You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. At the time of this posting, there were a couple different explanations of this concept floating around dog-pro social media recently, all of which perpetuated common misconceptions. Having written a chunk of my thesis about what a differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) procedure looks like, why it's thought to work, and what best practices for using it may be, I thought I'd throw this into the mix. Although DRO stands for "differential reinforcement of other behavior," it does not involve reinforcing "any ..read more

One of my “particular interests” is in how to minimize extinction (where behavior that has worked before stops working), and its unpleasant side effects (often labeled “frustration”), in situations where a lack of reinforcement is pretty much unavoidable. Lots of long duration, persistent barking--if we can agree to call that "frustration"--has been shaped up by a combination of ignoring (extinction), either intentionally or simply because people are busy with something else, and then finally redirecting (reinforcement). The dog learns that the situation (i.e., person is talking to a computer ..read more

Shaping—teaching a complex behavior by reinforcing behaviors that successively look more and more like your final goal--is hard to describe, and to prescribe. When it goes well, it can feel like magic--whoa, she started clicking and treating for just looking and now the dog is going over and climbing onto the thing they were looking at and sitting on it! And if you're a casual observer, it can seem very mysterious how the trainer got from phase 1 to phase 3 (to borrow a metaphor from South Park): It's often mysterious even to the trainer who did it, leading some to refer to setting criteria ..read more

I had a really interesting remote session this week. One of my “particular interests” is in how to minimize extinction (where behavior that has worked before stops working), and its unpleasant side effects (often labeled “frustration”), in situations where at least some unavailability of reinforcement seems unavoidable. One of those situations is persistent, long duration barking directed at a person who is not in a position reinforce something else or to simply cope with the barking. This type of barking has often been shaped up by a combination of trying to ignore (causing an escalation in ..read more

Well-intentioned training "tips" can really go south if you don’t understand the underlying behavioral principles. One of those is the advice to “redirect” unwanted behavior, e.g., that when your dog jumps, or puts his paws up on the counter, or barks at you while you’re watching TV, you should direct him to a more appropriate behavior. If your dog is already jumping on a frail, unsuspecting old person or small child right this very minute: by all means redirect him to another behavior. But know that if you make a habit of this, your dog will probably make a habit of jumping. Here’s why: Cues ..read more

When I originally wrote this post for One Tail at a Time, I had some new clients, both professional musicians, and our two productive sessions so far had me thinking about why musicians were some of my favorite people to work with. (These clients have since moved to semirural Texas and adopted 38 more animals, including goats, chickens, and donkeys.) It’s not just that I have an affinity for musicians—I’m married to one, and I’ve played in a couple bands myself. It’s that musicians frequently seem to enjoy and excel at dog training. Like playing music, dog training is in large part a physical ..read more

Practicing preventively with puppy Siena in the elevator There’s probably no tougher place to have a dog with fear or aggression issues than a high-rise. Except maybe a “dog-friendly” high-rise. For dogs, as for all of us, fear is mitigated by distance. Generally, the farther away you are from something scary, the less scary it is. But distance can be hard to come by in long, narrow hallways, busy elevators, and tight foyers, especially when they’re populated by other dogs and dog lovers. And when dogs can’t get distance through avoidance, aggression becomes a more likely option. Sound program ..read more

One thing that distinguishes basic from excellent positive reinforcement training is reinforcer delivery. You may be hearing a lot about this in the dog world lately, including Mary Hunter's brilliant demonstrations of building "reinforcement systems" for more effective teaching (she's cohosting a summit on the topic, registration for which closes today), as well as Hannah Branigan's presentation on how to build what's often called "drive" and Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson Vegh's presentation on "starting points" at last week's ClickerExpo. Here are a few practical considerations and tips ..read more

What happens in the three-part video below doesn't look too eventful, but for this dog and his owners, it was a big deal. Oliver had a history of intense barking at his owners when guests were present. These awesome, dedicated guardians had taught him to go to a mat when guests arrived—which was a great incompatible response to jumping on them—but he still barked from the mat while they were visiting unless food was delivered at a fairly high rate. During our first meeting (which was actually about training for his sibling) it was hard to carry on a conversation over his barking. I don't know ..read more

“When can I stop using treats?” I’ve seen this question asked and answered in a couple different places recently, and thought I might add another layer to the discussion. The glib answer is “never,” and I often also see “would you keep working if you didn’t get paid?” Some more nuanced answers convey the idea that you will need to keep using treats when you are asking the dog to do a behavior that isn’t “natural” or that the dog does not “prefer.” I want to suggest that an even more useful approach might be to think about where the reinforcers are coming from. (When I say reinforcers, I mean ..read more