One for the Pups:
The NO period
Kay Laurence May 2009
Time and his Quinky siblings are just rising 5 months. He is developing right along on schedule. This week his favourite activity is playing at sheep dog with the adult collies who take on the role of sheep. Those budding skills are showing strength and he is making every outing to the garden an opportunity to improve them. There is no doubt that an opportunity for fresh air is complete reinforcement in every fibre of his being. He just can’t decide who is going to make his Master Sheep, Uncle Quick, or GrandPa Speck
At the same time he has appointed himself a duty as nightly Chicken Gatherer. Until 3 weeks ago he hadn’t worked out how to wriggle under the gate. Now he is larger, and should technically not be able to do this, he is passion for the evening duties is over-riding pain and common sense. Chicken duties seems to be the stimulus, as he doesn’t wriggle out to go on adventures when I am in the garden. But I need to prevent this, as often I am going past the chickens to take a delivery, and these drivers are not always as careful as I would be turning their vehicles when a youngster is loose. As he matures there is an increase in the things in his life that he “wants” but can’t always “have”.
He is growing in intelligence, working out opportunities for reinforcement. In his younger days I was the supplier of most reinforcers, and an opportunity for a treat, or affection or action with me was always the most inspiring options, and I pretty much got just what I wanted on cue: a recall, a pee, to bed, a touch, a play, a follow me. But these days I don’t leave myself open to his developing standard answer to a recall: “Why?”
In the van: “No. I’m busy”
Out for a pee. “No. But I will play with the new potted plants”.
You are not going to chew my rug: “Yes, I am, it’s great”.
Leave Tessie’s ears alone: “Why?”
Deep breaths, and a reminder to myself that this is a demonstration of his great intelligence: he has worked out that if I am not in a place for error less response to my cue, he can make a choice. Comply or not.
First strategy is to keep my mouth shut unless I know I can ensure the behaviour does happen and he cannot continue access to other options. I only ask him to get into the van if he is already on a lead.
Second strategy is to ignore it. If he’s taken out for a pee but wants to play with flowers, then I take him back inside.
Third strategy is to divert his attention. When discovering the chew delights of my wool rug, I find another toy with extra animation to play with, or even play with his mother with it. Rugs dentistry is all forgotten in the face of missing out on something.
Fourth strategy is to avoid a situation where he can make a choice. I leave him in the kitchen when I go to the chickens.
Reinforcement is always available when I get compliance, but what was a great reinforcer as a 12 week pup, is no longer worth giving up other, more precious, activities. As the previous reinforcer value has diminished, and he is able to sum up choices, and make decisions, other reinforcers in his life take on more appeal. This is a great and necessary developmental process, but the discovery stage is somewhat of a nuisance.
The tricky question is which strategy to employ? For those behaviours which you cannot tolerate as an adult you must avoid any opportunity to practice it. The behaviours he will grow out of in time can easily be ignored or distracted. Chewing the rug is a temporary behaviour, I will divert his attention, and make sure he does not have unsupervised access to it, or even remove the rug temporarily. If this began to become a regular feature of evenings in front of the TV, my action to intervene and prevent it could inadvertently reinforce the actual behaviour: attention. Often when the cessation of an undesired behaviour is reinforced, the dog is quick to work out that they need to initiate the undesired behaviour to be able to get the opportunity to stop it. Diversion or avoidance will be the strategy and I think in this case it was an unremembered accident to begin with.
Slipping under the gate simply cannot be practiced. Perhaps when he is full grown he won’t be able to fit, but then may explore other avenues to be able to follow me. Until my “no” training is in place, he will not have access to the behaviour.
The protocol is:
- avoid practice if it will lead to a lifelong problem, this is usually the practice of inherited skills – such as traffic chasing, or bird chasing, or guarding.
- ignore it if it is only a temporary phase driven by juvenile discovery
- if there is a choice, only give a cue when you can ensure compliance, by preventing access to the unwanted option. Always reinforce compliance, keep the pattern going.
As much as he has the opportunity to say “no”, so do I. There are behaviours, driven by the desire to learn and acquire knowledge, that he experiments with. These will fade depending on the outcome. If Tessie wants to preserve her ears, she will soon begin to warn him that it is unacceptable. But at present she seems to enjoy the attention – and Gordon ears flap very invitingly, so this seems to be mutually reinforcing.
At this age there are several times through the day I need to prevent behaviours – jumping out of the van as I open a door, charging at elderly Mabel, hanging off my shoes as I walk along, jumping at me when I am carrying the fresh eggs, surfing the counter, (I lost my dinner last night), and other “yob” like actions that are to be expected, like launching himself at me from half way up the stairs. Most of the time (pun, yes I know I am going to get into trouble with his name) good management will prevent the actions getting reinforcement and becoming regular patterns, but there are occasions when I am simply not in the right place or I cannot anticipate his “yob” behaviour. The eggs went flying, but in lack of experience did not appreciate the flying bonus and he lost the eggs to the others.
Conditioning disappointment
As we can condition a physical response – such as drooling, we can pair an emotional response: anxiety, or arousal, or relaxation. There is a requirement to be able to stimulate the desired emotion with the stimulus, the sound, or word, or action. Not just sometimes, but always or the pairing will be inconsistent.
Young animals are full of excitement and learning about the thrilling opportunities in their life that happen every hour. They are learning that when you pick up the dog leads it is usually followed by an outing. The sound of the dinner bowls is followed by food. They have been studying these patterns from the minute they set foot in your premises. Now they can remember, and daily, there are more opportunities for fun and learning something new. Out of the many occasions something exciting happens, there will also be disappointment – they have anticipated that you pick up the car keys before they go for a walk, and begin to jump around. But on some occasions they do not get to come along. Moving a dinner bowl could be part of cleaning up, not dinner this time. Picking up the toys to put them away does not mean a game is going to happen.
I look for as many opportunities to pair the disappointment of something eagerly anticipated as an opportunity to calmly predict this with a “no”.
The dogs like to charge out to the garden as a gang, but have learned only to go through the door on their name. As I open the door, I cue “no”, and they hold position until called. Time doesn’t, not yet. I regularly practice going through doors and house gates, when he is alone, and I can use the gate as a prevention to following me. Up until recently I used reinforcers as I left through a gate, to reinforce the wait for a cue, or stay behind behaviour. But with the onset of the “no” period, this has required additional punishment of the gate preventing his behaviour. Simple reinforcement for not following me is of lesser value than being able to join in. His ideas of reinforcement have changed considerably and being left out of anything is not worth swapping for a crummy bit of sausage. Being left behind is simply not acceptable, but a reality of life. Disappointment follows.
At his age he wants the joys of adulthood, but does not have the controls to be trusted to enjoy them. There will be a delay of some months whilst we build this, so I seem to be teaching a lot of “not this time, when you are grown up” = “No”.
If this is paired successfully it becomes an invaluable tool. Yesterday he remained behind the garden gate on the “no” as I bedded the chooks. In between the times I use the condition sound, “no”, I will continue to pair it many, many times. I will probably wait another week before I try the evening lock up again – I will not risk him discovering that “no” does not always mean “no”. Far too dangerous!
If you are pairing disappointment with a conditioned sound, avoid falling into the trap of “sweetening” the disappointment with food, or any reinforcer. As he goes to zip past my legs out of the door, I block his path, pause, give the conditioned sound “no”, and leave him behind. But instead of the emotion of disappointment he enjoyed some treats, my conditioning is going to fall apart. There will be a need to divert his attention of being left behind with a bone to chew or sweeten the situation, but when you do this do not use the conditioned sound as well.
(As a children being sent to our room and separated from the rest of the family and the TV was the acceptable punishment. Not. I used to have more fun in my room, so any threat of “being sent to my room” was quite empty. )
Good pairing or association must come with a 100% guarantee that he cannot access what he desires. You can even train this with a toy or food, as the pup goes to help themselves, you can quietly take it out of range and give the “no” cue. The action itself punishes the behaviour – the reinforcer is taken out of range, and you pair the subsequent disappointment with a sound. At this age life is pretty full of “I want doesn’t get”. By establishing this in many small ways as they move into young adults, much of the later repair work is avoided.
The danger of this policy is using a loud, punitive “no” to punish the undesired behaviour. If there is any likelihood that you will get emotional and deliver this with force or warning, then find yourself another word: “oink” will be fine. This can even be delivered after the opportunity has been closed, within a few seconds that disappointment will still be experienced. The temptation is to use the “no” during association before the disappointment occurs, and deliver it as a threat, not as an association with a guaranteed emotional response.
Yesterday he was determined to try out some discarded chewing gum on the pavement. The lead prevented his access, and as he longingly craved to explore, I quietly said “no”. The response was instantaneous, and he gave up and we continued our walk.
As with all associated or paired stimuli, you can never give up refreshing the pairing. At all opportunities, even with the adults, when I can see they anticipate reinforcement, but I know the environment will prevent it, I add by sound association: “no”. This gives me a good, quite reliable, cue that I can deliver in situations where I cannot control the opportunities and I see the dog making the wrong choice.
Condition it well, regularly, and unemotionally; pair it with the emotion of disappointment, not as a loud warning to prevent a behaviour, and it will work very effectively. Over use it, or misuse it, and your dog will think life is a bummer and you are the fun police .
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