Читать книгу Forever Home... - Mike Deathe CPDT-KA - Страница 7

So at this point we recognize how we give and withdraw attention can have a huge impact on behavior. Trust me though, there are going to be times you will not be patient enough or willing to wait long enough for the behavior to go away on its own…In those cases, there is one other trick I can teach you to speed up the process. You can use redirection in how you give or take away attention from Fido. Now I don’t want to get all “psychology guy” on you but… Remember that we have already determined that if a behavior is rewarding, it increases, and if it is not rewarding, it extinguishes (or goes away). What we have not talked about is the time frame an unwanted behavior has been occurring and how that directly ties to the length of time it takes to make that behavior go away. Take for example a puppy that has only been barking for attention for a month or two; it is pretty obvious that this behavior could be extinguished relatively quickly using the ignoring technique. On the other hand, if a dog has gotten away with this attention seeking barking for 4-5 years, the process is going to take quite a bit longer to extinguish.

What I suggest is a technique that will “supercharge” the idea of ignoring and make the extinguishing process happen much faster. I am going to choose another (or replacement) behavior besides barking, and reward that new behavior in the absence of the barking. This is called redirection. The key to redirection is that you, with or without a trainer’s help, have to sit down and decide just what behavior you want from your dog instead of the unwanted behavior. If you do not start off with a new behavior picked out and ready before you start, you will fail. So for the problem behavior of barking, I choose to reward the behavior of looking me in the face or what I call a “Watch Me” command.

A little known secret is that dogs typically don’t have the attention span to walk and chew gum at the same time; so this command is very handy for redirection. The dog is barking, so I am ignoring the dog. I then wait for a pause in noise (you know for the dog to breathe) and then ask for the watch me command. The moment I get eye contact, I reward him with a treat! This builds the relationship for the dog that barking gets me ignored, while quietly paying attention, and looking Mom/Dad in the face, gets me a tasty treat…

For arguments sake, we are going to pick another problem behavior…JUMPING UP…to illustrate how to use redirection. Don’t worry, as with barking, we will cover jumping up in greater detail in Chapter 10.

We know that if we yell at the dog for jumping up, it will reward the dog and likely excite him as well, leading to repetition of the behavior. We also know that pushing or attempting to knock the dog down physically will only lead to a great game of “pogo stick” (dog comes up, you push dog down, dog comes up, etc. what a fun game!) And finally, if you have a bad day at work, then love, touch or otherwise pay attention to our dog while he is jumping up; well you are getting what you deserve!

You have tried really hard to simply ignore the jumping behavior, but you just don’t have the time, patience or inclination to put up with this behavior any more…so now what? Simple, we add the idea of REDIRECTION to our efforts! The secret is the command “sit”…

The first step to this process is simple, we need to identify a behavior we want instead of the “jumping”. In my mind, the only option is “Sit.” Let’s face it, a dog that is sitting is not jumping; and isn’t that what we want? Not to mention, I teach all of my dogs that the command of “sit” is the doggy version of the human word please. If you want something, you better say please (hey, I expect the same from my kids!) If you want to go out the door, “sit.” If you want to have your leash put on, “sit.” How about a little dinner, fine, then you “sit.” I don’t care what your thoughts on dog training might be, but I believe that a dog sitting is most likely a dog being good! The next step is to make sure your pooch understands and is extremely reliable with the command “sit.” To ensure you have a reliable “sit”, I suggest taking the next week or so and practice “sit” every day, all day; and then practice some more. Use treats and access to desired resources (food, toys, pets, leash…you name it) and by the end of this practice Fido will be offering “sit” without you even requesting it; because in Fido’s mind “my chances of getting what I want go way up when my butt is on the ground.”

Now, let’s get back to redirection. We still have to ignore the jumping up behavior whenever it is offered. I don’t mean just kind of ignore; I mean you don’t make eye contact, you don’t touch, you don’t talk to Fido; I mean absolutely no response. I even tell folks to walk out of the room and shut a door on the dog if necessary. If Fido jumps up, you are to give him the cold shoulder for at least 10 to 20 seconds. If you have one of the real stubborn pooches that will jump on your back or follow you while jumping, just leave the kennel or room and shut a door between you, anything you can do to physically separate you from the dog. Remember, the goal here is for the dog to lose total access to you. After all, isn’t access to you exactly what the dog wants? The problem here is that the dog has learned how to push your buttons and get you so frustrated that you “blink” first and reinforce the behavior. Today we turn the tables and use a little Psych 101 on Fido by introducing a replacement behavior.

We know that dogs only do what is rewarding, right? So after a period of what psychologists call an extinction burst (we call it a temper tantrum), the dog will give up on the old tried and true behavior of jumping all over you to get your attention and try something new. If you have done as we discussed, Fido knows that “sit” almost always gets him what he wants, and if jumping isn’t going to work anymore, why not try putting his butt on the ground. That behavior always seems to work! If done correctly we just made jumping not rewarding (no attention) and created a replacement behavior (“sit”) that leads to the wanted reward, attention. Pretty simple concept huh? Fido jumps up and gets blown off; puts his butt on the ground and gets a treat in his mouth with some love and pets from you…which would you choose? I need to share a word of caution here… you had better be prepared to react the instant Fido’s butt hits the ground! Have some treats handy (in your pocket, not in a container in the kitchen) and jackpot Fido with 2-3 treats and lavish him with love the entire time the butt is on the ground. However, if Fido breaks out of the sit and gets excited by your praise and jumps again, turn around and ignore him, starting the entire process again. Before you know it (if you are consistent) your dog will have decided on his own, that sitting works way better as a way to get your attention!

Congratulations are now in order! YOU have just allowed your dog to teach himself by choosing between two behaviors; one desirable (sitting, getting treats, attention and praise) vs. the other unpleasant (jumping up and being ignored.) Now even the slowest among us can put this equation together…butt on ground = love and treats or jump up = be ignored. Honestly which one would you choose? I am willing to bet that I know which one the dog will pick!

You have just learned one of the great truths, the $64,000 question or the Holy Grail of dog training. Got a problem behavior? First ignore it, then replace it and finally…reward the hell out of the replacement behavior. The result: no problem behaviors since dogs only do what is rewarding.

After the last two chapters you have a basic understanding of how unwanted behaviors develop as well as techniques on how to attack those nasty little buggers and get Fido headed back down the right path. The next chapter takes on dog training in a more specific manner with some basic nuts and bolts as well as the age old argument should we use punishment or reinforcement to teach our furry four legged friends.