12 AprEpisode 141 | Bonus: Annie reads from The ABCs of Behavior by Marian Breland-Bailey and Bob Bailey from The Dog Trainer’s Resources by The APDT Chronicle Of The Dog
In advance of School For The Dogs April 24th screening of Bob Bailey's short film, Patient Like The Chipmunks, Annie is reading aloud some works by Dr. Bailey and his late wife, Dr. Marian Breland-Bailey. Today she is reading from their 2001 article, The ABCs of Behavior, from The Trainer's Resource: The APDT Chronicle Of The Dog. The ABCs are Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequences.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Sign up for the screening of Bob Bailey's “Patient Like The Chipmunks: A short film on the history of Operant Conditioning.”
Purchase The Dog Trainer's Resource by The APDT Chronicle Of The Dog
Transcript:
Annie:
The Association of Professional Dog Trainers puts out a quarterly magazine which you can subscribe to digitally or in print. Or, you also get it if you become a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers. It is called Chronicle of the Dog. And it contains some excellent essays about dog training, about learning theory, about the business of dog training.
They have put out some, what do you call it? Like anthologies. Yeah, I guess anthologies. And I have one of them that's called the Dog Trainer's Resource. It's from 2007, it's a collection of their essays and there's so much good stuff in here. I think they've put out three or four of these collections of essays that appeared in the magazines.
And honestly, if you buy these collections on Amazon, you can find them used, I find, usually for like six or $7. So you could buy like all of their collections probably for the amount that you would pay for a single year of quarterly magazines from them. So word to the wise. But definitely look into becoming a member you can do so apdt.com.
Fun, fun, little known fact , they actually kicked me out. I was a member. I paid my a hundred dollars a year or whatever it was. And they kicked me out and then lobbied me to come back. Although I must've just been on some lapsed membership list, lobbied me to come back or continue to lobby me and actually to come back every few months saying we miss you, which I always think is funny. Cause they kicked me out for reasons I'm not going to get into right now, but maybe one day in the future, I will. It had nothing to do with dog abuse or anything like that.
Anyway today I wanted to read an essay from my copy of the dog trainer's resource, which I love. The last few Mondays I've been doing these readings reading things that I've learned from that I'd like to share. Last week, I read from Bob Bailey's website, and this week I'm also going to read something by Bob Bailey. And next week I'm going to read something again by Bob Bailey.
This is because on April 24th, at 4:00 PM Eastern, we are going to be offering a screening of a short film he made on the history of operant conditioning called Patient Like the Chipmunks. And after that, I will be hosting a Q and A with him, pretty excited about this. He is something of a legend in the world of animal training, living legend. You can sign up at schoolforthedogs.com/Bailey. All of the proceeds will be going to the Marian Breland Bailey scholarship fund.
I talked a little bit about who he is in the last episode. And actually I think also in the one that I did on the history of dog training, modern dog training, and I'm reading these little Bailey bits of wisdom to get you all excited about coming to this screening.
There are actually four essays in a row in this book by Bob Bailey. And I've been sort of struggling, trying to decide which one to read. One is on chicken training. I did a chicken training camp that was developed by Bob Bailey five years ago. I got so much out of it. This essay is sort of about why training chickens is a good exercise for dog trainers. Decided most of you probably will not be training chickens anytime soon, or have the chance to train a chicken. So I decided against that essay.
One is kind of on the history of operant conditioning, which I decided to not read because I sort of talked about, I did sort of like a history episode recently. There's a really great essay on myths, it's called Operant Conditioning: Dispelling the Myths by Marian Breland Bailey and Bob Bailey. Was close to choosing this essay, but decided it was maybe a little bit too much for you know, for dog trainers.
Like I try and make the content on this podcast interesting for dog trainers, but also for non dog trainers, for aspiring dog trainers, for people who are coming at this knowing nothing about dog training.
So I decided on this essay called the ABCs of behavior because of its broader appeal. I mean, come on, has ABC in the title! It’s by Marian Breland Bailey and Bob Bailey published in late 2001. It's four pages long, actually it's five pages long, but the last page is a page of definitions at a glance, which I think is going to sound weird if I read definitions. So I'm just going to stick to the four pages that come before that.
And I will link to the book in the show notes. You should definitely have this on your bookshelf, if you are currently a dog trainer or if you're considering becoming a dog trainer, or if you're just a big dog training geek like me. Okay:
The ABCs of behavior, meaning the antecedents behavior and consequences is a shorthand expression used by behavior analysts since the 1960s. Before behavior analysts or trainers begin to build a new behavior or change an existing one, they carefully examine the content of each of these elements. This helps to determine what may be causing a behavior as well as how to change it.
A is for antecedent.
Antecedent refers to anything that precedes the occurrence of the behavior. In the dog training world, we are most familiar with antecedents that are stimuli such as an odor, a high-pitched sound or a trainer's verbal cue. In short, any change in physical energy that the dog can perceive or react to. Stimuli present themselves to the dog in different forms. Let's talk about two of those forms, background context stimuli, and salient stimuli.
Background context stimuli. This form is the entire array of stimuli, the context that greets the dog as he encounters a situation in which behavior is going to occur. These stimuli might include sounds, odors and visual cues or any combination of vision, hearing, touch, temperature change, pain, head movement, and balance. It includes a trainer and any other individuals present and their movements.
Of this total array of stimuli, most may be totally irrelevant or meaningless to the dog at a given time. In some situations, however, the dog may react to one or more important stimuli, which we call the salient stimuli. The word salient means outstanding or prominent.
Stimuli can become salient in one of two ways. One, natural salience, where the dog comes with a genetic tendency to pay special attention to a certain stimuli. For example, a German Shorthaired pointer being stimulated by the rustling of a pheasant in a field.
Two, learned or conditioned to salients where the dog is exposed to a stimulus that is paired with primary or strong secondary reinforcers or aversives. For example, the sound of a kitchen can opener that precedes the dog's meal. The word No, shouted by an owner as his dog moves toward a ham sandwich on the kitchen counter.
Regardless of how stimuli acquire their salience, they can become the most important variable in a training scenario. For shaping or modifying a behavior, the trainer should have control over these salient stimuli. If a stimulus in the whole array of background stimuli is more salient than those being presented by the trainer, that trainer is in trouble because she is losing stimulus control over her animal.
For example, a trainer may discover to her chagrin that an incidental arm movement causes the dog to emit a response prematurely. In behavior analysis parlance, that arm movement is a context stimulus. However, it is more commonly referred to by trainers as a secondary cue. Context stimuli are always present. So a trainer should take precautions to stand or sit very still and supply no extraneous stimuli while training.
Another important antecedent seen enough behavior is the dog's history. If you have raised a pet yourself, you more or less know what has happened to him in the past, but quite a different situation occurs when the dog has spent time in a pound, an animal shelter or an abusive home. If you give a cue or command to sit and the dog responds, you can probably assume that this behavior was part of the dog's previous training history.
Likewise, if the dog is fearful of specific objects, such as sticks or walking canes, there is a good chance that the dog has encountered those objects in an unpleasant framework. The more you know about the dog, you are training the greater your advantage in determining how to change behavior.
Yet another form of antecedent is an establishing operation. Also known as a setting factor. The general definition of an establishing operation is a condition that changes the value of a reinforcer and thus increases the likelihood that certain responses will increase or decrease. For example, if a dog deprived of food becomes more hungry than usual, the value of the food will increase. The dog will perform behaviors that have resulted in food in the past. The dog also will work harder to get the food.
Other establishing operations may include availability of water changes in climate hormonal changes and various health conditions. For example, a dog with digestive tract problems might typically show no interest in food.
B is for behavior.
When we talk about a dog's behavior that occurs in response to antecedents we are referring to the behaviors function, what the behavior does for the dog, or in other words, the consequence of the behavior. We are also talking about all the responses and sub responses that take place in the instance of behavior occurring.
For example, a dog trainer may have a problem with his dog not being able to clear a high hurdle. The trainer may analyze a behavior called perhaps hurdle jumping. Clearly such a behavior consists of a number of responses such as getting into the starting position, running toward the hurdle, gathering limbs into the jumping mode, springing over the hurdle and landing.
The trainer’s goal is to evaluate each response individually and try to identify a specific sub response that's causing the problem. For example, he may videotape the jump and notice that one of the dog's legs is poorly angled for best propulsion of the body into the leap. In that case, he can use shaping techniques to work the leg into the proper position.
Regardless of the complexity of the behavior analysis of the responses and sub responses allows the trainer to plan the training periods and sessions. Planning of this sort can give the trainer a huge advantage over a haphazard trainer who may approach the problem with no analysis and no plan.
C is for Consequences.
As we mentioned in the science of dog training article, an operant can have any one of three consequences. Reinforcement, aversives (punishment) and extinction. Reinforcement, which can be either positive or negative is the process of strengthening the operant that produces a desired consequence. The reinforcer can be the natural result of the dog's behavior and its everyday environment, or perhaps a treat given by a trainer for a properly executed response.
Positive reinforcement involves the presentation of a good consequence. When the response is performed. For example, you say, come, the dog comes and you offer a treat. It increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur in the future. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of a bad consequence when the response is performed.
Many dog trainers are familiar with the ear pinch used in a forced retrieve to compel a dog to take the dumbbell in his mouth. This is the use of negative reinforcement. When the dog takes the dumbbell, the ear pinch is stopped. As with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement increases the future likelihood of the behavior that removes or avoids the aversive.
Not all operants are so fortunate to be followed by reinforcers that strengthen responses. One type of consequence, an aversive, not only weakens the behavior it follows, but can actually deal with a death blow to the extent that the behavior may never reappear. Those are two categories of aversives, primary and secondary.
Primary aversives like primary reinforcers have their roots in natural substances or occurrences. For example, an event that causes tissue damage or an intolerable odor. Secondary versus like secondary reinforcers become what they are by association with the real thing. For example, the word No paired with a slap.
Aversives in general and punishment in particular may have bad consequences for the dog and trainer. They can produce uncontrollable fear, not only of the trainer, but the entire training situation. Aversives can suppress virtually all behavior. They may also encourage aggressive responses. More acceptable alternatives, such as reinforcement should always be considered before using aversives.
Extinction refers to the gradual weakening of a previously reinforced response when it is no longer reinforced. This represents the surest most permanent and most humane way of eliminating a behavior.
For example, a dog kept in a yard, discovers that by pushing on a certain board near the gate post, he can make the gate open. On several occasions the dog gets out this way and enjoys romping through the neighborhood. Finally, the dog owner fastens the board so that the dog can no longer open the gate with a push. The dog keeps pushing unsuccessfully at this board time after time until gradually the response of pushing disappears.
When using extinction to eliminate an undesired behavior, it is important to train a substitute behavior. Teaching a dog to sit, instead of jump up on visitors is a good example. Two things may happen in the course of extinction that sometimes discourage trainers who are trying to use this method to get rid of a problem behavior. The first of these is the extinction burst, a sudden occurrence of several rapid emissions of the response in question.
For example, the dog who has almost given up pushing the board may suddenly emit several quick pushes. This extinction burst can occur anytime during the extinction process. In fact, such a burst often occurs at the beginning of an extinction period or training session. Many novice trainers observe the burst and then conclude erroneously, See extinction does not work. Their responses become more frequent and faster.
The second thing that may happen is spontaneous recovery. After an initial extinction session, the response may appear to be completely gone. A period of time later, a few hours, overnight, perhaps longer, the dog again offers a response in a training session. Neither extinction bursts nor spontaneous recovery are instances of the dog testing the trainer or being stubborn. Rather each is a normal phenomenon that occurs in the process of changing behavior.
Extinction often encourages variability of behavior, allowing new responses to appear and receive reinforcement. Many experienced trainers take advantage of this phenomenon. For example, a trainer who wants to increase the energy a dog puts into response may be able to quote unquote, catch some of the vigorous responses caused by an extinction burst, reinforce them, extinguish the weaker responses and build to a generally more powerful response that can be put under stimulus control. I E on cue.
Extinction may occasionally induce a small amount of aggression, but nothing like that which occurs with the use of punishment. Extinction also does not seem to create the fear present in the animal after use of aversives. Hence it is preferable as a means of weakening or eliminating behavior.
