Habituation and Extinction at the End of a Leash

Here's another Cesar Millan episode to complement yesterday's offering.

The dog in question here is a Korean Jindo, which is a spitz-type hunting and guard dog.

You will note that the owner and rescuer is a pretty experienced person who seems to have had a lot of success settling, calming, training and rehoming damaged dogs.

Jonbee is the first dog he cannot tame. In trying to help Jonbee, he has already seen two other professional trainers, one of whom recommended putting the dog down, and the other who got himself chewed up.

Jonbee's would-be rescuer is clear: If Cesar Millan cannot fix this dog, he is going to have to be put down.

As you can see in the video, when Jonbee is touched towards the back, he explodes in a savage rage.



Millan remains calm as the dog tries to bite him. He always keeps the leash up, but he is not participating in the craziness at the other end of the leash.

If Jonbee wants to go nuts, that is his choice.

Jonbee explodes again and again trying to bite Millan, before finally relaxing and rolling over on his side, physically and emotionally spent.

What happened?

To reiterate a point made yesterday: No animal can sustain a temper tantrum or a fight forever.

A dog that explodes like this is a bit like a massive thunder storm -- it will blow itself out if it continues unabated. In fact, that is exactly what has happened here.

Why is Cesar Millan doing what he is doing, and why does it work?

The simple answer is that he is de-sensitizing the dog to touch, while at the same time removing the reward that the dog has gotten in the past from attacking anyone who touched it.

Strip it away, and what you have are two fundamental tools that can be used to rehabilitate a problem dog:

1. Habituation and;
   
   
2. Extinction.
   
   

Habituation is a type of non-associative learning. Simply put, it means the dog gets used to something to the point it no longer produces any kind of reaction at all.

Face the phobia. Stand in the river of life for so long that you no longer feel wet.

We have all become habituated to something irritating at one time or another.

If you move next door to an airport, for example, the airplane noise will drive you crazy for a few days, but after two weeks you will have stopped hearing it at all. Only when you are on the telephone will you be reminded that the airplanes are still there.

What Millan is doing with Jonbee is giving the dog the stimulus that sets it off (simply touching him) but he makes sure his response it as flat as possible so that the dog will eventually become nonreactive to it.

Constant stimulus that does not harm or reward is eventually treated by the body as "white noise."

Factory workers do not hear the factory, and oil refinery workers do not smell the chemicals.

If Jonbee gets neither reward nor punishment from being touched, and is touched often enough, he will eventually not pay the slightest mind.

Extinction is also going on in this film clip. While Jonbee is getting habituated to being touched, his violent outburst is also finding no reward.

Again, what is key here is that Millan is as flat, calm, and passive as a man can be while being attacked by a 40-pound dog hell-bent on ripping his throat out.

What happens in the end?

Three things: 1) Jonbee is exhausted and can no longer sustain the attack; 2) Jonbee is starting to get habituated to being touched (i.e. he is beginning to learn that touching is not a big deal or a threat), and; 3) Jonbee is starting to realize that the behavior that got him a reward in the past (i.e. no one touching him) no longer works now.



Watch the clip, above (part 2 of the same episode).

Notice that Jonbee, like Shadow (the dog shown in yesterday's post) is lying calm and exhausted on his side. He is breathing fine, his tongue is pink, and the leash is loose.

This is what a dog or small child looks like after it has blown off all its emotional and physical energy in a screaming and violent temper tantrum.

What Cesar Millan calls "negative energy" I simply call tension, anxiety and hyperactivity.

Whatever you call it, Millan wants people to get rid of it, and to be emotionally neutral and dispassionate.

In short, he wants them to be a little more like a Skinnerian operant conditioning machine.

And how does it all work out?

Great!

By the the end, Cesar and the dog's owner can actually play bongos on Jonbee's side and back, and he loves it. Perfect!

Jonbee has, very quickly, become habituated to touch, and just as quickly he has allowed his violent outbursts to self-extinguish.

Why has Jonbee reformed so quickly?

Simple: He was not happy with his own response to the situation, but he was trapped in a cycle and did not know how to get out of it.

Terrified of being touched (especially within the confines of the house), he reacted out of fear, which made humans scared to touch him, which increased the tension, which further escalated the situation, and made the dog even more reactive and phobic.

Millan simply showed Jonbee a new way, and he did it by pairing habituation of touch with extinction of biting which no longer resulted in any kind of reward or reaction (thanks to excellent leash work on the part of Millan).

Getting Jonbee back together was a process, not an event. A relatively quick process, but not an instant miracle.

For example, watch the second clip and notice how Jonbee has his tail tucked in hard at 3:30. He is not yet comfortable, and he is still scared of this new way of doing business. He is trying to work through her fears, but .....

Looks at the owner too. He is also not yet comfortable.

Both of these actors are still remembering their old parts, even if Cesar has them both dressing up and reading for different roles.

And what happens in the end?

Trust.

Trust and then love.

Of all the dogs in all the world, Jonbee has found a home right here!

My favorite line towards the end is a simple declarative sentence by the owner:

"Dog's aren't throw away."

YES!

But how many dogs like Jonbee have been thrown away? Millions.

Most dogs will do well under ANY training system that supplies exercise, consistent well-timed signals, and love.

But some dogs, like Jonbee, need more than that; they need someone who understands habituation, extinction, and pack dynamics. They need someone who has more tools and techniques up their sleeve than a mail order clicker and a cheese ball.

Yes, those are core tools in ANY dog training kit, but they are not the full kit.

And that is why you call Cesar Millan; because he knows a few things that the people down at PETCO do not. He know how to rehabilitate difficult dogs. And he is not too timid to do it.

Millan does not cluck and wring his hands. He is not confused. He does not think a dog thrashing at the end of a leash is a dog being choked. No aggression is shown to this dog; there is only the dog boxing with the wind, unable to connect, making the choices that, in the end, leave it exhausted and ready to try something else.

Millan uses habituation and extinction all the time to deal with fearful and phobic dogs, but it always seems to confuses the click-and-treat crowd who are a bit unclear as to how habituation, extinction and physical exhaustion can work together. What? You mean there might be something more than click and treat?

Yes. There might be.... Those are good tools. Those are core tools. But they are not the tools for this job.
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