By Abby Huxtable
I often find the initial stages of counter-conditioning are quite easy for owners to grasp and apply. It is the next steps they often find hard and struggle with.
This is because, like dogs, we humans are naturally reactive. Something happens and we react to it. Our dog reacts and we react to that. It’s human nature, it’s the survival instinct. It’s also why punishment techniques are still around, as they are reactive. Your dog reacts – you pull them back, or shout at them, it’s instinct. However, luckily, most of us are also kind, intelligent and moral, so we understand that even though that is our instinct, it doesn’t work and is harmful, so we train ourselves to react differently, like we are doing with our dogs. We can punish a behaviour and so supress it, but we cannot change the behaviour that way, we need to counter condition a behaviour to change it, which brings us back to the topic in hand!
We see a trigger and click it. That is pretty natural, as it is a reactive method, so we get it and can perform it pretty easily, so helping our dogs learn a different pattern or response to that trigger, which is to turn to us for the rewards when seeing that trigger and hearing the clicker, as they know the clicker means a reward.
The next step is for your dog to see the trigger and automatically turn to you in anticipation of the reward, which you then praise and reinforce, but as humans, we are no longer reacting to the trigger, we need to observe our dog and notice their non- reaction, which is hard for us!
The science-y bit: For those of you who like the science, what we are doing here is re-patterning the neural pathways. So instead of dog seeing trigger = fear = reaction, what we are doing is changing that association, or neural pathway, to dog sees trigger = click = treat, so trigger must = good stuff. The end result is trigger = good things = not scary or even good itself!
As with any neurological changes, this takes time and repetition to set. Think short -term memory vs long-term. It takes longer and more repetition for something to be truly ingrained and set in the long term, so more repetitions. If only set into short term, you may forget, or regress, as with our click the trigger training.
As humans, we naturally notice the negatives. We remember a criticism for far longer than a compliment. We notice and feel the need to correct ‘bad’ behaviour much more than naturally praising or rewarding the good. So, it is very hard for us to spot that our dog has seen the trigger and not reacted, because nothing much has happened, so we miss rewarding and reinforcing that calm, good behaviour, which is actually exactly what we desire them to do!
When we miss the reinforcement, then the behaviour fades, or even regresses as we haven’t yet got it set into the new neural pathway pattern, so it reverts to the old pattern. They go back to reacting to that trigger, as that is still the stronger, default, natural response from them. The new behaviour hasn’t been reinforced enough yet to be set, and we owners have now missed spotting that new behaviour of not reacting, and checking in with us.
We are also easily distracted. There is a lot going on in the big, wide world. There are other dogs, people, cars, mobile phones, Facebook, what you’re having for tea, what jobs you need to do, and all the other things you think about while walking your dog.
We forget to notice the trigger when our dog isn’t reacting to it, yet that is exactly what we need to train ourselves to notice and reinforce, as that is exactly the behaviour we desire, and the behaviour we need to reinforce to get the new neural pathway pattern.
So, when counter-conditioning, and when moving on from clicking the trigger, you need to be teaching yourself to observe and notice your dog seeing their triggers, but either remaining calm, or turning to you. This is the key for progressing with your dog, as it means the new behaviour is becoming the default and the normal for your dog, which we need to reinforce so it remains strong, and becomes set in their brain and body, so it is the new patterned pathway.