When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [33]
When we put behaviors that a dog likes (such as sniffing or swimming) on cue, we can have them available as rewards to offer our dogs for behaviors we like (such as walking on a loose leash, coming when called, or lying down.) That is all very well and good, but what is to keep the dog from doing those reinforcing activities whenever he darn well pleases? Why should he wait to be invited by you? In short, how do you gain control over those fun behaviors so that your dog can only do them if you say so? Well, there is a beautiful side effect to putting “incompatible with working” activities on cue. Once a dog has a behavior on cue, he will tend to offer it only when cued to do so. It doesn’t seem possible, but it is a well-known fact and almost always is true. If your dog keeps indulging in a behavior that is interfering with the training process (like sniffing, zooming around, or jumping up in the air and barking at squirrels), get those behaviors on cue and give your dogs lots of opportunities to do them when it is convenient for you. You will be amazed at how quickly the “problem” behaviors disappear.
It’s a Toll Road, Not a Barricade
Give Your Dog Access to What He Loves
Here is a key concept in the Pigs Fly system. In order to be successful at controlling reinforcers, in order for this system to work at all, you must make sure that your dog has a reasonable opportunity to access those reinforcers. You have to be a gatekeeper, not a blocker. Ponder for a moment your image of a gatekeeper versus a blocker. A gatekeeper is someone who allows you to pass through the gate to get to where you very much want to go. On the other hand, a blocker is someone who is, at all costs, going to foil your attempts to get where you want to go. Don’t you just hate people like that? Your dog does, too. If there is a reasonable way to get past the gatekeeper, by paying a toll for instance, you will do so. It is an easy and fair system. If, instead, a blocker has shut down the road entirely and is vigilantly guarding the gate to keep you from passing, you are going to put a lot of effort into finding an alternate route. That is to say, if you never give your dog an opportunity to earn a sniffing, digging, running, or shredding a stuffed toy session, your dog is going to put his energy into getting around you to do those things and, trust me, he has almost unlimited energy for figuring out how to get around you. He will dart off the instant you are not micro-managing him, sneak in the forbidden behavior, and it will really tick you off. If, however, your dog knows that doing some nice loose leash walking might earn him an opportunity to sniff, dig, run around, or perform a squeak-ectomy on a stuffed toy, he will put his energy into loose leash walking.
So, in so far as possible, everything that your dog loves needs to be physically controlled by you, and/or put on cue. In addition, you need to restrict your dog’s ability to self-reinforce. How much management is necessary to do this will all depend on what reinforcers you are using and where your dog is in his training program. For instance, most of my dogs find balls, squeaky toys, and stuffed toys highly valuable. Those toys are only available to them when we are training. They have other toys that are available to them all the time so that they can play casually with me or among themselves, but the most enticing toys are reserved for training.
When we are talking about behaviors as opposed to food or toys, the situation becomes more complicated, because you can’t carry “sniffing” or “running around” in your pocket. You need to make sure that, when you take your dog out for a training session, he is not self reinforcing by sniffing, play-lunging at other dogs, eating poop, digging a hole, or whatever else he finds interesting. That means that you do what you have to do to make his world small enough you control everything. You should never correct or in any way punish