Our Training Method

We are lucky nowadays to be able to use the discoveries of modern science to help us to train our dogs. In the days before the advent of psychology, people relied on the attitude and knowledge that prevailed at the time. Caning children was an acceptable part of the teaching process. In the same way, dogs were trained mainly by force. It is thought that the first organised training of dogs took part in Germany at the time of the first world war when German troops trained dogs to run between the trenches carrying messages in pouches strapped around their bodies. Their method of training was harsh and demanding. It became known as the compulsive method.

Since then we have discovered a great deal about the way that dogs learn. In particular an American named Professor Burrhus Skinner, who was a behavioural scientist, conducted experiments with a variety of animals and showed how animals learn, why they remember or forget, what motivates them and how a behaviour is sustained. His findings are as relevant and factual today as they were when he published his first book "The Behaviour of Organisms" in 1938.

Conditioning - The Natural Way of Learning

The method of training which David Weston developed back in the late 1960's does not make demands on the dog to do anything. The dog makes the choice of what IT wants to do. Its responses are entirely voluntary. Put it this way. If a dog finds a certain behaviour is beneficial, it will be more likely to repeat it and if it finds no benefit, it is unlikely to pursue it. Sounds simple doesn't it? And so it is, if you know how to go about motivating and reinforcing a dog in the most meaningful way.

The following scene illustrates how learning takes place naturally. Most people today are aware that dogs of any breed are descended from wolves. Imagine a wolf cub wandering out of its den and investigating its surroundings. Suddenly its sense of sight is stimulated by the movement of a small rodent running across the ground. Its sense of hearing picks up a rustling sound. It responds to these stimuli by chasing the rodent and killing it. The cub is reinforced by getting something to eat. It is natural that if similar sights and sounds occur again that the cub will respond in the same way as before. Voila! learning has taken place. In fact we all do that don't we? We tend to repeat things that we find beneficial or reinforcing and avoid things which we do not like! Now we would like to show you how you can use the same natural learning process to train your domestic dog.

Reinforcement - How we "Strengthen" Behaviour

Of course you will not want to use a rodent as your stimulus, so you can substitute other signals such as the voice signal 'come,' and a hand signal, for example putting your hand down low to the ground. Your dog will want to move towards your hand to investigate it. If you reinforce this behaviour by giving your dog a piece of food when it comes to you, it will tend to come to you more and more predictably each time it hears the word 'come' and sees the same hand signal.

Some people are concerned when we give this explanation because they think that it means that they will have to carry a bucket of food with them for ever more! It does not work that way! After a few repetitions of the same stimulus, response and reinforcement, the dog will become conditioned to respond to the voice and hand signal and will only need to be reinforced occasionally. Other people are worried because they feel that using food to train a dog is tantamount to bribery and they have been told such things as "Your dog should respond to you out of respect" or "Your dog should respond because it loves you." Then there are dog owners who are under the impression that the dog will stop responding if there is no food available. Nothing is further from the truth.

We often try to explain about the power of reinforcement by drawing an analogy with human behaviour for example a person playing a poker machine. he/she keeps putting money in the machine and pulling the handle in the hope that he/she will receive a reinforcement in the form of lots of money! Gambling machines are programmed to deliver intermittent reinforcement and so they keep people trying over and over again. The occasional win sustains the habit! We are sure you get the picture. You may be aware that the government is spending millions of dollars every year to help people break the powerful gambling habit such is the power of intermittent reinforcement!

When we train dogs it is very important to understand this pattern of random reinforcement.

The use of patting as a reinforcer

A lot of people who train dogs use patting to reinforce a behaviour.

We have found that patting is an inefficient way to sustain a behaviour compared with the use of food. For example, if we placed your dog between us and every time you called your dog, you patted it and every time I called your dog, I fed it, who do you think your dog would choose to come to more often? You thought right, your dog would respond to me! So when we look at the difference or efficiency of reinforcers, of food as against patting, we clearly see that food is more beneficial.

Other reinforcers

This is not to say that other things cannot be used as reinforcers. Some dogs are fanatical retrievers and the opportunity to chase and fetch a ball may be highly reinforcing for them. However such reinforcers can also make the dog very excitable and this can lead to problems. It is also more difficult to teach a dog conventional exercises using a ball alone.

Because you are going to communicate with your dog through its senses perhaps it would be a good idea to go over the more important points. You may recall that we mentioned that your dog has an excellent sense of hearing but that it hears better at a higher level. Therefore if you call your dog in a high pitched voice, your dog will respond to you more readily. If you try to keep your voice signals quiet they will not sound threatening to your dog. You will find that if your dog is fearful, it will not be able to learn. Both you and your dog should always enjoy training.

From a sight point of view, you will find that your dog will be easily stimulated by moving hand signals at ground level. As we mentioned before, this has survival value to hunting animals as prey run at ground level. So, for instance, if you are calling your dog in the park, it is much better to move away from it and drop your hand down low which is much more interesting to your dog than if you stand still and give a hand signal above your head. You will find that your dog will respond much more readily to hand signals than voice signals.

We also need to explain that food is used in two ways when you are training.

Shaping Behaviour

When you are teaching a new exercise, you may use food in your hand as an extra stimulus in order to get the dog into the position you want. In other words you shape the behaviour you wish to produce. Then when the dog responds in the way you desire, you reinforce that response by giving it the piece of food. Initially you reinforce the dog after nearly every response as shown in diagram 1 below.

If you did not go through this shaping procedure, you would have to wait until the dog took up a certain position spontaneously, for example sitting, and that could take ages. Alternatively you would have to push its bottom into the sit position which is not a good idea as it will cause resentment and unwilling responses.

The hand movements we use to shape a dog's behaviour are unique to the Gentle Modern Method of Dog Training ä and took some years for David to perfect.

Teaching a new Exercise

Food in the hand as an inducement
(Unconditioned stimulus)

Hand signal and Voice signal, "Sit"
(Conditioned stimuli)

The dog sits in response to the movement of the food in the hand
(Unconditioned Response)

Food given to the dog
(Reinforcement)

After several pairings of food inducement with the hand and voice signals the dog will learn to respond to the hand and voice signals only.
(i.e. A Conditioned Response)

When a dog has learnt an exercise usually it has done it about six to ten times, then you MUST cut out food in the hand as part of the signal and start to give the dog food INTERMITTENTLY after it has responded. It's important that your hand signals remain the same whether you have food in your hand or not.

Maintaining Conditioning

Food in the hand as an inducement is eliminated
(The Unconditioned stimulus)

The hand and voice signals (Conditioned Stimuli)

produce the Sit

(The Conditioned Response)

This Conditioned Response (to sit) is reinforced intermittently

Now that we have described how to teach your dog by relating it to how a wolf cub learns in the wild, you may want to learn more about the theory of operant conditioning. We recommend that you read one of the following books on The Gentle Modern Method of Dog Training

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