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Thread: How to train an effective dog (Part 1)

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    Occasionally Replies Back Smokin04's Avatar
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    How to train an effective dog (Part 1)

    Well, it was posed to me by forum members that I should help the community by tapping my knowledge of training Military Working Dogs, Specialized Search Dogs, Law Enforcement Patrol Dogs, etc and writing about some methods to help you get your four legged child to be an effective member of your team. I suppose I could start with a bit of resume so you know I'm not some fraud trying to pretend I know what I'm talking about. I start here. I enlisted in the USAF in Dec 1998. I became a USAF security forces (MP equivalent) in 1999. In 2002 I was selected for Department of Defense K9 school. I went and graduated same year. After graduation, I spent 5 years on 3 dogs before transferring to a combat unit. Once there, I went to various schools and spent 2 years in Iraq supporting combat operations (4 years total in the Combat Unit). I came home to become a trainer and eventual kennel master. I spent 6 months in an SSD (Specialized Search Dog) school, and gave another year to training field ready off leash search dogs. I do not have a PhD in dog training...but I do have OVER a decade in effective combat and law enforcement dog training techniques used by the DoD and Law Enforcement Agencies. I absolutely can teach you the "real shit" and will answer ANY credibility questions you can come up with. I've been to combat...and used my dogs in combat. I can tell you that I am absolutely confident that I would NOT sell my peers here a line of BS. With that being said...

    I thought this would be a very tough task indeed as there are hundreds of methods that one can use to make Fido into a machine. You MUST remember this as I write these articles. I am trying to take a systematic approach to this. We’ll start with the basics and work into a more advanced type of training regimen in later installments. So let’s begin with:

    How do you communicate effectively with your dog?


    Simple. Dogs have 4 primary needs that must be satisfied to keep the alive, trained, and happy. They are: Air (Oxygen), Food, Water, and Socialization…in that order. Air is obvious…without it, they die same as humans. Take away a dogs ability to breathe, and instantly they panic and fear death. A solid correction on a choke collar should almost trigger a fight or flight response. It’s an instinctual reaction to a lack of oxygen. Think of how you would behave if someone was choking you out…suddenly, you forget that you were hungry 10 seconds ago. But Smokin, why is food higher than water (on this list) to a dog? Well to an undomesticated dog, water is more abundant in nature than food. They can find it in puddles, gutters, lakes, ponds, etc. with minimal; or less effort than finding food. Food in the wild is a MUCH harder resource to come by for a dog. They have to track it, stalk it, catch it, kill it, and eat it. This behavior usually takes a pack to accomplish effectively. So naturally, the effort expended to catch and kill prey is much more than that of finding water. Coincidentally, this is why socialization is on this list. Without it, they could never form a pack, and hunting becomes infinitely harder. This helps us understand a dog’s motivation to learn. We often use treats, cookies (Milkbones, or similar treats) to reward our kids when they perform a task successfully. This is a second order effect of successful training behavior. The owner (you) is taught the limited basics from friends, experimenting with previous pets, family, internet, etc. Don’t worry, not many errors that are made here, can’t be undone. So lets get started.

    All dog training revolves around reward schedules. There is a certain level of knowledge had by the teacher (you) that is needed for this to be effective. This is also dependent on what type of training you are using. There is compulsiion training, and inducive training. Compulsion training is what the military and law enforcement agencies predominantly use, as the consequences for the dogs mean MUCH more than when using inducive techniques (Disclaimer: this is subjective to the dog being trained. Some dogs favor compulsion vs. inducive and vice versa). There is: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Negative Punishment, and Positive Punishment. By using a collar correction (choke/pinch collar) we are affecting their primary instincts of survivial rather than using inducive techniques. Compulsion in general takes far less time than inducively training your dog. This is also dependent on how good of a trainer you are. I personally prefer inducive techniques as I feel it makes the dog happier, and more eager to learn/please. Compulsion can break the spirit of weaker willed dogs, thus you must choose which is most effective for your dog.

    POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: The application of praise or reward for doing a correct behavior

    NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT: The with-holding a collar correction for performing a task incorrectly

    NEGATIVE PUNSHIMENT: The with-holding of praise or reward for performing a task incorrectly

    POSITIVE PUNISHMENT: The application of a collar correction for performing a task incorrectly

    Smokin, What is Praise?

    Simply put, praise is when you get stupid happy for your dog. You show them that you’re super happy for them by jumping the octave of your voice as high as it will go before you lose it. For example…WOOOOO-HOOOO WHATA GOOD BOY!!!! Expressed like you’re a cheer-leader in high school. WOOOOOOOOOO!!!! LOOK AT THAT DOG!!!!! The most amazing, happy, sensation of vocal expression you can give your dog. Go as high as you can get…don’t be shy. Don’t feel awkward. Your dog deserves this level of enthusiasm…they’re trying as hard as they can for it. Praise can also be a combination of verbal and physical praise. Crying with joy as mentioned, paired with vigorous petting on the head/torso is effective in letting the dog know that they are succeeding in the desired task. Rewards are also given as praise. Dog treats, petting, a chew toy, high octave of voice are all examples of effective praise. I can’t emphasize how IMPORTANT effective praise is! Think of yourself as working hard at your job and never getting a pay check. Wouldn’t that piss you off? Dogs are no different. If you don’t praise them effectively, they will lose focus and not want to learn from you.

    PRAISE IS CRUCIAL! (If you can't praise effectively, you might as well stop here as you will not be successful in your endeavor)

    What is a collar correction?

    Most people don’t have the heart for compulsion. The thought of correcting their beautiful puppy on a choke chain makes them cringe. Fear not. Collar corrections solidify your place as the pack “alpha”. This has to happen. Without an effective collar correction, the dog will not understand that you are above them in the pack order, and resistance will occur constantly. This is a must when training attack dogs. If they don't fear you by way of correction, they damn sure won't fear the prey/victim (or have issues viewing you as the prey). This behavior will add time to your training, and make it more difficult. You (yes, YOU!) MUST be able to “pop the dog a good one.” Did you ever spank a child that was out of line? Did you ever yell at your child when they brought home an F on their report card? If you did, then you possess the required skill to correct your dog effectively. A choke chain, pinch collar, or E-collar is needed to get the point across to your dog. (Please CONTACT ME before you use an E-COLLAR!!!!!! These can be EXTREMELY DETRIMENTAL in the wrong hands). With this being said…timing of said corrections is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE!

    Whoa, wait a minute Smokin…why is timing important?


    Timing is one of the (if not the MOST IMPORTANT PART of) parts of training. It lets you know when you’re succeeding or failing in your endeavor. The problem with timing, is that it’s a skillset learned with practice, trial and error. The reason timing is so important is because when the dog does or does not complete the desired task, the correction MUST BE INSTANT for the dog to correlate the correction or reward to THEIR action. The dog MUST know, by judicious (and effective, meaning correctly timed) use of your corrections and rewards, if they are succeeding or failing at the task that you are teaching them.

    Have I peaked your interest? Should I keep going?
    Last edited by Smokin04; 08-02-2014 at 08:50 AM.
    Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato

    "I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all"- Gen. James Mattis (Forcefully retired by Obama)

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    Just this guy Inor's Avatar
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    Keep going please!

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    Effen AWESOME post smokin. Thank you and I will look forward to the next installment.

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    Okay guys...I'll keep it going, heading to bed for now though.
    Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato

    "I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all"- Gen. James Mattis (Forcefully retired by Obama)

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    Sleep well Smokin, there are others standing guard tonight.
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    live, work, love and be all you are meant to be.

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    Awesome, and Diamond will thank you in the long run

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    Excellent Smokin!

    Mrs Slippy and I have a question. Many of you know that we recently got our newest dog, Beasley an Australian Cattle Dog who is now about 8 months old. We also have a 13 year old Border Collie, Millie. Millie HATES Beasley. I'm talking absolute hate. We also have a 6 year old Yorkshire Terrier, Tucker, who is a non-issue. Everyone gets along with Tucker, except Cam19 but that's another story.

    Millie was one of the best trained, most obedient animals ever. Now she's old and her hips are bad so she lays around most days and constantly lets out a string of high pitched barks about 5 minutes apart. Millie also has developed cataracts and is showing signs of hearing loss. When she was young, exercise would cure her of any ill behavior but now she is only good for about 10 minutes of walking or playing ball a day. I fear that she is not long for this world.

    She just lays in her bed in the laundry room and growls at Beasley if Beasley comes near the laundry room, then starts on the string of high pitched barks. She was not like this until we bought Beasley.

    We've tried her old correction collar and it works for a while. We don't want to keep the correction collar on her all day but will if we cannot reverse this. My feeling is that she is protecting her food, the laundry room is where we feed the dogs usually. We've moved her bed into other rooms, where she used to lay around but she always goes back to the laundry room. I also think her hearing loss is part of this but we don't know what to do about the irritating barking. Very sad to see the old girl be like this especially since she was an absolute joy to train in her early days.

    Any suggestions?
    Last edited by Slippy; 08-01-2014 at 08:14 AM.

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    Smokin Please keep going

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    Yes...please do continue. Very informative reading. I can say as a dog owner you are spot on. And yes the excited tone of your voice can make even a bad occurrence seem rewarded (not a good idea). I found out the hard way after finding a corner of the wife's expensive floor rug chewed. I said, in a happy non threatening tone "your momma is gonna beat your butt for this" the next day the opposite corner was chewed. I learned my lesson.

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    Next installment...

    So, what’s a “Reward”?

    A reward can be anything that the dog likes, and similarly dislike. Confused yet? I’ll break it down for you. All dogs have what called a “Hierarchy of Intensity”(HOI from here on out). HOI can best be described like a 3 or 4 level pyramid with all the things a dog values (or dislikes) inside of it. You must find out what is at the top of your dog’s HOI to train efficiently. For example, if you bought some fancy designer dog treats for Fido to train with, great! But what if Fido doesn’t really like them? Or maybe he likes them, but not as much as he loves his tennis ball. The nasty treats will be naturally lower on his HOI than his tennis ball. So you the owner decide to attempt training using the treats instead of the ball. Do you think he really gives a crap if he messes up a task? If all his mistakes mean is not having to eat one of those nasty treats, then that works out good for Fido. But if you use his tennis ball…the one thing that he loves more than life itself, you’ll for sure have Fido’s attention. There is also HOI for the compulsion side of the house. If you are amazing at collar corrections, they can easily top the dogs HOI because he damn sure doesn’t like getting popped on the collar. The unpleasantness of them jumps right to the top of that pyramid. So for the positive reward, you can use the tennis ball as the most effective positive reinforcement, and the pop on the choke chain would be the most effective positive punishment. The negatives would be the with-holding of either…as mentioned earlier.

    So Smokin, How does a dog really learn then? What’s happening in Fido’s mind when I tell him to sit?

    I’m glad you asked. When you present Fido with your stimulus, let’s say a “Sit” command for example. Fido can choose to either sit, or to not sit (response). But each action has a consequence. If he sits as requested, he gets a treat or praise from mommy/daddy. If he doesn’t sit, he doesn’t get the treat, or worse he gets popped on the collar (consequence). See, it really is that simple.

    So what is all that response, stimulus stuff?

    There is a stimulus, a response, and a consequence. A stimulus can be the command from the handler or a change in environment. A response is simply the response that the dog displays based on the stimulus presented. The consequence is the result of the sequence. Dr. Ivan Pavlov’s experiment on operant conditioning displayed this beautifully. Pavlov would ring a bell (stimulus) and then offer a dog a treat (consequence). (DISCLAIMER: There was much more to his experiments than what I mentioned, but for simplicity sake, I will paraphrase.) The response from the dog was salivation when offered the treat. Eventually, the dog would salivate at just the sound of the bell ringing. This was an example of a conditioned “response” from the dog based on the “stimulus” presented. This idea is the basis for training. So how did Pavlov ensure the dog would salivate EVERYTIME the bell rang? By use of a reward schedule! He would ring the bell before EVERY treat was given. This is called a Fixed Ratio reward schedule. He later changed it to combinations of Variable Ratio and Variable Interval schedules by giving a treat every other bell ring, or after certain periods of time had passed. The dog would still salivate every time he heard the bell. He had solidified a “conditioned response.” Since we’re talking about reward schedules and how Pavlov used them, I suppose I should discuss the 4 types. They are:

    FIXED INTERVAL: A fixed schedule where the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed. An example would be if the dog “stays” for 30 seconds then is given his ball or reward.

    VARIABLE INTERVAL: A variable schedule in which the dog receives his reward after a varying amount of time has passed. An example would be if a dog “stays” for 5 seconds, then is rewarded; then the next attempt the dog must wait 50 seconds before receiving the ball or reward.

    FIXED RATIO: A stable schedule which states the dog will get the reward every time, every other time, every 5th time, etc. they successfully accomplish a task. This is used in the initial and intermediate phases of training a new task or behavior. You use this to reinforce the desired behavior until the dog performs consistently.

    VARIABLE RATIO: A variable schedule in which the dog will receive the reward at random times. This is the most desirable and considered the maintenance phase of training. Do not use this schedule until the dog is consistently performing the response you’ve conditioned.

    All that’s great, but what does that mean to me?

    It means that YOU must decide which schedule to use and continue to adjust it as needed. You can always go back to a Fixed Ratio/Interval schedule to reinforce a desired behavior. But, transferring too soon to a Variable Ratio/Interval may inhibit your training as a successful response does not automatically mean the dog understands fully. So again, be careful about transitioning too soon.

    Now, a bit more on timing. The idea is to apply a physical correction (compulsion) or give a reward (inducive, food or treat) EXACTLY AT THE MOMENT the dog is performing (or not performing, compulsion) the desired task. The larger the amount of time from correct/incorrect performance and application of punishment or reward, the larger area of confusion for the dog. Think of it this way: If you give your dog the command to “Sit”, and the dog sits as instructed…you want to “reward” the dog the MOMENT their butt touched the floor. This will REINFORCE the command of sit, and the desired behavior displayed by the dog. He will understand because he was rewarded when his butt touched the ground. If you are off with your timing, the dog might not pair the reward with his butt touching the floor...it could mean something totally different to the dog. To the contrary, if the dog does NOT sit, you can either withhold the reward (inducive) or apply a collar correction (compulsion). You can also use “Escape training” here, but I will discuss that later.

    Okay, I’m starting to understand now. But how do I decide which techniques or reward schedules to use on my dog?

    For me, this is an easy choice. I ALWAYS BEGIN with inducive training methods and fixed reward schedules. I feel that all dogs (unless extremely elderly) start training in a positive (almost puppy-like) state of mind. By using inducive methods, it keeps the dog motivated without negatively affecting its drive. But there is also a place for compulsion, mainly in attack dogs. If your dog will EVER be trained in attack work, I consider compulsion training a mandatory step in the training ladder. The reason being is that there are numerous reasons for calling a dog off an attack. They could be risking their safety, hurting the victim (decoy), or numerous other reasons (think accidental attack of a loved one in a dark room or encountering a venomous snake). They must understand that the consequences of not releasing or obeying when instructed are serious, and that they need to mind the handler always. You are being forceful with the dog because they have the potential to seriously injure or even kill whatever they’re biting. Therefore they must understand that your instructions are not something they can “blow off” without risking serious injury to themselves. I also favor compulsion if my dogs will be used off-leash at any time. The collar corrections come into play when the dog is frolicking…and sees a squirrel that just ran in front of them. Without that memory of getting his “butt whooped by daddy”, the prey drive urge will be too much to overcome. In other words, the squirrel was a temporary addition to their HOI; that instinctually means more to them than the tennis ball. Thus, your dog’s previous training goes right out the window in his moment of temporary bliss.

    Now I have some homework for you. Research the “drive” or “drives” in dogs. This will assist you in deciding if your dog has what it takes to be a trained bad-ass. I am going to forego discussing drive, as it will add a tremendous amount of information that is well documented and readily available for your viewing pleasure online. Manipulations of these drives are what’s used to train attack dogs from the beginning. Now, check back soon and I will discuss some basic obedience techniques that are the foundation of all training. It will likely take a few days to put that together, so in the mean-time, I can answer questions or clarify any points of confusion you have thus far.
    Last edited by Smokin04; 08-02-2014 at 08:57 AM.
    Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato

    "I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all"- Gen. James Mattis (Forcefully retired by Obama)

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