Dogs, Pavlov, and Skinner
What are we, as dog owners and trainers, to make of the mechanistic learning science doctrines of Pavlov, Skinner, and others? The troublesome outcome of their work in animal and human experiments is that their concepts were sterile and inadequate, and forced to explain all behavior as combinations and sequences of exact, independent, reflexive actions. […]
What Kind Of Dog Do You Have?
One of the first questions I ask a potential student is about the kind of dog they have. I do this because training should match the dog, not the other way around. Once the breed, breeding, or mix of breeds, is established, then I want to know what kind of training the owner is seeking. […]
Force Free vs Balanced Dog Training?
There has been a long-standing dispute between the “force free” dog training community advocates and the “balanced” dog training community advocates. What’s that all about? The “force free” dog training community are generally those who advocate that all dog training should be comprised of positive reinforcement methods. In this group, it is considered inhumane to […]
My Male Dogs Want To Fight
Aggression is a difficult topic to explain and treat. First, we want all dogs to get along, and it is hard to understand why dogs that were friends are now in conflict. Second, it is hard to find research studies on dog fights because of the obvious difficulty and danger of working with aggressively stimulated […]
When Punishing Your Dog Backfires
Small example. Your dog has been punished for every little thing while you are home. Punishment is a learning theory term which means applying a consequence that reduces the frequency of a behavior. It doesn’t necessarily imply that you’ve done something horrible to your dog… but we can discuss that further at another time. You […]
Adding A New Dog Into Your Home
Are you considering getting another dog? What do you need to do to have the highest chance of success? And what if your current dogs are fighting? The first consideration should be whether your current dogs have a culture that would be good for another dog. Groups are self-teaching. That can be good or bad. […]
Emotional And Behavioral Control In Dogs
Is it fair to expect dogs to immediately and correctly respond calmly or happily to changes in situations? Think about what this means. Your trained dog is calmly resting on her bed in the living room while you read a book. The doorbell rings, waking your dog up, causing your dog to run to the […]
Dog Training Science
It is disturbing to read the scientific research we all use to train dogs. The most famous of researchers had to make a decision to treat their subjects as unfeeling machines in order to do their experiments, and to then mock those who were concerned or who described how those animals were feeling. Science is […]
Behavioral Disturbances In Dogs
Does your dog suffer from an emotional behavioral disturbance, such as chronic generalized anxieties, depression, compulsive behaviors, or phobias? These neuroses are maladaptive, distressing conditions that are resistant to typical dog training methods. I’ve worked with dogs displaying disturbances like this which interfere with learning, cause physical symptoms, and exaggerated emotional displays. There was the […]
First Steps Training Your Dog
Dogs can become hypervigilant, looking for danger where it doesn’t exist and seeking stimulus that isn’t relevant to your presence, and too impulsive and having difficulty regulating their behavior. That imbalance is corrected as we get your dog to accept and look forward to more social interactions and all environments. We need reciprocating competent social […]