Scribbles on a White Board

Dont eat yellow snow and other advice on dogs and training

[behaviornerdwithahat]

Retrieve Final Steps

add cue to retrieve            

give retrieve cue as dog begins the retrieve          

then give cue before the retrieve  

increase the time delay before dropping/throwing the object and giving the cue

add different objects          

start at the beginning with each new object, process will be quicker each successive time  

work way up to harder to hold or metal or heavy objects          

! Lower criteria for new articles      

increase speed of retrieve          

handler runs away from dog to encourage more speed in the retrieve

adding release cue      

release cue is already the click, just need to transfer release from click to cue      

preface click with release cue  

dog will start to anticipate the click and open mouth on cue    

move from “out”/click/release to “out”/release/click

! Always continue to practice duration hold because you don’t want your new release cue to be hand touching the object

[behaviornerdwithahat]

Retrieve Steps 8-11

step 8- beginning the retrieve

place article on the floor, keep hands near    

dog should pick up object and push it into hands, holding until click

step 9- more distance      

handler removes hand the moment the object is placed on the ground    

dog has to bring object farther to give to the person

step 10- dog moves away from handler to retrieve

step 11- toss object at various angles and distances    

progress to handler standing straight    

add a short delay before hands actually reach/touch the object    

! Continue having the dog do the work the more reach toward or catch the object as it falls, the lazier the dog will become over time

[behaviornerdwithahat]

Retrieve Steps 4-7

step 4- duration hold    

withholding clicks sometimes to lengthen hold          

at first only a second or two          

eventual goal is 3-5 seconds    

! Click is the cue to release, word will be added later

step 5- removing hands    

briefly remove hands from the object then replace (1-2 seconds)  

do not move hands far away, only a few inches  

goal: dog holds object until you grab the object again and click

step 6- dog moves object to hands

time click when hands return to the object    

goal: move hands a few inches away, dog pushes article into your hands

click when article touches hands

step 7- duration hold again      

want to be sure that dog continues to hold article after article touches hand      

withhold clicks for a second or two after you touch the object

[behaviornerdwithahat]

Retrieve Steps 1-3

step 1- interact with object  

holding object present it to the dog, remove after every click    

click/treat for any interaction w/ article    

looking at, nose touches, pawing okay at first    

dog should offer behavior of going to the object

step 2-mouth behavior

click/treat any mouthing behaviors  

at first nose touches are okay

licking, mouthing, tooth bumping

goal is for dog to open mouth    

! Remaining at this stage for too long can hinder progress

step 3- mouth on object    

click/treat for mouth closing on object          

goal is for dog to pull a little (not tugging) this is the beginning of a retrieve    

! Most difficult step- do not click mouthing or rebiting

[scribblesonawhiteboard]

Why is feeding your dog like driving a car?

*Note: The diagrams do not apply to sighthounds, with sighthounds you should generally be able to see ribs.

I see so many pet owners struggle with maintaining a proper weight for their pet. So many people have asked me how much their dogs should be eating... The unfortunate answer is there is no set cups per lb. ratio. The amount you exercise, your dogs metabolism, their age, and the type of food you eat will all affect the amount of food they should consume. Seasons can affect your dogs caloric needs too. Most dogs tend to gain weight during the winter as their exercise level decreases. My dogs and I generally maintain our exercise level pretty well so they tend to loose weight as they burn more energy staying warm (and keeping me warm). 

When driving a car, there is no set degree to which you should push the pedal to stay at 70 mph forever. You will need to adjust depending on the car you drive, the incline of the road, and other factors. Similarly, I constantly adjust my dogs food. Yes, they generally revolve around a certain number of cups, but those cups can be rounded or shallow, even to the point of altering their rations by +/- 1/2 cup. If my dogs go for a super long hike or expend a lot of energy at a trial, they might get some extra snacks during the day. If their ribs are feeling a little sharp or they are starting to get a little heavy, I adjust their food. 

So how do you tell how much you should be feeding?

Your dog should score a 4 or 5 on a 9 point system. When looking at your dog you should be able to see a tuck at the waist (indicated by the arrows) from above and from the side. 

If you feel along the dogs ribs (as indicated by the dotted line) you should be able to feel each one. What should this feel like?

Try it out on your hand first. An Ideal body weight is similar to your fingers, definition is easy to feel but there is some fat and muscle between skin and bone. If it feels like your palm, your dog is too heavy and if it feels like running your hand across your knuckles in a fist, your dog is too thin.

You want to adjust your dogs food until they reach their ideal body score and then adjust again to maintain that weight. Continue to check your dog weekly until you get used to recognizing a proper vs improper weight. Remember to adjust their food accordingly. 

Note: Notice that last scientific journal article listed in the first photo? Thats actually a fascinating longitudinal study on the difference weight has on long- term health. The study suggests that feeding slightly less, a difference of 1-2 points on the body conditioning scale, could end up delaying arthritis for approximately 3 years and result in an extra 1.5 years of life. Thats a huge difference in health and quality of life that is easily under our control.

[agilitylabs]

[millenniallust4death]

“Don’t find yourself dazzled by the idea of magic. Great trainers are great observers. They read dogs well because they actually observe dogs carefully, and because they remember what some actions and postures predict. This is a matter of experience, which can only be gained by training and dealing with problems and errors enough to recognize common learning-curve issues to expect or to see obvious signs of confusion. Experienced trainers have figured out ways to break things down well enough to head off some points of confusion most of the time, and that sort of information and predictive ability can look and feel like magic if you have struggled through certain things for months in a reactive manner. Great trainers are also able to put themselves into their dogs’ heads a bit, and see themselves and what they are teaching as the dogs do. Such trainers know what they want in the end, but they start with what they have, and find ways to progressively guide their dogs to the end product they want.”

— Lori Drouin, “Methods and Mindset”. A Practical Approach to Motivational Dog Obedience Training (2016).

[pomofo]

do you have any recommendations for people just starting out with training with cats and dogs? How did you get into training?

Hey there! If you’re interested in training your own animals for the pure joy of it, there are lots of great resources online to check out that will give you the basics on clicker training, learning theory, and animal behavior in general.

There are a few staple books I can suggest, but I think “Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Pryor, “The Other End of the Leash” by Patricia McConnell, and “The Culture Clash” by Jean Donaldson would be some good intro to training books.

Resources for Dog Training:

Kikopup:https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC-qnqaajTk6bfs3UZuue6IQ

Modern Canine Training:https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCUXvRAsL5Q41h-KkhbNY3_w

Pam’s Dog Academy:https://m.youtube.com/user/pamelamarxsen

Resources for Cat Training:

https://www.catschool.co

https://www.spacecatacademy.com

http://www.adventurecats.org/backcountry-basics/how-to-clicker-train-a-cat/

Resources for General Animal Training:

Karen Pryor Clicker Training:https://www.clickertraining.com

Behavior Works:http://behaviorworks.org

International Association for Animal Behavior Consultants:https://m.iaabc.org

If you’re interested in training as a profession, I would recommend you start by looking into apprenticeship or assisting an established certified trainer who uses humane training strategies. I started out as an assistant trainer in puppy classes and worked my way up shadowing trainers for private sessions. It’s one thing to learn about training, but getting that hands on practice is so crucial to building up skills. There are some great online schools for training, like the Karen Pryor Academy (I’d recommend this one!), Animal Behavior College, Academy for Dog Trainers, IAABC, etc. Dog training is not a regulated field so there is no national registry in the US, but there are a few different organizations that have certification tests and programs. I’m CPDT-KA, and I chose to get certified because I like the idea of having some sort of professional regulations in place to help legitimize dog training as a field.

And lastly never stop learning about training! I attend conferences, workshops, and seminars every year, and I’m always on the hunt for newer and better information. Remember that good training is a skill and takes time and practice to develop, so try not to get discouraged if things don’t go as planned right away. You’re working with animals after all, and sometimes even if you carefully plan a session things go wrong. It happens to all of us. Good luck and happy training!

[scribblesonawhiteboard]

Why we procrastinate...

(WITH ACTUAL SCIENCE)

There are a few reasons why we procrastinate and they all have to do with...wait for it...consequences. That shouldn't be a huge shock considering that consequences drive behavior but we also know these things aren't always as common sense as they appear after they are explained.

Reason Number 1: Variable Schedules of Reinforcement

When we don't reinforce after every single response we get variable patterns of responding that look like this...

VR=Variable Ratio, FR= Fixed Ratio, VI=Variable Interval, FI=Fixed Interval

The problem is our to do lists often land in the categories of Fixed Ratio or Fixed Interval schedules of reinforcement. We only get reinforced by crossing things off the list and by finally being able to relax when the whole list is done. See the scalloped pattern in those two lines? Each of those dips is us procrastinating.

We can fix this by altering the schedule of reinforcement, imposing a contrived schedule of reinforcement, or by rearranging our to do list so that tasks least likely to be done are finished first, followed by those most likely to be done. We know from the Premack Principle that high probability behaviors can be used to reinforce low probability behaviors, so arranging our to do lists in this fashion presents reinforcers after each task that is completed, even if that reinforcer is the opportunity to vacuum instead of clean the toilet. 

But lets say you to do list requires you to read several chapters of a boring textbook or 50 pages of a scientific journal article. Time to get out that bag of M&Ms! Eating one M&M per page seems reasonable right? But no, that would be a Fixed Ratio. The procrastination might not be super obvious but we've all been known to check out and read the same page over and over while comprehending nothing. The alternative? Reward yourself after a certain number of paragraphs read. But wait, isn't that a fixed ratio too? Nope! Because paragraphs tend to differ drastically in size while pages tend to vary around the same number of words. Say I eat one M&M per paragraph. I might end up eating one after a paragraph that lasts nearly a whole page and then another after a really short paragraph two sentences later. Voilà, a perfect variable ratio schedule of reinforcement! (PS. Peanuts, marshmallows, and bite size chunks of dinner or dessert work equally well)

Reason Number 2: Deciding Between Two Equal Choices

Do you ever want to get something done but you end up watching four hours of TV instead? Thats a displacement behavior. A displacement behavior is what happens when we can't decide what to do or we are trying to avoid something awkward. If you want to watch 30 people all engaging in displacement behaviors at once go sit in a college hallway ten minutes before the first class of the semester and count the number of people pretending to be super engaged in texting their buddies to avoid interacting with their new and unknown classmates.

Displacement behaviors happen a lot whenever we are presented with two equal choices. This can be a choice between two positive things (mint ice cream or rocky road?). It can be a choice between two negative things (what is the lesser of two evils, asking for help from Chatty Cathy or getting yelled at by the boss when your project doesn't get finished on time?). Or it can be a choice between a good consequences and avoiding a bad one (you really want to talk to that cute girl at the bar but you really don't want to be rejected either). So what do we do instead of actually making a decision and getting on with our lives. We repeatedly check for new texts, we binge watch a television show on netflix, we doodle on a blank piece of paper. 

The fix? Recognize when you are procrastinating and try to tip the balance? This can be as complex as a pro-con list or as simple as realizing that it doesn't really matter what kind of ice cream you get, its still ice cream, and you walk out with one scoop of each.

Reason Number 3: Avoiding Aversives

This very similar to Reason 2, this one doesn't come up quite as often. It seems to happen when you want to do something but your brain recognizes a hidden aversive that you don't consciously see. Imagine a writer. There they are, plugging along, typing chapter after chapter and then suddenly they're stuck. They know what they want to write next but the words just don't come. After, days of struggle they look back and realize they wrote themselves into a corner. There is a fundamental flaw in their plan. They fix it, and bam, writers block gone. In this scenario, and many others, procrastination is our brain’s way of going “Whoa stupid! Look what you are doing! Thats dumb!” The fix? Ask yourself whats holding you back, then fix it. 

If you find yourself worrying about your over simplified monkey brain just remember that gravity applies to “lesser” species too. Science doesn't discriminate and it doesn't need you to believe in it to be true. 

[sheepdog-and-fakegoldenretriever]

“Training often fails because people expect way too much of the animal and way too litte of themselves.”

-Bob Bailey

[scribblesonawhiteboard]

Tips for Building Tolerance with Husbandry Procedures

*Note* I would much rather train voluntary behaviors and full enjoyment of procedures rather than tolerance but that is not always possible given the owner’s training skills, time, and the individual animal. However, these tips can be helpful. This post mainly focuses on nail trims but them same principles can be applied with other husbandry procedures, even brand new ones that you vet just said you have to do (ear cleanings, eye drops, applying ointment, pilling).

Stop the Bad

Do whatever you can to reduce the aversiveness of the procedure. This will vary for each dog and handler. For River, all she needed to be okay with baths was a non-slip mat so she could jump in and out of the tub by herself. For nail trims, I generally prefer to use a Dremel because I am not comfortable clipping black nails and my chances of hitting the quick with a Dremel is a lot lower. For some dogs, the noise or vibration of the Dremel is too aversive and nail clippers are preferable, although most dogs can be conditioned to tolerate it. In many cases I find conditioning a dog to a Dremel is easier than getting a dog who has had negative experiences to tolerate nail clippers again. Some times, reducing the adverseness of a procedure just mean learning more about it to improve your skills or your knowledge base. Find what works for your dog and do what ever you can to make the procedure as stress free as possible

Compromise on Position and Add Choice

My favorite position for my dogs to be in for nail trims is upside down between my legs with their feet right up by my face. However, this doesn’t mean thats comfortable for my dog who is super nervous about nail trims. Letting your dog choose where they want to be or when to start and stop can do a lot to make them more comfortable with the process. 

Start With Small Chunks

Any animal you work with will have their own tolerance level with husbandry procedures. Think of how long you are willing to sit in a dentists chair with your mouth open. A few minutes…sure. Half an hour…eh. Any more than that and I’m probably gonna run screaming from the room. Figure out your dog’s level of tolerance, stay slightly below it, and build from there. Right now I can trim two feet per session, finishing a whole toenail before pausing to reward. If I trim all of River’s toenails in one session, the next time she will be more resistant. However, as her tolerance grows I will be able to do more in a single session. By spending more time up front, I will reduce the amount of time and stress required over her lifetime. 

Pair With High Value Rewards

Give your dog something really good after every X number of nails. What counts as “really good” will depend on the individual. Some dogs might prefer a chunk of meat while others would be happier with a toy. River is really responsive to magnitude so I give her a handful of kibble instead of a high value food reward. My labs were fine with a single kibble given frequently. Start big and reduce over time. If you need to, recruit another person to give food rewards until you can reduce the frequency of treats needed and can reward between nails. The goal is to tip the scales enough so your dog is interested, if not eager, to participate. 

Your goal is to significantly alter the balance of good to bad so that good wins out, even if only by a tiny fraction. Look, you didn’t die and you also got a cookie. 

Additional Resources Nail trims

http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2013/08/cutting-your-dogs-nails-how-important-is-it-really/

Low Stress Handling

https://drsophiayin.com/category/low-stress-handling/

Pilling Dogs

http://caninesinaction.com/2011/03/an-easy-pill-to-swallow-training-to-take-pills-the-easy-way/

[scoretheearth]

Can I ask why balance training is bad..? I call myself a balance trainer because while I clicker train and focus on positive reinforcement, I do use a stern voiced "no" as a negative marker and a few positive reinforcement trainers got on me and told me that disqualifies you as being +r.

“No.” means nothing. It is an antecedent like any other cue. What follows is what separates r+ and “balanced” trainers. If the “No” is followed by a leash pop, a swat, a shock, you are forming that word into a punishment. The lowered tone is threatening, which does nothing but create distrust. The dog is learning that you are dangerous when you use that tone or that word and their natural inclination is to avoid confontation, to avoid YOU. Imagine trying to get a recall out of that. Good luck.

Now alternatively, if “No.” is paired with a time out, with the play stopping, with you leaving the room and toys going away, it creates an entirely different working atmosphere in which you are no longer the source of bad things, and training itself does not result in punishing consequences and the likeliness of having a shut down, anxious dog significantly decreases.

Now as far as being “balanced” goes, I would suggest you do some research on poisoned cues. This is primarily where balanced training fails. The idea is, simplistically speaking, to teach via the carrot or the stick method. A balanced trainer would say “sit” and if the dog sits it gets a treat, if it doesn’t, it gets a leash pop or pressure on the bum until it sits. It makes sense to us, however, in the dog’s mind, you have then made the cue “sit” to be ambiguous. Which SUCKS! You said “sit” and afterwards both rewards AND punishments come! Clarity is absolutely necessary for the learner. Ambiguity is more than frustrating, it is damaging. It is shown to lead to what is called experimental neurosis in lab animals. It can be even more confusing than if the cue simply led to either good or bad things.

And by the way, it is not just words. Objects, places, even people can become poisoned. And you can’t entirely undo the damage you have done by poisoning a cue. It is recommended to drop it entirely and retrain with a different word or gesture. You can’t change you, so take care not to make yourself a bad guy in your dog’s eyes.

[scribblesonawhiteboard]

A couple things here...

1. Using the word no does not mean you are “disqualified” from being an R+ trainer. In fact, most of the trainers I know that consider themselves positive reinforcement trainers deliberately use the other quadrants occasionally or even regularly. “R+ only” is a really stupid term because when you actually get down to the science, it is really impossible to only use one quadrant. And no, i don't mean difficult, I mean IMPOSSIBLE. when speaking about operant conditioning Positive means the addition of a stimulus, Negative is the removal of a stimulus, Reinforcement means the behavior increases, Punishment means the behavior decreases. and you literally cannot only add stimuli all the time, occasionally stimuli will be removed, you will not feed, you will not praise. Also most shaping requires you to eventually extinguish lower criteria responses. So most R+ trainers will use at least positive reinforcement, negative punishment and extinction. 

2. “No” can be a punisher in and of itself due to the tone or volume of the word. Most often, no is associated with other unpleasant consequences leading it to become a positive punisher through classical conditioning. How can you tell if no is a punisher? Examine the behavior it follows. If that behavior decreases, it is a punisher. If that behavior increases, it is a reinforcer. If that behavior stays the same or you see an extinction burst before that behavior decreases, then “no” probably doesn't mean anything.

3. “No” can be an antecedent and/or a consequence. Often times its both. What a lot of people don't understand is that antecedent only hold power when connected with consequences for particular behavior. Thus, antecedents often take on the reinforcing or punishing effects of their associated consequences.

4. This leads us to poisoned cues. What really makes poisoned cues awful is not that the behavior has been trained with more than one quadrant. The trouble with poisoned cues that those behaviors can no longer be used as reinforcers in behavior chains because they don't retain their reinforcing value. In a behavior chain, each response acts as or creates an environment which acts as both a reinforcer for the previous behavior and as an antecedent for the next behavior. However, if you attempt to place a poisoned cue behavior in the middle of a chain, it will fall apart because it doesn't reinforce the previous behavior, thus breaking the reinforcement chain and leading to extinction and ever degrading behavior. 

5. NRMs signal that a behavior will not be reinforced. I usually don't use them because my training should be clear enough in most scenarios that my animal can tell if did the behavior correctly or not. Clicker training is binary, you did it and you get a click and a reinforcer or you don't hear a click and you get nothing and then you try again. So I don't use NRMs because 1. its redundant and 2. studies have shown that it can add additional stress to the animal without providing any benefit to the training. The one scenario where I do use NRMs is when working a behavior chain, where it may be unclear which behavior was performed incorrectly, and in these scenarios that NRM usually just serves as a LRS/Recall so I can reset the behavior. If I have to use a NRM multiple times, it means I need to break down my shaping a little more or possibly do some retraining of the individual components.

6. Being a balanced trainer doesn't just mean one thing and it doesn't always mean that you are a terrible or ambiguous trainer. How one applies principles is what makes one a good or bad trainer. For example, there are individuals who use punishment to teach behaviors. This can be extremely stressful. Basically this is the opposite of clicker training. You get corrected for anything except the exact right behavior. How are you supposed to know what that is? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ On the other hand, a lot of people use punishment only to proof behavior which has already been trained. Ones skill at applying behavior principles is what makes you a good or bad trainer, not which principles you use or don't use or think you don't use.

[scoretheearth]

I'm adopting a dog soon. I'm so excited!!!! Any advice for a first time dog owner? Thaank~

Research absolutely motherfucking everything about canine behavior:

Read this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

Watch all of Kikopup’s videos because they are fantastic I used them so much in Ves’s puppy training:

Here

Kathy Sdao’s webinars are mind blowing, read those books first or you will be totally lost.

Here

Get a crate especially if you have a puppy. Crate training is very useful and can be used in conjunction with potty training. 

Oh yeah, messes? Bye Bye Odor. Powerful stuff.

Research some GOOD food. I feed Ves raw, but have used Taste of the wild, Acana, Fromm, Orijen and Instinct and like them a lot.

Get SO MANY enrichment toys. Seriously that’s so important, especially if you plan on leaving your dog home alone. Kongs are great, but I am crazy about the busy buddy twist n’ treat. I don’t really use it for its intended purpose, I wrap meat up in it, squeeze it all the way tight and freeze it, it lasts nearly three times as long as a kong for us.

This guy here.

Also get that screaming chicken or ugly honky pig toy. They love that shit.

You can make a lot of toys too. one of my favorites to make was a Talenti Gelato jar with a hole cut in the top for a single kibble to fall out when it is tipped over. Ves has a tiny, soft mouth, so don’t do this for bigger dogs. Use a coffee can or something. Use meals as enrichment. Make them think! DROWN THEM IN TOYS it will save your sanity!

Bully sticks were a lifesaver for teething puppy chews. Do avoid rawhide:

Ze stickens

Hey so you might or might not know about Ves breaking her leg almost immediately after I got her so this is my plea to everyone out there HEY GET PET INSURANCE. PLEASE! I use Healthy Paws, they offer a friends and family discount, which I unfortunately can’t participate in because of my state, but I know people who would be more than happy to share their discount link (It gives them a rad bonus too!) *cough* @silver-sivien *cough*

I have put down too many pets during my childhood due to completely fixable issues just because vet bills are insane. SHIT WILL HAPPEN. This is not an IF situation, dogs are fucking stupid, ‘ight?

If you need a group on Facebook to ask questions in, I have had a lot of success in Beyond Ceasar Milan (fuck that guy). They’re not perfect, but there are so many garbage groups and dumb people regurgitating dumb outdated knowledge on Facebook, so they’re better than most. (If anybody has any other recommendations for science-based training groups, I want to join you.)

I didn’t intend to write that much, I’m tired, that’s all I can think of right now. Just love them, don’t hurt them. Don’t hit them. Don’t yell at them even when they are bad, they won’t understand, even if you think they do, I promise. Don’t put things on them that hurts them dude!

Be patient. Be a stone. Be a tree. Be a peaceful lotus flower on a still pond surface, I believe in yooouu.~

[pomofo]

do you have any recommendations for people just starting out with training with cats and dogs? How did you get into training?

Hey there! If you’re interested in training your own animals for the pure joy of it, there are lots of great resources online to check out that will give you the basics on clicker training, learning theory, and animal behavior in general.

There are a few staple books I can suggest, but I think “Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Pryor, “The Other End of the Leash” by Patricia McConnell, and “The Culture Clash” by Jean Donaldson would be some good intro to training books.

Resources for Dog Training:

Kikopup:https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC-qnqaajTk6bfs3UZuue6IQ

Modern Canine Training:https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCUXvRAsL5Q41h-KkhbNY3_w

Pam’s Dog Academy:https://m.youtube.com/user/pamelamarxsen

Resources for Cat Training:

https://www.catschool.co

https://www.spacecatacademy.com

http://www.adventurecats.org/backcountry-basics/how-to-clicker-train-a-cat/

Resources for General Animal Training:

Karen Pryor Clicker Training:https://www.clickertraining.com

Behavior Works:http://behaviorworks.org

International Association for Animal Behavior Consultants:https://m.iaabc.org

If you’re interested in training as a profession, I would recommend you start by looking into apprenticeship or assisting an established certified trainer who uses humane training strategies. I started out as an assistant trainer in puppy classes and worked my way up shadowing trainers for private sessions. It’s one thing to learn about training, but getting that hands on practice is so crucial to building up skills. There are some great online schools for training, like the Karen Pryor Academy (I’d recommend this one!), Animal Behavior College, Academy for Dog Trainers, IAABC, etc. Dog training is not a regulated field so there is no national registry in the US, but there are a few different organizations that have certification tests and programs. I’m CPDT-KA, and I chose to get certified because I like the idea of having some sort of professional regulations in place to help legitimize dog training as a field.

And lastly never stop learning about training! I attend conferences, workshops, and seminars every year, and I’m always on the hunt for newer and better information. Remember that good training is a skill and takes time and practice to develop, so try not to get discouraged if things don’t go as planned right away. You’re working with animals after all, and sometimes even if you carefully plan a session things go wrong. It happens to all of us. Good luck and happy training!

[behaviornerdwithahat]

How Accurate Are Dog DNA Tests? Insights & Challenges | The IAABC Journal

How do we know what makes a mutt? Scientists from the Darwin's Dogs project explain the new development in gene sequencing and explain why your dog might have some surprising ancestry.

For the Anon who asked about my opinion on genetic testing or anyone else interested in the accuracy of DNA tests in dogs.

[thepoodlepack]

What do you have to support the fact that he abuses dogs? I've never seen him abuse one. Ever.

[grayrideruniverse]

So is he to just let the dog bite him?

[thepoodlepack]

If you loom in an extremely threatening way over anyone, not just a dog, when they are in a vulnerable position, yes you should just let them bite you because you made a very stupid decisions.

[workingdogblr-blog]

The question presupposes that the dog is the antagonizer in this situation. The dog is in a position of defense, not attack. 

“Should he just let the dog bite him?” is the wrong question. If someone showed a clip of a child playing with his bike, and a stray dog running up and assaulting him viciously, and he began to strike the dog to defend himself, then the question would be valid. What else should the child do, but to begin defending himself? 

This is not the situation. Millan presents himself as a power-figure, one to be feared. He immediately presents a threat by positioning himself in a threatening position with his body language. The dog is on the defense, because he wants his food, and he fears it will be taken from him. 

Then, Millan strikes. The dog’s fears are affirmed, and he snaps back in defense, and as a warning. But note that as he snaps, HE IS BACKING AWAY. The dog does NOT want this fight. He does NOT want to attack him. He JUST wants to eat in peace and he is backing away, but attempting to defend himself. 

In short, if Millan doesn’t want to get bit, he should probably not antagonize a reactive dog. 

[naturepunk]

BOOM

[rainfelt]

In this gif he genuinely seems to be provoking the fuck out of the dog, violently. He seems to be hitting the dog, and even if he’s just feinting… that’s awful.

I’ve watched Victoria Sitwell (also dogs) and Jackson Galaxy (cats). They both present themselves in the animal’s space to see what reaction they get. But I’ve never seen either of them come anywhere near hitting an animal. Honestly, what the hell is this asshole’s problem.

[stephdemonprince]

I’ve only seen Jackson but if the cat is aggressive he backs the fuck off. He does NOT strike a cat. For any reason. Even being attacked or scratched he thinks about how HE made the mistake and how to fix it.

[rainfelt]

<p>^^^ also this. He’s very good at not antagonizing aggressive cats at all, but when they ARE aggressive he would let a cat bite or scratch him before he so much as touched it, let alone hit it. </p><p> I spent a few minutes on google, to refamiliarize myself with Victoria, because it’s been a while since I watched “It’s Me or the Dog” – but immediately I found an article asking readers to compare these two specifically, and whoa Ceasar is terrible and should stop. </p><p> FYI, Victoria has never been bitten by a dog. Google’s pretty firm on that. And when dogs bite people in the family, she recognizes where the bad behavior is – their adult owners. Ceasar on the other hand appears to be operating on the pseudoscience (and outright myth) of “alpha males”. Victoria uses positive reinforcement, in the casual rather than the literal sense, like treats and figuring out what the dog needs emotionally from its owners; Ceasar intimidates dogs into compliance, which will just deepen the fear and insecurity being displayed by the dog in this gif. </p><p> Here’s <a href=“http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/its-me-or-dog/training-tips/child-dog-safety/”>a very brief post from an interview with her</a>, it looks like, on child-dog safety that illustrates her point of view.</p> <p>Meanwhile Ceasar is apparently a jackass who uses choke collars and shock collars. There’s no excuse for that, ever.</p>

[funkpunkandrollmuhfucka]

FUCK Cesar Millan.

[cardi-pee]

Wow this is so gross

[velcropoodle]

Okay, so I’m not a dog expert, but I actually watched this episode and I remember it very vividly.  You CANNOT JUDGE this situation by the gifs alone, so here’s some background:

The dog is the problem in the situation.  She is “the antagonizer.”

The dog, Holly, was hyper protective of food and territory and would not let ANYONE near her food without lunging and snarling at them, and the family had a baby.  You don’t have to approach this dog in an aggressive position, she will threaten you anyway.  Caesar had spent a good amount of time trying to give and take food from the dog, but it led to this confrontation:

(BLOOD WARNING)

The dog snarls at Caesar so he jabs at the dog’s throat, mimicking warning nips that dogs use.  He didn’t hit the dog like the gif suggests and the dog getting aggressive around food has been a continual problem that he’s trying to break her of.  When Caesar stands for too long between her and the food bowl, and he’s NOT IN AN AGGRESSIVE POSITION, she lunges and BITES HIM AND DOESN’T LET GO.  He fights her off, then stands over her, trying to get her to realize who is in control of the situation.  He has a deep puncture wound bleeding and still doesn’t back down.

What this video doesn’t show is that he tells the family he cannot comfortably let them keep Holly while they have a baby, so they allow him to take her to his facility to rehabilitate her.  She spends a month or so there, spending a lot of time around calm dogs and getting healthy amounts of exercise to burn off energy.  Eventually she becomes friendly with the dogs but ultimately the family did give her up out of concern for their baby.

I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with Caesar’s methods, I go back and forth on them myself, but don’t ignore the entire truth of the situation.  Slander only weakens your argument.  If you want to argue against Caesar’s methods, then offer suggestions on how to deal with a dog that won’t let you near her food without threatening to attack.

[cardi-pee]

New information, please read ^^

[ofwordsandwaltzes]

Hello, friend. Unfortunately, as you said, you’re not a dog expert and everything you wrote is completely and utterly wrong. For context, I’ve been training dogs for a decade, and I literally wrote the paper on why this dude’s practices and theory are not only abusive but completely unsupported by all modern canine behavior and cognition research. I don’t normally get into these things about him because it’s stressful, but this one I just can’t let go. 

We’re going to cover some stuff here. 

Most importantly:

Resource guarding occurs when an animal feels unsafe with another animal or a person near it’s food/bone. This is often because they have learned that they get hurt or that they will be deprived of it if it is taken away, and have generalized to every situation. This is not the dog being an asshole or being aggressive. 

Resource guarding is fixed by teaching the dog to trust you to interact with it’s possession. The dog learns that it is safe to give up the item, because it will either be returned or it will get something better in exchange. This requires trust and a slow approach, not violence and threats. 

Animals who are scared or in pain will shut down. An animal that has been hit to teach it to stop a behavior does not change the behavior willingly - it is trying to avoid further punishment and will not respond until it is pushed to the point where it feels so unsafe it must bite - a dog’s last resort. 

Okay, let’s start with what you wrote and just go over the stuff that isn’t right, before we get into an accurate breakdown. 

“The dog snarls at Caesar so he jabs at the dog’s throat, mimicking warning nips that dogs use”

1. Dogs do not consider humans to be dogs. There is no point in trying to mimic how dogs interact with dogs because they know we are not dogs. 

2. A neck jab with a hand is very, very different than light pressure from a mouth with teeth so it’s a stupid analogy and pretty much just bullshit. 

3. By reaching towards the dog, he’s entering her space and by guarding her food she is telling him directly that she does not feel safe with him entering her space. This is not appropriate nor is it how you get a resource guarding dog to trust you.

“He didn’t hit the dog like the gif suggests”

4. I don’t know what video you’re watching, but apparently it’s not the one you linked. That is forceful contact with his hand on the dog’s neck, AKA a hit. 

“When Caesar stands for too long between her and the food bowl, and he’s NOT IN AN AGGRESSIVE POSITION, she lunges and BITES HIM AND DOESN’T LET GO.”

5. His posture is aggressive. He continues to move into her space - which she has already demonstrated is stressful for her - and uses his posture and size to loom over her from a crouch. His posture is stereotypically aggressive - balanced forward, leaning over, arms and hands wide in a threatening posture, and he’s staring at her. 

6. It is completely reasonable for the dog to bite him at this point. She already tried to warn him (very politely, in dog language) that she was uncomfortable, with many avoidance behaviors before she started eaten. He encroached on her space and she responded with a snap - not a bite, because she didn’t make contact, which is very purposeful. Dogs have very good mouth control and do not make contact unless they intend to. In response, he hit her (more threats) and then encroached on her space. This is a stressed, unhappy animal who is being threatened by a guy who has escalated to physical contact and refuses to leave her space. Any dog would bite at this point and you cannot fault an animal that is pushed to the end of it’s rope to defend itself for feeling unsafe and physically threatened. 

“He has a deep puncture wound bleeding and still doesn’t back down.”

7. There are only two reasons a good animal trainer gets bit. A) they didn’t have the skill to do what they tried to do B) they weren’t paying enough attention. Trainers who get bit frequently are not good trainers, no matter how much they brag. You do not need to push an animal to the point of defending itself to modify it’s behavior, and if you consistently do so, you should not be working with animals. 

8. If a dog bites, it’s because it literally believes it has no other options to remove the threat or stressor. If a dog is so stressed that it bites, you leave it the fuck alone so it can calm down. That’s the fight or flight response. An animal that is in a state of arousal from defending itself literally can’t think straight - try reasoning with a toddler having a meltdown, it’s about the same thing. Instead he keeps pushing her and making it worse. 

“I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with Caesar’s methods, I go back and forth on them myself, but don’t ignore the entire truth of the situation.  Slander only weakens your argument.  If you want to argue against Caesar’s methods, then offer suggestions on how to deal with a dog that won’t let you near her food without threatening to attack.”

9. Go read The Damage of Dog Whispering for the entire truth. It does not contain slander, but instead, reasoned arguments for why he is awful. 

10. A dog that is resource guarding by growling/snarling is not threatening to attack. It is saying ‘I am uncomfortable and feel unsafe and do not want this to escalate to a bite, but I will do so in order to protect myself if you push this’. 

Jeez, okay. Painful breakdown done. Next: what are we actually looking at? I’m sacrificing my own sanity to re-watch this enough times to break it down, ugh. Here’s a link to someone who does a decent slow-motion breakdown, and although I can’t find the person’s credentials it’s pretty accurate even though it misses some stuff. .I’m going to use that video for the breakdown because it’s slowed down, so the timecode will not match a full-speed video of the incident. 

Breakdown:

0:10 He stares at the dog as he puts food down. He is already in her space, too close physically, and leaning into her with all of his posture. Forward body posture and weight is a very aggressive signal - it says “I am ready to leap into your space at any moment”. 

0:12 She blinks multiple times and looks away. These are appeasement signals from an unsure dog - she’s uncomfortable and trying to diffuse the tensions he’s creating (by setting up a situation in which he knows she’ll have issues).

0:14 She purposefully moves her head so her nose is pointed away from his. Head orientation is very important to dogs for diffusing tension - you’ll notice a group of dogs in any photo will all have their faces pointed in slightly different directions. Turning her head away is another attempt at diffusing what’s going on. 

0:16 There is a cut in the video here. She likely did not immediately start to eat, but the video jumps to where her head is already in the bowl and we have no idea how she got there. CM’s videos do this a lot - utilize editing to mislead and misrepresent. 

0:22 He moves towards her and she immediately speeds up eating. This is a key sign of unease - the animal feels it must wolf it’s food in order to eat as much as it can before it’s taken away. 

0:27 As the video says, you can see his hand subtly moving towards the side of Holly’s head as he moves forward. It’s not a huge movement, but it’s enough to be a threat to a dog that’s already on edge. This is because it’s moving into her peripheral vision and getting closer to her blind spot - she can’t watch him and his hand at the same time, which is stressful when he’s continuing to encroach on her space with a threatening posture. 

0:35 It’s hard to tell what happens here because CM’s body is in the way, but it looks like she snarls at him and shows teeth as his hand moves. This is what he’s using to decide she needs to be hit. Snarling and showing teeth are higher on the scale of defensive warnings than a growl - they’re an escalation when it’s clear that other, more polite body language like growls and appeasement signals haven’t worked. She is telling him very clearly that if he continues to push her, she’ll defend herself - and he chooses to hit her instead of backing off. 

0:45 CM hits Holly in the neck with the side of his hand - it looks like his fingers go under her neck and his thumb hits the side, which means he effectively hits her throat with the full force of his palm. He makes contact hard enough to knock the dog inches to the side - you cannot justify that not being ‘hitting the dog’. 

0:47 Holly immediately reacts defensively. Her teeth are showing and she makes noise, but she is startled and defensive - not attacking him. Notice how her entire body posture is away from him, and her weight is backwards too. All this dog wants to do is get out from under the dude who ignored all her warnings about feeling unsafe and then hit her right after she expressed exactly how not cool the situation was. Her mouth opens and closes in a snap but it is not directed towards his hand - it’s in line with her body as she moves backwards away from him. Her face is tight, her ears are back and flat against her head - all classic signs of stress.

0:52 She backs multiple steps away from him. He steps into her. This is no longer about the food bowl - now, she’s scared of and reacting to CM himself. We’ve left the realm of resource guarding and now the dog is just threatened and cornered from all sides (remember, there are multiple camera men surrounding her, as we see from the separate angles of her face shown later in the video). 

0:57 Holly turns away from him as he advances on her. You can see his left hand starting to reach out towards her as his body blocks the camera. Everything about this is a threat - his posture, his moving forward, his reaching out to her right after he just hit her. 

1:02 She’s moved multiple steps away at this point, he’s moved forward and is getting into her space with both arms. She’s started to get backed up against the fence - it looked like she was trying to go around him and get clear of where she’d be stuck, except he cut her off. She turns to see his hands and bares her teeth in a snarl - now she’s really feeling threatened and making no secret of it. 

1:05 He continues moving forward once her teeth are bared, but stands up in order to scare her away. Her body immediately changes - it’s suddenly backwards, away from CM again: his threatening stature and change in movement works. 

1:08 Even thought the dog is backing away and cowering with bared teeth (terrified) CM continues to move towards her while standing. His arms are spread again in a threat posture that keeps her feeling like she’s cornered between the wall, the fence, and the cameraman. 

1:11 He’s literally learning over a dog that is crouching away from him, ready to defend itself, and staring her in the face. Threat threat threat threat. She can’t move. She’s stuck and he’s being an asshole by keeping an animal that keeps trying to get away from him cornered. She’s giving off every signal a dog can give that she will defend herself - ears back, posture back, body stiff, both sets of teeth bared (snarls usually only involve moving the top lip). 

1:27 The camera zooms in on her face. Hopefully this was a digital zoom, but if it was the cameraman getting closer, this adds to her stress by cornering her and sticking a camera in her face.

1:31 This looks like a lip lick - a well known sign of nerves and stress - where the tongue doesn’t leave the mouth because she’s displaying a defensive grimace at the same time. Lip licks are an appeasement signal, saying ‘please back off’ - she’s trying to calm everything down while still needing to be able to defend herself. 

1:37 As the video notes, actual lick lips this time and blinking - Holly is moving away from the defensive grimace since CM hasn’t escalated the situation by sheathing her teeth and trying to diffuse everything. 

2:34 She’s even looking away from his face/hands at this point, really trying to make it clear she’s trying to de-escalate things. That’s big - it means she’s starting to feel a little safer because you don’t look away from stuff that could hurt you. 

2:42+ The video notes lots of appeasement signals and they’re all correct in the surrounding seconds: looking for positive eye contact without staring, soft face, blinking, look-aways (pointed breaks of eye contact with a head turn), etc. She then lays down. That’s not submission - that’s just giving up because he’s not going to fucking move. 

The video then notes in an interlude that he’s confronted her before, which is why an escalation like this occurs. Holly has already learned that he’s not safe around food, that he’s going to purposefully set up uncomfortable situations and then push her boundaries and not listen to her body language. That’s why things escalated so fast - because she’s had to deal with this before, and knows it ends with him not being safe for her when food is around. He’s doing exactly what makes resource guarding worse by setting up situations in which food creates unsafe situations and she has to gobble it before he tries to fuck with her. 

3:20 He mentions relaxation, which the video calls out as being stress correctly right afterwards. You can see her face is still taught, her eyes tight and blinking, and her ears stiff. This is a stressed dog who is trying to be as non-confrontational as possible. 

3:40 She looks away and when she turns back, his hand is in her space and close to her face. It’s coincidentally the hand he hit her with earlier. 

3:41 He puts his hand on her face as he stands up over her and she snaps at him. This is just plain stupid of him - he should know those are stress signals, and that he shouldn’t get back into the space of an animal he just threatened. Especially because he tries to pet her on the face, which is a super intimate thing most animals only allow with people they really trust. (RE: what I said earlier, he’s not paying attention to her body language or he doesn’t recognize what it means). 

3:43 He removes his hand and stands up looming over the dog, moving closer to her as she lifts her lips to show she feels unsafe. At this point, she’s still in a down: a very vulnerable position. She can’t move away from him easily because she’s laying on her legs, which makes it much harder for her to protect herself by any other method than using her teeth, and she knows this. 

3:44 She launches up from the down (which is the only direction she can easily move without being massively vulnerable to him) and latches onto the hand he just removed from her face. This is totally reasonable because he’s made it clear he’s not going to listen to her or back off even when she backs off and does everything she can to diffuse the situation he’s forcing her into. (This is a dog who was trying really fucking hard to not bite him, but he pushed her too far). 

It’s hard to say why she didn’t let go, but my guess is that she was just pushed too far at this point - or that she figured the hand was what was dangerous since he kept touching/hitting her with it, and that biting it was the only way to remove that threat. 

3:47 He then kicks her multiple times in the chest trying to get her to let go. Granted, it’s important to get your hand back in this situation, but there are a lot of other options that don’t involve kicking the dog. I know it’s a hard call but I still don’t approve because it never should have gotten to this fucking point. 

3:49 CM pries her off of his hand and immediately stands up over Holly. She immediately goes into a defensive crouch and shows a defensive grimace again. Notice she’s still cornered between him and the camera man - she can’t escape the threat they’re posing easily, without giving one of them her back. 

3:52 CM still won’t fucking let up. He stands up fully and walks into her space again as she continues to display that she’ll defend herself again if she needs to. 

3:58 He gets right up in her space, and being cornered, she goes back to lip licking and appeasement signals but you can see how stressed she is by how stiff her lips are and how flat back her ears are. Her eyes are tight and all the muscles in her body are stiff. 

“I didn’t see that coming.”

This is the point where every professional animal person who made it through the video yells, throws something at the computer, and probably gets a beer because you idiot. I’m not exaggerating when I say that watching this video makes every dog professional I know - trainers, researchers, hobbyists - viscerally and physically ill. Everything CM did in this video is egregious and unprofessional and incredibly dangerous and stupid. 

See, here’s the thing. A professional who really wanted to treat resource guarding (rather than bully the dog) wouldn’t even set a scenario up where the dog had to guard food. That literally sets the dog up for failure. And as soon as any signs of guarding started, the person would back the fuck off and reassess the situation. When you’re working on resource guarding protocols, if the dog starts guarding, you’re pushing too hard and too fast and need to take smaller baby steps with your protocol. It’s not a one-time fix, either. Resource guarding protocols take months and months of slow work to implement. There’s no magic eraser for the fear in a dog’s mind of people threatening it while it eats or taking it’s food - you have to earn that trust, tiny step by tiny step. And even then it only applies to one person at first, and you have to teach the dog to generalize that trust to lots of people, which may never be successful. Using CM’s method on a dog might traumatize it into never being able to unlearn guarding because it’s not just getting pushed out of it’s comfort zone, it’s getting randomly attacked no matter what it does to try to end the situation. 

Here’s an interesting fact about Holly: We only know what CM has said about her. Nobody really knows what happened to her after she left the Dog Psychology center except for some rumors about how she was ‘given up for the safety of the kid’. That’s because everyone on his show is forced to sign strict non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from ever speaking publicly about their experience working with him or the behavior of their dogs after filming ends. 

I’m not going to get into how you should develop protocols for working with a resource-guarding dog here because I don’t want to risk someone trying to use it without knowing what they’re doing. Resource guarding, while not aggression, is still serious and can be dangerous if someone who doesn’t know enough to stay safe tries to handle in on their own. If you have a dog that is a resource-guarder, you must contact a trainer for help working with your dog. Do not attempt to do behavior modification yourself. (I suggest you look for a trainer who is a member of the IAABC, but whomever you pick must use only positive reinforcement and must have experience with reactive dogs and dogs that guard. If you feel anything is off or they ask you to use punishment or do antyhing you find uncomfortable, walk away). However, if you want to know the theory behind it, look up counter-conditioning protocols for fearful and reactive dogs - it’s built from the same principles. 

My last feelings on this? 

There is an entire website - beyondcesarmillan.com - dedicated to compiling testimonials from animal professionals in varied fields against CM’s methods and theories. Everyone from veterinary behaviorists to animal trainers to wolf and dog researchers around the world told Nat Geo they should never have aired his show in the first place because it was so wrong and so dangerous.

No TV Show on air about dog training should need a disclaimer that says ‘don’t try this at home, it’s too dangerous’. 

[scribblesonawhiteboard]

This is a fantastic response so it pretty much speaks for itself. I just want to add two things.

When she says…“I’m not exaggerating when I say that watching this video makes every dog professional I know - trainers, researchers, hobbyists - viscerally and physically ill.” …She is NOT exaggerating. Even scrolling past this post makes my stomach clench and is a huge trigger for my depression/anxiety/secondary trauma.

One reason for that is because “training” like this can lead to the reduction of warning signals. I’ll say that again. Punishment doesn’t reduce aggression, it reduces warning signals to a true bite. What goes away is the rushed eating, freeze and stare, growling, snapping, and warning bites that proceed real bites, but it does not reduce biting itself. It is like removing the batteries from a smoke alarm and saying it still functions appropriately. Thankfully, although this type of training is still prevalent, dogs have so many warning signals that it is very hard to remove them all.

I still vividly remember one dog I worked with who shifted from tense posture to redirecting on the family’s other dog with no intermediate warning behaviors. It was the scariest thing I have ever seen and I had to pretend to get something from the back room so I could get my shit together before giving the lady enough management techniques to get through the next few days, referring her to another trainer who specialized in behavior modification, and calling my manager to explain the situation and request that she contact the owner. There were children in the house.

Growling is not bad, it is a way for the dog to clearly communicate that you have exceeded its limits and should alter your behavior in short order. Please do not punish a dog for growling.

[sheepdog-and-fakegoldenretriever]

“Training often fails because people expect way too much of the animal and way too litte of themselves.”

-Bob Bailey