How does your dog learn? With their brain! Thank you for listening and have a good day.

Well, more seriously...

 

Hi and welcome to K9 Woof You, the podcast of K9 Voice. I'm Ingrid, dog behavior consultant, and today I'm going to tell you as to how your dog learns. We'll see how you can teach your dog, how you can modify behaviors, how you can change his perception and emotional states.

 

So, how does your dog learn? With his brain! Thank you for listening and have a good day.

Well, more seriously, several elements matter.

 

First, your dog must be attentive, and there must be a transmitter and a receiver.

The transmitter could absolutely be you, or it could be any other human as well, or another animal, or anything in the environment. It could be a crane, it could be thunder, it could be a passing bicycle, it could be the sound of the microwave. The receiver is your dog. If your dog isn't attentive at that moment, there will be no learning, because he can't receive the information he should be receiving. Then, it's important for him to memorize it. If he can't memorize it, he won’t maintain it. And the most important element for learning is that there be a change in his behavior towards an element. Whether his behavior comes after an adjustment in his emotional state or simply the neutral learning of a behavior. If there is no change in his behavior, we cannot talk about learning.

There will be involuntary learning, some are rooted in their organisms. We call these motor patterns. More clearly, these are behaviors that are already included in your dog's package. If we consider a Jack Russell, digging in the dirt is already included; you don't need to train him to do so. You may not notice it for a while, but it will show up at some point. A Labrador playing in the pond, playing in the mud, is part of the package. These are behaviors you cannot train. Your dog, even if he’s not exposed to direct training, to direct learning, with another individual, can do them on his own.

There’s the active teacher. If I take you as an example, you can decide, well, you’re going to teach your dog to go and sit on his bed when you’re setting the table. In this case, it will be active training. You will voluntarily, knowingly, and consciously carry out behaviors on your part and on the part of your dog that you will repeat so that this behavior of going directly on his bed when you are setting the table appears.

There will be more passive teaching. It could be that you automatically stop before crossing the street without intending to train your dog to do so, except that by repeatedly stopping before crossing the street, your dog figures it out that you stop. You didn't have a straight intention to teach him this. However, by observing you, your dog will do it. The environment could also be teaching him. Your dog can also learn from the environment, without the environment itself intending to teach your dog anything. For instance, if your dog goes outside in the morning, at a certain moment the garbage truck specifically passes by, and your dog isn't comfortable with the garbage truck, the garbage truck teaches him to stay inside. Except that the garbage truck didn't mean to train your dog to stay inside. This is passive learning that is beyond your control.

An important element to consider is that dogs also learn by observation. He doesn't necessarily need direct teaching. He'll learn that if you get angry every time you answer your phone, he'll associate that phone call with your anger. He'll know just by observing you that this is problematic, just like when he observes you stop before crossing the street.

He'll also learn from your emotions. If you're afraid of the elevator, while for him it's a neutral experience, but you're afraid of a narrow elevator. Your dog, by constantly seeing you react in a certain way, will learn that the elevator is a dangerous place.

 

Several factors can hinder or help your dog to learn.

A dog who is relaxed and feels safe will be much more able to learn from you and react more neutrally or positively to what's happening around him. The same is true for a dog that is healthy, has slept well, and isn't experiencing any particular digestive issues or any health issue at that moment. That's why it does matter to always check your dog's health. Whether he did relieve himself properly, whether his sleep was not too disrupted, and whether he does not feel any particular physical discomfort. Sometimes, simply items stuck between your dog's pads can be an obstacle because your dog will be obsessed with the discomfort between his pads.

His emotional state will also have an impact on how your dog manages to learn. Even if he's very happy, a dog who's very excited, and that's not when he's going to be able to take the information into account, to keep it, to memorize it, to repeat it. In the meantime, if you ask a child, it's his birthday, you're going to the amusement park, he's queuing, he's two meters away from the entrance barrier to his favorite attraction, and at that moment you ask him to learn a lesson he's seeing in class. I'm talking about a new lesson, not a lesson he's already started to learn; no, really a new lesson. Do you really think he'll be able to do it? If the child has special skills, he might be be able to do it very easily. In that context, it will be a memorization ability. But if he doesn't have special skills, he won't be able to do it at that very moment. Likewise, if you are angry, you realize that you did not get the promotion you expected, and that someone who does nothing all day at work did get it, who always manages to hide from being on social networks, who gets the promotion you deserved, will you then be able to handle the files in the same way as if you are in a good mood? You might not be.

 

When it comes to behaviors, your dog will react based on context.

Let's consider the example of « sit ». If you train your dog to sit at home on hardwood floors only, and one day you ask him to sit on grass, your dog may be unable to do it on grass for a while, staring at you blankly. It's almost as if you'd just spoken a sentence in another language, even though he knows the word "sit." I had a client who trained her dog a lot on her right because she's right-handed. One day, there was a piece of furniture on her right, so I suggested training him on the left. Since she had never trained him on her left, her dog was unable to do it. We had to go over the basics of training merely because the context was different. You'll see the same thing with recall. You recall from a more crouched position to motivate your dog. When you stand up, your dog may look at you like saying "What the heck are you doing?", simply because he hasn't learned this behavior with you in that position. That's why it's important to vary the contexts as much as possible when training a behavior.

When it comes to emotions, dogs can generalize very quickly.

A bicycle passes by and drops a roast chicken. "Oh, all bikes are super cool." Well, provided your dog likes roast chicken. On the other hand, a bicycle passes by and runs over his tail; all bikes are a public hazard to him. He will have generalized automatically. You have dogs who will continue to discriminate and others who will generalize very quickly. Potentially, they will include scooters and motorcycles as well.

When it comes to generalizing behaviors, some individuals can be very quick to do so. Others, they will be extremely rigorous in the observation they will make of you, more than in the generalization of what you ask them. « Sit », it is not « sit » everywhere, it is « sit » on such a texture, with such a position of your own body, and providing that you are only wearing such an outfit, that the exterior is in such a way, perhaps at night for instance if you only have the possibility of training him in the evening when you come back home from work, or if you are in relaxed clothing - one day you are in nice clothes and your dog does not do it.

 

To go beyond learning, there are elements that need adding, which we'll call the three Ds: distractions, duration, and distance.

The duration and distance will depend on the dog and his ability: is it easier for this one to work on distance or duration first? If I take the example of training the dog to "stay." Whether the dog is standing, sitting, or lying down, we simply ask him not to move; he must stay where he is, and we do move. For some dogs, it will be easier for them to see us away for a longer time, a meter away; for others, it will be for a short time, but 5 meters away. It's therefore important to know your dog and test once or twice what will be easiest for him and what you will start with. Then, once he's able to do one of the elements, whether it's distance, for example, you add duration to the distance, if I stick with the "stay" example.

Personally, I always end with distractions. Because it's often the most difficult. Especially as at that point, you have to establish a hierarchy of distractions for your dog. What will be a distraction for your dog won't necessarily be one for another dog, or won't have the same value in term of distraction either. We'll stick with the "stay" example. I can very well walk past your dog and wave some fish. If your dog is fond of beef, well, he'll actually hold on without any problem because he's not very interested in fish; on the other hand, if your dog is fond of fish, it will be much more difficult for him. For some dogs, a rolling ball can be potentially more difficult than fish. For others, it will be a very particular smell, like a female in heat. All of this will be important for anchoring behaviors and making them truly more complete training. Because a dog, who is said to have « recall » skills, who listens, who does what is asked of him, when there is actually nothing around, I cannot say that the training or learning has been acquired. If a dog is in the forest, running, playing, sniffing, then depending on the dog, the distraction may be a doe passing by. It could also be another dog passing by. If your dog is unable to manage the slightest element, like a leaf flying around. Let’s consider a dog is 50 meters away, your dog ignores you. The dog is 300 meters away, your dog ignores you. The dog is 5 meters away, your dog ignores you. All of this will matter. If your dog ignores you because the other dog is, let’s say, 3 meters away, while at 5 meters he's able to listen to you, we're already making progress and we can say we're on the right track for him to acquire the behavior.

 

As we saw at the beginning, your dog can learn from observation ; this can potentially be an issue if he watches other dogs who show behaviors that won't match with your daily life. A dog that jumps on the table, a dog that greets all the humans because he's happy and jumps on everyone. Yes, but he's a Chihuahua and yours is a Great Dane. We have a slight size difference. So obviously, we won't have the same interest in training. That being said, observation, if we guide the dog towards observing another dog who will communicate, who will show behaviors that will be appropriate for the environment in which your dog lives, this can be helpful. It could be a dog who is comfortable with children, who keeps sniffing around while on a walk. If your dog has created a small relationship or if he takes the other as a referee, he will be able to consider that these behaviors have an interest, and that consequently he will consider them and then be able to adapt them for himself. We can also have the dog who is afraid of stairs. I am not talking about puppies for whom, at a certain age, it is better to be careful, or even to avoid stairs. Really a dog that would not be comfortable, but that potentially, physically and in his behaviors can perfectly go down stairs, small steps when leaving the house for example. It can matter if another dog or if you guide him (this can also happen with humans). This is what we will call at that moment "facilitation". And because you will facilitate or the other dog will facilitate a behavior that your dog is capable of doing, and allow him to perform it more easily.

 

I can sometimes hear this phrase, "I'll get my dog used to that." The problem with habit is that it's not a means of training. Habit is something that is repeated. Habituation is a means of training. This can be: you take a brush that has no particular value for your dog, and you regularly place it near him; then you put it away; you place it near him, you put it away; then you place it on his body and you put it away; you place it on his body and you put it away. You can have another example, it will be your dog that you take not far from the market. That way he can hear the sounds, he can smell the odors, he can see the movements but you don't completely expose him to it. You expose him every day a little more depending on his body language, depending on what he expresses. Habituation is a gradual process. If it goes too quickly, if you skip steps, your dog may become sensitized ; and therefore, all the work needs to be modified, because at that point, your dog will have a particular emotional perception. Instead of the element having a neutral value, it will begin to have a negative one.

And then we can fortunately intervene and use counterconditioning. And in this case, you will teach the dog that the element that has taken on this negative value can have a neutral or even positive one. You simply associate this element with something pleasant. Once again, knowing your dog, is then essential. What is pleasant for your dog? Is it being petted? Is it getting a certain type of treat? Is it hearing you talking to him in a very soft baby-talk ? If I take the example of the nail clipper. In fact, you will have: you show the nail clipper to your dog, you remove it, you give your dog a treat, you show the nail clipper, you give your dog a treat, you show the nail clipper, until you can take your dog's paw, place the nail clipper near the paw, all this with steps. But at each step, the next one is associated with something positive. Like this, we change the value. To be able to consider it new learning, whether the value and the emotional state have really been changed, that your dog's behavior has been adjusted, it is important that your dog's emotional state is just as positive or neutral. If you do nothing but give him a treat while he remains tense, that he is just happy for getting a treat, actually he will not adjust his behavior and therefore we cannot talk about acquired learning. I remember a female dog I used to work with. And she was happy with treats. She was really into it. The issue is that, she needed to come near humans to get and once she was there, she did not know how to adjust. Because she hadn’t learned first how to deal with being near human beings. She just loved treats. So this is for the emotional aspect. When we don't work on the emotional aspect, there is still always a consequence on the emotion. If you ask your dog to sit by yelling at him whether he is to be blamed or not to be blamed, if every time you ask him to sit, after a while he may no longer be receptive merely because it puts you in a state of anger when you ask him. But beyond that, the emotion he feels when sitting will not necessarily be positive, simply because he is sitting. He will give you the behavior, but it will nevertheless have an influence on his emotional state.

 

There are several ways to train behaviors. We can very well add something pleasant for your dog after he performed the behavior; not before, otherwise it becomes a lure. So, for instance, if I consider the recall: the dog comes to you, he gets scratched at the base of his tail, on his back or on the sides, at the level of the thighs, depending on his favorite spot, or he can go back to play with other dogs if that is what he loves, or he can go to a river and swim. You can also decide that, if he comes back to you, you can also take the leash off him, with which you were pulling so that he comes back to you. At that moment you remove the pressure on him; therefore coming back to you is in his interest. It is not as pleasant for him. You can also decide that depending on his latency to carry out the behavior you asked of him, he can receive something unpleasant. If he doesn't come back quickly enough, you deliver an electric shock to his neck. I can also take the example of a dog that jumps. If he jumps to greet you, but you want him to stay on the floor, you can decide at that moment to add your knee at his chest to get him to come back down, so that it will demotivate him from repeating the behavior. If he jumps on you, you can also decide to back off, so that he stops jumping on you. You withdraw your presence and your attention. In any case, I suggest you always choose an element that will allow your dog to be in a neutral emotional state as much as possible, if not positive. It will always have an impact on the relationship you have with him as well.

It's important to consider that your timing, the moment at which you praise or reprimand your dog, do matter. Remember that if you say « bravo » to your dog while he's about to jump on you again, you've just validated it. If you pet him when he is jumping up on you, you've just validated it. If you yell at him after he has stopped barking for at least 20 seconds, he won't understand anything at that point. He won't be able to adjust his behavior to meet your expectations, since he has eventually stopped the behavior you didn't want, but you continue to show you are annoyed.

It's important to keep it in mind that what motivates or demotivates your dog isn't always under your control. A dog that barks because the mailman is passing by isn't necessarily aware that the mailman is just passing by. If your dog means to get the mailman away, barking at the mailman, the mailman leaves, your dog has won. Well, that's because he doesn't have the concept of a passerby. Your dog may be afraid of thunder, either through emotional contagion with you, or simply because he potentially has another experience that may have had nothing to do with thunder but that he generalized. Another aspect in the motivation and demotivation of your dog is that everything you will present as a reinforcer, which will increase the possibility that your dog will repeat a behavior, is determined by your dog. Everything you will present as a punishment, which will reduce the possibility that your dog will do a behavior, we are not talking about reprimand but really about punishment, depends on your dog. You are not the one who establishes it. If you give a dog a treat, while his stomach hurts and he will not eat, he will not perform the behavior and he will not learn. If you pet a dog that cannot stand being touched, perhaps because he has health issues or simply because he has not been taught handling in a positive or pleasant way, or hasn't been taught it at all, being petted isn't a reward for him. It is not interesting. If you scold him while laughing, your dog will be confused. Potentially, if at that moment he’s making a face that makes your facial expression seem more laughter than reprimand, he'll repeat the behaviors you didn't want when scolding him because your face looks like you approved it.

Do remember that your best allies for training behaviors and changing emotional perceptions in your dog are consistency and coherence. Patience is obviously a part of them too. You may have a dog that will learn a behavior in three ten-minute sessions, and others, actually, who don't learn from humans. They learn by watching their peers. And then there's a whole range of dog abilities that we don't yet fully understand it. Why are dogs that haven't been deliberately trained certain behaviors able to understand that when you point at a place, that's where it's worth checking? There are plenty of aspects of their cognitive abilities that still need being understood.

 

I hope this episode will have enabled you to better understand how your dog perceives training, how he is able to understand and how to modify his behaviors.