Canine Training

Which of the following is not a play signal?

Prey bow

Which of the following will help you set yourself apart from other dog trainers in your area the most?

finding a niche or specialty

Jack, a male German Shepherd dog, shows aggression towards men, but only if they have facial hair. The facial hair can be described as a/an:

sign stimulus this is the key component eliciting the behavior

True or False: All dogs will display all of the predatory steps in a particular sequence.

False, Not all dogs display every predatory signal and certainly not all in the same order

Stimulus generalization is more likely to occur

When stimuli share more similar properties than when stimuli are very different from one another

What is the most powerful way to gain new clients?

word of mouth

After working with Mrs. Scholl as a consultant, you determine that Kate scratches because her paws are itchy and deck scratching feels good to her. You now sit down to discuss the problem with Mrs. Scholl and advise her:

That the extinction training is doomed to failure. The behavior is self-reinforcing (scratching and itch feels good). A better approach would be to find out why she's itchy and treat the core problem.

Which of the following constitute potential problems with using only a primary reinforcer such as food?

The animal may become satiated It may be difficult to deliver the reinforcer at the proper time Unlike secondary reinforcers, the animal may eventually have enough of primary reinforcers. For example, you may eat until you're full but would you ever stop accepting money? If the animal is under water, far away, or otherwise unapproachable we may not be able to deliver the reinforcer.

Prior to an aggression evaluation, which of the following instructions would be the best and safest placement for their dog?

in another room behind closed doors

What are the best ways to prevent play form going wrong?

interrupt Socialize them well early and often This will help keep things from escalating and getting out of control because it will help the adrenaline to come down. This is the key to prevent a lot of problems.

Which of the following is a way to increase your knowledge of dog behavior and training?

networking with other trainers hands-on experience attending seminars and conferences Everyone has different experiences and insight and it helps to question them and also share your experiences. You can read and attend all the seminars available, but nothing replaces hands-on experience so you can improve your techniques and put what you've learned to action. We are continually learning about dog behavior so you need to stay up-to-date. This is also a great opportunity to network with other trainers.

What are the most common attention-demanding behaviors?

nipping, play biting jumping barking

You have been training your dog to pick up the remote on your living room table to bring it to you while sitting on the couch. He's learned it in only a few sessions and brings it on a verbal cue consistently. You're at a friend's house for a play date with your dogs and want to show off your new trick. you cue him to go get the remote to bring it to you, but he just stares at your. What's happening here?

superstitious behavior You have only practiced in your living room with your remote. He does not realize that is means the same everywhere. You need to generalize it by practicing in many different placces.

The next stage began very close to the school. The trainer told Howard to go to school, as Howard walked the teacher would not accompany him but would stay behind and nudge him in the right direction if he go toff course. Once he reached the school lobby another teacher would praise him and give him an M and M. The teachers repeated the procedure until Howard had performed successfully on three consecutive trials. At tat point he was moved to a point 50' further from the school and teaching resumed. This process was repeated until he was able to walk to the school without any assistance. What training process is being used here?

Backwards chaining They start at the school, the end point for the behavior.

True or False: Howard's schedule of reinforcement could be defined as VR3

False It was really FR3, it was based on the frequency of responses, not time intervals, and was never variable

True or False, In Pavlov's famous experiments with dogs, meat powder was a conditioned stimulus.

False It was the unconditioned stimulus. The bell, tone, light, etc. was trained to serve as the conditioned stimulus (CS)

True or false: in the livestock guarding dog scenario, if Debbie can frighten the dogs sufficiently, they will eventually enter the barn in an attempt to seek refuge and safety.

False Many livestock guard dogs are given little direct human contact and tend to be very independent. Debbie is probably creating an escape response already.

True or False: During an operant conditioning session, it is the human trainer that is in control.

False The animal (or operator) can control when you (the trainer) delivers a treat. in contrast, classical conditioning provides the animal with no control at all. In reality, control is really shared. But remember that operant conditioning is named for the operator-the trainee, not the trainer.

Dogs within a breed group all have similar characteristics and appearances. (True or False)

False They are grouped together more for purpose such as herding breeds, etc., but there is a lot of variety in appearance and temperament even within a breed and much more so within a group

Our new trainer, having established the clicker, now decides to create a bobbing behavior where Shyla will rear up, then dip halfway down before rearing straight up again. She has been clicking regularly to reinforce rearing but now changes the behavior that Shyla must perform to receive reinforcement. Sometimes Shyla dips down slightly before drooping and her trainer now only rewards rearing that includes this minute dip. Once the rearing consistently has this dip, the trainer modifies the program to only reward rearing with a dip of at least two inches. Once this is established, she raises the bar and only rewards a dip of three inches. She continues to increase the size of the dip needed for reinforcement over multiple training sessions until Shyla is dipping about 6 inches or half her body length. True or False: This shaping process depends upon the trainer inducing variability in the behavior during the process, by moving the position of the treat Shyla receives or gently pushing/manipulating Shyla during the training.

False Variability in behaviors and responses occurs naturally. In shaping, we change our criteria and then take advantage of that natural variation.

A potential problem for one kennel owner was the way that the dogs would cluster at the entrance when a worker needed to go in briefly to address any kind of problem. The owner, after taking this course, decided to try overshadowing. He realized that dogs quickly learned that the cue of a kennel worker approaching the gate meant something good was possible: food, attention, a new toy, a new dog arrival, or potentially a short term escape from the kennel. To overshadow this cue (and reduce the problem) the owner instructed the employees to start ringing a loud cowbell as they approached the kennel. His thought was that the bell would overshadow the low key sound and sight of the kennel workers steps/approach. He had his staff evaluate this technique after a week, measuring how fast the dogs assembled at the gate in response to a worker's approach AND the ringing of the bell vs. just the worker's approach. Based on the data below, true or false - the overshadowing technique worked.

False, If it had worked, the response time with the bell added should be less

True or False: Networking with other trainers may give away your secrets that set you apart from others.

False, You can only gain from networking. A lot of networking comes from trainers not even in your area, but even if it does, you should have enough confidence in yourself that you will have enough business to keep busy.

True or False: It is NEVER acceptable for a puppy to play bite a human.

False, even though this can be a tricky one because it depends on what the owner finds acceptable. Some owners are ok with the dog play biting as long as they don't bite down. The benefit is that the dog learns bite INHIBITION which is not about not biting, but how hard is too hard.

DRO or differential reinforcement of other behaviors, is a positive approach to correcting behavior in that it still focuses on positive reinforcement. In practice, DRO usually requires a schedule that is:

Fixed Interval (FI) We reinforce at regular intervals but the animal will not receive the reinforcement if it is performing the undesirable behavior at the time. In DRO we are rewarding any behavior other than the problem behavior! That has a big impact on potential schedules of reinforcement.

An expecting couple decided at the advice of a canine behavior expert to play a CD of baby sounds like crying and cooing repeatedly to their dog leading up to the arrival of their baby. Once the baby was born, the dog barely reacted to the baby crying. What has happened here?

Habitutation Increased exposure to a stimulus gradually can help a dog learn that a noise is just background noise and does not need to be alarmed

What is the first question that you should ask an owner that complains about a destructive chewer?

How much exercise are they getting?

Max, a Boston terrier spaniel cross, jumps on all visitors when they first enter the house. While his young owner, Casey, enjoys these greetings, many other guests do not. Casey's mom wants to stop Max from jumping on guests and is considering several different training approaches. Ignore Max when he jumps, offering neither verbal or physical affection Squirt Max in the face with water from a spray bottle when he jumps Pinch Max's ear while he's jumping until he stops Offer Max a treat whenever he is not jumping

Ignore Max when he jumps, offering neither verbal or physical affection - Extinction Squirt Max in the face with water from a spray bottle when he jumps - Punishment Pinch Max's ear while he's jumping until he stops - Negative Reinforcement Offer Max a treat whenever he is not jumping - DRO

A beginning trainer has an opportunity to begin working with a shelter dog to hone her skills. When she begins working with Shyla, a young female Shih-Tzu, she starts by simply watching the young pup run and play on the floor. The trainer notes that Shyla will occasionally rear up on two legs and look around inquisitively. The trainer starts to reward Shyla with a small piece of a dog treat every time she rears up. What will happen to the frequency of the rearing? What is this training method called?

Increase Scanning A behavior that is being positively reinforced will increase in frequency.

"Howard" was a severely mentally challenged adult man, he had an IQ of 8 and engaged in bizarre behavior including facial contortions, spinning in circles, and slapping himself. H seemed to understand simple speech but was unable to speak himself, making only meaningless sounds. his therapist set a goal of giving Howard more independence by teaching him to walk from his living quarters to the school at the institution. Prior to his teaching he had to be attended when walking to school to prevent him form wandering off. The teaching began by escorting Howard to the front door of the living quarters and saying "Howard, go to school." The teacher would then escort the man to the school, frequently praising him along the way and offering an M and M when they reached the school. After doing this for several trials, the teachers tested his way to the school alone., even from very short distances. What was the purpose of this initial teaching step?

It was done to see where the teaching process should start. The trainers needed to see what Howard could do already to avoid wasting time training parts he could already do - or falsely assume he could do something when he can't.

Which of the following are both stress signals and calming signals?

Look away tongue flicking sniffing

While we have not yet discussed all of the training and shaping shortcuts, do you recognize/guess which of these techniques was used in the training described?

Modeling Modeling refers to the physical manipulation of the trainee. For example, pushing on a dog to get it to sit or lifting its paw to teach "shake". Howard was nudged and guided from behind, a form of training we call modeling.

A client has a large breed dog that has been jumping up on people and barking for attention. You recommend that she turn around and ignore the dog and walk away when he exhibits these behaviors. What training method are you recommending?

extinction

Regrettably, Mrs. Scholl's dim-witted ex-husband still tries to distract the dog from scratching by playing frisbee with it whenever it paws at the deck. Fortunately, he only drops by for a visit once a month or so, whenever his worm and travel schedule allow. What is the effect of the ex-husband in terms of training? Will her technique work as long as the ex-husband is there only occasionally?

No, her ex is using variable reinforcement. Variable reinforcement is very powerful, Kate will never stop scratching under these conditions.

in the prior scenario with max, Casey's mom decides to adopt punishment to eliminate jumping. However, Casey's elderly grandmother stops by to visit periodically and can't resist encouraging an excited, jumping welcome from Max. If this is a rare event, will the family be able to eliminate or at least greatly reduce the jumping?

No, if we don't eliminate positive reinforcers while introducing punishment we are unlikely to eliminate the behavior.

Based on what we've learned so far about stimulus relations, which of the following would probably serve as the best food stimulus for my dogs Scruffy?

Pieces of liver Few people feed liver to their pets very often, this would capitalize on novelty, making it a superior unconditioned stimulus (US). the value of a US will generally go down as it becomes more common. Consider how we provide ourselves with treats. You might treat yourself to a snicker bar on a special occasion, but if you eat it all the time, their value goes down.

Which of the following is not one of the requirements showing that an animal has learned a behavior?

Reflexive, such as a male dog urinating where he smells other male urine This is not a learned behavior but a MAP

Your dog used to ignore the sound of a vacuum cleaner, but over the past few weeks, he has started barking at it and growling when you use it. What has happened?

Sensitization Over time and repeated exposure to the noise, he has become more sensitive to it and needs some desensitization works

Which of the following behaviors/characteristics fit the "most dangerous dog profile?"

Shoulder rub urine marking independent tail up and stiff

True of False: Howard's teaching did not make use of any secondary reinforcers.

True If we assume that the praise discussed was a primary reinforcer. For many subjects, praise is desirable and that was probably true in this case.

If you put on your treat pouch and your dog comes running to sit in front of you, he has learned that treat pouch = food. This is a form of S-R learning. (True or False)

True Just like our example in the study guide of the pantry door and the presentation of food, the appearance of the treat pouch has become like the sound of the pantry door.

True or False: You cue your dog to sit and she sits and then lays down. The behavior of sitting is not under stimulus control.

True, It is likely that down was trained with having the dog sit first and then going into a down. The trainer/owner likely still reinforced the response of laying down after sitting.

True or False: Sensory discrimination training usually requires extinction.

True, What we are doing is really reinforcing behaviors that follow the cue and removing reinforcement from responses that do not come after the cue - the latter is really a description of extinction training.

If a dog is punished for warning, then their sequence of warning may change or may disappear altogether and they will go to a higher level...even straight to bite.

True, this is a very common mistake since many owners believe that they are punishing the aggressive behavior itself.

True or False: We should probably expect that if the extinction training is going well, scratching will almost immediately start to increase.

True, this is the extinction burst, Kate may scratch more at first in an attempt to elicit the reinforcement, attention, from her owner

True or False: Sensory discrimination training usually requires positive reinforcement

True, we need to reinforce behavioral responses that occur following the cue

My neighbor has a problem with her dog, a bitch named Kate. Kate likes to scratch on her expensive wooden deck, making her owner very unhappy. The neighbor, Mrs. Scholl, decided to try and end the behavior by ignoring Kate whenever she scratched - an attempt at extinction. In doing so, what did Mrs. Scholl assume was the reinforcer for Kate's behavior.

attention from her owner Attention, even though negative such as scolding, can be very reinforcing

After the trainer has Shyla rearing quite often, she begins a new training session without focusing on rearing. Instead she "clicks" a commercial training clicker and immediately offers Shyla the treat. She does this a number of times. What would you call the clicker? Is this a case of classical conditioning or instrumental/operant conditioning?

conditioned reinforcer classical The trainer is establishing a conditioned or secondary reinforcer by pairing this CS with a US (the treat is an unconditioned stimulus). At this beginning stage the click is always followed by a treat regardless of Shyla's behavior.

In classical conditioning, the stimulus that is originally neutral in regard to the response to be learned is the:

conditioned stimulus (CS) You have to make the association (or condition it) for it to have meaning.

As a new worker at the farm, Debbie was unfamiliar with the two livestock guarding dogs that were kept in with the sheep. Debbie admired the graceful, aloof animals but had difficulty getting them to join the sheep in the barn when it was necessary to have the flock come in. To encourage them to enter the barn, she initially would just get behind them and make waving motions with her hands. This didn't work and the next time she added shouting and hand clapping. When this failed she got behind them (as always) and rushed at them to try and force them in, but they only bolted and she left them out in disgust. In anger, she gives them no added treats in their meals the next day. The very next time she brought the sheep in she didn't even try to get the dogs in but was scolded by the farm manager for doing so. When it became essential to bring all animals into the barn again later that month, she leashed one of the dogs, only to have him jump at her and then bolt from her hands. Debbie needs a bit of advice, which of the following requirements for effective punishment is she missing?

reliability, intensity, timing, Sd availability Notice that she gives up and doesn't punish or try to get the dogs in after initially failing. She is being inconsistent and undermining her own efforts. She is gradually escalating the consequences for not going into the barn, exactly what should not happen. At least one punishment, taking away treats, occurs well after the behavior (not entering the barn) and is inappropriately timed. An obvious cue is getting around behind the animals before administering any correction. Livestock guarding dogs, intelligent breeds, surely know what is coming.

After some initial success in getting Kate to stop scratching the deck, Mrs. Scholl decides to spend an afternoon outside with Kate, catching some rays. Kate has not scratched for a week, however today she suddenly begins to scratch again! When Mrs. Scholl calls you to consult, you will explain that this is:

spontaneous recovery and perfectly normal, she should continue the training