 |
 |
Praising BAD Behaviors Is GOOD - The Fastest Gentlest Most Effective Method In The Whole Wild World, Bar NONE. <{}; ~ )>
22 May 2006 19:08:46 -0700 rec.pets.dogs.behavior
previous
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Praising BAD Behaviors Is GOOD -
The Fastest Gentlest Most Effective Method In The Whole Wild World, Bar NONE. <{}; ~ ) > HOWEDY People, This post will cover most of what you never thought of and MOORE than you already know about stuff... |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Interesting X. I've never seen one of them
bfore, and I'm not big on "breed" issues, but I just got to laugh at that picture I got in my head of a Aussie runnin around in a Nwfie suit. I'm fallin outta my armchair and my sides are splittin!!! |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Fine. I prefer to see pups get into their new HOWSES
as soon as they're weaned. Many folk prefer to allow the pups to stay with mom till twelve weeks or so, but I've never seen a problem for pups who'd been "orphaned" and into their family much earlier. My preference is six weeks. But that's not addressing your questions. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
My 40 years experience and some studies I recently
read indicates some aggression may be precipitated by S/N. It's a hot button topic for many people, because it's one of those things where "you're damned if you do and damned if you don't." FWIW, according to Judaic law, spaying would be appropriate, neutering would not. There's other laws in their book about such issues as muzzling working draft animals etc. Very interesting stuff. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Oh drat! You just burst my bubble! Now I can't laugh
about a Aussie dressed in a Newfie suit. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
When I hear that, I think HYPERACTIVE. Hyperactivity
is caused by stress barring such outside influences as toxins in the environment or malignancy of some sort. Purdue recently did some stuff on OCD and determined that stress percipiticpates OCD behaviors (Duh-Oh!). No news to this trainer. Here's an OCD behavior problem that could get this dog very sick or DEAD: "Things are beginning to get much worse day by day and the vets seem unable to help. http://www.oofus.com/pix/PoorR ufusMed.WMV http://www.oofus.com/pix/PoorR ufusSmall.WMV" That can be EXXXTINGUISHED in just a few minutes using non physical brief variable distractions instantly followed by prolonged non physical praise and praise in advance. That's HOWE COME it's SO EZ for my students to break the anxiety SYNDROME and rehabilitate their hyperactive dogs in a few days, maybe less. Thyroid problems could be involved there too, and I've got a different take on that as well. I rather doubt the thyroid or any system is likely to malfunction for no reason. I believe that the constant on/off stress of ORDINARY DAILY LIFE in an ORDINARY NORMAL HOWEshold, is enough to push dogs, and some breeds more EZily than other's over the edge, resulting in obsessive compulsive behavior disorders like hyperactivity, excessive chewing,barking, digging, pacing, HOWEling, separation anxiety, self mutilation, fear of thunder, and even most carsickness and urinary tract / bladder stone symptoms, endocrin DIS-EASES an Cushings / Addison's SYNDROME SYMPTOMS and even cataracts glaucoma and dental DIS-EASE. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
When I hear THAT, I don't wanna ask what's after
the most part... |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Bummer. I hate that. Scares the beejeesus outta me.
|
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Good, I'm relieved.
|
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Dogs don't do things for no reason. Do you know
what will provoke her? There's a commonality between all behavior problems, so if you can think of what when and where she'd had incidents in the past, you might isolate the triggers, and then you're half way done training her... |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Perhaps even just your scrutiny can be pressuring her.
Dogs are very sensitive critters, it doesn't take much to throw them outta whack. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Probably true, but that's the half of it also. I'll try to explain
later... |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Right. That sez to me, she's insecure. It's a survival
instinct. HOWE COME should she be insecure and thinking of herself first, rather than "feedin the family," as a mom dog would do? Well, mom dogs do not, they need to sustain themselves first, so they can take care of the bigger picture, even if that means culling her litter. Greed is what it looks like, but dogs aren't capitalists, so it's got to be something telling her there's not enough to go around. Perhaps she's been teased with treats or had rewards withheld? Dogs are scavengers. They steal scraps of food and run to hide with their back to the wall in a heightened state of alert. Putting food or bribes into an untrusting dog's face will likely make him think fight/flight/survive... so I never use food bribes. Sure you can train animals and slaves by withholding or treating with food, it's the bottom line when you think about it. You'd need a mighty big treat bag to control all the food in creation Anything that takes precedence in your dog's mind over you, is usurping your authority and diminishing your dog's esteem for you. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Right. That sez to me she's not entirely trusting, that
something is concerning her that she's not SAFE. AGGRESSION IS FEAR. We don't attack for no reason, we attack to defend ourselves from a real or perceived threat. In looking for answers, I am not looking to make excuses for the dog's behavior. I personally don't care HOWE COME the dog does something, I deal with the whole problem from another perspective entirely, and many of these insecurity issues will be AUTOMAGICKALLY CURED, just by removing the inconsistencies and stressors in her daily life. Like tellin IT, "NO!" or any scolding or negative interaction. Whoever said "it's a dogs life," never put on the hat... Dogs are just as sensitive about family tensions like children squabbling and parents correcting them or the dog, for whatever. LOOK at HOWE many times a day you probably have to say 'STOP THAT!' and correct all of them? At bedtime the kids may give you the standard bedtime runaround, a kid falling and crying about it can make the dog nervous, anything goes. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Hmmm. That makes me very suspicious. I like
CONSISTENCY. Even if it's bad. But that may be good too, cause it could give us some insight into what's goin down here. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
By 'someone else,' you mean the kids, anybody else
or everybody else? That too, may give some insight as to what's cookin. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Hmmm. She's OK with the kids and food? That's got
my antennae up. I believe you're sayin she's SAFE with the girls passing her while eating. THAT makes me very happy, if that's correct. At least about the food issue but it offsets itself with the dichotomy of her incidents with the kids. There's too many inconsistencies, and that's gonna tell us what's the problem, I think. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Good. Tell us what you know of will set her off,
and we can figure out what's upsettin her and HOWE to break the response. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
That doesn't give me a clear picture. Again, if
you can predict when a behavior will happen, we can set it up to break or extinguish it, if it's still a problem after we do some simple preliminary relaxation and conditioning exercises. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Forget respect. FEAR. Something concerns her,
it's not disrespect. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
You just did.
|
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
No problem.
|
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
Likewise. I do all my work from sittin right here stark
ravin nekkid. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
I'm wondering if you've done any training with her
and if so, HOWE was she trained. The fact she does not growl at YOU when you're near her food is probably not because it's you who gave her the food. That she doesn't growl at the kids around the food, makes me wonder if she's ever been corrected for 'food guarding' with the children. That could explain HOWE COME she won't growl at them near the food, but will in other situations particularly play, concerns me, but in a GOOD way. That's displaced aggression, I expect. That's cause by repressing behaviors. My methods use alternately variable distractions and prolonged non physical praise to extinguish the reflexive behavior through triggerin and non fulfillment, not by ever offering REPLACEMENT or alternate behaviors, because THAT disavails us of training opportunities and leaves the problem behavior intact, waitin on the whim of the dog. That suggests to me that she may be reacting to an incident perhaps long ago where she or the kids had been scolded or corrected for roudy play? That's called superstitious or flashback behavior, whereby a former incident is thought of by a similar circumstance and the dog simple flashes back to that former state of mind and isn't even thinkin of the present, and usually ends pretty quickly, soon as he realizes this is a different time and place. All we got to do is play with that thought a few times if everything else is in order, and the dog will quickly override his BOOGEYMAN... The food guarding is not against the children, is that correct? Perhaps I'm a little unclear on the scenario. I think you're saying she's fine with you and the kids around the food, the food being an issue for other family members, visitors etc? Has she ever had an incident of growling at you? If so, when, where, and HOWE did you respond to it. Also, HOWE do you currently respond to her incidents with the kids now and HOWE often does this happen? Do you give her treats? Will she 'go off' around a treat or only AT her food bowl, and is she OK with your children around their food and do the children give her treats and is she OK with that? Finally, do you crate her? If so, does she go to her crate on her own? If so, that too, can be causing or exacerbating these issues. Crating can cause a lot of problems for insecurity. Because the crate becomes a safe haven for her, kinda like hiding under the covers from the boogeyman, when the door opens, it's like havin to get outta bed in the dark to go to the toilet... SCARY!!! You might crawl over the bed to get close the light and then run and jump to hit the switch before the monster under the bed can get your by your ankles. Those answers will give us a better idea of exactly HOWE COME the dog is growling. But after all is said, it still doesn't matter to me except as a curiosity. We'll fix this behavior problem EZ, I'm certain. She doesn't sound too scary to me now that we've looked at what she's doing. In fact, and please correct me if I misunderstood, she's ONLY staring and growling and showing some teeth? She's never tried to assault the kids, right? What do you feed and are you using any chemicals around her like floor cleaners containing phenols? I ask about food because some contain BHA, BHT, ETHOXYQUIN, or propylene glycol as preservatives and they're suspect of causing some hyperactive like behavior. You might break the food guarding malarkey by simply moving the dish to another location, preferably a neutral area. IOW, take her out of the environment in which she's accustomed to having incidents, and desensitize her there. But don't start messin with that stuff till you know HOWE to handle it just in case she should go off when you try testing it out. Besides, after an hour of training that food thing will probably disappear on it's own, just from the basic conditioning exercises. You might try taking her dinner bowl in hand and slowly walking her around while eating and making passes by other folks. But not yet, you got a little study to do and some practice... about two hours work. Must be COLD out there. Lets get the lesson plan in mind so you'll have your wits about you if she should growl so we don't lose an opportunity to address an incident should she growl, because doin so in new environment would make it that much easier to break, due to the change of environ. Same question goes for the growling. Is that a generalized behavior or does she only do it say, in the living room or only inside the HOWES, will she growl if they're playin outside. Does she growl ONLY when she's in play? That could be VERY telling. Does she growl when she is NOT ALREADY EXCITED PLAYING (besides at the food bowl, I'm over that)? If so, that's the problem, BUT, that still leaves the question of WHO does she growl at around food? That too could tie up another loose end. Does she always / sometimes / not often come to the kids when they call her? Will she always come to you when you call? Is she walked on leash often, and is she well behaved or is it a struggle, and what kind of collar do you use. Even though you're not writing about an on leash problem, we're still gonna need to work her on lead and longe line for the initial conditioning exercises. |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
The program I teach begins by stopping all negative
or corrective responses and interactions with her. That includes scolding the children, because that may be what provokes her to growl. That's called allelomimetic behavior. IOW, if you scold the kids for jumpin on the sofa, the dog will copy your action and attitudes and likewise correct them. Sibling rivalry is not caused by siblings, is cause by mishandling. Scolding one peer in front of the others causes animosity towards the others whom the subject was scolded in front of. That causes 2 things to happen. The scolded party gets embarrasses and assaults the observers of the scolding, or the observers copy the disciplinarian, and likewise scold the subject. Catch22. HOWE are we gonna control three kid critters and one Aussie runnin around in a midget Newfie suit??? Could take three juvenile detention and one AC officers 24/8 to throw down on them when they get goin like kids will do. I'm pretty EZ going, but I require strict discipline. I can't have a child interrupting me while I'm doin this and have my dogs going kookamunga while I'm trying to teach someone on the phone HOWE to control their dog's barking, for example. NOW I'd be curious about the ages of the kids "children under age 13," cause if there's things like hyperactive or disabled children or autistic kids or an infant who'd maybe cry or have seizures or whatever that could upset the dog. I'm not lookin for excuses to mitigate her behavior, just to understand it better so's we're lookin at the facts of the matter based on what is happening Vs feelings about HOWE whatever we may emotionally feel about stuff. We want to back away from the micro aspects of the behavior so we can take in the big picture and then we can see what parts don't fit, and figure out what to do to remedy the etiology rather than fightin symptoms of the problem, because as we repress symptoms, they change, to other, often worse, seemingly non related behaviors as trainsfer or replacement behaviors. That's HOWE COME so many dogs go through every behavior problem in the book before simply runnin outa behavior problems that haven't already been repressed. Think about it. As we repress all the normal puppy behaviors we make the pup nervous cause he's only a animal. They cannot know right from wrong, only what's nice and what's not. They're not a human child, they cannot understand BAD. Dogs do not DO, BAD, dogs only do dog, and of curse, they also copy us. As the dog matures to 8-9 months they go through their 'adolescent rebellious' stage (Scott &Fuller). HOWE can a dog have a rebellious stage if there's nothing to REBEL AGAINST? Well, he still has not run through all the behavior problems he can be provoked into, so when he's maturing as a teenager and trying for more freedom, we become more repressive because the dog is out of hand, and there goes the shootin match. My student's dogs do not go through that because we never have a negative or forced interaction with them, we NEVER tell them NO or INSIST on a command, because THAT triggers the opposition reflex and makes the dog rebel. Our dogs are eager to work because we PRAISE IN ADVANCE, with the command, all in one breath not after the dog has finished doin his behavior. Dogs do not work for credit. By the time the dog comes to you when called, he's no longer thinking of the command. Dogs respond in predictable, innate normal natural instinctive, reflexive, ways to situations and circumstances of their environment which we provide for them. That means we can change or control the environment to set the dog up to perform as predicted, and know when to do what you've planned in advance, to properly trigger / distract / praise / trigger / distract / praise the behavior till it's extinguished, MUCH LIKE FLOODING, but not quite... Or, we may use traditional flooding techniques with distraction / praise to extinguish behaviors. Before addressing behavior problems we condition the dog to praise with every brief eye contact and learn HOWE to handle the lead so we're not pulling on the collar and triggering the dog or hyping him up for a random outburst. Proper leash handling techniques insures safety and teaches the dog gentleness and conditions them to respond to our praise, as it entices the dog in and settles him down in just a few minutes. It's kinda like Dr. Ian Dunbar's "make like a tree," but not really anything at all quite like it. They just look similar at first glance. The Hot & Cold Exercise is like the kid's game "gettin hotter gettin colder" with the dog's attention and body as we stand and handle the lead properly to get the feel for it and reassure the dogs we ain't gonna be pullin no more on them. After a few minutes the dog will be hangin out waitin for you to do something, then you're ready to go into the Family Leadership Exercise where we very subtly work the dog in a conditioning routine we'll rely on for other situations and begin to install the come command as a conditioned reflex. That usually takes my students about one hour, often less, very rarely four hours, but that'd get a perfect recall on the most difficult critter. Once we've got that dog willing to work with us we can begin to break his behavior problems using variable distractions and praise techniques. Using praise in advance relaxes the dog and encourages him. For training, isn't that all we need? Praising BAD BEHAVIORS is GOOD. If your dog were boltin out the door, it's not "NO! STOP!," it's GOOD GIRL NICEDOG YOU'RE A GOOOOD FELLA!!. The dog ain't goin NOWHERE except come back over to you. Might even ask him if he wants to go to the park. Sure he wants to but you don't. Who cares? He's only a DOG. Tell him you're gonna put your shoes on to go but it'll be a minit. Dogs like kids FORGET in a minute... Tomorrow when you ARE going to the park, tell him you're goin cause you PROMISED him yesterday, and now it's time. They'll think you're the kat's pajamas for bein the greatest mom/dad in the Whole Wild World. Dogs and kids just wanna have fun. Therefore my dogs never see me frown on them. NO MATTER WHAT. I never tell them NO or DON'T, or physically reach to restrain them, partly because THAT would trigger the opposition reflex and compel the dog to "outstep me" and rush the door or eat the steak or whatever AND teach the dog that doin THAT, will command 100% of your undivided attention... That's HOWE COME proper understanding of the methods and developing the feel for leash handling is imperative, so's we don't sabotage ourselves by reacting to our own fears of dangerous situations we're gonna work through in a few minutes if you can refrain yourself from saying NO DON'T! and pullin the lead to force control. Of course I know that your dog isn't having leash problems, but it fits here... Our dogs naturally want to do everything they're asked, cause just like kids an ladies, dogs just wanna have fun. Your Puppy Wizard. <{}YPW; ~ } > From: To: "Jerry Howe" Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 5:21 PM Subject: Re: Damned Family Leadership Exercise - Re: Am I expecting to much - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
Human_And_Animal_Behavior_Forensic_Sciences_Research_Laboratory...
|
==================
Hey, Mr. Wizard, or Alchemist or whatever your alias of the day is, have to say that our dog heels much better than she did. This is after reading and implementing the bit in your "Wits End" treatise. And she's a royal nutter (but then again, aren't they all?). Cheers! Greg-- Marcel Beaudoin...
|