Hello crazy dog people.

Let me introduce myself and a new weekly feature here at BT: Sunday Morning Canine Interaction.

My name is Ron Watson and I train dogs for a living. My partner (and girlfriend), Apryl Lea, and I run a small dog training studio in Western Michigan Called Pawsitive Vybe. We do pet training, dog sport training, personal lessons and behavioral consultations and employ positive training methods.

I’d like to share some of our training expertise and advice with the Booman Tribune community.

It’ll be a welcome change for me to step away from the political doom and gloom that is ever present in 21st century politics and world affairs and step into my passion and livelyhood and share some of that passion with all of the dog lovers out there.
A Little Bit of Background
Apryl and I started Pawsitive Vybe in 2005, largely to counter the resurgence of intimidation, compulsion and coercion training that started to rear it’s ugly head with the huge success of Cesar Milan.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/15/CMGPHL9D1N1.DTL

Dr. Patricia McConnell, author of “For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in Your Best Friend” and the animal behaviorist on Animal Planet’s “Petline,” goes as far as to say that Millan has put dog training back 20 years.

Our situation is not unlike the situation here on BT where Progressives are trying to roll back the rising tide of a resurgent conservative movement that threatens to take us back to the dark ages.

I employ much of what I’ve learned about framing and messaging in online progressive communities to speak to people to help them understand that positive doesn’t mean permissive. It’s the same kind of conversation with clients as it is with non-progressives, and communicating with compulsion trainers (those who use coercion and physical intimidation), or even ‘balanced trainers’ (those who employ positive train and corrections) often devolves into a Progressive v Conservative type of argument.  

In December of 2007 Apryl became a Staff Trainer at Paws With a Cause training service dogs to help those with disabilities become more independent and is working with me at Pawsitive Vybe after long days at work.

We are known worldwide for our Dog Frisbee Seminars (hence my moniker) and I administrate a very cool Disc Dog Online Community K9Disc.com.

PVybe PackWe have a boatload of dogs, and work with lots of rescue organizations and have started our own Performance Dog Rescue.

Dogs is what we do – It’s all about the dogs.

Interaction v Obedience
Our philosophy is based upon Canine Interaction instead of ‘Obedience’.

Canine Interaction is about establishing a strong working relationship with your dog, becoming a team, learning together, sharing and understanding.

Obedience is about telling your dog what to do. In traditional obedience training, the sphere of behavior is constantly reduced until we get down to 5 or 6 behaviors, and that’s a well trained dog.

Canine interaction, on the other hand is about expanding that sphere, getting more and more behaviors. We create default behaviors and place lots of value on working with the handler and get obedience as a byproduct of that interaction.

It’s very cool, very fun and very effective. We don’t just make obedient dogs, we make cool dogs.

Communication is Key

Operant Conditioning can be looked at as a sequence of events:

Antecedent>>>Behavior>>>Consequence

We employ a slightly different flavor of operant conditioning:

Request>>>Behavior/Positive Marker>>>Consequence

Request
I like the term Request, as it takes the pressure off of learning for both dog and handler. The handler asks for a behavior, in some way shape or form (antecedent) and the dog either honors that request or does not honor it.

Behavior/Positive Marker
At the exact moment the dog honors the request, or performs the behavior, we tell them they are correct with a positive marker, either a click of a clicker or more frequently, a quick clean yes!. This is not praise. It is simply a marker that tells the dog the exact moment they are correct.

Consequence
The positive marker is followed by a positive consequence. This positive consequence can be food, play, praise, tactile stimulation, access to the environment – anything that the dog finds rewarding.

If the dog does not honor the request, nothing happens. The dog gets nothing.

The opposite of a reward is not punishment, it is the removal of the reward.

Resource Control and Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF)
This kind of training only works if we limit our dog’s access to resources he finds stimulating or rewarding.

We, the handler, must be in control of the resources that our dogs find reinforcing, and all rewards flow through us.

Want a cookie? Do something for it. Don’t wanna do it? No cookie for you.

Want to sniff that tree? Show me something I like. yes! Go check it out!

It’s simple stuff really. Simple, but not always easy.

Lesson #1: Unsolicited Eye Contact
The foundation of Canine Interaction is Unsolicited Eye contact, aka Attention.

What we’re going to do is to get a couple of yummy treats and go into a quiet, calm place ( kitchen or bathroom are ideal ). Really nice stuff something your dog would die for. Put one in each hand. Hold your hands at your side or at belt height slightly out to the side of your body.

Wait.

Your dog will lick, bite, paw, sniff… he’ll go back and forth from treat to treat. Just wait. Don’t say anything, don’t move your hands, do nothing until your dog looks into your eyes.

Wait for your dog to look into your eyes.

At the exact moment he makes eye contact (you’ll feel it) say yes and give him the yummy treat.

It is very important that you don’t move your hands. Every time you move your hands you’re creating opportunity. We want the dog to realize that the sniffing, licking, biting, pawing… none of that crap is going to work. Biting doesn’t work. Licking doesn’t work.

“Jeez what works, Mom?”

Your dog will look up into your eyes, you’ll say yes and give him a cookie.

The only behavior that works, the only behavior that offers opportunity is eye contact.

I’ll be around for a while, I’ll take questions and help you out in comments.

Communication in Action
Here’s Gypsy and I using this kind of communication with Frisbees: