How Dogs Learn

Dogs learn skills from different sources. They learn from their humans and they learn from each other, if they are part of a pack of dogs. For this episode’s purpose, I am going to focus on how dogs learn from their humans and how integral our part in their learning process is. Our energy, our confidence, and our body language, all play a part in their success or failure to learn. What Gary and I are really teaching is the humans, and how to communicate across a species, in a manner that is positive and effective. The dogs are usually the easy part!

One of the first things to keep in the forefront of your mind while working with dogs is that you have to be the most important thing to your dogs for the right reason. If you aren’t fun and positive, why would they want to work for you? If you are always using a stern voice and giving very little praise with low enthusiasm, the dog isn’t as apt to follow your commands. As Gary always says, “You can’t phone it in”, meaning, you can’t fake it. If you pretend to be be fun or happy for your dog, your dog will pick up on this and not be as willing to work for you. From a dog’s eye view, you are not authentic. This leaves some doubt in the dog’s mind that you are not the leader they need. They really want to work for someone who knows what they are doing and has a confident air about them. Otherwise, they will hesitate and possibly lose interest in you.

From what I have learned, the only way to get the confidence needed to communicate with a dog is through practice. With the coaching of a professional dog trainer, you will be taught to carry yourself in a way that displays confident and calm body language. For example, if you are hunched over when communicating to your dog, this is a more submissive position than if you are standing straight up. What comes natural to you as you are working with your dog may be sending a more submissive signal to your dog because of your posture. On top of that, if you are hesitant or not comfortable with communicating, your dog will pick up on this and may not respond. If you are too assertive, you are crossing over the threshold of assertiveness to frustration. Now, your dog really won’t listen to you!

You have to do your homework and work on this calm and assertive energy. It was something that definitely did not come natural to me. However, when a professional pointed out to me to act like I am talking to my children when it is imperative that they do something, I adapted that energy more easily. When you really think about it, communicating with a dog is a skill. The only way to get better at a skill is to practice. It’s like learning how to play the piano. You have to be disciplined enough to practice on a consistent basis, you have to learn to read the notes, and you have to be open to being taught by a professional. You don’t just wake up one day and know how to play Beethoven’s 5th Symphony!

I see transformations in most clients after several sessions working with them. There has to be a willingness to learn and change the way they may have been communicating with their dog, in order for this transformation to happen. I love to see this because I also see how the dog responds to them. The dog starts looking to them for direction and helping them to solve what’s next for them. It’s so rewarding as a trainer to see that and I never get tired of witnessing it.

Along side of being important to your dog is you must have a way to mark their behavior as the one you are looking for. There has to be a reward base. Gary actually prefers the word “stimulate” over “reward”. Rewards can lock people into one thing - treats. It’s the first thing that comes to most people’s minds. If you are using treats, I always recommend having a few different types while always making sure they are healthy treats. The treats that are 100% of that ingredient, like freeze dried chicken or salmon, are great. The treat only has to be the size of a pea for the dog to work for it. Dogs can get tired of the same taste, so change it up if needed.

Rewards or stimuli can take on different forms. There can be a verbal stimulus. We all say “Good boy!” or “ Good girl!” When we say this, our energy is very positive. When I am doing repetitions of a particular skill, such as the “Down” command, I will say “Yes!” as soon as the dog is in the down position. Then, I will repeat “Good down” to reiterate the command, especially if they are in the process of learning the down behavior. The “Yes!” is also confirmation to the dog that this is what you are asking them to do.

Another reward can be a toy or playing tug with a toy. It is equally important to remember that not every dog is motivated by the same stimulus. My dog, Ebi, is more motivated by treats than by toys. Treats work very well with her in shaping behaviors. She may be motivated by a toy for a little bit, but not for as long as I need her to be when doing repetitions of a new behavior.

Gary’s dog is more motivated by playing tug and working until she gets to play that tug with him. She still enjoys treats, but they have a different effect on her than a game of tug does and she is motivated to work towards that reward. When Gary finishes a dog, that means the dog no longer needs a leash or collar. Gary and the dog are a team because they have practiced and completed so many repetitions of the same behavior under so many different distractions, that the dog knows exactly what he wants. He discovered how that dog understands and learns that skill and what keeps the dog motivated to learn. It is important to add that Gary makes sure he gears his training according to each dog’s drives and motivations.

Knowing what motivates your dog is key to the learning process.

Recognizing breed traits is very important in finding the right reward to match the energy of the dog. If you are working with a terrier with a high prey drive, you will not be able to sustain successful repetitions if your reward is to play tug with your dog. Better yet, a squeaky toy will not be the best reward for this type of dog either. It can ignite that prey drive and you will not have any luck in your training session. Now, all your dog will care about is that squeaky toy. They have passed the threshold of being able to give you a calm sit to vibrating with instinctual energy that will make them possibly lunge for that reward.

If you create so much excitement in the dog while completing your repetitions, it will take quite some time to calm him down. Remember, even if the dog is siting or in a down position, his brain is on the verge of exploding and working so hard to hold that sit or down position, that he forgets what you even wanted to teach him. There is a time and place to apply this type of highly excited energy to good use when training a dog to be a protection dog, for example. This cannot be achieved without also teaching the dog an “Off” switch. Gary will explain this more in detail in a different episode when we discuss training security, protection, police, and search and rescue dogs.

I will admit that after Ebi learned all her behaviors, I got pretty lax at being excited when she did what I asked her to do. I took it for granted that she would do these commands. At the same time, I had pretty much abandoned the treats, I didn’t feel they were necessary anymore. It took me working with Gary to point that out to me. Gary always says, “You like getting a paycheck from your employer, right? Well, so does your dog!” You may not need a paycheck immediately after completing a task. Once a week or bi weekly is suitable to keep you motivated to do your job. Getting a bonus every now and then or a pat on the back, definitely keeps us humans motivated. It’s the same for dogs. After learning a particular skill, they don’t need a treat every time they do it, but every now and then, will keep them motivated.

When working with your dog, you are also building an association that learning equates to fun. Dogs learn best when they know there is something in it for them and it’s fun. If you aren’t having a good day and you’re pretending to be in a good mood, your dog will pick up on this and not want to work for you. This is when we tend to get frustrated and think it’s the dog’s inadequacies, not our own. My advice when this occurs is to pick up the training session again when you can give your dog 100% of yourself. Your dog deserves it!

Dogs learn in pictures, not movies. As you stimulate the behaviors over and over again, it’s the association and repetition that takes the picture in the dog's head. Dogs learn through association repetition.

“The behaviors we stimulate are the behaviors we accelerate”.

If you stimulate a behavior, right, wrong, or different, you get more of it. Everything in a dog’s eyes is seen as the singular. So, there's one and more ones and some ones and no ones. They'll never understand that five and two are seven. They'll just know that more ones plus more ones is more ones. It’s as if they take a picture of what your body language was at the time that the stimulus was given. You can even see the wheels turning in your dog’s head when they are learning a new behavior. They are trying to figure out what you and the environment looked like when they got that reward. Then, it’s like magic. Suddenly, they make the connection of what they had to do in order to get that reward. Again, I get so excited when I see this magic happen that I want to shout for joy. I have to refrain from doing so, because I can interrupt the learning process!

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