The Quadrants!

The Quadrants! For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it is used to describe four (not all) of the elements of operant conditioning, which explains how animals, including us, learn.

The quadrants referred to are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment. Go on to any dog training group and you will almost be guaranteed to find discussions (often very heated ones) on this topic. You may also see it described as a graphic with four boxes and the terms R+, P+, R-, and P-. I’m not sure who first came up with the term “quadrants”, although I’m pretty sure it wasn’t BF Skinner as I’m hard pressed to find reference to this word in the works of his I’ve looked at. It is a useful teaching aid for learning four (not all) of the aspects of operant learning, but I think it has its limitations and if we want to be better trainers and teachers, we need to understand it’s limitations, what it was designed for and how to think outside these four boxes. If you want to understand these terms, please Google “operant conditioning”. Look for an academic site, I’d link one here, but FB algorithms will kick in and this post might not be seen by many people if they do.

Trainers who train dogs with a progressive, positive mindset, often say they only use positive reinforcement training. While well intentioned, they are wrong. I include myself in this group and I design all of my training choices to weigh heavily in favour of positive reinforcement training, but the world isn’t under my control and other facts will influence the learning of the animals and humans I am working with. What I can state absolutely, is that I will never use certain training tools or intentionally use fear, intimidation, coercion, pain, or discomfort to change behaviour. Other trainers who are willing to use pain, coercion etc, freely admit that they dip in and out of the four quadrants whenever they feel they need to. I don’t hide my opinion on the use of all four quadrants, I think it is unnecessary and counter productive.

A couple of examples…

It’s a hot day and you are working outdoors. You get too hot and decide to take a break and go indoors where it is cooler. Are you adding coolness to your body (positive reinforcement) or are you removing the heat from the sun (negative reinforcement). The answer is both. Both contingencies are al play at the same time. Remember, the natural world doesn’t care about the quadrants, these contingencies are at play regardless of how we (humans) describe them. Does an atom care that it’s an atom or is that the world we have assigned to it to explain its relationship with the world? Similarly, if your dog moves away from a smell they don’t like, are they accessing clean, fresh air or escaping the rancid smell. Both.

Second one. Your dog is uncomfortable around other dogs. We can reinforce the behaviours of being calm around the other dog (positive reinforcement of other behaviours) or we can allow the dog to move away from the other dog if they get closer (Negative reinforcement of the moving away behaviours). Which one would they dog prefer, do you think? Which one is amore ethical option? Which one is less aversive for the dog? I’m very aware at this point that some (many) may jump on this and criticise me or take that I am condoning the use of negative reinforcement protocols. I am aiming to make the training protocol the least aversive, most positive experience I can for the dog. In this second example, I think it would be questionable ethically if I were to deliberately move the dog back to where they were uncomfortable in order to reinforce the calm behaviours by moving away. I’m not suggestion we do that. But there is every likelihood that they dog will have learned that, given similar conditions in the future, they can move away.

Good (ethical, progressive, positive) training is nuanced and needs knowledge of both the theory and how to apply it. There is a human element involved and we need to understand that these human factors, and all the judgements, prejudices, belief systems, world views etc which are part of the human condition, go along with training the animals in our care and influence them. The quadrants are the very start of that understanding and only a very small part at the start. I think these terms should be used only as the start of our knowledge and we should not limit ourselves to the expanse of operant learning by trying to explain everything in 4 boxes. The world, and our minds, are much bigger than that.

Lastly, I can never tell which posts people will find contentious and which ones won’t. I’ve been doing this long enough to realise that this one might, but I’m often surprised. If you are inclined to react immediately to this, please take a moment or an hour to review the information in this post. If you are unsure of any of the terms, please research them before commenting (from an academic source). The world is a very divided and partisan place at the moment, I don’t allow my page to further people being angry, cruel or unkind to each other, there’s already far too much of that as there is. If you really disagree with what I’ve said here, that’s totally cool, you are free not to express that disagreement emotionally on this page.

Love and peace.

Our influences

I posted recently about where we get our influences from in dog training. All the knowledge and skills we collect and collate over of lives often interweaves and connects. I kind of think of it like a spider’s web although it’s not woven from the centre out, more like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a little here, a little there until the picture looks fuller. If we are smart about our own learning, that picture will never be complete and will always expand throughout of lifetime.

The influences I weave into my dog training journey come from many sources; dance and movement, martial arts, my previous occupation as a police officer dealing with dynamically changing situations which were often potentially violent or dangerous among all the other things I experienced, reading the accounts of combat veterans on the effects of acute and chronic stress, some neuroscience, philosophy, health and fitness, mindfulness, emotional regulation and awareness to name some.

I’ve recently been through a very dark period of my life. Because I have some knowledge of how diagnosed depression affects mood and behaviour, I can use that knowledge to give myself the time I need to heal and give myself a break that I’m not as productive or creative as usual. I’m currently reading “Permission to Feel” by Marc Brackett. I heard Marc Speak on Brene Brown’s podcast. I first heard of Brene Brown after hearing her mentioned at a conference by one of the speakers.

In Dr Brackett’s book, he talks about negative feelings impacting our creativity. He says that when we are under the influence of negative emotions (my wording is clumsy here), our creative processes are suppressed. Now that I am feeling better, my creativity is awakened more, and I was inspired to write this article. A few weeks ago, I could have read the same information and not been so inspired.

How does this relate to our dogs and how do we apply it? From an evolutionary viewpoint, our emotions serve to give us information about our current conditions so we can change them and survive another day. Those negative emotions are important in our survival but too many of them will inevitably kill us (the physical effects of long term negative emotions are well documented). If our dogs are constantly in a state of negative emotions such as boredom, fear, frustration, anxiety, this will stifle their creativity. This means they will be able to problem-solve less. Problem solving is good for our dogs as each time they solve part of the puzzle, they get a hit of dopamine and their confidence increases. They are learning their behaviour matters, it works, it changes things for them, they achieve outcomes.

If our dogs are not able to be creative in their lives they are missing out on life. If the circumstances that we keep them in lead to confusion, uncertainty, fear, boredom, then they are not fulfilling their potential for a good, happy, healthy lives. We owe it to them to provide true enrichment, safety, certainly with spontaneity, freedom within normal societal rules and happiness. We owe that to ourselves as well. Think of the satisfaction you would feel if you can honestly and objectively claim that you have provided that to your dog. It would be wonderful.

Quadrants schmadrants

Ah, the quadrants. The source of many, if not the majority of trainer wars on social media. Several months ago, I nearly caused a riot on my Facebook page with these six simple words

“The quadrants are not a thing”.

I had people unfriending me, calling me names (both in front of me and behind my back, adults, grown men and women), threatening to cancel coming to a couple of presentations I was doing the next month. It all got a bit out of hand. The point of the post was yes, to be inflammatory, but not just for the sake of being so. It was to provoke discussion. My position; overuse and over reliance on the term “quadrants” is limiting and fails our dogs.

Let me go back a stage. The following photographs are from a couple of books by two of the best minds in behaviour, Paul Chance and Susan Schneider. I have read both books, refer to them often and continue to digest them. Paul Chance’s book is a behaviour textbook, referred to in Universities (that’s the places where we teach accountants, engineers, doctors etc). Dr Susan Schneider’s book, although not a textbook, was over ten years in the making and has hundreds of citations. These are people we should be learning from.

I have had the pleasure and honour to have learned from Dr Susan G. Friedman on numerous occasions. Another brilliant mind in the field of learning, Dr Friedman’s advice is to learn behaviour from textbooks and then learn how to apply it from skilled technicians. She further advises not to do the bulk of our learning from opinion pieces (like this one, yes, I know). In doing so, we will excel. Dr Friedman has spent over 20 years working with the best animal trainers in the world and applying ABA to hundreds of species of animals.

So, back to the quadrants. The two authors mentioned, these photos are from their books

and

Look carefully. No mention of the term “quadrants”. Now, yes, Chance refers to positive and negative punishment in this index. No, still no mention of quadrants. From the photos, look at the other terms. How often do you ever hear anyone but the most advanced trainers, or trainers learning from them (like me) refer to these other terms? My bet is rarely, if ever. When we limit ourselves to discussion the “quadrants” and that alone, we ignore the whole breadth and depth and richness of behaviour analysis as a field of study and our dogs (and us) suffer for it as a result.

The next time you get involved in one of these car crash discussions on social media, ask if your opposite number knows what the matching law is. Or a discriminative stimulus. And ask if they further know how to apply it. And if you are reading this and don’t know, then I urge you to find out. If we are going in from the cold, are we seeking warmth or to escape the cold or both? If so, the negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement are at play at the same time. Do you know the difference? Is it always both or sometimes can it only be one? Find out, examine it, study it, think about it and discuss it with people who know more than you do.

Concentrating only on 4 possible outcomes of behaviour (while ignoring extinction) and failing to take into consideration antecedents (distant, intermediate and proximal) and the effects of classical conditioning makes us look foolish. We cannot pick and choose the science we like. Yes, aversive training methods like prong collars and shock collars work, that’s why they are used and continue to be used. But they come at a cost and nearly 100 years of research tells us so. If you revel in the use of all 4 quadrants, read a book on the effects of punishment on the individual. B.F. Skinner wrote all this stuff down.  He was also a man who, having researched this stuff, interacted and taught using positive reinforcement as the driving force. How do I know this? Because I have heard it from his daughter, Dr Julie Vargas, who spoke at the WOOF Training and Behaviour Conference this year.

Stop limiting yourself to discussion of graphic which was used to simplify the glorious study of behaviour as a starting point. Do you still want to be at that starting point a year, 2, 5 or 10 years after you started? I know I don’t and I know I’m not.

Love and peace and good training and learning.

Hannah Branigan in Glasgow

The Awesome Hannah Branigan will be in Scotland for the first time (first time in the UK as well) on the 3rd and 4th Aug. There are a few auditor/observer spots left so please don’t leave it until the last minute if you are thinking of booking as I’d hate for you to miss out.

Hannah is the host of the fabulous Drinking From The Toilet Podcast and author of Awesome Obedience

 

This will be an amazing weekend of dog training with a brilliant and entertaining speaker.

https://youtu.be/H5bAny-q9fM

Humility, progress and provocation

DEEP THOUGHTS (not really)

 

As a dog training community, whether online or in person, we have a number of objectives and interests. We have to educate the public and our clients as best we can and provide them with information which they can actually use. There is most likely a way to stay away from scientific jargon without dumbing down the process of training and why we train without corrections.

 

Then we have discussions to make us better ourselves. By having a better understanding of the science of dog training, keeping up to date with new research which comes out, examining whether things we did 5, 10 or 15 years ago are still valid, needs updating or needs thrown in the bin and to build a tribe of like minded individuals who can we can have these discussions with. This is a big ask and each of us are better at some elements than others but other than a few truly unique individuals (Dr Susan Friedman), none of us are better that all of them than everyone else.

 

Sometimes the two objectives above are at odds with each other, and that’s ok, we can continue to improve until they are not.

 

I would much rather spend the time I have available online discussion how to get better at positive, effective, ethical training with my peers, so I can provide better content and better training than to debate whether we should still be using aversive training methods with others. There are other people out there who are more willing and better able to do that than me.

 

Terms and themes which I think need discussing

 

– the need for our dogs to sit for everything

– the need for our dogs to walk on the left hand side

– the use of the terms quadrants, impulse control, arousal, drive and a few others.

 

My journey with the spectacular dog in the photo has made me consider loads of stuff which I thought was gospel. This can only be a good thing. The need for discussion of the list above has been inspired by Logan and many other great human teachers who I have been honoured to have learned and continue to learn from. The list is only my opinion, it is no less or no more valid than anyone else’s.

 

I hope the picture of his nibs made you smile.

 

Peace and love.

Logan – part 32 – May 16th 2019

Interested in Learning Dog Training with me?

 

I am inviting applications to mentor with me starting in 2019.

Email me – info@glasgowdogtrainer.co.uk

I will be covering all aspects of learning, training, dog behaviour and running a successful dog training business.

Open to all levels of experience and to anywhere in the world.

Logan – Part 31 – a curious incident with a welly in the daytime.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the lad and we have made a lot of headway in the last few months. I’ll do my best to  write about what we’ve been doing when I can.

Last week I was out for a walk with him in the field at the edge of town where I take him for his run. There are very rarely dogs or people around so it gives us a chance to be outside in the fresh air with relatively little stress. As I’ve written previously, the barking was a problem for the first year when we were in open spaces and we occasionally get resurgence of it but those incidences are becoming rarer and rarer.

We had been out for about 30 minutes or so and were heading back to the car when he found an old welly (rubber) boot which someone had discarded. Rubber toys are his addiction and he finds them very difficult to give up and this was no exception. I let him have it for a few minutes and then he started to tear the leg part of the boot from the foot part which took him about 30 seconds. Once he had two pieces, I was able to pick up one of them and then ask him to drop the other one in exchange for the one I had, play a short game of tug with it and them let him have it. I then picked up the “shoe” of the boot and threw it for him after he dropped the piece he had. We continued this for several rounds and then I took him by the harness (he is on a long line), threw the other part away and asked him to come with me. Which he did, after only a few seconds of thought. So, no pulling towards the two pieces of boot, no barking and he was able to come with me. I gave him a few treats, again this is progress as historically when he got into that state he wouldn’t be able to eat, and walked him back to the car.

When we got back to the car, he happily jumped in, a couple more treats and then we went home. The behaviour at the back of the car was interesting as this would have been considerably different in the past, with him barking and refusing to get in the car (at best).

It is easy to lose perspective on his behaviour, which is one of the reasons I write this blog; it’s some kind of record of where we have been. Seeing him change from the stress bucket he was a couple of years ago, into showing more and more “normal” dog behaviours is kind of like watching your kids grow, very often we don’t see the changes as they are incremental, constant and over time.

The exchange game we played that day was as a result of all the play I do with him on a weekly basis, taking turns, moderating arousal (both of us!) learning cues, being generous with reinforcement. We are training behaviours all the time, I choose to train those ones which are both fun from him to do and necessary for times when we need it, like when we find wellies in the field.

Logan – Part 30 – much progress

It’s been a while since I’ve published an update on the boy’s progress. We have been working hard over the last few months and I’ve also done load of CPD which has been very helpful. We attended practical workshops with Kamal Fernandez and Kay Laurence over the last few weeks, and I hosted Sarah Owings from California a couple of weeks ago and we talked at length about how to progress his training. Sarah has been through a very similar process with her dog, Tucker over the last few years.

I’ll write more about the detail of what we have been doing when I have more time. I’m also presenting at the IMDT Conference on Logan as a case study next weekend so I don’t want to give away too many spoilers!

Bullet points I have been helped identifying over the last few months

• he needs a constructive outlet for his energies (I was doing this to a certain degree but focused what I was doing)
• different toys for different games; Kongs seem to be too arousing for him if he is chasing them but ok of he is searching for them, soft toys are good for chase and games where I play a bigger role
• play more co-operative games with him
• teaching him release cues to fluency so he knows exactly what is expected of him
• he is not the same dog as he was this time last year, so the reasons for doing stuff or not doing stuff may (and very often are) either not there at all or very different.

Stay tuned for more over the next few weeks, I have plenty of video and thoughts to share.

Thanks for reading.

Teaching in second language

https://youtu.be/HlPoPbu_lu8

Your dog needs to learn a second language the same as we do

Pretty challenging session with this dog, not due to what we were teaching but as to how we were teaching it.

 

Consider the following – Katy doesn’t understand what I was asking her to do at the start nor how to do it as we were teaching her these skills. Moose the dog didn’t know what we were asking her to do, she just knows what she is being reinforced for. I have to break it down into bite sized chunks so Heather can translate while we are doing it as Katy speaks limited English and I speak almost no Spanish. Heather was also translating for the benefot of the people watching the demo.

 

We have to make sure Moose isn’t left hanging, not knowing what to do in the session, thus potentially getting frustrated, so I had to keep the session moving along.This is why clear communication is important with your dog.

 

Katy and Moose already had built a foundation of skills working together so it went very smoothly.

 

The session lasted about 5 minutes, with this being the last 3 minutes. In the first 2 minutes, we had reinforced Moose for being on the platform (click and treat). We then added the new cue “apples” so that Moose went to the plaform when cued. This was reinforced a few times. Then, when she went to the platform, Katy asked her to lie down (a previously taught behaviour). This was repeated a few times until Moose understood that “apples” means go to the platform and lie down.

 

This whole process took less time than it takes to boil a kettle and make a cup of team. Done in a second language through a translator.

 

Lovely work from Katy and Moose.