Dog Articles

... with some “new”, evidence based tools. 
 GET yours here (It’s really more of a 2-part book: Part 1 - Theory, Part 2 - Practice)

This article looks at some "givens" in dog training and a review of the actual peer-reviewed science which either supports or ... doesn't support them.

It would appear, that Skinnerian Radical Behaviorism is not the only thing out there that has to do with learning and performance of behavior. First clue: that I even separate the two from each other ... I'm not the only one doing so.

"Drive" is one of those words that is not talked about in "modern" dog training circles, mainly because it doesn't really fit into Skinnerian Radical Behaviorism. But once outside of these circles in the "real world", drive is an word used to explain why the dog is doing something or not doing something. So, what is "drive" actually?

What? Heresy?!? Well, my thoughts on this were nudged after a lecture by a well known dog researcher and dog trainer/owner put out this idea. But what is actually behind this idea or is it just B.S.?

Done in 2012 at the Clicker Zentrum in Switzerland, this experiment looks at how much shock a human can stand when the subject applies it to various body parts: palm of the hand, wrist, arm, neck.

Experiment 2 shows the results of the two most common forms of shock in training: +P and -R. ... plus +R (praise) as reward. Again, only human volunteers were used - and they were trained in a language they didn’t speak or understand: Turkish. The subjects were filmed and these videos were analyzed in terms of stress signs given by the subjects during the test, anticipatory signs as well as any other signs that could indicate emotional states. An interview was also conducted to get the subjects own reactions to the tests. Now available here.