Dog training tip o' the day: Stimulus Control

Dog training tip o' the day: Do you have a dog that starts throwing every trick he knows at you when training time starts? Are you trying to isolate a single desired behaviour out of an assortment of offered ones? Time to work on stimulus control!

Stimulus control: 
(from http://www.clickertraining.com/glossary/17#term21269)
"A conditioned stimulus becomes a discriminative stimulus (or cue) when it is followed by a specific learned behavior or reaction. The response is said to be 'under stimulus control' when presentation of the particular stimulus fulfills these four conditions: the behavior is always offered when that cue is presented; the behavior is not offered in the absence of that cue; the behavior is not offered in response to some other cue; and no other behavior occurs in response to that cue."

When we teach a dog something new, the first thing we look to do is get the behaviour. Once we have the behaviour, we add the cue. Next, we polish the behaviour and fine tune it -- you can also add a new cue to this improved behaviour at this point, if desired. Then, you need to get this new behaviour under stimulus control.

Since stimulus control comes later in the learning process, it's often something that novice trainers forget about or choose to bypass because they're pleased with the behaviour as it exists already. But if it's ignored or only completed part way, you can end up with one of those dogs that throws everything they know at you, ad infinitum, as you reach for the cookie jar. Sound familiar? Some people find enjoyment in their dogs doing this and will reinforce this "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach. If you do, that's fine! However, you may never end up with clean behaviours, or with a dog who eagerly waits to hear what you have to say.

To get a behaviour on stimulus control requires that you go back to the teaching process. Pick one or more simple behaviours and methodically establish the criteria for each cue. This means:

- you want your pup to sit when you say sit
- you don't want your pup to sit when you say something else
- you don't want your pup to sit when you say nothing
- you don't want your pup to do something else when you say sit

Only reward if your dog is performing the desired behaviour when you use your desired cue. If they do something else, whoops, no reward this time, nice try buddy! Try again! If your pup is making mistakes multiples times in a row, or more than 10-20% of the time, the exercise is likely to hard. Try to make it a bit easier on them. Keep these proofing sessions very short and spaced a few hours apart, at least.

You can have fun during this process. You can also take it to new heights by alternating what you're doing when you offer your verbal cue. Spin or hide out of sight or whisper or sit on a couch or work in a new environment to change up the picture for your dog and to further cement the "sit means sit" association in your dog's head. Once your dog has a handful of actions under good stimulus control, he & you should have a significantly easier times going forward in training because he understands that specific behaviours are linked to specific cues and only cued behaviours are rewarded.

Problems with stimulus control are often seen as problems with over-arousal during training sessions. Stay tuned for my next Dog Training Tip O' The Day for some more ideas on how to address over-arousal.

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This was something that was asked as part of my recent call for submissions for dog training tips. Thank you to everyone who asked about it. If you have a question of your own, feel free to submit it here, on this page or via private message. Happy clicking!

Weave poles, trials and tribulations. Days 1 & 2.

First, some background. I'm taking a 3rd-level agility class and Cohen and I are doing pretty well all things considered. (Things to consider: my unathleticism, my disinclination to flail, Cohen's disinterest in tugging in public...) However, we're falling behind in our weaving. Cohen and I never really "got" the weaves when we did them in our last level class, and this class is not set up to accommodate us slow folks still stuck on teaching via the 2x2s.

So, in an attempt to make up the gap I picked up some 2x2s (6 poles) and borrowed Susan Garrett's 2x2 training DVD from a friend. It's recommended that I keep a training journal, so that's what I'm doing.

It's recommended that you not do all your weave training days in a row, so, if there are gaps they're probably equal parts break-taking and laziness.

DAY 1, Wednesday 2 Mar 2011

Building and testing value, poles set to 2 and 8 o'clock.

Since Cohen had already done some 2x2 weave pole training previously there wasn't much time required to build the value. I started out using food as a reward with a marker word readily. Testing the value was successful as well, with a good rate of success.

I angled the poles to the standard 2 and 8 o'clock position and kept my rewards on the reward line. Problem: Cohen will sometimes look back to me after having gone through the gate, not at the reward line. Solution: I need to use the rewards more accurately.

DAY 2, Thursday 3 Mar 2011

Working the arc, adding two more poles.

I thought I might power through multiple steps today since Cohen had done these steps previously. As a result I feel as if today has been rife with frustration.

I attempted to move locations into my back room to have more area to work the angle of approach, but I still did not have sufficient room. Foolishly I also added a second set of poles, giving me even less room. Rate of success in difficult approaches was 50% at best.

For some reason I thought maybe having more room to work would help, so I moved the poles yet again (two sets), this time outside. Because the ground was wet, and because the DVD warned against using food in the grass I opted to attempt to use Cohen's soccer ball as reward.

She was incredibly aroused by the ball, so much so that she lost sight of what it was I was asking of her. I was pleased to find a toy to which she responds so well, but there was no progress to speak of.

The biggest problem is her arousal barking. I feel like this barking was initially developed as a response to the excitement and stress of learning the poles initially (in Agility Level Two) and now this emotional reaction is tied to the training. Sometimes I opt to ignore it, but sometimes it grates on my last nerve. I did not cope well with it today.

I think I'm going to reduce Cohen's arousal level despite Garrett speaking of how important it is. As soon as Cohen begins barking her ability to be receptive to commands and her capability to learn is diminished.

For our last session today I plan to move back indoors, remove the second set of poles, and use food as a reward while I work angles of approach. I feel like this step might be worth sticking with for additional time depending on how Cohen reacts. It is always my tendency to want to push past training the basics to more flashy behaviours, so I'll have to remember to slow down.

The snow, cold weather and wet ground also make it difficult. Weave training really seems best learned outside, but I make due with what I have.

Edit: Later in the day we revisited the process. I was indoors and was working with food. Cohen had a high rate of success with all entries (though being indoors and crowded we didn't have as much room to work as I would like). So I re-added the second set of poles and had greater success. There wasn't one instance of barking. I consider it a success. Tomorrow (or later tonight) will be more of the same. Obviously I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, but I really need to pace myself.