himself.

At that time, Dalai Lama was forced to take on the burden of a displaced and destroyed nation, assume both spiritual and political leadership while in exile, all the while practicing love, compassion and understanding.

So how do you show compassion to your persecutors? This is what he said and I paraphrase.

I realized, he said, that Chinese were a challenge and an obstacle I needed to deal with, but I didn’t feel resentment, hatred nor need for revenge. Instead, I saw it as an opportunity to practice forgiveness.

An opportunity to practice forgiveness.

I kinda took on faith that it was the right thing to do and it turned out that it was. The act of forgiveness is ultimately self-serving because it takes the burden away from us. The burden that we would otherwise take with us in all future situations.

Your turn.

Q. If life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long?

 

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Everything you know about dog training is wrong. Here is why - PART EIGHT

 

The Nature of Modern Existence… and Dogs – SECTION TWO

In the first section of the modern-life problem tree, we’ve seen how the nature of modern existence puts us in a misalignment with our biology. 

In this section, we will discus psychological factors affecting our existence and how it relates to human-dog relationship. 

One of my favorite psychologists is Abraham Maslow. Why? 

Maslow has come up with an ingenious way of classifying the human psychological condition. Maslow’s Theory of Needs is one of those rare gems that fits into Eastern philosophies just as easily as Greek. Both Buddha and Socrates would have been proud. 

It also fits into modern schools of philosophy. From Kant to Freud, Nietzsche to Frankl. 

Sidebar: These 4 guys are basically 4 different schools of though (sounds familiar dog trainers?) and pillars of modern philosophy and psychology. The root difference between them are in the disagreement as to what motivates us as humans. Is it will to logic, sexual instinct, will to power or will to meaning? But let’s get back to Maslow.

You can “drape” Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs over anything. Here is a non-dog example. My friend Jill asked me once “why do people ride motorcycles?”, so I decided to answer her in my motorcycle blog using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which you can find at http://www.2wheeltips.com/magazine/read/why-do-we-ride-_116.html 

Both people AND philosophies can be entirely classified within Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

The only caveat is that different areas of your life will fit into different parts of the hierarchy, Let me give you an example:

When it comes to Dog Training, you might fit into Level 4 (high esteem), however, when it comes to your finances, you might fit into Level 2 (need for safety). 

We will go over these levels in a moment. 

Also, the same area of your life will fit into different levels as you move through life. 

Example: You might have been born very poor and your basic need for survival wasn’t assured (this is Level 1); however, as you got older, you’ve managed to provide yourself with shelter, safety, money, things, etc. (Moving up to Levels 2 and 3). As you got older, you wanted to give-back, so you’ve started a charity, which moved you into Level 4 and 5 and so on. 

Here is a visual depiction of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 

Lets move through Maslow’s Hierarchy as a 90 percenter. 

I’ve asked my Paleolithic friend Java, to write me a letter from the past and tell me how he spends his days. I also asked him to map it to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; this is what he wrote.

For 90 thousand years, as a human, I lead a nomadic life, living day-to-day, unsafe, using primitive shelters, and so on. Clearly, I spend most of my time leading a Level 1 existence of Maslow’s Hierarchy. 

I build fire and primitive shelter, sometimes a sleep in a cave; this provides safety from the elements and nocturnal hunters. This mean that I spend the rest of my time at Level 2. 

The fact that I live in a pack, extended familial unit, or a tribe, does offer me some level of safety (Level 3).  

Of course, sometimes I do engage in Level 4 (High esteem) actions. Example: Getting really good at chucking a spear, laying a trap, skinning an animal, and so on. 

Also, someone needs to lead my tribe on a hunt, if I’m able to bring in the biggest animal they will elect me Chief and my chances of procreation will drastically improve. (Level 4 tied into Level 1. After all, procreation is survival)

On a rare quiet night, I like to hang out in my cave and carve pictures on the wall of the animals I’ve killed that day. (Level 5).

Thanks Java, that was very revealing. What can we learn from this?

This part is very important so “listen” closely. 

For 90 thousand years, better part of our day was spent at Levels 1 and 2. Surviving was a full time job. 

Now days, Levels 1 and 2 are all taken care of. 

We have plenty to eat (most people in most countries); water comes out of a spigot which is in our large, safe shelters. We live in such an age of abundance that our lives are fully taken care of at Levels 1 and 2. Remember that Levels 1 and 2 were the levels where we spend almost all of our time as 90 percenters. 

We no longer have to pursue survival and safety, we are free to engage in higher Levels, but do we?

Let me conclude this post by tying psychological factors affecting our existence with human-dog relationship.

Psychologically, we are unchallenged. Our primal instincts have atrophied. We are lulled into a false sense of security and survival-entitlement. We are not extending ourselves (psychologically) to reach Levels 3,4,5 or the “secret” Level 6 (more on that later). 

There are of course biological factors for this. We are evolutionarily predisposed for conservation of energy (mental and physical). 

What I am suggesting is that we can override this safety-mechanism that was embedded in our DNA thousands of years ago and extend ourselves beyond the current levels. How? Dogs of course. 

But before I get into that, let me stress the following. 

Humans of today, have a very peculiar psychological unrest. You feel it, no? 

While I’m the first to question most scientific data, especially data of a statistical nature, all research in the levels of happiness points to the fact that people’s happiness is at an all time low. Why? 

Because this thing we use to do for thousands of years is missing. Trust me, if you had to worry about survival and safety, so many of the things that bring you stress and seem important would be irrelevant to you. 

So what do you do about it? Go live a nomadic life style, hunt and scavenge for food? Build primitive shelters? Hmmm…that’s not a bad idea, we should all be so lucky to be able to fend for ourselves if need be, but that’s not what I’m suggesting. If it’s illogical to go back, lets move forward (or since it’s a hierarchy, let’s move up).

Dog can help us move up this hierarchy, here is how. 

At Level 3 of Maslaw’s Hierarchy is need for Social inclusion. Both humans and dogs are social animals. I know people with social anxieties whose sole contact with other humans is when they take their dogs out to the dog park. If dogs can help people like this, imagine what they can do for you? It is almost trait to state that dogs can fill a very real need for companionship. People with pets are shown to live longer, feel better and so on. If you know someone who doesn’t have a dog in their life, get them one for their birthday. 

At Level 4 of Maslaw’s Hierarchy is need for mastery. This is the level at which life-long martial artists reside; or anyone who is really good at something; someone who has mastered their craft, whether it’s motorcycling, juggling, dancing, dog training? Of course. Mastering the skills required to become a good dog trainer would certainly move us up a level. 

At Level 5 of Maslaw’s Hierarchy is need for Self-Actualization. To borrow army’s slogan “be all you can be” kind of thing. We can enter competitions with our dog (agility, tracking, whatever). Of course, training your canine will require infinite amount of creativity and patience; and more difficult something is the more value it has. 

At Level 6 of Maslaw’s Hierarchy is need for Self-Transcendence. (Maslow added this level later in his life). This is the level at which you go beyond yourself and put needs of others (peoples, dogs, places, whatever) before your own. Maybe you decide to teach someone how to achieve what you’ve achieved. We instinctively have respect for teachers, now you know why. 

Those who volunteer their time, skills, wisdom and share it with others are engaging in legacy-building. We may not live forever but our impact can be felt forever, so make it good. 

Last but not least, the importance of all this is so that we can model our own behavior and “pull-up” other aspects of our life (Fitness, leadership, relationship, spirituality, finances, etc, etc) up the hierarchy. Here are few examples: 

If you are a fan of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), you know that collegiate wrestlers do really well in MMA. Why? One of the reasons is because they know what it takes to get good at something, they know how hard they have to work, they’ve done it before and they put their nose to the grind and do it. In other words, they can model their own behavior to move up the hierarchy. 

I’ve read somewhere that Donald Trump, in his typical boastful style, has stated that he’s not afraid of risks even if it results in him going broke. He is confident that he can become rich again. Why? He can model his own behavior to replicate results. In other words, he can model his own behavior to move up the hierarchy.

Conclusion. 

During the first 90 thousand years of human evolution, bulk of our time was spent surviving and ensuring our safety. Now, our society has evolved to the point where survival and safety is built-into the nature of modern existence. What do we do with our time surplus? If we are to maintain our physical and mental health, we must seek to move up the hierarchy. Nothing less then the survival of our species is at stake. No worries, your dog will be your teacher. He is already self-transcendent. 

In the next post, we will examine the transitional nature of our current society and how it affects our relationship with dogs. 

 

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The Tail is Wagging the Dog

We all know that happy dogs wag their tail; but is there more to it? 

There IS a difference between a relaxed, “half mast” wag and a stiff, pointing straight-up wag. The former is good and indicative of a friendly dog; while the latter is bad and indicative of a tense, possibly dominate and potentially aggressive dog. 

Latest scientific research seems to point that the tail-wag is even more intricate then we thought. 

The tail-wag to the left seems to signal to other dogs that “I’m friendly and safe to approach”, while a tail-wag leaning to the right seems to signal that “I’m tense and potentially unfriendly”. Here is the original article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1247380/The-tell-tail-clue-happy-dog--wag-left.html

This is just another in a long line of evidence that dogs use sophisticated body-language to communicate with one another as well as with unsuspecting humans. Can you imagine what's going though a dog's mind after he bites a human? The dog is probably thinking “man, I clearly indicated to that silly human that I’m not comfortable with his approach, why did he have to try and touch me? Silly humans”. 

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Why Do Dogs Eat Grass?

It’s the most commonly asked question about dogs in google search database. 

So why do dogs eat grass? There are two things we can say for sure. 

1. We can’t be 100% sure why. 
2. There are almost as many reasons as there are dogs. 

With that out of the way, most likely reason is to raise a little bile to aid in digestion. The nausea-inducing properties of grass are well-documented. Just eat a handful yourself if you don’t buy this logic. 

The other theories are:

• The vitamin and mineral theory: As in, they’re not getting enough, therefore they consume grass.
• The roughage theory: Because dogs need some cellulose in small quantities to aid in bacterial digestion (sort of like a prebiotic), they sometimes consume the green stuff by way of reestablishing bacterial homeostasis.
• The angry tummy theory: If you had some excess gastric acid, maybe a little esophageal reflux and no prehensile thumbs with which to grab a bottle of Tums or a little Pepcid AC, you might just eat grass, too.
• The hungry dog theory: Some dogs just like it. Period. We all know a few who doubtless do.

What do you think?

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Why Do Dogs Eat Grass?

It’s the most commonly asked question about dogs in google search database. 

So why do dogs eat grass? There are two things we can say for sure. 

1. We can’t be 100% sure why. 
2. There are almost as many reasons as there are dogs. 

With that out of the way, most likely reason is to raise a little bile to aid in digestion. The nausea-inducing properties of grass are well-documented. Just eat a handful yourself if you don’t buy this logic. 

The other theories are:

• The vitamin and mineral theory: As in, they’re not getting enough, therefore they consume grass.
• The roughage theory: Because dogs need some cellulose in small quantities to aid in bacterial digestion (sort of like a prebiotic), they sometimes consume the green stuff by way of reestablishing bacterial homeostasis.
• The angry tummy theory: If you had some excess gastric acid, maybe a little esophageal reflux and no prehensile thumbs with which to grab a bottle of Tums or a little Pepcid AC, you might just eat grass, too.
• The hungry dog theory: Some dogs just like it. Period. We all know a few who doubtless do.

What do you think?

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Everything you know about dog training is wrong. Here is why - PART FIVE

The issue of detachment, or is attachment the issue?

Dog professionals are detached from the process of dog training. This may sound like a bad thing or even an accusation, but as you will see, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Let me ask you a question.

Would you say that your behavior is at least slightly different at work then it is at home?
Perhaps you are more in control of your emotions at work?
Perhaps you are more hyper at work which causes you to veg-out in front of the TV when you get home?
Did you know that dog trainers are at work when they are trying to help you address your canine quandary?

Ok, so that was kind of a snarky remark, so let me back track a bit.

When I’m working with a client I MUST project confidence, high energy and intelligence. I MUST stay on my toes and be at my sharpest. I CAN NOT let emotions cloud my judgment, I MUST think in terms of the best possible outcome. I CANT take anything a dog (or the owner) does personally and to heart. I must “detach” myself from the process and assume a birds eye view of the situation, get the big picture and act in everyone’s best interest. After all, this is what I get paid to do.

Now let’s consider the way a typical owner approaches a walk or a training session or any situation involving his dog.

The dog owner may be quite capable of projecting confidence, high energy and intelligence while at work, but let’s face it, after we get home who can muster enough energy to do all that just for that damn mutt? Besides, I (the dog owner that is) want to relax when I’m with my dog and “be myself”. I’m too tired to think about the outcome, I’m thinking about that thing that happened at work, and that meeting I have with the client. I feed and shelter this dog, isn’t that enough? How dare he be disobedient, doesn’t he know what I go through to keep a roof over his head? Taking care of this dog feels like a job and I don’t even get paid for it…this sucks.

Everything a dog does (to a dog owner) is personal. The dog owner takes everything to heart and often reacts emotionally when facing a misbehaving canine. So let me say this again.

The extent of your success will depend directly on the extent to which you are able to replicate these attributes inherent in the nature of dog training profession.

I maintain that the extent of any dog owner’s success will depend directly on the extent to which a dog owner is able to replicate these invisible attributes possessed by dog trainers. These attributes are inherent in the relationship between a dog, dog owner and dog trainer. Dog trainers get paid to be calm, cool and collected.

I bet that you (the dog owner) would do much better with somebody else’s dog with which you have no emotional attachment all the while making money for doing it. Don’t you think?

How do we get past this? Here are few suggestions.

• Detach yourself from the outcome.
• Enjoy the process. 
• Don’t expect perfection or blind obedience. 
• Understand that your dog will perform only to the level to which you’ve met his (the dog’s) needs. 
• Bring MORE to the table (confidence, energy, intelligence, knowledge, etc). 
• Don’t take things personally, it’s just a dog. 
• Would you be mad at a human baby for pooping his pants? So why are you mad at a dog for being a dog?

The issue of detachment is a subtle one. I hope I’ve been able to relate it in a useful fashion.

What did you take away from this chapter?

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