Posts tagged "positive reinforcement"

It's not just the Westminster Best in Show 2011 winner, who thrives under praise. Paw Nation interviewed more than two dozen Westminster Dog Show handlers, owners and officials and found that every one we spoke with uses positive reinforcement dog training, in which praise is emphasized and bad behavior is mostly ignored.

The biggest name in the dog world right now, Scottish deerhound Hickory, is busy taking in the adoration and good wishes of not just the fans at the Westminster Dog Show but animal lovers all over the world. Fortunately, she's had good training for all the attention from the likes of Martha Stewart and more. She became the champion she is today mostly because of the guidance and positive encouragement of handler Angela Lloyd.

"Praise is the key to get inside a dog's head and heart," says Lloyd, who believes that dogs respond magnificently "if you are going to show them unconditional love."

Lloyd's mother, Gwen Plush says that her daughter has become a champion because she "bonds with the animals she shows. She understands them and they love her." Lloyd, now 31, has been going to dog shows since she was a child and in 1998 earned the Westminster Show's Junior Showmanship title.

What the Westminster Experts Say
Thomas Bradley, the Westminster Dog Show's chairman for the past 10 years, says that "positive reinforcement has been on the rise for quite some time." Bradley says that, as far as he knows, new methods among elite show dog handlers are all based in positive reinforcement.

Make a Game of It - Westminster Junior Showmanship competitor 17-year-old Sarah Broom has shown her champion basset hound, Castle Hill's Never Too Rich CD, nicknamed Nicole, at Westminster for the past two years. Broom learned to train and handle dogs in the 4H Club and says, "It's better to tell your dog what she does right." Broom makes the long hours of training more fun with games and toys. She believes that positive reinforcement is the best way to properly train any dog, show dog or not. She has also trained Nicole to be a companion dog, and together they help at-risk kids read in school programs.

It's back! If you're a fan of Animal Planet's reality show "It's Me or the Dog," you won't be disappointed with the third season, which begins Sat., Jan. 8, at 8 p.m. EST. If you haven't already checked out the show, tune in to see renowned dog expert and trainer Victoria Stilwell "restore harmony in homes where pets are running riot and the family is in the doghouse."

Stilwell tells Paw Nation that the new season is not just entertaining and educational -- it's intense and full of characters. "It's more than just dog training. There are a lot of challenges in this series," Stilwell says. "There are different behaviors that you haven't seen before and some really great people."

Real Housewives, Pampered Poodles, Angry Pit Bulls and More
One such person is Jill Zarin of the reality television show "Real Housewives of New York." Stilwell comes in to help Zarin with the family's cantankerous Chihuahua, Ginger. (Check out scenes from the segment in the video below.) Then there's the bunch of pampered poodles that live in a Long Island castle and a micro pig that is in dire need of training.

Stilwell's most memorable case though? A family in Staten Island, all living in the same house with a pit bull that started displaying worrying and aggressive behavior toward people. Like most dog training she does, fixing the issues wasn't just about working with the dog but also its owners.

"Some of the people on the show are really honest, and they understand they've just gone down the wrong path, so then it's about retraining the dog," she says. "Other times it is their behavior affecting their dogs in a negative way."

You have a dog you just can't get to behave. Who would you turn to? That seems to be one of the questions raised in a recent Time Magazine article called, "Dog Training and the Myth of Alpha-Male Dominance."

The article stirs up a long-running debate among experts in the dog training and behavior world about what is the best way to work with dogs. Many experts have gone on record against Millan's use of dominance techniques -- finger jabs, quick flicks to a dog's flank and forcing a dog onto its back -- to assert control over an aggressive or misbehaving canine. "He's a charming, one-man wrecking ball directed at 40 years of progress in understanding and shaping dog behavior and in developing non-punitive, reward-based training programs." one expert wrote in a 2006 New York Times op-ed piece about Millan. (Millan will be the first person to tell you that he is not a dog trainer, but akin to a "dog psychologist.")

Victoria Stilwell, the British dog trainer and star of Animal Planet's,"It's Me or the Dog," espouses the positive-reinforcement method of dog training, and the liberal use of treats to coach an ill-mannered dog into displaying better behavior. "She uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans," says the article's author, Jeninne Lee-St. John.

Viewers of his popular show, "The Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic Channel know that Millan is not averse to using a bag of treats to lure a shy dog out of a kennel, for example. But the main thrust of Millan's techniques is based on dominance theory, in which the dog submits to the human.

Experts quoted in the Time article say that this dominance style is based on an outdated study of wolves. That study suggested that the alpha-male wolf emerged by displaying aggression over other wolves and the idea is that because dogs are descended from wolves, humans need to display alpha behavior (or be the "pack leader," as Millan would say), dominating their pet dogs to get them to behave.

What animal lover hasn't daydreamed about applying for a job at the zoo? Or at a doggy daycare? Or tracking gorillas in Africa? We sure have, but since most of us may never actually get to work with the animals we love, we thought we'd introduce you to a few people who do.

Name: Victoria Stilwell
Age: 40
Job: Dog Trainer and Host of Animal Planet's "It's Me or the Dog."

You started out as an actor, walking and training dogs on the side. Why did you move away from acting?
I would go to an audition and come out feeling terrible and I would go to a dog training and come out feeling amazing. I remember thinking, "Someone's trying to tell me something." That was in 2000. I still did a few little acting jobs, but I came off the audition circuit and immediately felt so much happier.

How did you learn your training methods?
I learned from a lot of different people. I studied, I read a lot, I went to seminars and became certified. The whole idea of positive reinforcement has been around for decades.

You come down hard on dominance, or punishment-based training. What's the problem?
I always ask my clients: 'Do you want your dog to follow you because it wants to, or because it fears what's going to happen to it if it doesn't?" I've proven on my show, and thousands of trainers like me who use positive reinforcement prove that you can train a dog much more effectively. It doesn't matter whether you're just doing a little obedience training or you're dealing with the most aggressive animal.