Animal Training Philosophy

How Positive Reinforcement Training Found Me
I started training dogs almost 30 years ago and, turning to the available information at the time, I learned how to use punishment-based training. For 15 years, I successfully trained dogs as a hobby using these techniques. Then, about 15 years ago, something happened that changed everything I thought I knew about animal training. I adopted a young German Shepherd/Collie cross from the local SPCA. I named her Sierra. She was sweet, gentle, beautiful, and would completely shut down when we were training.

I was still using the same “tried and true” techniques that were considered standard in dog training-the ones that had always worked before, the ones I learned from all the popular books, at the dog clubs, and from other dog trainers. Yet I could see that my dog was distressed.

Sierra did not respond well to even a collar around her neck, let alone a raised voice or force of any kind. If I punished her at all, she would lose all her spark and enthusiasm as no other dog I had worked with before ever had. I became confused; how would I possibly be able to train my new dog?

In hopes of finding an answer, I started to research the field of animal behavior. I discovered a world that ignited my imagination. I was amazed at all that had been researched and understood about animal behavior for years, yet I had never heard about this science in any training class and had never read about it in any dog book.

In my excitement, I began to share all the information with everyone I met. I'd spend hours in the park each day telling all my dog pals about what I was learning. I found people to be as fascinated as I was and soon began to teach the principles of Positive Reinforcement to anyone who would listen. To this day, the subject of Positive Reinforcement teaching continues to fascinate me, and as I continue to learn, I continue to want to share these powerful concepts with everyone I meet.

Now, 15 years later, I still feel a dog owner's frustration and confusion when they can't get answers to the questions about why their dogs don't seem to be responding to them. Even though there is more information available today about training than ever before, owners who are sincerely trying to get information seem to end up with two very contradictory images of dogs: either they're fuzzy humans who “understand everything you say” or they're trying to “dominate” humans and need to be shown “who's boss.”

Neither of these overly simplistic explanations of dog behavior is helpful, let alone true. Thanks to exhaustive research, especially over the last 30 years, much of the information that had become part of the mythology of dogs and wolves has been updated or disproved. The information now available on wolves derives from research conducted in ways that were not possible before. Wolves are now observed in the wild, over years, without human intervention, and studies on domestic dogs are only in their infancy. Formal studies on dog behavior were rarely done before a decade or two ago.

Information about behavior is coming from the Behavior Science community, ethologists, biologists, neurobiologists, and others. These fields of study provide us with more than just opinions or anecdotal stories passed down from grandpa; they give us well-documented research that has afforded these wonderful animals the fair and objective respect they deserve.

Dogs, wolves, and all canids no longer need to be victims of the old misinformation that leads to the notion that they need to be dominated to be trained and lived with. Contemporary studies are revealing to us the complexities of these feeling and thinking animals.

Expanding on an Idea
The field of Behavior Science is dedicated to understanding how learning takes place and how behavior is changed. This science is the basis of all humane teaching and training. Luckily, when we use Behavior Science as our guide, we can see through all the conflicting information and images.

When I was first exposed to Positive Reinforcement teaching 15 years ago, I was only working with dogs and children. As I was learning to use these new techniques with my dog Sierra, I was also working with children in schools. I had the good fortune to have a remarkable woman named Marley Willard as my teaching mentor. She was, and is, a great believer in Positive Reinforcement with the children, and she was kind enough to patiently answer all my questions and to stoke my constant interest in learning more. We worked closely together for several years, and I soaked up everything I could from her generous offerings. I was fascinated from the beginning at how universal the principles of Positive Reinforcement were and how they could be applied to all species.

I continued to see places where I was convinced Positive Reinforcement could improve the lives of the animals it touched: I thought about all the pushing and pulling used with the horses at the barns where I had worked. I saw people dismiss the idea of training cats, somehow believing that they couldn't be trained. I saw zoo animals and circus animals and wondered how they were treated when no one was looking. I watched bratty kids in supermarkets get all the wrong messages from their well-meaning parents. I read about how animals learned behaviors in the wild, and I longed to be able to work with more exotic species.

Today I work with many animals. I see the brilliance of each individual, and each species teaches me something else about learning. It is most important to me that I help owners unravel the mystery of what is going on in a clear and understandable way. There is no blame and no one is at fault. We put all that aside, and together we build a foundation using Positive Reinforcement. It is often like lighting a candle in the darkness. Nothing delights me more than to watch an owner and their animal connect for the first time, for the animal to “get it,” and for the line of communication to open. Each time it is extraordinary and moving.

With true Positive Reinforcement training, you can discover how easy it is to teach any animal to actually choose to listen to you. You realize how unnecessary it is to force animals into compliance by physical manipulation. Training is no longer about control using punishment-based tools; it's about connecting and communicating.

There are many punishment-based techniques, ranging from intimidating body language, pointing, poking, pushing, grabbing, yelling, and making disturbing noises to holding a collar/harness or leash tightly, jerking on a collar/harness, pulling an animal off the ground feet by a collar/rope, using electric prods/collars, tying/roping/wrapping or putting animals in uncomfortable positions, pinching, flicking, kicking, or striking. The list goes on.

The common element among these techniques is that the animal is really given no choice about what to do to gain something rewarding. The animal is responding to fear, discomfort, or pain and avoiding something. Very often, the animal simply shuts down and stops doing anything at all.
The animal has learned little, except to be afraid of the person doing the intimidating and to stop doing anything-otherwise known as “suppression of behavior.” Sadly, people often consider an animal's stillness to be an example of “good behavior” rather than fear-which would probably be the more accurate description in cases where punishment-based techniques are used.

With Positive Reinforcement, training becomes a shared experience that leads to a powerful bond of trust and cooperation. When teaching is done without force, the animal is choosing to work toward something and becomes a willing and eager participant in the training process. The relationship between animal and human is not damaged but is enhanced with every lesson.

With Positive Reinforcement training, the teacher is actually taking time to TEACH the animal what they want him to do. The animal then has the opportunity to LEARN what behaviors are rewarding to offer to their human. This interaction is far less stressful and much more enjoyable for both student and teacher.

It is very popular for trainers today to say that they teach using Positive Reinforcement. After all, these are the “politically correct” words to use today. However, many trainers are still practicing punishment techniques and using the terms “positive” and “reward.” As caretaker of your companion animal, you want to be sure that these are not empty words that merely hide the punishment at the core of the trainer's techniques.
A good way to be sure the trainer is skilled in Positive Reinforcement techniques is to think of this clear and accurate definition of Positive Reinforcement: “Positive Reinforcement training is using rewards to cause behavior change.”

Whenever a trainer adds anything unpleasant to the environment (intimidating body language, yelling, making upsetting noises, using a collar to put any pressure on a dog's neck, moving the animal physically by leash or hand), then the trainer is not, by definition, using Positive Reinforcement.

A skilled Positive Reinforcement trainer knows how to get an animal to offer the behaviors they want, by choice, without using force of any kind. Changing behavior through reward is not the same as changing behavior through punishment. If one has never seen Positive Reinforcement in action, it can be hard to believe that you can actually get an animal to offer you the behavior you want. But it does work, and it works with reliability and accuracy.

In fact, those who depend on reliability, accuracy, and the ability to work under difficult conditions consider Positive Reinforcement so powerful that it is the tool of choice in teaching dogs that are trained at the highest levels. Search & rescue dogs, bomb-sniffing dogs, service animals (including, dogs, parrots, ferrets, monkeys, and miniature horses), seizure alert dogs, cancer-sniffing dogs, mine-sniffing dogs and more are all trained using Positive Reinforcement. When that much is at stake, trainers use the technique that gives the best overall performance and reliability-Positive Reinforcement training.

Although the average companion animal owner is not necessarily going to encounter life-and-death situations that depend on how reliably their animal has been trained, they do have a companion animal that they want to enjoy living with. One of the greatest benefits of using Positive Reinforcement is its “side effects.” Behavior Science is continually proving that by using Positive Reinforcement to train, you develop a relationship with an animal that is founded in trust, cooperation, low stress, and a long history of pleasant experiences. The respect and care that comes from using Positive Reinforcement is returned to you in kind; the animal wants to be around you more, offers desirable behaviors more frequently, and enjoys being asked to do things.

The choice of techniques when training lies squarely in the hands of the teacher. Animals don't get to choose. Keep in mind what science has also proven about the “side effects” of using punishment instead of Positive Reinforcement: increased anxiety, attempts at avoidance or escape from the teacher, aggression towards the teacher, and even fear of things that are associated with being punished, such as the person doing the punishing, the room they are in, and anything or anybody the animal sees or hears during the unpleasant events. Punishment often results in an animal that responds out of fear.

I'll interject something here that I think says so much about why I choose to use Positive Reinforcement over other techniques. Studies have shown that when teaching using punishment-based methods, an animal will do just as much as they need to in order to avoid the punishment. However, when using Positive Reinforcement to teach, an animal will go beyond what is being asked of them, trying harder and surpassing what is expected because they are working to gain something they find rewarding.

This is quite an amazing discovery in terms of how much the animal is enjoying, participating, and engaging all of themselves in the work they are doing. A punishment-trained animal may do what is asked, but this study shows that they are doing it more reluctantly than one the who is doing the same behavior but was trained using Positive Reinforcement. That animal is giving it all they've got and what's better than any animal living up to his or her potential? The difference came from one thing-the choice to use Positive Reinforcement instead of punishment.

Ask yourself: if you were being taught something new, what kind of teacher would you rather have if you were given the choice?

Would you want a teacher who is patient, understanding, and teaches at a pace you could follow, with no sudden punishment for mistakes? This teacher would give lots of instructive encouragement and help you to succeed at every step.

Or would you want a teacher who berated you for every mistake you made, no matter how hard you were trying? This teacher would expect you to understand all the time, and when you didn't, you would be punished, often without warning. This teacher would give you little helpful instruction, and even when you got things right, there would be little encouragement. Add to all this that you and your teacher do not share a common language, and you would have to constantly try to figure out what your teacher wanted while under this constant stress?
It's always interesting to look at it this way and try to walk a mile in your dog's paws.

An understanding of Positive Reinforcement training brings to anyone who decides to explore its riches the tools to teach or change any behavior. Any behavior. There is nothing an animal can't learn (that they can actually physically and mentally do-you can't teach a pig to fly!) that cannot be trained using the tools of Positive Reinforcement technology.
The beauty of Positive Reinforcement training is that anyone can learn how to use it. With patience and good instruction, you can be the best teacher to your companion animal as well as his or her best friend.

The great animal trainers Bob and Marian Bailey would often remind the students under their tutelage to “Believe.” Believe that it can be. Believe that with modern Positive Reinforcement technology, any animal can learn quickly and efficiently, while at the same time humanely, and with the least amount of stress.

I hope you will join this wonderful modern age of teaching.