Chapter 1. The Training Course

It's not easy to characterize the course, as I taught it. Dogs with different needs and problems were brought together in the same training class. Most dog owners simply wanted to teach their dogs to be good companions—they were taught the basic course. Obedience, agility, tracking and hunting devotees worked on skills that gave their dogs a head start for doing those specialized tasks. Some dogs already had some advanced training, but were not yet under good control—they took the regular course, but did it on an accelerated schedule. Puppies were put on limited play-training.

In class, each student demonstrated what he or she worked on the previous week. The other students then critiqued how the student performed the task. I intervened with comment and aid only when needed, or when asked.

Some students used the instruction material as self-study—they only came to class when they needed assistance. The described training procedures are precise and detailed, and photo sequences (photos are not yet available in this version) clearly show how they should be done. But, when training by yourself, you may unknowingly perform some procedures incorrectly. For the best training result, then, I recommend that you either work informally with others or use this course material with professional instruction at a participating dog training club.

Mainly Reward Training

Dogs can be trained to do basic obedience skills and most other specialized activities, using only rewarding techniques. In my experience, punishing procedures were completely omitted in the training of most "work dogs." It was done this way because punishment, even the mild sort, has the tendency to draw the dog's attention to his handler rather than to the task at hand. Kenneled work dogs are not required to observe the same rules of conduct that are demanded of the home-based Companion Dog. The handler of a work dog usually overlooks his dog's behavior anomalies, if they do not interfere with the dog's ability to do a required task, and who is willing to work whenever the occasion arises.

The Companion dog, however, lives in a diverse social milieu. He must observe some social niceties. Misbehavior and disobedience by the Companion dog in a social setting can be punished, and usually are. Punishment can take various/many forms: • If the dog tries to exit an open door to the outside before he's told he may, the door is closed and the dog loses the chance to play outdoors on that occasion. • If he fails to come when called during a social period, he can be given some penalty work, such as close-order drills for a minute or less. • The same drill penalty can be given to the dog who tries to step off the curb at a street corner before he's released to go on. • The dog who disobeys your command to "sit" or "down" when guests arrive or continues to annoy them in any manner can be made to spend a short time-out period in his home cage. • The dog who nips a person, no matter what the provocation, is given a serious "talking to"—nipping is unacceptable.

A Gentling Effect on Temperament

Some dogs are shy or fearful and may show some defensive aggression. The gentle approach that's taken in this course has an ameliorative effect on the dog's temperament. In addition, if you are training in a class setting, your dog has a chance to meet old friends and become acquainted with new ones—making him more outgoing and friendly from the experience. The Game-playing class setting especially helps those dogs who don't yet know how to act with others—they may have had only limited friendly close encounters with other dogs. Socially deprived dogs gradually adapt to this friendly class setting, and are usually playing with other dogs after one or two sessions.

However, on rare occasion, you'll find a dog that is unfriendly with another in class. Fight they might, if given the chance. Though the course experience has a gentling effect on dogs, this type of aggression is handled more quickly with behavior therapy; a counter-conditioning procedure is usually all that's needed. Counter-conditioning helps to change an "aversive" circumstance into a "friendly" one (See Chapter 15. Behavior Therapy): You'd arrange for pleasant things to happen whenever the two dogs meet.

The Governing Principles of the Program

The Dog: (1) learns a new strategy to get the things that he wants, and avoids their delay or loss. (2) learns that he gets most of the pleasures of life by working for them. (3) learns to recognize the occasions (signals, cues) and opportunities when he can earn rewards. (4) learns that he is not required to work, and that he may quit at any time without penalty beyond the loss of reward on that occasion.

The Handler: (1) takes the dog to places where he can earn rewards. (2) informs the dog when a reward-filled session is about to begin (the sound, READY, is the signal for doing that). (3) gives the signals and commands that tell the dog what to do when he is working for rewards and shows him how to perform. (4) delivers the rewards and/or nonphysical punishments when earned by the dog. (5) calms and relaxes the dog whenever he becomes anxious, fearful or aggressive. (6) gives the dog love, affection, and care at any time—the dog doesn't work to get them.

Dog-Handler Relationships: During training, or at any time for that matter, treat your dog as a close friend, rather than as an adversary. Avoid doing anything that will cause your dog to be anxious or apprehensive. Relax in his presence. Whenever you talk to the dog, do it in a soothing, quiet voice. Actively work towards improving your dog's quality of life with playtime, pleasure strolls, and plenty of pets and hugs.

The Leash Rule for Class Time: Keep your dog on leash while in class. Do not leash-correct or scold the dog for anything that he does during this time. Aggressive dogs must be kept out of reach of other dogs and people, until they become more friendly—with behavior therapy, if necessary.

The Course Exercises

The core exercises for the companion dog are Sit, Down, Rise, Stay, Come-when-called, Halt, Send-away, and Casual Strolling on Loose Lead. Additional obedience exercises that anyone cares to do for fun or competition are heeling drills, Sit-front and finish-at-heel and Long sits and Long downs.

If you perform the training procedures as given, without modification, the control that you will get over these behaviors will be impressive. You will get that kind of control without stressing either you or your dog emotionally. The training thus has a positive effect on both you and your dog's disposition and temperament. Your dog, however, may have stressful moments. Whenever they arise, you will be shown how to deal with them with calming and relaxing techniques (see Chap. 15. Behavior Therapy).

Learning Principles

Knowing how to correctly reinforce and disable behaviors is necessary for the training of any dog, by any training method. The reinforcing sounds, GOOD and OUT, are used in this course to reinforce (strengthen) desirable behaviors at the moment when these behaviors happen; while the disabling sounds NO and TIME are used to disable (weaken) unwanted behaviors. Try to limit the NO and TIME disabling mostly to social misbehaviors and only scarcely to training miscues in this first course.

You'll find this to be a highly sophisticated training method, but one that you can learn to use effectively. With it, you'll be able to get your dog to do anything that he is physically capable of doing, provided that you use the reinforcing and disabling signals correctly, and use the kinds of rewards that will get the dog to perform with enthusiasm.

Reinforcers

The reinforcing sounds, GOOD and OUT, tell the dog that the response he just made will be followed by a reward. To be effective, the reinforcing sound must come on at the exact moment the correct response is made. In that way, the sounds clearly tell the dog which responses are in his best interest to make. Following the reinforcing sound, the dog is rewarded.

The Reinforcement/Reward Rule: "First reinforce the response, then reward the dog." Never try to reward the dog without reinforcing the response first, otherwise you might find his response drifting into something different from what you had in mind. And never start any reward-delivery movements before you give the reinforcing sound.

Also, as a rule, always follow a reinforcer with a tangible reward. If your dog doesn't get a fair payoff for the work he performs, he likely will quit on you. If adequately compensated, your dog will be eager to perform. The rule holds even when the dog is in Obedience competition: when all exercises are completed in the ring, the dog is "told" that he will be rewarded after he leaves the ring.

Disablers

The disabling sounds, NO and TIME, are used mainly in advanced training work. They tell the dog that the response he just made is unacceptable for rewarding, and that he may have to do the task over again from the beginning (punishment). Dogs that are being campaigned for Obedience competition, for example, may do a minute or so of precision heeling as a penalty for doing a careless performance on any exercise. To be highly effective, the disabling sounds must come on at the precise moment the incorrect response or misbehavior is made. The disabling sounds in this first course are used primarily to disable social disobedience and misbehaviors.

The Disablement/Punishment Rule: First disable the behavior with a disabling sound, then punish the dog. Don't move to punish, until you've told him first that he misbehaved or disobeyed. Punishment in the training setting is usually in the form of delay or loss of reward or a light work penalty, and is rarely physically aversive.

Training Guidelines

Do not urge your dog to perform. Your dog must be permitted not to respond whenever he wishes—or to quit working at any time, without penalty. Mistakes are ignored, and, if necessary, the trial is simply repeated. The dog's refusal to respond only forfeits the chance for him to earn some of the good things of life. If you do the procedures precisely as given, and use attractive rewards, your dog will begin and continue to perform well without urging.

Don't talk to the dog during the work session, except for giving commands and reinforcing/disabling sounds. Also, be as inconspicuous as you possibly can while doing the trial procedure. Don't do anything out of the ordinary to get the dog's attention. Don't even use the dog's name in any of the early training sessions; His name will be learned later to mean: "I want your attention. Expect to receive a command or signal to do something." The chance for earning rewards is a powerful persuader—let that work for you.

Allow the dog to beg. If your dog noses the food-containing hand, you must allow it. A normal impulse might be to say NO, or to move your hand out of the dog's reach. Don't do it. The behavior will disappear on its own, because the dog is never rewarded for doing it. Wait until he stops the objectionable behavior, and then resume the training trial.

We're going to start with a clean slate. Assume that your dog has not been taught any work skills. Don't give the dog any commands or use any procedures that haven't been taught yet in this course. Dogs who have already been trained to some extent before entering this course won't lose any of the skills that they already know—they will do them again, later, with a newly learned work strategy.

Team Training (optional, but encouraged)

In Team Training, two or more persons are involved in the training of a single dog—at the same time. Team Training resolves, to some extent, the problem of getting you to do all of the trial events correctly, in the proper order and with good timing.

The persons doing Team Training are Team Players. In Team Training, Team Players have defined roles in the training trial—each Player controls one or more trial actions.1 As an unlikely example, one Team Player may call the dog to work, another may tell him what response to make (with commands and/or signals), one other may show the dog how to respond, another may tell the dog about the "goodness" of his response, and yet another may reward the dog. However, in all probability, you alone, or with just one other person, would do all of the trial actions with your dog.

You will control a number of actions in the training setting—actions that the dog can see, hear, smell, taste or feel. For training to be efficient and effective, trial actions that you deliver must be done in the correct order with other actions—must never appear simultaneously or overlap with a start of any other action. In addition, correct timing of some trial actions is crucial.

In this course, no Team Player uses force techniques to get the dog to do anything. To do so would risk arousing some uncontrolled behavior-affecting anxiety, annoyance, fear or apprehension in the working dog. Moreover, the training outcome from negative intervention would be hard to duplicate by others, even if such interventions occasionally happened to work.

It's not correct to say that a trainer (or Team Player) controls the dog. Cues, signals and commands control behavior. Behavior control comes about from the way the dog reacts to actions that have been programmed by a trainer or Team Player.

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