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Mary Mazzeri

Carpentersville, IL

847-426-5089

Serving the Chicago region in the Fox Valley area since 1970

Group Classes

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Behavior Modification

Board & Train 

  IACP Certified Dog Trainer/Instructor CDT

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KINDERGARTEN PUPPY TRAINING--MANAGEMENT AND TRAINING

The Management and Training Equation

A view to balance by Mary Mazzeri

When interacting with a pup, people think like people, and it is ‘only human’ to impose our ‘human thought processes’ on our dogs and interpret dog behavior through ‘human perspective’. Unless a dog’s owner makes some effort to understand their dog’s behavior and instincts, there is a good probability that a dog will develop behavior problems. Some pet owners assume their pooch is ‘pre-programmed' to understand all that is required of it. Many pups grow up like Topsy, without any ‘fetching up’. They are expected to figure things out on their own and understand the subtleties of human linguistics and society.

Dogs do come pre-programmed –to act like dogs. Dogs want to know who is in charge. They crave enjoyable, understandable relationships, and consistent ‘rules’. Those in charge set the relational rules of order. Wise owners teach their pups what is acceptable play: e.g. retrieving puppy toys and what is not: e.g. knocking down the 3 yr. old. They teach the pup to sit patiently while its food bowl is placed. In the pup’s mind, those who control resources are the leaders. Leaders teach the pup to accept gentle restraint. In the pup’s mind those who control personal space are the leaders. Leaders teach the puppy where to sleep, where it is and is not allowed, and to ‘move out of the way’ when the leader walks by. In the pup’s mind those who control territory are the leaders. These types of simple rules establish healthy relationships within the perceived ‘pack’. Such a relationship is fun, safe and secure. These relational skills help mold the pup’s ‘world view’. Dogs learn these things through both intentional and unintentional training.

An essential element of learning is ‘management’. Management means controlling the learning experiences to direct the outcomes. Examples of management would be placing barriers to confine a pup to keep it safe and to keep it from developing bad habits or causing damage. Fenced yards, doorway baby gates and cages are examples of managed barriers. Other types of management involve keeping items out of reach that might harm a pup or that a pup might damage. It is providing the pup with safe toys, healthy food, and good health care. The ultimate managing principle is supervision where all behavior can be rewarded, redirected or corrected in a timely way. When a pup can’t be supervised, it should be safely confined.

Initially, training is externally imposed or induced. Once a pup learns a behavior however, the behavior can either be maintained through external management, internalized motivation, or a combination of both. Initially training relies, to some degree, on setting up or controlling learning experiences. Outcomes are orchestrated to teach the dog how to respond appropriately. This is Training Management and it is a good place to start. Some dogs, however, never get past being managed and don’t, by itself, develop intrinsic reliability. This higher level of training requires that the dog understands and act on what is desirable and what is not desirable in its behavior. It reaches beyond management to a certain level of personal accountability. You can see this admirably demonstrated by thousands of working military, police, Seeing Eye and service dogs, who ‘take responsibility’ for learned behaviors. This level of training requires a balanced approach covering all aspects of behavioral reinforcement and punishment.

Positive reinforcement (reward) is essential for the teaching of a new behavior, but positive reinforcement does not effectively stand alone to produce reliability in real world situations. When using only positive reinforcement (no punishment) training, the trainer is permanently cast in the role of the manager. When a dog is expecting a reward and doesn’t get it, it becomes disappointed. Disappointment leads to extinction*. (*The trained behaviors tend to disappear if the reinforcement is not continued.)

In a balanced approach, (rewarding wanted behavior and ‘unrewarding’ unwanted behavior), as soon as any behavior using rewards has been established, it is tested by applying positive or negative consequences based on the dog’s behavior. This allows the reward for performing the behavior to be internalized –to become self-rewarding. Self-rewarding behaviors tend more strongly to continue throughout the dog's life. A ‘correction’ occurs when a dog fails to respond to a known cue. Responding to a cue prevents the correction. This results in what psychologists refer to as relief, which is the opposite of disappointment. For instance, the trained dog understands that failure to “Stay” on command results in punishment (e.g. a snap on a training collar =correction) whereas compliance brings a sense of completion. It knows it has avoided a correction. The dog is empowered to choose the consequences. Since the dog’s underlying motivation for doing an act is to move toward comfort, anything that causes relief has the effect of making performance rewarding ‘in and of itself’. It removes a trainer from the role of manager and it insures long term continuation of the behavior. When the dog moves into this role, you have a reliably trained dog.

A trained dog is one that gives behaviors long term -without external reward. The dog has ‘internalized’ the reasons for doing things. They offer the behaviors long term. When something is positively reinforced from within, it keeps on happening.  Management is a good place to start. Self motivation is a great place to get to. It comes through balancing both sides of the reward and punishment equation.