Shannon Riley-Coyner The Evolution of Dog Training: From choke chains to clickers, uncovering the secrets to having a well-behaved dog

The Evolution 

of Dog Training

From choke chains to clickers, 

uncovering the secrets to having 

a well-behaved dog.

Shannon Riley-Coyner

Truly Force Free Animal Training

Ventura, California

© Copyright 2018 by Shannon Riley-Coyner,

The Evolution of Dog Training:From choke chains to clickers, uncovering the secrets to having a well-behaved dog

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, including electronic, mechanical, or any information storage or retrieval system, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Interior Design: J. L. Saloff

Cover Design: Mark Saloff Designs

Photos from Wikipedia Commons:

Skinner box image, adapted from Boite skinner.jpg

Puppy Mill, public domain from PETA

Flickr Photo: Paul Englefield, Weave:

www.flickr.com/photos/hawksanddoves/244517659/

Copyright information available upon request. v. 1.02

Print ISBN: 978-0-9992846-0-5

E-book ISBN: 978-0-9992846-1-2

Library of Congress Number: 2017914263

First Edition

To my children: Riley, Shawn, and Cole.

If you live your passion and follow your inspirations, your dreams will come true.

Contents

Forward

Introduction

1. Understanding the World of Dog Training

2. How Dogs Think and Experience the World

3. Making Life Easier for Our Dogs

4. Debunking Common Training Myths

5. Canine Communication

6. The ABCs of Dog Training

7. Positive Reinforcement in Action

8. Changing an Unwanted Behavior

9. Teaching the Humans

10. Finding a Behaviorist or Trainer When You Need Help

About Shannon Riley-Coyner

Acknowledgments

Endnotes

Forward

My parents adopted Tammy before I was born. She was a beautiful fawn female Staffordshire Bull Terrier. My parents loved that dog and bred her one time. At about the same time, my parents decided to start a family. Tammy had her litter of four roly-poly puppies on Mother’s Day. I was born three months later.

Three of the puppies went to other homes, but my parents kept one whom we named Spike. I grew up with Spike. He was my best friend and playmate as a child. I still remember sitting in the back yard with him taking turns licking my ice cream cones.

Spike loved everyone in my family, but he desperately adored my mom. When my mom would leave the house, Spike would cry and whine uncontrollably. Like most dog handlers of that time, my parents tried scolding and punishing Spike to stop this behavior. It did not work. I did not understand that Spike was suffering from separation anxiety. I only knew that when my mom left, he was desperately unhappy and I wished I could help him.

By the time I reached high school, Tammy and Spike had passed away. My family adopted a yellow Labrador puppy we named Missy. Missy was a playful puppy, and just about as sweet as could be. I decided to take Missy through obedience classes. Like every obedience class at that time, using a choke chain to train Missy was mandatory. When she made a mistake, the trainer said to correct her by popping her (pulling up on the leash quickly so the chain would pop and quickly tighten around her neck). The idea was to cause pain, so she would stop making the mistake.

Although I used it, I was very uncomfortable with the choke chain. At one point, Missy was being a little wild, like most young lab puppies, and the trainer suggested I use a pinch collar. Even as a teenager I wanted to get away from using pain as much as possible, so I refused. I decided to practice more without the choke chain instead. I woke up as the sun came up every morning before school to practice. Missy eventually could sit, stay, and heel perfectly off leash. She ended up being one of the most obedient dogs my parents ever had.

As an adult, I adopted my first two dogs with my husband; Sadi, a jet black Flat Coat Retriever, and Buster, a rough coat, tri color Jack Russell Terrier. Although Sadi was both my husband’s and my dog, Buster was essentially all mine. Buster was a smart, scruffy, bundle of energy and I loved evrything about him.

I joined an obedience class with Buster. Again, the teacher of the class asked that all the students use choke chains. I was still not comfortable with using the choke chain, but there were no classes in the area teaching anything different.

Being a high energy dog, Buster had a tendency to bark at other dogs during the class. Training instructions were to pop him when he barked. But these pops seemed to only make matters worse. Soon Buster was barking and growling at other dogs when they got close. Intuitively, I knew that the choke chain was making Buster’s behavior worse.

As I attended the classes and practiced with Buster, I realized that the corrections were making him scared. The smart, confident terrier that I loved so much was becoming a bundle of nerves. He was not learning. I decided to drop out of that class and began researching other training techniques.

I had graduated from Sonoma State University with a Degree in Biology/Zoology, and I had also worked and volunteered in zoos by this time. There, I had a little exposure to positive training. I decided to look into using these techniques for my dogs. My research led me to books by animal behaviorists Dr. Ian Dunbar, Karen Pryor, and Dr. Karen Overall.

I started to use the positive techniques in the books. I quickly saw how Buster learned more, with less fear, using positive reinforcement methods. I became a Registered Veterinary Technician about this time and began to attend conferences focusing on animal behavior. I learned about the theories and scientific basis behind positive reinforcement training. I never used correction based training again.

Buster would be 21 if he were alive today. Twenty-one years ago, correction based training was still by far the most common training technique. I am so grateful that I was able to discover positive reinforcement. As a positive reinforcement trainer, I am a smarter, kinder, and more compassionate person.

My mission for this book (and any other animal book I write), my training center (Ventura Pet Wellness and Dog Training) and my training website (Truly Force Free Animal Training — trulyforcefree.com) is quite simple: I want to educate people around the world that you do not need to use force, pain, or manipulation to teach an animal. I also want everyone to realize that science has shown that dogs learn and process information much like we do. Although the outside of their bodies look different and some of their internal anatomy may differ from ours, their brains process fear and pain like humans. I believe they feel more human emotions as well, including happiness, sadness, and even love. As a scientist, I know we may never prove this since dogs cannot use verbal language, but I know it without any doubts.

My journey taught me that taking the path less traveled is more work, but if you follow your heart, you will end up in the intended place. As a positive reinforcement trainer, I am able to help far more animals than I would have as a traditional trainer.

Introduction

Today on television and the Internet, there are literally thousands of dog trainers giving different advice regarding dog training. Some trainers suggest only giving rewards to train, some trainers only suggest using corrections/punishments, and some trainers use both.

Many of these trainers have various theories about how and why their training techniques work. One group suggests that we should try to emulate how the wolves treat each other in packs. Another group applies concepts used in human psychology and learning theory. One thing is for sure: many trainers are extremely passionate about their views and at times the feuds between them can get downright nasty.

But how do we wade through all the information out there to find the truth about what are the most effective ways to train dogs? The answer is simple but not easy. We must try to take an unbiased look at what scientific research tells us about dog behavior and then apply that to how we train dogs.

Why Use Science to Search for the Truth?

Scientists use a system called the scientific method to try to solve problems or answer questions. They do this by creating theories, testing the theories by collecting data or performing experiments, and then analyzing the results to determine if their theories were true.¹ By performing tests to see if their theories are correct, the scientific method minimizes the influence of bias or prejudice in the person performing the experiment.

Scientists are also trained to use standard procedures and criteria when they perform their experiments and will try to publish their results in scientific journals to disseminate their work. This way, other scientists can see what was done, comment on the results, and conduct their own experiments to expand upon the work of others. The ultimate goal is to continually understand the truth about how our world operates.

Science is the search for truth, that is the effort to understand the world: it involves the rejection of bias, of dogma, of revelation, but not the rejection of morality. Linus Pauling

Cognitive Bias and the Semmelweis Reflex

Even after scientists discover the truth, having people accept it is not always easy. Denying scientific data is not a new phenomena. People have been denying scientific data for about as long as science has existed, especially if they feel threatened by the results.² One early example of this took place in Europe in 1844. Ignaz Semmelweis was born in 1818 in Hungary.³ He became a physician in 1844 and soon after, he became involved with the problem called puerperal fever, or childbed fever. Childbed fever is an infection of some part of the female reproductive organs following childbirth. The infection can invade the bloodstream and lymph system to cause septicemia (blood poisoning) and death. The disease had become a plague in Europe.

Semmelweis became a doctor at the start of the golden age of the physician scientist.⁴ Starting at this time, physicians were expected to have scientific training and had begun to understand that illness was not an imbalance caused by bad air or evil spirits. Instead, physicians started looking at anatomy and began testing different theories regarding diseases. As part of this process, they started to routinely perform autopsies and began collecting data.

Semmelweis was interested in finding out why so many women in maternity wards were dying from childbed fever. After significant testing, he theorized that doctors were spreading the disease to their patients. At this time, gloves were not used and doctors did not routinely wash their hands between patients. To test his theory, Semmelweis ordered his medical staff to start cleaning their hands