Behind the Behavior

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC

My colleague Christine blogged recently about herding with her Aussie, Conner, and about dogs’ instinctive behavior as modified by human breeding decisions. She mentioned the frequency of dog-dog aggression among pit bulls. This topic has been on my mind lately, and frankly, I’m getting angry.

A very nice woman contacted me recently about bringing her dog to my flyball class. She asked if she could come and watch. Visitors are always welcome to watch my classes before deciding whether to sign up; I encourage it! So she brought her dog with her yesterday to watch class. In her introductory email, she described him as a terrier mix, about 40 lbs and muscular. I wrote back and said it sounded like he had some pit bull in him, and that (more…)

Greta Kaplan, CPDT

Amy and I had signed up for sessions 2 and 3 back-to-back. This was 12 days of class with a 3-day break. All this learning is tiring, and session 3 is the longest of the sessions at 7 days. Still, it was fun and stands out in my memory.

Our task was to create a fixed behavior chain which, at the end of the week, our hens would perform with no external cues or reinforcements until she crossed her finish line. The behavior chain was built around the hen proceeding over a gymnastic apparatus specially built for this session. The apparatus consisted of two towers, each with a platform around its post at about a foot above the table. The two towers were placed about three feet and a “balance beam” or catwalk connected them. Finally, a ladder led diagonally to each tower. The hen would climb one ladder, proceed around the *outside* of the post on the platform (more…)

Greta Kaplan, CPDT

In the first session of Chicken Camp, “Discrimination,” we taught our hens to choose and peck a colored target. Since the hens had done this before, they already had learned to peck a specific color. So, we tested them by placing the three identical targets (other than color: red, yellow and blue) in front of each hen. My hen pecked yellow, so I removed it. Then she pecked red, probably indicating that she had, at some time in the past, been reinforced for pecking yellow. Blue therefore became my new “hot target” and my job was to teach her to peck only the blue target. Our goal was to see if, eventually, she would refuse to peck the yellow and red targets *even if the blue target was not on the table, for 20 seconds.*

Certain rules applied. We could not use lures to get the behavior: No hiding a grain of food behind the blue target to get her interested in that part of the table. However, I could remove the blue target to permit her to (more…)

Greta Kaplan, CPDT

Of all the education I’ve experienced in becoming and being a dog trainer, the one that stands out most is what’s known as “Chicken Camp.” More properly called “Cross-Species Operant Conditioning Training Workshop” (you can see why people prefer to call it Chicken Camp), this workshop teaches advanced, high-quality clicker training skills to the human students. The training subjects are chickens: all hens, in fact. Each student works with one naive bird, who’s only been working Chicken Camp for 1-2 years, and one experienced bird who may have 6 or 8 years of Camp under her feathers. Chicken Camp’s format evolved over the dozen-plus years of its existence, and the four sessions I took (the complete curriculum) were Discrimination, Cueing and Criteria, Chaining, and Teaching Operant Conditioning. Instructor Bob Bailey has also given shorter, more condensed workshops at other locations.

Bob Bailey (and, before their respective deaths, Marian Breland Bailey and Keller Breland) spent many decades operating Animal Behavior Enterprises, a company originally started in the 1940s with the crazy (more…)

Greta Kaplan, CPDT

One of the most difficult practical aspects of working with reactive or aggressive dogs is creating practice scenarios where the client’s dog can be exposed to his triggers in a controlled fashion. Owners often assume we can meet at the dog park, because that is where the dog is having the problem. One of the most basic tenets of our work is that we want to teach the dog to succeed at an acceptable behavior, so dropping him into a situation that may cause him to scream, lunge or bite because of elements outside our control is not good training!

One great way to work is to bring along a “stimulus dog,” sometimes referred to as the “assistant dog” or “decoy.” This is a dog who an assisting handler can walk closer or further from our client’s dog, at a very (more…)

Greta Kaplan, CPDT

Ultimately, behavior starts in the brain, and the body must carry it out. The dividing line between “mental” and “physical” problems has become more and more blurred as scientists illuminate the functioning of brain cells and chemicals.

When you bring us your dog who is having a problem, sometimes our first instruction is to have your dog examined by a veterinarian. We may suggest a specialist, such as an ophthalmologist or a neurologist. Why do we do this, especially knowing that veterinary testing can be expensive — especially if done by a board-certified specialist?

Most behavior problems can, in some cases, result directly from a medical issue. In some cases, no amount of behavior modification will help. For example, if your dog has a serious urinary tract infection and is (more…)

Greta Kaplan, CPDT

Recently, I engaged in a discussion with a poster to a dog training list. The poster is a breeder of an AKC toy breed, and she had two intact, year-old males who were fighting. It sounded like one was resource guarding her and the other, she mentioned, was very shy. In responding, I mentioned that I thought she should neuter one or both, and that if she were to neuter one, it would make sense to neuter the shy guy.

Absolutely not, she responded, shocked. Both boys were offspring of Best-in-Show winners and had fantastic conformation potential.

My response was to offer a lot of information on the inheritability of shyness. We know a *lot* about this exact issue. Experimenters intentionally bred a line of so-called “nervous Pointers” so that they could study (more…)