Dog's Emotion: A Blessing For Wally and I

Wally expressing that's he's ready for action!

I used to look at Wally's highly emotional nature and how strongly he feels emotions as a curse. Of course, part of this was because of his fear issues he had back then. Everything would trigger such a strong avoidance and fear from him and it would take him so long to recover and be something resembling 'normal', that it just seemed like a hindrance to everything we wanted to do.

Even then, it helped his learning, though not in a way I would want to repeat or try to recreate, but the strong fear emotions also made him remember what got him taken away from what he was fearful of. One way I didn't realize at the time was getting him to sit and/or indicate in his way to me what he was afraid of so I could deal with it and keep him from trying to strangle himself getting away. When he saw that sitting near me and staying close would get me to take him away, it ended up being something he remembered strongly. He learned this quickly as well.

Fast forward ahead about a year or so and the fear issues aren't the consuming thing for him anymore, and now the emotional intensity is on the other end of the scale, sheer excitement. This level of emotion worked the same way, with the added benefit of being an emotion I did want to trigger. Who doesn't like to see a happy and excited dog? What I learned, though, was that these emotions would cause the events that occurred while in that intense state to be more strongly remembered. So the things I could teach him while wound up and excited and super into the game or training we're doing, they would make a bigger "footprint" in his brain, making it easier for him to remember and making a bigger impression on him, so to speak.

So now, the first thing I like to do is get Wally wound up. I do what I can to get him excited, bouncy, and super alert and ready for action. Once he's had time to "charge up" we start going into the game or training we get into. I also use treats he loves (everything I use is 'high-value', meaning I only use treats he puts on his to-die-for list) which only helps keeping the spirits high, even if the task at hand is challenging and that he struggles with accomplishing.

There are other benefits to working him in this higher state of emotion:

• He learns how to think and perform behaviors when something excites him in "real life".
• He learns how to control himself during times of high emotion.
• The alertness and focus that occurs when he's like this also burns off energy, adding to any physical and mental energy he's consuming.
• It keeps the learning and training fun, making him want to participate in training again later.
• The fun he is having becomes part of the memory associated with the behavior and cues - a form of classical conditioning. Performing the behavior itself can trigger some of these feelings when the history is strong enough.

Of course, there's too much of a good thing - and if the dog is too wound up to where he's not able to perform with control and composure, or is unable to listen to your instructions, it's time to dial it down some so he can regain some self-control. Take a break, do something low intensity, whatever ways you have to calm the dog some so he can be in a more controlled state.

And of course, negative emotions are something you have to make the best of - obviously not something you want to trigger and cause your dog to intentionally endure - and the same rules apply: calm him down and withdraw him from the situation if he's so overwhelmed that he can't think (often called "shut down" or "the dog is shutting down"). At this state, there's no sense doing anything because he mind has "locked up" and is not processing rationally. Wait until he's settled down and try again.

"All-Positive Monday" Results

Wally getting into a training session

Well, the day of truly all-positive feedback (basically everything he did got him something he wants, be it food, a game, whatever) went well. I don't think Wally has any complaints, and I don't either, though I don't know if things really seemed all that different. Perhaps that is more an indication that my interaction with him is pretty close to where it didn't seem like an earth-shaking event for him.

One thing this approach did force me to do was to really watch him. Some things like the entrance to the kitchen (which he's not allowed in, but sometimes "goes a bit too far" and has to be redirected out) really had me watching so I could reward him for going up to the boundary line without having to redirect or say "at-at" and redirect him out of the kitchen. On his part, I think he saw it mostly like a shaping session and he was doing the right stuff I wanted so he was just lying down or standing up or sitting by the boundary with an occasional pawing of the boundary line just to remind me he's not past it.

A somewhat subtle thing he did was do the "right" thing more often elsewhere during the day. For example, when coming back in, he immediately went into the living room and sat down. Sometimes, he'll sniff around the hall or start sniffing along the hall or any objects on the bench before going to the spot in the living room. Not today, he went right there. Not sure if that was a byproduct of the approach or if there was nothing interesting to sniff! He also did it in my room, this time going up the door, which was closed, and barking. Now how is that something I want? Well, for one, he's not shy about expressing when he needs help, which given his old personality, is a good thing in my book. Before, he'd just look miserable by the door, but no one would know he needed something! But, perhaps even more so, the door blocked his way to his bed in my room, and that's where he usually goes! So, he wanted to get there, but couldn't, and was like "get this %&*(#% door open!" It didn't help it was a folding door, so he couldn't open it from outside the room.

Otherwise, there wasn't much of any difference in our day. He's usually a happy-go-lucky kinda dog that gets very into games and play and isn't shy about expressing his emotions - and that was more of the same today. He got into our training sessions as much as usual and ran through his arsenal of behaviors (seeming to prefer his "sit-pretty" or begging pose for some reason).

I may do this again sometime soon to see if there's any more differences the next time, but I'm thinking it won't make too much of a difference. Now, whether that's because I usually interact with him in about a "85% positive" way or because he didn't realize something was different, or if he just saw it as something totally different, not sure, but it certainly didn't hurt anything to try!

No Punishment Monday - Attempting a Truly "All-Positive" Day

Whenever I hear "purely positive" training, I always cringe because I know there's going to be some negative punishment. The fact you don't give the dog a reward if he thinks his action will earn him one is negative punishment. That's just the way it is. To be truly "purely positive" you have to give a reward for EVERYTHING the dog does. That reward doesn't have to be food or even a click - it could be just giving him what he'll want in that situation.

So, tomorrow, I will try just that, just to see what happens. Well, I guess even then it's 99% because he still will not be allowed to do anything that disrespects someone else (or their property/pets/family), or anything that is unsafe, either for himself or others, but I don't think that will happen. It hasn't in a long time.

Otherwise, everything he does will get something he'll like/want. It will be interesting to see how this works out and what might change going forward, especially since there's not a lot of punishment going on here anyway, mostly during "formal" training (shaping, marker and reward or nothing), but there's not necessarily a lot of overt reward either. Most of the things he does, he's just "allowed" to do and generally gets little reaction from me.

It will also be interesting to see what he does differently, if anything. Perhaps he won't be able to tell a difference, and just act as he always does. Maybe I'll end up getting too many offered behaviors, where it will become more of an inconvenience than anything else, while doing nothing for him. Or perhaps it will have a...ahem...positive impact any maybe he gains more confidence or somehow all of his tricks and such become better.

Can't wait for tomorrow actually!

Muscle Dog in the Making?

Every once in a while, I weigh Wally to make sure his weight is at the right level.

Well, today, I noticed his weight had climbed up 3 lbs. Now, I know his legs are getting stronger. I was feeling them a couple days ago and could tell they are getting far more muscular, and it was easy to tell because the poor dog's hair was stuck to his skin due to the rain.

What I never would have guessed is that he put on that much weight just from his muscle! He also picked up some muscle in his neck as well, but three full pounds? I weighed him four times, checked the scale to make sure it was calibrated, it was just a surprise.

And it is just the muscle - his body shape is the same, making it even more surprising that the weight increase was there.

That said, I could tell he was getting stronger. He's much more able to stand on his back legs for what seems like an eternity and he has zero effort going from any position to standing up on them (and he seems to love doing it even more than before). He's even taking to hopping while standing on his back legs, and walking backwards. Backwards! The begging/sitting-pretty position is no problem for him, though I imagine that is more about his back strength, but it does take balance on his back legs.

So I'm wondering just how much muscle and strength he'll keep picking up. Also wonder if working on his rear awareness is contributing to this as well.

Punch That Ball, Wally!

We're continuing to explore the basics of treibball - a dog sport oriented around "herding" balls towards a goal area. The dog can only move the balls by poking with his nose.

At first, the "NOSE ONLY!" rule was hard for him to grasp. It took him some days to get over his desire to always want to put his paws on an object. Of course, some of this might, maybe, sort of be my...doing...as during shaping, he would run with paw behaviors and I'd take them. Also, other tasks involved using his paws (like standing on a book or sitting on his scale) so paw actions received more reinforcement, and of course, actions that are reinforced get repeated.

So, that determination to "make" pawing work was a bit of a battle, but now it seems like he's gotten the idea. He's poking the ball more, and now it's a matter of trying to get him to really put some oomph behind those nose pokes.

Fortunately, getting him excited is one way for me to get him to put more enthusiasm, let's say, into those nose pokes. Another way is the old shaping trick - triggering an extinction burst of sorts. What happens with that is that I just mark and reward any brushing up of his nose with the ball. So now he's in this rhythm of tap, marker, reward, tap, marker, reward, then I stop it. He's like "hey!" and wonders where the marker went. Then he gets a little frustrated and starts poking harder. THEN the marker "comes back" and he gets a reward again.

This is where we are now, trying to get him to use the harder pushes from the start so that such behavior can be the default offering, and then we can start putting a cue to the behavior, giving it a name he can reference for the behavior.