Fast does not mean better

by | Jan 21, 2019

We are becoming surrounded by a culture of fast. We are being sold that immediate gratification is the only solution and this is not restricted to youth as all ages can be persuaded. There is a likelihood that a feeling of running out of time as you progress with age may push you more towards fast and immediate solutions.

This fast, fast, faster culture has become the new mode in dog training. Why is fast training considered better or ever a solution?

Does fast training wall us off from asking deeper questions?

I do not want my dogs to be measured by a watch or by a calendar. No pressure to achieve certain development stages or expectations of what they should have learned by a certain date.

I do not want to measure them by research that persuades us development periods are fixed and that we should socially expose our dogs to a specific schedule.

I want to measure by confidence, personal and individual achievement. I want to explore social situations when the confidence and desire to do so is evident, not because some self-promotion guru thinks a list of party events, cultural gatherings and different surfaces should be checked off as if they are a graduation process.

I do not want a young border collie exposed to fast moving traffic before their no-chase skills are in place, their accompanying partner is fully aware of the risks and it will be a stress-less event. They may be two years old before that occurs, but the success of this process is decided by the individual, their learning history, their genetic make-up, the lifestyle. I see too many sad young dogs exposed to counter training when the situation should never have occurred so early.

I want time

I want time to enjoy the teaching process. As a learner I absolutely want to learn at a pace that enables me to make every step a step of success. I want to savour that success, roll around in it for a while, and then seek the next step when I feel ready. Feeling ready is about confidence and the energy needed to absorb new information. The process of absorption is delicate, it needs digestion time, it needs assimilation with the knowledge I already possess. Once it has arrived, melded into place I then need to remember to call upon it and integrate it in the way needed to gain mastery. This is particularly energy-greedy when it is a change to a motor skill or new way of thinking.

As a teacher I want to see my learner bloom and shine, have time to connect and enjoy their pleasure in learning. I want to explore who they are in this process.

I do not want to see them lose the shine in their eye as their confidence takes a knock when we make the next jump too high, when we are greedily following our agenda and not listening to theirs.

Allow a space to listen, enjoy the time to connect to the dog, try not to race on your agenda and certainly not on someone else’s agenda.

Fast rate or high rate?

I wonder if we are not using our language or descriptions clearly enough, and equally just assuming what “fast” means.

One of the crept-in-when-we-weren’t-looking jargon to litter up the system is “high rate of reinforcement”. I no longer think the original context or purpose of that phrase is used and it has become to mean something else.

As instruction passes blog-to-blog (a blog that needs a visit to a transmitted disease clinic?) it changes understanding and easily gets truncated.

“Dogs greet each other by sniffing genitals”. This is true, but it has morphed through the blog-to-blog disease with truncation of the second part of the sentence: “when offered”. If those genitals are not being waved around for access, THEN THEY SHOULD NOT BE SNIFFED. Neither mine, or any dog that keeps their genitals secured should have them sniffed.

A rate of reinforcement, or a rate of anything can only be measured when we know what it is measured against.

A “high rate of reinforcement” absolutely does not mean fast. It means a rate relative to the number of behaviours occurring. This is not measured in numbers per minute. A tortoise can have a high rate of reinforcement with one behaviour, one delivery per minute. If a leg moves (12 seconds) and it is marked, and a piece of lettuce delivered, that animal may take 40 seconds to eat that reinforcer.

This term “high rate of reinforcement” was born as an antidote to the life-sucking process of waiting for the animal to offer the desired behaviour. This means that animal could “offer” (try without success) 18 behaviours before hitting the choice desired by the trainer. For any learner this is an appalling way to learn with absolutely zero guidance. For the sensitive learner is means school is a living nightmare. The aim for a high rate of reinforcement is to encourage a high rate of success by changing the criteria or expectation, adding guidance so that the learner experienced success. Only success, not life-sucking failure.

“Clicks per minute” are again only comparative to what was happening in the previous minutes. But without knowing how long a reinforcement process takes, measuring by clicks per minute is irrelevant. The behaviour may stay the same or improve, but if we have changed the pattern of reinforcement delivery and the dog needs to travel further to receive the treat, then the number of clicks per minute is going to reduce. We should be examining how the behaviour is carried out and measuring progress in quality, flow, and confidence. NOT speed within a time frame.

The “fast” and “high rate”, need to be used in relation to a measurable scale.
A runner can be going fast, their legs are moving fast, but they may not be covering the ground “fast”, ie at a speed considered fast for that person measured by the distance covered in a specific time – miles per hour. What may be fast for a 22 year old athlete, is not for a 55 year old non-athlete. It is a comparative term.

The reinforcement process should begin promptly, that does not imply “fast”. The marker allows you to specify the process is about to begin, but the process may be thoughtful, not fast, but effective. Or it can be exciting, arousing and short. Research showed us that without a prompt start to the reinforcement process the learner was unable to relate the reinforcer to the behaviour.

The reinforcement process is greater than consumption. This is where anticipation is under-used.

Fast feeding as a diversion

When we need a feeding process as a diversion, I would plan to make that quite a lengthy, slow, engaging activity. I have seen too often that it is used when the trainer is on the edge of panic and the process becomes frenetic and transmit that state to the dog.

We should be super careful in our descriptions and double check what we understand it to mean. So often the original intention is lost, or the term is misused or truncated. Progress is then built on misinformation. A learner is a class of many may not stand out as one of the future influencers of training protocols. All learners should be treated with the same potential and given accurate information, not that quick pass along that is poorly explained.

“What do I understand that to mean?”

This should be a common question to ask of ourselves and of our learners, and ask it frequently.

Check, check and double check

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Key Reading

Not Today and Not for My Sheepdogs

Standard protocols of extinction, impulse control, counterconditioning are quickly grabbed off the shelf as satisfactory solutions. These solutions are unlikely to help your collie, your sheepdog as the focus is heavily on suppression of who they are and why they live.

Do you see what I see

Doing better is the reward from doing the work. This work needs to be the right work at the right time with the right intent done in the right way.

The Cost of Cherrypicking

When we admit that the ideas we’re sharing are derived from the work of others, we demonstrate our own commitment to learning

A Family of Multiple Dogs

Another addition is not just an extra bed and bowl. It is important to build a home that is healthy, content and well-balanced.

A Road to Nowhere

When familiarity is stripped away we seek recognisable signposts that will take us back to comfort and security. This is survival instinct. It is worth listening to as it keeps us alive.

What’s Cooking? A Warning About Recipes

Recipes for “training” dogs are so prevalent in how we live with and talk about them that their existence often goes unquestioned.

Don’t Let Them Learn

Becoming aware that we share our lives with premier learners, dogs, is about saving you frustration, despair, anxiety and endless hours further down the road.

And Why Can’t He Refuse?

I bristle at the insistence that a dog will assent to any request we make if they understand what we’re asking and if the rewards we offer are of sufficient value

Dogs are Born To Learn

We can build tremendous learners when we get beyond the idea that “dogs are trained”.

It’s Not Training

A carefully planned learning pathway, paced to suit that particular learner for their life ahead.

Top Training

Evidence of learning

When we use the words “teach” or “train” child, person or dog, the operative term implies that the process is under the ownership of the teacher or trainer. What your teacher thinks you have learned may not be what you actually learned.

One dog watching

The other dog working
or ….how to train the spectators to quietly rest and watch whilst you work, play, teach a single member of the group

The Power of Passive Learning

Active learning: the learner takes active choice of what to do, how to respond, is attentive and making conscious effort
Passive learning: little conscious effort, reward is delivered for minimum effort.

A Day of Learning

A no-training day does not mean he gets a lazy day lying idly in the sun. Learning is still happening and this is significant and important for his development.

Surprising Puppy

Surprising Puppy. With obnoxious moments. After introducing the obnoxious puppy as a youngster I am knocked over by the Delightful Young Man he is turning into……

Obnoxious Puppy

The delight of your new puppy is probably going to last a few weeks, maybe four if you are lucky. When 12 weeks old hits, and you will feel a slam, the Delight is going to demonstrate ungrateful, obnoxious traits.

Preparation

Preparing before you train and the final check list

More than words

We expect our dogs to understand the meaning of words and signals, but if you have ever worked with computers you will know that what you say doesn’t always turn into an actionable response.

Not all lures contain food

“the direct use of the reinforcer to elicit the behaviour”
This should always be foremost in our mind, in that many alternatives lures are available.

Remote lures

Lures at a distance, separated from hands, pockets . Using reward stations, patterns, containers

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