Dog Training Tip of the Day- Counter Conditioning- clicker dog training
hey youtube this is my dog training tip
of the day for today it’s regarding
county conditioning or changing your
dog’s emotional response to a certain
stimuli or trigger
a lot of people who are using counter
conditioning are finding that they’re
getting no results and when you’re
getting no results you can tell yourself
that you’re not doing it correctly some
of the reasons why when using classical
or counter conditioning you’re not
getting any results is one the main
reason number one is that the dog is not
finding the trigger a predictor of the
reinforcement so if your dog is not
finding the trigger a predictor of the
reinforcement you’re wasting your time
and you’re just basically reinforcing
your dog for nothing you really want to
make sure that the trigger is the
predictor of the tree here’s an example
of someone who was me screwing up
big-time my vertical splash used to be
very reactive to human beings and dogs
after being attacked as a puppy and she
made great progress in all environments
except when we were walking in the
canyon which is there’s brush those
bushes this high so she can’t see over
them and a long path and as we’d be
walking along another human being would
be walking up the path and I would see
the human being get my treats ready and
as she saw the human being I would feed
her and I wondered why she was not
getting better in this environment until
I finally realized that even though I
got the treat out way before she saw the
person she still saw the predictor that
the food was coming was me getting the
treat out of the bag and she was waiting
till I gave her the treat so the person
walking up the path was not predicting
my reinforcement that I was giving her
even if I clicked her for looking and
feeding her that first signal that the
treat was going to come to her
the predictor of the food was when I got
the food out of my bait bag so to solve
this problem I simply kept food in my
hand on walks in the canyon and then
when the person appeared I would feed
her for looking at the person and
suddenly there was
huge change in the training she started
to get more comfortable with people
passing in the cannon where before there
was absolutely no change no matter how
much training I did and I basically
wasted like eight months of doing
absolutely no classical or counter
conditioning because I was basically
training her to like treats everybody
can screw up so the sign that you’re
screwing up is when you’re seeing no
change whatsoever a huge clue that
you’re not using counter conditioning is
if you’re talking about your dog being
focused on the food or distracted by the
food if you’re if you’re working with
your dog I’m trying to change their
emotional response to something in the
environment and your dog is busy staring
at you and being over aroused about the
treats that you’re holding you’re not
going to do any classical conditioning
or counter conditioning your dog is
going to be only if you’re feeding your
dog at that point in time you’re
actually building your dog’s arousal on
treats and not creating a relationship
between the trigger and the
reinforcement so what you need to do
instead is backtrack and start with
games of teaching your dog to stop
focusing on the food to do this you
simply sit on the couch and wait for
your dog to stop thinking about the food
while you’re holding some food in your
hand and here you can see splash she’s
thinking about the food she’s going
she’s smelling the food even if she’s
not looking at me because she knows the
game of ignoring the food during
training she’s still thinking about the
food so that moment that she’s not
thinking about the food I’m gonna
reinforce her and you’ll see that in a
second because I’m gonna wait quite a
long time for her to be absolutely not
thinking about the food when I reinforce
her once you start playing games like
this you play the game where the dots
settling and not thinking about the food
trying different rooms of the house then
try on the walk if your dogs trotting
next to you and they’re looking up at
you they’re thinking about the food so
the moment your dog is distracted by
maybe a blowing leaf
that’s the moment you’re gonna pop a
treat in your dog’s mouth okay so
finally splashes stop thinking about the
food right now so I’m going to take
my trea teas and present it to her face
and I will capture the behavior of not
thinking about the food another problem
is if you are using counter conditioning
perhaps you have a dog that scared
humans and you keep clicking too much
the dog is looking at the person click
treat click treat click treat if your
clicking too much the dog can start
seeing the click is the predictor of the
food and not a certain thing in the
environment
an example is Pavlov’s Bell if the dogs
if the dog is hearing the bell ring
they’re associating the food with the
Bell and not perhaps something that was
in the corner maybe a jug that the
Pavlov owned or a certain thing inside
of the room the Bell is really being
reinforced with the treat and that can
happen if you’re clicking too much
another way to make sure that you’re
pairing the trigger with the
reinforcement that you’re giving is to
not click but as the dog looks at the
object or the person or the other dog
you feed them directly to their mouth as
their eyes are focused on the other dog
if you lose your out if you’re if you’re
moving and you lose the opportunity to
feed the dog because the dog looks back
at you don’t feed the dog because then
you’re just feeding the dog for focus on
the food again so they see the person
you feed if they turn back to you you
can walk backwards encourage them back
and then try again from a different
distance another problem you can have is
if you’re using the wrong reinforcement
if you have something that’s not
reinforcing to your dog you can’t create
a different emotional response in your
dog for example if you’re trying to
train your dog to love humans and you’re
feeding the dog kibble for seeing a
human if the dog has no reinforcement
value in kibble you’re not gonna get a
reinforcement value in a human being you
want to use the best treats that you’ve
ever used if you’re trying to change
your dog’s behavior regarding fears
aggression or reactivity
another problem with counter candy
that you may be having is that you can’t
find an area that is not too close to
the stimulus where your dog will react
and the great thing to do is to get in
your car drive somewhere where your dog
is successful and begin there before
walking in your neighborhood or in the
environment that your dog is having
problems with see you next time YouTube
as you can see the splash is not
thinking about the tre 80s anymore so I
can reinforce her for not thinking about
the food tips work on training your dog
to not be all about the food first
before I counter conditioning no or
little behavior modification will occur
if your dog is focused on the food or
distracted by it apart from building
your dog’s food drive
if your dog regresses or has a setback
for example suddenly barks and lunges at
something the best thing you can do is
to take a break from training and resist
the urge to suddenly address the issue
this is because stress hormones can stay
in your dog’s body up to 7 days after a
startle and can hinder your progress
make sure the stimuli is the predictor
of the food and not something else you
are doing or that is in the environment
make sure your reinforcement is of the
highest value make it as easy as your
dog needs counter conditioning will not
work if your dog is too stressed or over
aroused there are criteria if you are
not succeeding the goal is to avoid
undesirable behavior and instead
reinforce the absence of it stay tuned
for more tips
