What every person can learn from dog training | Noa Szefler | TEDxJaffa
today I’m going to tell you about a
revolution a revolution of communication
a scientific revolution of observation
with this revolution we become the dog’s
best friend and we start to truly see
dogs as they deserve to be seen as our
best friends you will see how dog
training can improve your own
relationships and not just with dogs we
already have the tools and the knowledge
and it’s happening all over the world so
picture this you come home after a long
day at work and annoying boss and
never-ending traffic jam and as you
reach your home your sanctuary you open
the door and instead of getting that
moment of peace and quiet your dog
attacks you at the doorway jumping a new
barking and bouncing and loving you to
death not a fun way to be greeted right
so how do we react do we get mad yell
raisiny and that’s reacting the way that
we do out of impatience anger or
misconception is only understandable
misconception because most of the world
sees a dog’s unwanted behaviors as
dominance based behaviors power
struggles where dogs try to take charge
and boss us around out of this
misinterpretation of dog’s behavior we
dog lovers were convinced our
relationship with our dogs is based on a
power struggle and that for the sake of
our dogs we should win this battle
assertively handling our best friends we
had to punish them to subdue them yell
at them even hurt them in the name of
training belly come
should be oughtta toughie
this is Pelle her name means Wonder and
even though she is a wonder dog even
Pele had to be taught there is a better
way of showing and getting affection
than jumping on me I like that she’s
excited to see me but I don’t like to be
attacked even if it is out of love so
she was taught that the best way to get
the attention she wants is to come and
sit in front of me and wait and she also
learned that the attention is worth the
wait
been a toughie the point is we should
all know better science has proven it to
us decades ago dogs are not dominance
driven creatures so why do we keep
training them as if they are yet some of
us don’t appreciate dog hair on our
couch and want the dog not to sit on it
we have to understand that when a dog
sits on the couch he does it not because
it represents some ideal of control some
representation of dominance over a
living room but because it’s the most
comfortable place to lay in I mean that
is why we bought the couch in the first
place so once we understand that the dog
only wants a nice warm cozy place to
rest on next to us Pele lamoco so what
then we can teach the dog and reinforce
the dog reward the dog for using that
nice warm soft cozy place to rest on
next to us dogs should have rules and
have boundaries but how do we do it this
is a great example the dog behaviorist
Cathy sedale uses to explain which
usually happens when people try to set
boundaries so you need to get somewhere
so you hail a taxi you jump in you close
the door you buckle up and you tell the
driver don’t take me to Tel Aviv and
also don’t take me to Jerusalem and
don’t take me to Haifa do you think the
cab driver will have any idea where you
want him to take you
of course the drivers obvious question
would be where do you want to go and
dogs are just like that they want us to
tell them what we want them to do in
fact they’re desperately waiting for our
guidance and it’s so easy when we tell
people what we want and then we get what
we want people are no different I have
this friend and I’m not going to mention
names but she had this boyfriend and
they were going out for about a year and
things were about to get serious but the
guy had this one trait but drove her mad
the guy possessed the incredible ability
to completely ignore a messy house
I mean piles of laundry everywhere
dishes in the sink overflowing stuff on
the table the works it drove her insane
and they used to fight about it all the
time and then tired of fighting she
decided to try a different approach
mine so she started capturing behaviors
she wanted him to keep small stuff at
first when he put his socks in the
laundry basket when he washed one cup
she rewarded those behaviors with things
he liked hug a movie anything that made
him happy gradually the house got
cleaner and less messy which was great
but what was really amazing to her was
the effect this had on the relationship
she started noticing the things he did
right and she found herself liking him
more today their happily married and our
graduates of the marker Training
Institute here in Israel led by nova
carmel will testify the same thing how
learning to train dogs has completely
changed their perspective
not just in the dog training world but
everywhere the relationships with our
partners their parents their neighbors
their children they stopped looking for
what everyone was doing wrong and
started seeing the things that were
right and that’s the trick basically
focusing on behavior you want to keep
and encourage and then helping your
subject whether it’s a dog or a person
or any living being to learn to offer it
that’s what the revolution is all about
helping them learn some simple in theory
right but what about extreme cases let’s
get back to dogs there’s a common
example that happens in many homes let’s
take a 10 month old golden retriever mix
Kayla look Caleb is your common house
dog happy for attention loves to be
petted great with children the problem
with Kayla starts when there’s food or
bones around whenever anyone comes close
to her and her bone the dog tenses up
and grouse according to what we were led
to believe in order to take charge of a
growling dog and control the situation
we had to punish them every time such
behavior occurred we had to raise her
voice we had to yell stop it Kayla bad
dog but is Kayla bad dog
the truth is she is just a frightened
dog terrified of the possibility that
someone might take her food or her bones
away in the past we would have punished
the growling the symptom really but in
marker training we want to treat the
cause of the problem the emotion that is
behind the behavior if Kayla could speak
our language this would be easy hey
Kayla you have nothing to worry about
we’re not going to take your stuff
everything is okay but she doesn’t
so let’s communicate with her in the way
she will understand that’s teacher she
has nothing to fear
we’ll use classical
conditioning to teach Kayla that every
time we come close to her and her bones
we give her good things good things
happen and we’re not taking anything
away and soon Kayla will start to look
forward to us coming closer to her and
the growling will disappear but most
importantly so will the fear how easy it
is when doing it right it’s so simple
without using force it’s such common
sense it’s so obvious so how come we
still use force as a dog training method
the truth is a lack of knowledge and
false beliefs about what truly motivates
dogs and this is what we are all here to
change the thing with dogs is that they
learn all the time they learn from us
and about us and if they show this
amazing ability to learn don’t we owe it
to them to take responsibility and teach
them properly our revolution is ongoing
dog lovers all over the world have found
a better way a way to establish
constructive communication with our
learner to read their body language
relying on studies that help us to
better understand dogs so we can help
them to better understand us and for
those who found this way the results are
amazing
the dream of having a dog in our home
stopped being a nightmare no more having
to be the ever vigilant pack leader
forever engaged in a battle for control
it brought peace and love back into our
homes the way only dogs can the
revolution is going on as we speak we
have the tools and the knowledge you can
start doing this yourself with your
spouse your dog your child start small
and you will see big change happen
our dogs deserve it and so do we thank
you
