tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post4543583504389767591..comments2024-03-26T22:16:26.572-04:00Comments on Terrierman's Daily Dose: The Truth About ConsequencesPBurnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-73953480399797678092017-11-10T18:17:41.010-05:002017-11-10T18:17:41.010-05:00Doubt the Segel weight loss effort was especially ...Doubt the Segel weight loss effort was especially effective. Doesn't matter in the slightest...he's still wonderfully original (recently saw 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' again + Russell Brand... hilarious )LRMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12489475842507956497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-10799882735060841162017-11-09T10:29:46.774-05:002017-11-09T10:29:46.774-05:00This is why children of veterinary staff are very ...This is why children of veterinary staff are very well behaved. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04439614291533921287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-55370141424818405112012-04-26T04:22:34.774-04:002012-04-26T04:22:34.774-04:00Yep. Some dogs are soft and some are hard. Diffe...Yep. Some dogs are soft and some are hard. Different methods for each dog. My little poodle/terrier rescue mutt is a pretty hard-headed little bitch. She's pretty good with verbal and hand commands now, but sometimes I have to give her a little nudge to remind her on how to act civilized in public. She basically looks like a muppet, but this little rescue muppet likes to follow her nose and dig stuff out (also proudly presents me with the mice/lizards/etc). She's also extremely protective of me. She'd be a good reminder that just because you adopt a little dog with fluffy, curly hair, doesn't mean you might not get a lot of dog with that. She's my first small dog and I have to say, she's more challenging than the GSDs and Pit Bulls, I grew up with. Albeit, less challenging than the Border Collie I had. Loved that dog, but to put it this way, when I got him, his trainer looked at his papers and said, "you've got yourself a fine pup, but he comes from a line of hard dogs."GreenGrrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17645112984633357928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-25802725278719610612012-04-25T19:22:43.015-04:002012-04-25T19:22:43.015-04:00Wouldn't it be swell if people actually believ...Wouldn't it be swell if people actually believed their own lying eyes? Used common sense instead of making training into a religious cult?Ginahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06269415397411374828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-68695271369006056692012-04-25T16:06:04.349-04:002012-04-25T16:06:04.349-04:00True that a chicken will revert to "fixed act...True that a chicken will revert to "fixed action patterns" (I think that's the term) under stress (like when a learned behavior fails to "work" repeatedly )--and the Brelands found that very easy to reinforce and put on cue for all those state fair chickens-in-boxes. WIth cats, it's the circling and rubbing against your legs. But chickens and cats can learn to stand still or carry out a chain of behaviors for a rather long time. It's just that you have to shape it carefully and not stress the animal so that it reverts to those FAPs--which can really mess up your training goals. That's one of the hard lessons that we learned in chicken camp. Timing, criteria, and rate of reinforcement have to be carefully planned and applied to get animals to do complex behaviors that don't come naturally.Suehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15837141927909794653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-69607860126920572572012-04-25T09:57:46.232-04:002012-04-25T09:57:46.232-04:00For more on the Breland's and the "Misbeh...For more on the Breland's and the "Misbehavior of Organisms" see >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2010/05/they-invented-animal-training.html<br /><br />Bob Bailey and others are actually reinforcing the natural behavior of chickens and pigeons. If you try to get a chicken to NOT scratch and to NOT peck -- i.e. you just want it to stand there -- you will find it cannot do it for very long. The code is the code, and it's best to work with the code rather than against it.<br /><br />Every dog is different, but most dogs are not fragile eggs which is why they have done so well with humans for so long.PBurnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-63157431462990172672012-04-25T08:53:43.347-04:002012-04-25T08:53:43.347-04:00Yep, training animals is never as simple as any ap...Yep, training animals is never as simple as any approach seems at first glance. I remember the lesson from Bob Bailey in Chicken Camp: Classical conditioning always trumps Operant conditioning. Or, "Pavlov is always on your shoulder." I am a dog (and chicken) trainer who uses clicker training a lot to shape behaviors--and that's an axiom that is constantly making itself obvious. :) The other important factor is outlined in the Breland's article, "The Misbehavior of Organisms," on how instinctive behaviors can affect operant conditioning. Withhold the reinforcer too long and you get a chicken who scratches (dances!) and can't attend to the cue. <br /><br />Tese are hard concepts to get across to students who conclude that operant conditioning "doesn't work" when in fact they simply failed to manage the environments or understand the relative value of their reinforcer vs. reinforcments and aversives in the immediate situation. <br /><br />As for preventing dangerous escape behaviors--I do advocate the judicious use of a hot wire. It is a cheap and effective solution to a dangerous (and often instant) habit, and it turned my escape-artist Kangal Dog into a fence-respecting lady. After she stopped looking at and calculating that wire atop the fence (about 6 months) I turned it off and never needed it again. She forgot the thrill of escape, it seems. Mind you: she was a tough dog, so a couple of shocks did not turn her into an emotional muddle or make her run howling at the sight of a wire; aversives have different effects on different animals and can have unintended consequences. Not something to experiment with lightly, IMO. Which is why I have a problem with some of Millan's methods--the disclaimer at the end of the show is not enough to deter people from thinking that kicks, jerks, and flooding will mamgically work for their dog like it did on an edited TV show. I see the results in my classes, with the angry frustrated owners who resort to punishment as a first option, and can't get why their frightened, stressed-out dogs avoid them while performing like happy learning machines for me. Often, they are so vested in their beliefs about "dominance" and "being the pack leader" that they drop out before they ever learn another way.Suehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15837141927909794653noreply@blogger.com