Changing Times in Service Dog Training

Debi Davis

The Internet Opens the Way

It was only a few scant years ago when few knew of ways to effectively train without punishment. When I first began discussing service dog training with others on the Internet, the main input was from compulsion-based trainers and programs. Intensive discussions on how to best deliver an ear pinch or a toe hitch were explained in gruesome detail, and suspicion of the efficiency of operant training was high. The most often heard quip was, “Well, 'humane methods of training' may be fine for pets, but for those in competition and in service work, it simply is not reliable.”

Convincing Demos Reduce Opposition

We're now a couple years down the road and it's amazing to me how the entire tide of thinking has shifted. More and more trainers have abandoned punishment-based models of training, jumped on the bandwagon, and are shaping and fashioning programs that are very different from the traditional norm in service dog training.

We don't have to be B.F. Skinner or Karen Pryor or the Baileys or Dr. Dunbar to make a mighty impact, to help forge the way for others to communicate without force or coercion. Each of us, in our own sphere, is shaping the tomorrows of dog training. At a recent meeting of service dog trainers, Laurisa Osheski (Sue Ailsby's protegee) took the bull by the horns and went head to head with a guide dog trainer who insisted there was no way one could train object avoidance to a dog without punishment. Laurisa took a dog, clicked it through the maze right in front of the guide dog trainer, and blew him away by showing just how fast and solidly the dog could learn this particular behavior.

She did the same thing by shaping a clicked retrieve in front of the whole group, several of whom believed you simply cannot get a reliable retrieve without aversives. Laurisa did it then and there, and those precious demos were worth a thousand arguments. It's pretty hard to fault viewable success!

A Tidal Wave of Change

Incrementally, we forge ahead. But looking back, isn't it absolutely incredible to see the tidal wave of change? I have never seen anything like it in animal training. The proliferation of books and videos now available is unbelievable. I can remember only a few short years ago when Koehler led the popular dog book lists. The tide is changing, and it's due to all of us working together, sharing, exploring creative problem solving.

Though it's tough to be rowing against the tide in our communities, where we may be the only non-command-based trainers, it's also an exciting, wonderful time in history to be working with animals, and working with people who want to better communicate with their animals!

Clicker Trained Dogs on the National Scene

This winter I spent a whirlwind week in Cincinnati, attending the Delta Society Conference for Service and Therapy Animals where my mobility assistant Peek the Papillon was one of the National Service Dog of the Year Award Winners. Another National Therapy Award winner was also a clicker trained dog, owned by Pet Partner clicker trainer/instructor Teotie Pullie. This is simply incredible to me, to see clicker trained dogs earning such well-deserved recognition as well-trained helpmates on a national level.

A few service dogs in attendance were controlled by chokes and prongs. The handlers were forced to give nearly constant corrections to keep their dogs in line. Meanwhile, positive reinforcement trainers were catching their dogs doing something right, and reinforcing those behaviors. I was interested to see that many dogs I'd seen at previous conferences are now working beautifully in public, despite a high stress environment rich with dogs and human crowds, with tons of food and other distractors abounding. Their handlers were using mainly verbal markers whispered to their dogs, sometimes reinforced by a warm hug or a pat, and other times reinforced by a food treat or chance to interact with another dog. These are people who were actively clicking and shaping behaviors at past conferences, who are now reaping the benefits of a well-mannered, well-socialized dog, able to handle the rigors of public access with aplomb.

Peek of Perfection

My assistant, Peek, was among those dogs who were now being reinforced verbally, and with occasional food reinforcements during high-stress times. I was simply AMAZED at how far this dog has come. From a kennel-raised dog, who never had the opportunity to communicate with his own species except through a kennel grate, he now can pass and repass with other dogs without throwing off major displacement behaviors or calming signals. Many times during the conference I just was reduced to hiding to weep at the pure strength of operant training, and the power of that incredible event marker. Could this happy, unstressed little dog possibly be the same manic barker, snarling, snapping, growling dog I once had?

And could this dog who could not even focus his attention on me for more than 30 seconds, possibly be the same dog who quietly lay for hours on the floor next to me snoozing, while dogs and handlers in a crowded atmosphere wandered around him?

Reinforcing “non-behaviors”

One thing really driven home to me was how important it is to reinforce what many think of as “NON-behaviors:” For example, dogs lying quietly on the floor, or standing quietly at their owners' sides. I saw so many wonderful handlers reinforcing these behaviors, and it was evident that the dogs understood that this meant to continue what they were doing, it was JUST what was wanted. I saw people watching their dogs from their peripheral vision, and every 30 seconds or so, reinforcing with a verbal “good” and a warm pat just for standing next to them in a crowd. This is SOOOOO fantastic! Yes!!!

Sadly, I saw some compulsion trainers oblivious to their dogs until the dog moved, then having to make a leash correction, which often only served to stress the dog out more. It's so easy for dogs to misinterpret what punishment is for, and to associate the pain they are receiving with the object of their stress. For instance, the person ADDS a punisher when a dog begins to focus anxiously on another dog. The dog is already in an adrenaline rush, and the added aversive often just tells him that the other dog is indeed a reason to become stressed.

But, in this glorious conference, many, many more folks were being pro-active, and working to reinforce their dogs constantly for offering these wonderful, quiet, good behaviors. There can be no doubt that the revolution of humane training, of real communication without pain, has made incredible inroads in the dog training community. I was amazed by how many of those involved in therapy were clicker trainers, and how beautifully their dogs behaved. I returned from the conference infused with enthusiasm for what we are all doing, and for the power of clicker teaching.

Debi Davis is a service dog trainer from Tucson, Arizona, who teaches clients with a wide variety of disabilities to train their own assistance dogs, using operant methods. In 1999 her own mobility assistant, Peek the Papillon, won a Delta Society Award as National Service Dog of the Year.

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