Creature Comforts Dog Training

Whatever training decisions you are making, however you choose to explain things to dogs, know that you’re also teaching feelings. Feeling about what school is like, what you are like, what it’s like to be with you, lead by you and under your control, whether you intend to or not…. Make your training intentional 🐾

How much pain would you have to be in to walk with a limp? To cry out in pain? To even grimace around people you don’t know? Probably a lot right?

There are so many ways our dogs can feel pain before we see them start to yike, whimper, or limp. Our dogs can’t tell us how they’re feeling, so we need to be keen observers. We especially need to trust that they’re telling the truth. Dogs aren’t deceptive, lazy or stubborn. When they tell you something is wrong, believe them.

Pain can look like:
💠Reluctance to participate in things they used to enjoy.
💠Short fuse with dog or human friends.
💠Having a low tolerance for frustration.
💠Disinterest in eating.
💠Out of context panting, yawning, or dilated pupils.
💠Sleeping more or less than usual.
💠Most sudden changes in behaviour.

If you think your dog might be uncomfortable, talk to your vet. Tell them why you think your pet may be in pain! Ask about how it can be definitively ruled out. Be their advocate; they’re relying on you!

This is something I say to my clients often: behaviour change is about looking at the long game. The long game is why we choose force free training! The long game is what success looks like.

They say it takes 60 days for humans to make a habit. 60 days! So, when we’re changing a dogs behaviour, we can expect it to take some time. That’s why we use the laws of behaviour science in our training plans: because we won’t see our results right away. Luckily, many researchers before us gave us the data we need to predict what WILL happen given enough repetition, time, and skill! Instead of throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks, we can choose a plan that we know will lead us to the end results we want.

That’s not to say you have to just deal in the meantime. We have a web of management plans to make sure you have a right now solution. But, for things to really change, we have to stick to a plan for some time.

The good news is: we have our dogs for a long time! Spending 2-3 months working hard on a behaviour problem means a lifetime of the fun stuff! Quick fixes fall apart just as quickly. Instead, commit and be patient. Behaviour science always work- play the long game.

Love this graphic so much!

This is also why using R+ for training is so important. We’ll get the behaviours we want, and the happy affect comes along for the ride!

Both operant and classical learning are happening at all times; they are not standalone principles. When I say this, it often causes pushback and confusion, so I teamed up with Doggie Drawings by Lili Chin to create this graphic. I hope it helps! Please share and do be sure to like Lili's page!

It hardly needs repeating, but in case anyone wanted new data about how harmful aversive methods are, here ya go!

This group of behavioural scientists used both biological and behavioural measures of welfare to understand how dogs trained in different ways were affected by the training.

The 3 groups of a combined total of 92 dogs were trained using either "aversive-based" (training based on use of physical punishment as primary motivator for learning), "mixed" (a mix of punishment and reward), and "reward" (with rewards as the primary motivator for learning).

Training sessions were filmed, and behaviours which are understood to indicate stress levels or negative emotional state were measured.
Immediately before and after training, a sample of saliva was taken in order to measure Cortisol (a hormone released in response to stress).

Additionally, dogs were exposed to a scenario to understand their optimism vs. pessimism - the latter being understood to be more likely when you expect a greater chance of loss over probable reward,

It was found that the dogs in the "Aversive" group showed more instances of panting and negative behavioural state than either the "mixed" or "reward" groups, but that even the "mixed group" showed the same inclination for low welfare measures.
The same was true in the non-training scenario, where dogs in the "aversive" and "mixed" groups showed poorer measures of welfare than the "reward" trained dogs.

Negative state behaviours included:
- tense & low body posture
- moving away from the handler

Cortisol measures found significant increases in cortisol levels for dogs in the "Aversive" group, compared to the "reward" group.

Interestingly, only the "mixed" group used pinch/prong, and Ecollar, whereas the "aversive" groups used check chains.
However, it was also seen that no matter the group, the higher a proportion of punishment was used, the more stressed the dog.

The implications of the study suggest that rather than pain from physical punishment being the reason that dogs find this style of training so stressful (yelping was rare, and whining found no differences between groups - both common signals of pain in dogs). Dogs find the use of physical punishment, especially when in high proportion, emotionally damaging.

The use of physical punishment seems to have far-reaching effects into a dogs life, even affecting its cognitive bias (optimism vs. pessimism) when facing a new situation.

There are numerous other studies suggesting the use of physical punishment can increase the likelihood of a dog showing aggression - simply go into Google Scholar, and search "aggression punishment dog".

Link to the study I am referencing:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225023

The beauty of using science in dog training is that you know it to be true! If you’re trying a practical application and you don’t see results, you can troubleshoot knowing it’s not the principle itself that’s faulty. It is something in your application of it that needs adjustment.

Which is why when I hear someone say “I tried classical conditioning and it didn’t work”, I know we’ve got some digging to do! Here are a few of the most common errors made in classical conditioning training plans. Have you felt like classical conditioning doesn’t work? Slide into my DMs, let’s find your missing link 😉