May 30, 2010
A weekend of shaping fun with some of my best training friends in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, topped off by dinners at wonderful locally-owned restaurants with numerous delicious veggie options – what more could a training junkie ask for?
 Dining out at "The Laughing Seed" (guess what *that* is!) in Asheville.  Asheville nightlife - Wolf hybrid meets Dachshunds Huge thanks go to Lisa Waggoner of Cold Nose College (Murphy, NC) for hosting this event, and to Gail Hubbard and Susan Wilson for making their facility, A Good Dog’s Life available for the weekend. We had 18 working teams and another dozen observers. In addition to Lisa, the group included longtime training friends Beth Brock, Jenny Schneider, Tracey Schowalter, Viviane Arzoumanian, and AnneMarie Easton.
 Long-time PPaws friends, l to r: Tracey Schowalter and Matsi, Beth Brock and Dice, AnneMarie Easton, Jenny Schneider and Little Bit, Viviane Arzoumanian and Pasha, me, and Shaping seminar host Lisa Waggoner with Gibson We started with some foundation discussion and then set right off with “Body Parts” shaping, where participants selected a specific body part and shaped movement of that part – a turn of the head, a lift of the paw, a flick of the ear or tongue… the possibilities are endless.
 Shaping a paw lift  Tracey discovers that shaping a head turn can be a Zen exercise with Matsi, a dog who hadn't yet learned to offer a lot of behavior! From there we moved to building behavior repertoire with free shaping, using the time-honored “101 Things to Do With a Box” and then “101 Things to Do With a Prop.” Props included a skateboard, doorbell, crate, cradle, book, a toy truck, and more. Following 101 Things, working teams selected a behavior goal to work toward using directed shaping. This often makes more sense to goal-oriented humans than the open-ended “101 Things” activity. We also started shaping “Go to Your Place.” A simple directed shaping exercise.
 Lisa waits for Gibson to make a clickable move. Her goal: have him go to the book, lie down, and put his paw on the page.
 Success!  It was a delight to see Viviane's Pasha wake up to the fun of shaping. By end of day Sunday she rang the bell! Homework assignment for the evening was to write up a shaping plan for a specific behavior the attendee wanted to teach her dog, with the emphasis on splitting (breaking the selected behavior into very tiny steps) rather than lumping (making the mistake of trying to shape for too large pieces of behavior). Review of the plans on Sunday morning helped attendees identify their lumping tendencies. Beth Brock won the grand prize of a Peaceable Paws baseball cap for splitting into the most steps – her plan numbered 54 total steps.
We returned to working sessions, starting with work on the plans the participants had written, with some teams making admirable progress toward their final behavior goals. We ended the day with a “Shaping Show-Off” – where dogs and humans demonstrated their success with their shaping plan behavior, and one other behavior they had worked on for the weekend.
 Shaping Molly to rock the cradle.  Beckie waits for a well-behaved (previously dog-reactive!) Josie to make a clickable move toward the doorbell.  Jenny shapes a somewhat hesitant (but catching on!) Little Bit to get on the stool. We applauded each others’ achievements, and dogs and humans were happily exhausted by the end of the day.
This is by far my most favorite workshop to give. Because shaping is “errorless learning,” it’s almost impossible for participants to make rapid progress as they grasp the delightful fun of shaping.
There is still room in the 2011 Peaceable Paws calendar if you’d like to host a Shaping Workshop in your town, or attend one here at PPaws in Fairplay, Maryland!
Warm Woofs and Happy Training,
Pat Miller
May 20, 2010
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
This quote, often attributed (perhaps incorrectly) to Irish political philosopher Edmond Burke, is at the heart of the debate between many otherwise philosophically aligned positive reinforcement trainers. Do we speak our hearts about the atrocities committed by TV personality Cesar Millan in the name of “dog psychology” or do we simply commend his success in encouraging more people to seek help for their dog’s inappropriate behaviors as we work to repair the damage done to some or our canine clients whose humans have tried to emulate his methods? We are after all, some say, supposed to be positive trainers – should we not reflect that in our behavior with those we disagree with as well as those we are congruent with? Should we not work to shape the behavior of those humans with positive reinforcement rather than use positive punishment when they act in a way we consider inappropriate, just as we would with our dogs?
This difference of approach surfaced recently in regards to two events related to companies long held dear by positive trainers: Premier (www.premier.com ), and Bark (www.thebark.com).
Premier has long been considered a leader in the field of positive dog products, offering items such as the Easy-Walk Harness, the Calming Cap, Manners Minder, Gentle Leader and much more. Bark Magazine is my second-favorite publication (after Whole Dog Journal – www.whole-dog-journal.com ); it’s not as focused as Whole Dog Journal, but it’s an interesting eclectic read, and the regular columns by Patricia McConnell (www.theotherendoftheleash.com), goddess of dog behavior, are by themselves enough to make the magazine worth the price of subscription.
I was hugely dismayed when Sharon Madere, co-owner of Premier, contacted me in early 2010 to inform me that they were selling the company to Radio Systems Corp, a well-known, very successful shock collar company. I was, no pun intended, shocked. Sharon herself gave me the impression that she wasn’t thrilled with the sale, but that it was beyond her control since she wasn’t a majority holder in Premier. She was determined to make the best of it, and optimistically offered that, since she would continue on in her capacity of managing the Premier division of Radio Systems, she was hopeful she could help the parent corporation see the light and eventually, perhaps, move away from marketing of shock collars for dogs. She was contacting well-known professionals in the training and behavior field as a courtesy, and to hopefully garner their support for the move.
I very much appreciated the courtesy, but sadly advised Sharon that I would be looking for alternative sources of equivalent products, as I was unwilling to knowingly contribute my purchasing dollars, even circuitously, to a company whose primary purpose was to shock dogs.
A few weeks age, a Facebook friend recently brought my attention to the fact that the most recent issue of Bark magazine contains an advertisement for a shock collar company. Because Bark generally promotes positive, gentle relationship with dogs, it was an unpleasant surprise to see this ad in a magazine high on my list of favorites. When I contacted Bark editor Claudia Kawczynska, she said she had already received numerous e-mails from concerned readers, including some who were canceling their subscriptions as a result of the ad. She realized they had made a horrendous mistake in accepting the ad, and promised that they would never do it again. The difficulty economy, she said, had clouded their judgment.
Shortly after that, I read several blogs and e-mails that chastised positive trainers for being so hard on companies that made business choices and as a result, fell from grace. “We are,” they said, “positive trainers. We should no more use positive punishment on these people than we would use it on our dogs. Where is the positive in this blacklisting behavior toward these companies?”
In my mind, the Premier and Bark examples are entirely different scenarios. Premier, made a permanent and deliberate major business decision, knowing it would alienate some customers, that puts them in bed with a company that goes against everything I stand for and believe in relative to dog training. Premier is now an integral part of that company, regardless of who manages it. I no longer buy from Premier. While I hope Sharon succeeds on her mission and wish her the best of luck, I won’t spend my money there. (Besides, taking my purchasing dollars away from Premier isn’t positive punishment, it’s negative punishment, and most positive trainers do use negative punishment from time to time.) Bark, on the other hand, made a one-time poor business decision that they openly regret and have promised not to do it again. I will continue to support and write for Bark. And yes, I am pretty open about my disapproval of the Dog Whisperer’s training methods.
I agree with Burke, or whoever it was who really wrote that quote. Good men – and women – need to be willing to stand up and speak out against the evils that are all to present in the world of our canine companions.
And now, I’m headed off to North Carolina to spend a weekend shaping and have fun with some of my very best dog trainer friends. Guess what my next blog will be about!
Footnote from out last Academy: Beth, one of the Border Collie sisters, was adopted by one of our PPaws apprentices and is happily in her new home.
Max, the Sheltie, was adopted by a knowledgeable and experienced couple from Pennsylvania (shelter professionals) who appeared willing and ready to work with his car-reactive behavior.
Pippy and Riley are still waiting for their forever homes at the Humane Society of Washington County (MD); (hswcmd.org)
May 17, 2010
Okay, I’ll admit it, I have favorites. I teach several different trainer academies throughout the year, and my Level 2 BMod is always my favorite. I sometimes forget how much I like them until another one rolls around, but the group that just finished last week reminded me, in spades, how rewarding this work is.
I like the BMod academy for several reasons – one of which is I get to see return students. Successful completion of my Level 1 Academy is a pre-requisite for Level 2. There are some “equivalents” but most of the Level 2 trainers are Level 1 returnees. So that’s always fun. It’s a pretty good bet that the ones who come back enjoyed their first experience here, and are very committed to their ongoing education, so we get a lot of great attitudes and study/learning ethic at Level 2.
Then there’s just the fact the behavior modification is so darned interesting. I think I will go to my grave (in the far distant future, I hope!) still knowing that there is always more to learn about behavior. I am fascinated watching our BMod students work with their dogs, and listening to their oral presentations on Day 6, when they talk about what they did during the week, and what they’ve learned. Great R+ for me, as well as for the students!
Here is last week’s cast of characters, in alpha order by last name (no playing favorites):
- Keith Dorans, of The Paw Pad USA (www.thepawpadusa.com ), Cranford, NJ. Keith worked with Max, a Sheltie from the Humane Society of Washington County, MD (www.hswcmd.org) . The majority of BMod students bring their own dogs with “issues” to work on, but for some reason with this group, 4 out of 6 chose to work with shelter dogs.
Max “came” with aroused jumping up and hard nipping behaviors that the shelter worried would decrease his adoption potential. His jumping and nipping, it seems, were related to the stress of being at the shelter, and by Day 2 of the academy those were well-resolved. Keith found other things to work on, however – we discovered that he also had some significant anxiety-related behaviors, and was very reactive to moving vehicles. And horses.
- Dara Lambert of The Enlightened Dog (www.theenlighteneddog.com ), Summerduck, VA. Dara brought her own Border Collie mix, Sancho, to work on his dog reactivity, barrier aggression, and in-car aggression.
Sancho made good progress during the week, although at the age of 9 years we had no expectations that we could “fix” him in 6 days. Dara was pleased with her progress and the new information she obtained about working with reactive dogs in general, and Sancho in particular. Dara was the Academy Star as well, tying for high score on the oral final, and overall high score for the academy. Congratulations, Dara!
- Margaret Marsh, Charlottesville, VA. Margaret also brought her own dog, the lovely Ruby, a young black-and-tan Hound mix. Ruby was also dog reactive, and, we realized during the week, had some generalized anxiety issues.
Ruby tended to fluctuate in her behavior, depending on how many stressors she encountered in a given day. Margaret keeps Ruby at home a lot in Virginia, so hadn’t had the opportunity to recognize how generalized her anxiety might be. When a dog is stressed by a lot of different things, it can be hard to keep her below threshold. Ruby had some good days here, and some more difficult ones, but Margaret did a great job of learning how to read her dog and remove her from stressful situations before she went over threshold, and went home with lots of tools to work with. Ruby really didn’t like the horses!
- Sue Rissing, of Great Falls, Virginia. Sue worked with Beth, one of two undersocialized Border Collie sisters from the shelter. These 5-6 month-old pups were, fortunately, reasonably well-socialized to people, just not to environmental stimuli, so they had good potential for behavior modification.
Beth did spectacularly well during the academy as she learned to walk on a leash and get brave about all kinds of scary things, including banging chairs, hula hoops, getting in the van, the sound of the vacuum cleaner, microwave oven, nail grinder and more. She even took field trips to the nearby Outlet Mall! Best news of the week, one of our PPaws apprentices, Beth Joy, brought her fiancé Matt and their Min Pin, Roxie, to meet Beth (now renamed Annabelle) and they are adopting her this week. Yay!!!!!
- Heather Smith, of Fayetteville, PA. Heather worked with yet another shelter dog, Riley, a 10-month-old Beagle. While Riley makes good use of his Beagle nose-heritage, he is also one of the most human-affiliative Beagles I’ve ever known. When we assessed him at the shelter, we were concerned about his easily-triggered submissive urination, and dismayed by his moderate to significant display of resource guarding behavior over a high-value object (cheese-smeared pig ear).
Because a BMod Academy was coming up, we were able to send him to a foster home (thanks, Sarah James!) to await behavior modification. Riley was a star at academy – only a very occasional spot or puddle. He, too, visited the Outlet Mall and didn’t even pee when greeted effusively by a large, intimidating male human. Heather, who also tied for high score on her oral final presentation (congrats, Heather!), worked mainly on his guarding behavior, and we were able to see great progress. Although there was still, not surprisingly, some tension at the end of 6 days when I pushed him a little with the Assess-A-Hand, he was quite comfortable with Heather approaching and interacting with him as he chewed on his meatball-filled cow hoof. We even suggested to the shelter that he could go to an experienced home with older children, as long as the family was very clear about the importance of management when Riley had a high-value resource. Riley won the “too cute for words” award at this academy!
- Last in the alphabet is Alicia Williams. Unfortunately, Alicia had to leave us on Day 5 due to a family emergency, but during her 4.5 days here she made excellent progress with Beth’s sister, Border Collie Pippin. Pippin seemed a little less confident than Beth, so didn’t make quite as much progress, but also responded amazingly well to all the classical conditioning work Alicia did with her.
We didn’t want Pippin to miss out on her last day at the Academy, so Sue hiked and worked with her on Saturday as well as with Beth/Annabelle. In the right hands, these two girls have the potential to be fantastic companions!
Here’s the whole graduating class, minus a couple of dogs who declines the group shot:
So, with another academy come and gone, it’s time again to look to the days ahead. I am mega-excited about next weekend’s Shaping Workshop in Asheville, North Carolina, hosted by my friends at Cold Nose College (www.coldnosecollege.com ), Lisa and Brad Waggoner. PPaws was located in Chattanooga, Tennessee for several years, and many of my friends from that area are coming – I am sooooooo looking forward to seeing everyone there. Then it’s a Nose Games Seminar here at Peaceable Paws (still room to come have fun with us!), and (can’t wait!!!) 10 days off for a vacation/motorcycle ride to the bike rally in Laconia, New Hampshire. Yes, in my “other life” I really am a biker chick – compete with tattoo!
 Until next time…
Warm Woofs and Happy Training!
Pat
May 11, 2010
Ach – our busy season is in full swing now, and it’s hard to squeeze in blogtime. But everything that happens now, I think, “Oooooh – I want to put that in my blog!” So – we’re on Day 2 of a Level 2 Behavior Modification Academy right now, with some wonderful dogs – grist for my next blog, but first I want to share our most recent Reactive Rover event with you.
Our Reactive Rover weekends are three days of intensive counter conditioning and desensitization for dog-reactive dogs. We accept up to six dogs for a weekend. We had a late cancellation for our April weekend, and only had five.
I sometimes look forward to Reactive Rover weekends with a little trepidation. I love being able to see the transformation that can occur in three days with some reactive dogs – and the delight of their humans when they see how well their dogs can, often surprisingly quickly. Sometimes, however, the weekends can be very draining. Even grueling.
But these were five fantastic dogs and their humans! We’ve had some challenging Rover weekends recently, so it was refreshing for Shirley and me to have a very successful, less stress-inducing group for a change.
We start on Friday, with half the group arriving at 8:30 to begin class at 9:00 am. This gives us time to escort teams into the training center one at a time, and get them set up in their alcoves. We work very hard throughout the weekend to avoid unexpected encounters and over threshold outbursts.
Reactive dogs come in all shapes, sizes and ages. This time, Group One consisted of:
Jamie and Bryn a 2 year old Aussie Chow mix, of Arlington, VA.
Sandy and Buddy, a 6 year old Bichon, of Reston, VA
Linda and Layla, an 8 year old American Bulldog, of Rockville, MD.
When they arrived we stashed them in alcoves to avoid arousal and over threshold barking and lunging, spent 40 minutes discussing reactive behavior and our plan for the weekend, then sent them out on an escorted hike, spaced far enough apart to prevent incidents, with RR coaches Catherine Schuler and Tracey Schowalter (www.puppyadept.com ). I’m a firm believer in the value of exercise, both because it uses up some of the energy that might otherwise feed reactive behavior, and because aerobic exercise promotes endorphin release. Endorphins are mood regulators. It’s good to take advantage of nature’s own behavior modification pharmacy whenever possible!
As Group One left for their hike, Group Two arrived:
Dr. Esra Yavuz (veterinarian) and Bogart, an 8 year old Australian Shepherd mix, of Bel Air, MD
Linda and Jack Bergen and Stella, a 4 year old yellow Lab, of Newtown, PA
(sorry – no photo – they had to leave early, unexpectedly)
Group Two got the same discussion, and just as it was time for them to hike, Group One returned. We use two-way radios to choreograph all the teams’ movements. When Group One teams were safely stashed, temporarily, in their cars, the Group Two teams left for their hike.
Throughout the weekend dogs and humans did counter conditioning set-ups, discovering threshold distances, obtaining a conditioned emotional response (CER) of “Other dogs make chicken happen!”, and gradually increasing intensity of stimulus by decreasing distance, increasing numbers of dogs, and eventually doing pass-bys, parallel walking, and approaches.
This group progressed rapidly with all of their set-ups, and by the third day all of them were able to work in close quarters with the entire group, moving randomly amongst each other, with a couple of my dogs thrown into the mix just for giggles. We often, on Day Three, have at least one or two dogs who have to work on the periphery of the close group work. Not this time – they were all superstars!
We’ve gotten a couple of glowing reports from our Roverites after they went home and put their new skills into practice:
“Buddy has done really well so far since we’ve been home- I’ve been really proud of his progress. He’s done fantastic on his walks when we see other dogs. I can’t believe I look forward to seeing other dogs on walks now, to practice what we’ve learned- what a change!
But we still needs work when we see his nemises, Shaggy. I did see a small improvement though when we saw him yesterday, and hopefully I can use what I learned this weekend to improve these sightings in the future.”
Sandy and Buddy
Layla has been doing great. Yesterday we sat on our front
porch…chicken in hand…and waited for dogs to walk by…which they
did…I’d say “check it out”, she’d look and eat chicken. No arousal
whatsoever. This morning we were out on our back deck and our next
door neighbor dog, who barks all the time, was out, too. I had my
handy chicken with me. Again told Layla to “check it out”…she would
look over at the barking dog and then she look back at me/chicken.
Total success.
I am now looking forward to seeing other dogs, too…Who would have
thought!
Linda and Layla
Success stories like these are wonderfully reinforcing for me, and I’m looking forward to our next Reactive Rover weekends, scheduled for June 25-27, and October 1-3. These fill up fast, so if you’re interested in bringing a dog or auditing, get on it quick!
We also have several other great workshops coming up:
Shaping (my favorite): July 24-25
And a delightful new addition to our offerings:
Nose Games: June 5-6 and September 11-12
Come and play with us!!!!
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