Sparing the Rod
Positive reinforcement is most effective
for dogs
by Lolly Lijewski
“We need another
and perhaps a wiser and more mystical concept of animals.”
(Author unknown)
I have been a guide
dog handler for 23 years, and I’m still
amazed every day at the mystery of the canine-human bond that makes
dogs want to work for people. While some people are amazed at how
highly trained dogs like guide dogs have dramatically saved their
handler’s lives by pulling them out of the way of an oncoming
car, I continue to experience awe and wonder at how my dogs have
performed mundane tasks every day like guiding me around obstacles,
and safely across streets. I can often be heard praising my dog for
a nice piece of guide work as she takes me safely around a construction
barrier. And I can appreciate these skills all the more thoroughly
now that I understand positive training what it took to train her
to do this work.
I was taught the traditional method of handling a dog. The three
main components of traditional training are: affection (praise your
dog when she does something well), correction (correct your dog verbally
or physically when she makes a mistake), and consistency (apply these
techniques fairly and consistently to get the most out of your relationship
with your dog). These techniques worked well, but I had always felt
there had to be a better way.
I found one when I returned to The Seeing Eye in 2004 for my fifth
Seeing Eye Dog. I was having severe back pain while in training,
and I asked my instructor to help me develop a way to get my dog
under a chair without physically muscling her into the correct position.
To my surprise, he handed me a bag of crushed up biscuits. Food rewards
were always forbidden at The Seeing Eye.
He instructed me to
sit in a chair, holding my dog’s leash
in my hand and the bag of food behind me out of sight. As instructed,
I tossed a piece of food under the chair. Instinctively my dog dove
for the food. When she did, I used the leash to gently guide her
back into position with her head facing forward. When she completed
the circle, she got another treat. We repeated this pattern several
times (about ten minutes) until my dog seemed to understand the behavior
we were teaching her. Then we proceeded to another room with another
kind of chair to help her learn to generalize the behavior to different
places.
I was truly amazed and
exhilarated. I hadn’t used a correction
once during this training session. I was having fun and so was my
dog.
Since then I have learned much more about Positive Training methods.
I still use corrections when needed, but through studying Positive
Training, my understanding of how dogs learn (positive training is
based on learning theory) has grown. It has transformed my relationship
with my dog. I have used this knowledge to fine tune the training
she received at The Seeing Eye, teaching her to find chairs, railings,
door handles and door openers,
As described by www.CentralPetz.com, “the
act of positive training involves rewarding your dog for a correct
behavior with food, a toy or something he loves. Positive training
by definition does not include any physical corrections and instead
suggests that you ignore any bad behavior. Since dogs do what works,
they’ll realize that
a certain behavior gets them a reward and other behaviors do not.
The behavior that produces the reward will become more frequent.”
Some guide-dog schools
are moving toward positive training as a means of reducing stress
on dogs in the field, and resolving work-related fears that dogs
may develop of things like paratransit vehicles. As the population
using guide dogs ages, and the general public becomes less tolerant
of physical correction, guide dogs are being bred to be more sensitive
to voice commands from their handlers. Traffic is also becoming
more complex; quiet hybrid cars are affecting how blind handlers
and their dogs judge when it’s safe to cross
the street. In short, it’s much more stressful to be a guide
dog today than it was when the first “Seeing Eye Dog” was
trained 78 years ago.
To help more guide dog
handlers learn about positive training, Minnesota Guide Dog Users,
an affiliate of the American Council of the Blind, is sponsoring
a Positive Training weekend workshop March 9 and 10, 2007, to be
held at Vision Loss Resources. To participate in the workshop,
handlers must be blind or visually impaired and currently working
with a guide dog. To register, call Lolly Lijewski at 612-673-0439. ![]()
