Show Notes
EPISODE 2: Training-based Daycare at Dogs Rock! Vermont, part 1 - with Laurie Lawless
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During the episode, Laurie mentions the following behavior and training philosophies:
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LIMA: This acronym stands for “Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive”. The approach and trainers who adhere to it are well explained here. Another, similar approach is Dr. Susan Friedman’s Humane Hierarchy.
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Positive Reinforcement: We don’t want to get lost in the weeds of the quadrants of behavior, so to keep it simple, think of this type of training as ADDING something (e.g., a treat, praise, a toy, etc.) to REINFORCE a behavior(i.e., increase the likeliness that the behavior will occur again under the same environmental conditions) immediately after it occurs. The timing is important so that the dog know that THAT was the behavior you wanted. Dr. Zazie Todd’s blog on positive reinforcement explains it well.
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Balanced: Balanced training refers to techniques and trainers who intentionally employ methods and tools from all four of the behavior quadrants. Balanced trainers will use positive reinforcement but also employ what people typically think of as “punishment” or “corrections” as well.
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Matching Law: The “matching law” basically states that behavior matches reinforcement. In other words, if given the choice between two behaviors, an animal will choose to perform the behavior for which it has been reinforced (rewarded) more in the past. The Matching Law was “discovered” by a researched named psychologist RJ Hernstein in 1961 in his experiments with operant conditioning and pigeons.
If you want to take a deep dive into the matching law, read Davidson and McCarthy’s research review.
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Aversive: An “aversive” is anything the dog finds unpleasant (ranging from annoying to painful). They are typically used to stop a dog from doing an unwanted behavior. A few examples of aversives are electric shock, bitter tasting sprays, shaker cans, spray bottles, and high-pitched noises.
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EPISODE 3: Training-based Daycare at Dogs Rock! Vermont, part 2 - with Laurie Lawless
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Bite Scales:
Dr. Ian Dunbar’s bite scale is used to assess dog-to-human bites.
Cara Shannan has created a bite scale that is becoming more common in assessing dog-to-dog bites.
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The Five Freedoms:
If you are not familiar with The Five Freedoms, you should be! There are many links, articles and blogs where you can read about how different organizations apply these principles, but here is a link from the Association of Shelter Veterinarians that lists them succinctly.
Laurie mentioned these two resources:
The Shelter Playgroup Alliance has great resources related to dog interactions and play groups, in general.
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EPISODE 4: The Top 5 Things You Can Do To Improve the Lives of Pets, their Owners, and YOURSELF
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We'll likely take a deeper dive in future podcast into each of the five areas discussed in this episode, but in the meantime, here are some resources to help you start taking action today!
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Dog Body Language:
Check out the artwork of the amazing Lili Chin for dog (and cat!) body language drawings that you can use and you can share with your clients.
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Here are a couple of videos from Modern Dog Training that explain dog body nicely: Part 1 and Part 2
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iSpeakDog.org This site has so many wonderful resources! There is a picture gallery to show dog body language
There are also has good resources on dog reactivity including a webinar. Check out the information and video about jumping on people
and their enrichment section!
Enrichment:
Check out my blog on enrichment for ideas for both dogs and cats.
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Dogminded is an excellent resource for enrichment information ideas.
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EPISODE 5: The Importance of Enrichment - with Jenny Efimova of Dogminded
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Jenny’s website: dogmindedboston.com and email address jenny@dogmindedboston.com
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Sarah Stremming’s Decompression walk podcast from January 2018
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Canine Enrichment Facebook group that Jenny mentioned.
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Koret Shelter Medicine Program from UC Davis published some ideas for enrichment for both cats and dogs in shelters back in 2015. Some of these would work great in boarding and day care facilities, too, so check them out even if you don’t work in a shelter.
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