Broom-Whacking 101

The most commonly used tool for changing a pet’s behavior is punishment. When a dog chews the couch, eliminates in the house or barks excessively, our first thought is to create an unpleasant consequence for Fido’s actions. Despite our common leaning toward aversive solutions for bad behavior, it might surprise you to know that few people know the first thing about it. This ignorance is responsible for the fact that punishment rarely works as planned.

The bigger problem is that dogs really do need to be punished if they are to adapt to life with humans. That is because they do things that get them killed. They destroy furniture, bite people, jump on guests, blast out the front door and 100 other things that their owners find intolerable.  If someone can stop the behavior, the dog stays in the home. If not, the dog goes elsewhere – usually eternal oblivion. However, stopping a behavior requires knowledge. Sadly that isn’t readily available. So, to test Broommy statement that most people don’t know the first thing about applying punishment, consider this hypothetical situation: imagine that I have a broom, and the annoying habit of sneaking up behind you and whacking you with it. If you could require me to say the word “duck”, would you want me to say it…

  1. Before I hit you.
  2. As I hit you.
  3. After I hit you.

If you decide to have me yell duck (A) before I hit you, you have made the right choice. Any other combination gets you whacked. The answer is simple – the signal must come before the correction. But if the answer is so simple, you might ask, doesn’t everyone understand this sequence? Strange as this may sound, very few people understand this important aspect of punishment – even professional trainers. For more than 20 years I have tested the knowledge of anyone claiming to be an expert on the topic by examining their knowledge of this single factoid. You can do that too. The next time you happen to look at a training book, examine the section about giving corrections. A majority of experts will tell you that the word “NO” should be said at the same time that you give a correction. Many make no statement of the sequence at all. Others tell you to make the correction, and then say “NO”. Since this answer seems absurdly obvious, you might wonder why all those experts haven’t figured it out yet. The answer lies with a topic foreign to many dog trainers – human instinct.

Language and speech are learned behaviors. Until we are about a year old, we do not use language. We instinctively grab and push things long before we learn to ask for them. When confronted with a new situation, we fall back on our instinctive reactions – we jerk the chain first, and then warn the dog. This is identical to the old saying about closing the barn door after the horses are loose. If you need a scientific reference, Ivan Pavlov studied the importance of recurring signals that predict future events. To paraphrase, “It is not the sight of the bear that kills the dog, it is the claws. If they could not make this association, there would be no dogs.” Duh.

All this human instinct stuff and Pavlovian conditioning is well and good, you might say, but what does it mean in the real world? Is it really important to know about broom whacking? How can the timing of my warning change the effect of the whack? To illustrate the use of this knowledge, let’s look at the standard tool of dog training – the choke chain. A choke chain is designed to quickly constrict around a dog’s neck. This unpleasant experience is intended to teach the dog not to pull. As the dog walks next to his owner, he is jerked swiftly if he gets out of position. This is the same as the simultaneous broom whacker. The dog has no warning of the jerk and no information about timing that would mark the instant of his transgression. The dog’s behavior will change based on the exact instant that the chain was jerked. Only a person who jerks many dogs will be able to apply the correction with perfect timing. The average pet owner will not be effective with this method. Either the owner ends up jerking the chain forever, or the dog winds up strangling himself in a continuous pulling match. The advice of the professional trainer cannot instantly give a person perfect timing. To be effective, the hobbyist needs some sort of advantage over the trainer’s many hours of experience.

An experienced broom whacker can solve this problem instantly. The missing link in traditional training is the absence of a signal that means “duck”. Our broom whacker tells Joe Dog-owner to start saying the word “No” at the instant that Fido gets past his center of gravity – the seam of his pants at the hip. Then the pet owner gives the actual correction. The actual correction does not have to be timely. It can be applied two or three seconds later and the behavior changes based on the timing of when the person said “No.” Fido is going to be amazed at this new turn of events. As he starts to surge forward, he hears that funny word, “No”. Then he gets “whacked” by the choke chain. On the next repetition something odd happens. Fido begins to move ahead of Joe, but hesitates and then decides to remain in the correct position. He has changed his behavior based on where he was when Joe Dog-owner said “NO”. After several repetitions, the advantage is obvious. Joe Dog-owner does not have to jerk the chain with perfect timing. He merely has to say “No” on time. This word allows him to deliver the actual correction a couple of seconds later and still duplicate the professional trainer’s timing. (Everyone who lives in a civilized society already has this coordination. It’s the same skill we use to take a photograph. )

When Fido starts to walk consistently at his owner’s side, it is time to reinforce the correct behavior with plenty of praise and treats. Do this for a couple of sessions and watch what happens. The need to “whack” the dog reduces dramatically. Soon the inhibition becomes habitual. The goal of never having to pop the chain is unrealistic, as even working dog handlers periodically have to polish up their dog’s behavior.

Science is often seen as a cold and distant subject of little use in the real world. Pavlov’s simple analogy about the dog and the bear was derived from a keen understanding of nature and years of precise research and objective scientific observation. It eloquently contradicts common knowledge and practice. Using techniques firmly rooted in good science and confirmed by simple applications can make a dramatic difference in your dog’s behavior. The fact that a method is traditional does not insure that it is effective. That fact that it is claimed to be scientific doesn’t either. (Good science cannot confirm nature. Good science reveals nature.) So, the next time someone tells you to say “No” at the same time you correct your dog – get your broom and do your own little experiment to test the hypothesis.

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