good speaker at our last seminar

[gsdsch3v]

We had a really good speaker at our last K9 seminar, Dr. Pamela Reid from the Univ. of Illinois/animal behavior center. She gave a basic class over learning theory titled How dogs learn and how to excel-erate training. She brought up some interesting points that are easy to forget sometimes.

smaller training sessions with adequate "processing time" to enable dog to consolidate behavior. in other words down time is not always bad.

keep in mind what you want to reinforce.

and the always confusing operant contingency table in one of the clearest forms.


give it Remove it

Good thing Positive Reinforcement Negative punishment
(behavior increases) (behavior decreases)

Bad thing Positive Punishment Negative Reinforcement
(behavior decreases) (behavior increases)


She also had an interesting take on drive levels and learning- lower drive level is more conducive to complex tasks. Her take on this was that for complex jobs the medium drive dog may actually make the better working dog as opposed to one that is over the top all the time. I think it is good to keep in mind when teaching elements of bitework control that perhaps we need to keep in mind the level of stimulation we are giving the dog as we are trying to teach a concept.

and finally trial nerves- to calm and to nervous are equally bad for performance, you need to find that middle ground that keeps you from being complacent yet not to "spun up".

some interesting thoughts.

Colleen

[gsdsch3v]

OK the contingency table got all squished so let me try again using dots for spacers.



....................................Give it...............................Remove it........................

Good Thing..................Positive Reinforcement..............Negative Punishment.............
.............................(Behavior increases)..................(Behavior Decreases)...............

Bad Thing...................Positive Punishment.................Negative Reinforcement...........
.............................(Behavior decreases).................(Behavior increases)................


Colleen

[Blue Luna]

Thank you, Colleen for your experiences on that seminar

I agree with her/you to this statement:

She also had an interesting take on drive levels and learning- lower drive level is more conducive to complex tasks. Her take on this was that for complex jobs the medium drive dog may actually make the better working dog as opposed to one that is over the top all the time. I think it is good to keep in mind when teaching elements of bitework control that perhaps we need to keep in mind the level of stimulation we are giving the dog as we are trying to teach a concept.

It is really very important to watch your dog and read his body language in order to learn something about his emotional state.
And: if he's too excited or nervous, you have to calm him down first!

A lot of people push their dogs too high (e.g. in protection work) and wonder why they don't react to their commands any more