Teaching Inhibitions: Stopping unacceptable behavior, now.

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Note: This is from a presentation I gave at Central Veterinary Conferences in Washington, DC. A veterinarian behaviorist complained so I was prevented from continuing speaking for that organization. The complaint? What I said wasn’t part of the current catechism, even though I cited peer-reviewed and scholarly texts and showed live video to confirm what I said. Meaning I cited sources that were of the same standard as any other presentation at that conference. So much for open minded discussion of behavior at veterinary conferences. Ironically, CVC still posts my abstracts and handouts on their website for vets. This brings a list of my work that is currently available on DVM360 – http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/gary-wilkes-dvm

And this is the link to the this paper as presented. http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/teaching-inhibitions-stopping-unacceptable-behavior-now-proceedings I have tweaked this version slightly. I have put the edits in italics. The main difference is that I actually identify the group that authored the “Position Statement on Punishment” referenced in the paper.

May 1, 2011
By: Gary Wilkes, DVM (Author’s Note. They always add DVM or PhD to my title and I always tell them I’m not either. I left this here because if you go to the site you’ll see the letters and assume that I let it slide. I never do. When I spoke at a symposium at MIT I had them remove the PhD and put “dog trainer” – a title I wear proudly. As dog trainers are many times more competent than behavioral scientists, I choose the higher honor.)

CVC IN WASHINGTON, D.C. PROCEEDINGS

It is the claim of animal behaviorists that behavior is the most common cause of death in companion animals. This is true, but does not automatically explain how to solve the problem. Almost always, it is what animals do that kills them. They jump on guests, eat shoes, bite children, fight with other dogs and tug unmercifully on leash. If you can stop them from doing these behaviors in a timely fashion for a reasonable price, they live. If you cannot stop the behavior they die. The single most important question in modern behavioral therapy is, “how do you stop a single behavior, now.” Continue reading →

A Study in Ethics: Pica

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A well known dog behavior expert was quoted in a magazine column by another well known dog behavior expert as saying that if you are going to own a puppy you can expect to have at least one very expensive pair of shoes destroyed. The quoting expert agreed with the quoted expert and the rest of the column was a list of reasons why dog owners should lower their expectations, not of behavior modification, but of dog experts. If an expert says it can’t be done, then they can’t be held accountable if you lose a $3,000 hearing aid, right? Wrong. It’s not about shoes. It’s about socks. The sort of socks that lodge in a dog’s belly and block the intestines. ER vets cut things like socks out of dogs and puppies all the time. It’s called pica and it’s often fatal. Continue reading →

Reinforcing what you don’t want: Elegant solutions for tough problems

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The suggestion of reinforcing an unwanted behavior often shocks people. Nevertheless, it’s a very useful tool to solve complex problems. That is because it is the practical way to get the dog to recognize the behavior as a unique behavior. Meaning your first goal is often to make the dog recognize the sensations that accompany a behavior. This is critical for behaviors like house training. The dog must recognize the subtle sensation of a full bladder as meaning something – just like an infant in diapers. Unless the animal knows that those sensations are connected to specific consequences it will never acquire behaviors that solve the problem. i.e. You can’t know that it’s beneficial to go outside to use the bathroom if you don’t know that a full bowel has anything to do with it. Continue reading →

Scientific Confirmation: A Specious Argument

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I once met a woman at a seminar who was up-to-date on all the academic blather about why one should never use punishment. She said two things that were completely mistaken – not because she had ever done or seen what she described, but because someone with an academic degree (or some opportunistic “modern, scientific trainer”) had pronounced a rule. The first was the concept that if you attempt to punish aggression, you are only punishing the “precursor” to the behavior while leaving the motivation intact. The implication is that the dog will be seething with pent-up angst and then explode when you least expect it. The other thing she said was that there is “no scientific evidence” to demonstrate that punishment stops behaviors. Au contraire on both counts. Continue reading →

Charlie, Pt.1 – a work in progess.

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Charley is a dog that looks like a solid gray bearded collie. He lived for three years with a hoarder. Two more years in two different rescue organizations, a month at a vet clinic and now, in a 20 X 15 pen (with a shade tree) and a sturdy dog house behind a horse stable. If you walk toward his pen he will growl at you without moving his head – as if it’s a matter of smell. Like those Japanese movies about Zatoichi, the blind samurai masseuse. This is not your run-of-the-mill growl, but a low, soft grumble that sends a chill up your spine. If you put a leash on him, he will violently bite through it, usually leaving his mouth bloody. As he has long hair around his mouth, it rapidly becomes a clot of blood, spit and dirt. He will not take food in the presence of a human. He will allow you to rub him through the chain link when he’s lying up against it, but he shows no indication that he likes it. It doesn’t change his behavior, either. Meaning that if your tools are “all positive” you can forget about fixing him before he dies.

(Note, I am a month into Charlie’s training. This post is where I started. I will update it as I can. This is  a dog who makes progress but throws speed-bumps in your way, constantly. Solve one thing and you are stopped until you solve something else. Right now we are working on getting him on leash without a war, every time. His leash biting is from being handled only on control sticks/catch poles his entire life. He goes from zero to 100 at the instant he feels tension on a leash.)