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Week 3: Control is a Basic Need

• Science on Control
• More Please Signal
• Premack Principle Overview
• Training: Hand Targeting
• Training: Mark and Move and other Survival Skills (brief review)

SCIENCE ON CONTROL

What is control? An event is said to be controllable if “there is a difference in the likelihood of it occurring depending on an animal’s behavior” (Bassett & Buchanan-Smith, 2007). The whole point of behavior is for it to have an effect. When behavior does something that produces an effect that we like, we do more of it. But even just having your behavior do SOMETHING is important. Control is a primary reinforcer. Take, for example, the studies of infants and mobiles.

The concept of a “natural deprivation” of contingent reinforcement during human infancy was first proposed by Watson (1966). His hypothesis was that eliminating this deprivation would lead to intellectual gains. This would be done by making infants functionally aware of contingencies by setting up situations in which infants’ behavior could be reinforced. In other words, by creating scenarios in which the infants had some control over their environment, they would be “smarter” in some way. It’s learned industriousness, the exact opposite of learned helplessness, and it can have a powerful emotional effect.

In 1972, Watson and Ramey did a study with 10-week old infants. For simplicity, When a baby in the experimental group moved his or her head on the pillow, a mobile above the crib would turn. The babies in the first control group had the same amount of movement in their mobiles, but their behavior had no effect on whether it would move or not. A second control group had stationary mobiles. The experimental group should significantly more head movements by the end of the experiment than either of the control groups. In other words, the movement of the mobile was a reinforcer. More broadly, even 10-week-old babies will work to have some control over their environment, given the opportunity.

Even more interesting is that a similar result holds for premature infants, as well. Sokoff and Cotton (1975 – click for full text) did a similar experiment to the one described above, except that a string was tied to the baby’s feet to produce contingent movement of the mobile. They found that all of the babies, including their experimental group, demonstrated less foot movement over time, but that the control group lost that movement more slowly. That is, because their foot movements had an effect on their environment, they were slower to give it up than the other groups. So while it didn’t fully maintain the behavior as the babies aged, it was probably still a reinforcer.

Here’s an excerpt from the conclusion:

These findings…suggest the importance of artificially creating contingency environments, especially for prematures, whose “natural deprivation period” is much longer than that for term infants. In this way, a group of infants most vulnerable to early stimulus deprivation will be provided with an opportunity to learn that their behaviors can produce immediate environmental feedback thereby creating a more varied and “interesting” stimulus world for them.

Here’s a more recent study by Hains and Muir (1996 – click for full text) on contingency, pointing out that infants pay attention to whether their behavior has an effect. That’s the whole point of behavior, after all, to do something, to make something change.

Infants gazed less at TV-noncontingent than either live- or TV-contingent displays, and there was evidence that noncontingency had a long-lasting effect on gaze. They were equally attentive to both contingent displays, but smiled more to live than to televised displays. An order effect revealed that smiling depended on the nature of both the current and prior interaction.

Deer mice, which tend to avoid bright lighting, will turn off a light if it turns on at regular intervals. But it gets more interesting, as summarized by Bassett & Buchanan-Smith (2007):

Their preference for control appears to override their aversion to bright light, as they will also turn it back on if it is automatically turned off. Kavanau concludes that the animals find it rewarding to exercise a degree of control over their environment. The degree of behavioural control that an animal has over a stressor is also thought to regulate the behavioural and physiological impact of that stressor.

So let’s bring this around to dogs. Dogs aren’t human babies, but if even tiny human babies and deer mice do something, it’s likely that dogs do, too, because we all share the mammalian brain structure. Interpreting the results above for dogs (and, say, looking at all of the research on animals), what it means is that control is a basic need. Not the “taking over the world” kind of control, but the “what I does changes something about the environment” sort of control. By looking at our dogs’ other needs and helping them learn to use their behavior to get those needs met, we are also meeting that other basic need: control.

Want to geek out a bit more? I have some more information about controllability and fear in the “Technical Aspects of BAT” article in the 2014 APDT Chronicle of the Dog. Click to read.

MORE PLEASE SIGNAL

The More Please Signal is a great way to add controllability to your dog’s life. I highly recommend it for anything where you need or want to do something to your dog that is not consistently reinforcing.

Below, I describe the More Please Signal in general and give some specific examples. This part of the lesson is from the Empowered Puppy Raising course. Note: I’d highly recommend using More Please Signals for any husbandry or vet procedures that your dog has trouble with, as a way to reduce his overall level of frustration or anxiety. There are videos on the More Please Signal in the Member Video Library.

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Humans can get an impressive amount of control over dogs by using the various training techniques. Force free training can be applied to all sorts of problems, but it really excels when it comes to teaching the dog to DO something. We can teach them to do showy behaviors that impress our friends. These tricks give the dogs some mental stimulation. They also help us communicate to our dogs, at least in the sense that we can say a cue and they’ll do a behavior. We feel listened to. That’s fine if there is a lot of time in the day for all that training and the rest puppies need, but I’d say a better use of our time during puppyhood is to teach our dogs to cooperate in their own care.

Here’s a video by UK trainer Chirag Patel. He trained his dog, Cody, help make the vet visits go smoothly, from blood draws to checking on his teeth. Notice that Chirag does not open Cody’s mouth using pressure. This is a targeting exercise, where Cody is actually targeting the fingers with the inside of his mouth.

Teaching a dog to actively participate in exercises that help him get used to grooming, vet care, and other daily activities creates a chance for satisfying and useful 2-way conversations. It’s what the best zoos do. My favorite trainers, including Ken Ramirez and Chirag, have been getting the word out to pet owners about how to bring this training into our homes. It fits in well with the empowered puppy raising philosophy and of course I always like to give things my own spin, too.

Let’s say you want to get a dog used to a sound, like a shotgun. It’s helpful to just associate the sound with food by playing the sound and feeding. That’s a popular technique for “classical counterconditioning.” But it’s even more powerful to teach the dog to control the sound, because it gives you more specific information on how you are doing with keeping the dog relaxed during this process (for the trainers: I mean “below threshold”). And control itself is reinforcing, so that’s another positive thing to associate with the sound. This way is a more empowered version of counterconditioning.

We basically teach the dog a way to say “play that sound again.” Let’s call that a More Please Signal (MPS), the canine version of a keep going signal. Pick a behavior that will be your dog’s way to communicate with you, something you don’t mind them doing a lot. Next, get a recording of the sound. You will play it back at a low volume so that it does not scare your dog.

1. Play the sound and then feed a treat (just a quick check that we are at a good volume, where the dog can hear it, but is not scared). Pause and just be boring for about 15 seconds in between. Repeat three times and observe body language. If the dog is scared at any point, reduce the volume by at least half.
2. Use the sound as a marker for the behavior you picked as your MPS. Let’s say that behavior is Sit. Just wait with your treats in your hands and soon your puppy will sit. Play the sound as the marker, then praise and treat. If you do use sit, toss the treat so the puppy is up and ready for the next repetition. Repeat until the puppy is clearly asking for you to play the sound. If your puppy is already very clicker savvy, continue past that to at least about 10 times. Then move to a new place and repeat the activity with a slightly higher volume.

If at any point, the puppy wanders away or does not sit, then you may need to reassess. Possible causes:

• The sound was too loud
• Your puppy just isn’t familiar with Sit being a magical way to get humans to feed her (so be patient)
• Your timing is too slow (she is not hearing the sound right when she sits or chooses to sit)
• She doesn’t like your treats
• You are scaring her with your body language or maybe are praising too loud
• The sound is too quiet, so it’s not marking the behavior
• Your body language is confusing (too active, making her think she is getting treats randomly)

With this way of doing things, versus simply playing the sound and giving her a treat, you get more information and I usually see puppies learn more quickly. I also see people paying more attention to whether they are desensitizing at the right level of exposure. People tend to try to rush things and end up playing the sound too loudly when the puppy doesn’t have a say in the process.

This way also teaches your puppy how to learn from you via marker training. If you are experienced with shaping, you can even double up by shaping a trick using this new marker signal.

Basically anything that we want to do to our dogs can be used as a marker if we think creatively. And while any behavior will do as a More Please Signal, it helps to pick an MPS that is also not obnoxious and is incompatible with behavior dogs normally use to get us to stop. So barking, biting, and avoiding are probably not good choices for More Please Signals.

Examples

Brushing.

Many puppies chew at the brush or bite the human. Targeting a yoghurt lid or a Post-It note is incompatible with that. Targeting the inside of a muzzle is another good More Please Signal for grooming and vet care. But unless you are really, really good at not messing up and pushing too hard, I recommend training the muzzle separately at first. I wouldn’t want to risk doing this wrong and having the muzzle associated with stress. I think all dogs should be taught to love a muzzle, so that if a muzzle is ever needed in an emergency, it doesn’t add extra stress to the situation.

But back to grooming…

Let’s say you have Target as your More Please Signal. Train your puppy to target up to the point of being able to hold her chin or nose to the target for several seconds.

The brushing is the marker, and just like the sound was above. Gradually turn up the intensity of on the brushing as your dog is successful at each step, just like we did with the volume of the sound.

Keep a relaxed and happy attitude throughout. Don’t be super excited or you may cause your puppy to want to bounce around.

I’ll break it into some steps below, but you may need to split things up even more. Your dog may be sensitive to the changes between the steps I’ve written or need more before to get set up. Work at each step 10 times and then pause to prepare yourself with what you will do at the next step. The only thing you will change is the intensity of the brushing during each session. I recommend being in a sort of grooming position before you get started, so you are sitting down at your dog’s level or you have trained him to be comfortable on a grooming table.

Note: If you are an advanced trainer and want to use this to shape a behavior at the same time, you could also for the dog to hold her nose to the target for longer and longer, for example. But then you have a little bit of confusion as to whether the dog doesn’t like the brushing or doesn’t understand the behavior. So I’d recommend sticking with just one set behavior unless you are very sure the dog is comfortable with each step.

• Touch puppy with your hand (hold brush in the other hand behind your back – the touching hand is also your feeding hand, if you are alone, so you may need to let the puppy sniff your hand each time before touching)
• Brush comes out from behind your back, not approaching the dog (allow dog to sniff the brush at any point that she wants)
• Brush moves slightly closer to the dog (however many steps you need to get to the next step smoothly)
• Brush touches the dog (different location each time) – bristles up
• Brush touches the dog (different location each time) – bristles down
• Brush slides along for 1 second (different location each time) – bristles up
• Brush the dog for 1 second (different location each time) – bristles down
• Brush the dog for 2 seconds (different location each time)
• Brush the dog for 3 seconds (different location each time)
• Brush the dog for 4 seconds (different location each time)
• Brush the dog for 5 seconds (different location each time)

5 seconds is a long time for a puppy, so you may want to stick with 5 seconds as your upper limit for a while before you have to ‘feed the meter’ again. Your treats don’t have to just be food. If your puppy enjoys massage, that can also be the treat a good deal of the time.

Try to use calm reinforcers so that you get calm behavior during grooming and vet care. That said, with a dog who truly cannot stand what you need to do, then any reinforcer that she’ll work for is fine. For example, I have messed up nail trimming enough times that Peanut really doesn’t like it. He knows it’s a risky business. But he still happily cooperates with me, putting his paw out for filing, because I toss his toy to him when I have done each nail. We use the same for blood draws.

Do not try to do this all at once! Do about 5 minutes per session. In each session, you can work your way more quickly to the bottom of the list.

Standing on a rug or other object (this is a type of paw targeting) is another good More Please Signal for brushing. As long as your puppy is on the rug, she is willing to trade brushing for treats. If she leaves, pause the brushing. Use the same gradual approach as above.

This is a nice use of the More Please Signal! Nella was one of our Empowered Puppy Raising students. Her mum Katey Aldred made this little video to show Nella’s continued progress.

Video is great for showing us how we can improve even more. After seeing the bit of jumping at the click and the slightly tucked tail, Katey will begin using a release cue as the marker and also work on making it even more “worth it” to Nella.

Nail Filing.

I prefer filing to clipping because I’m less likely to get it wrong. I also think that clipping is sudden and probably feels like being bitten, whereas nail filing is more gradual.

Use nail files meant for artificial nails, as they have the best filing surface. I also use a Dremel tool, because it is a lot faster, but it is also easy to mess up and injure the dog or yourself.

The paw shake is a perfect More Please Signal for nail filing or clipping. You’ll need to get a paw shake with all four paws. Work up to being able to hold your dog’s paw with a grip on the toenail. Grip it tightly but keep it in the natural shape of the paw, rather than pulling the toe back. Holding the toenail firmly will dampen the vibration when you file or clip it.

The process for nail filing is essentially the same as for brushing, but most dogs dislike having their nails done, so be ready to need more steps here. Your MPS can be something like paw-to-hand targeting (front paw) or paw lift (back paw), which you first train with the clicker or marker word, using the steps in the training section below. During clipper training, when your puppy does the MPS, you’ll use the nail file as the marker. Gradually turn up the intensity of the filing using something like the list below. Always watch for signs of stress or hesitation, and make things easier if need be.

Reminder: Do not try to do this all at once! Do about 5 minutes per session. In each session, you can work your way more quickly to the bottom of the list.

• File comes out from behind your back, not approaching the dog (allow dog to sniff the nail file at any point that she wants)
• File moves slightly closer to the dog (however many steps you need)
• File touches the toenail
• File for ½ second (different toe each time, work your way around to all toes)
• File for 1 second (different toe each time, work your way around to all toes)
• File for 2 seconds (different toe each time, work your way around to all toes)
• File for 3 seconds (different toe each time, work your way around to all toes)
• File for 4 seconds (different toe each time, work your way around to all toes)
• File for 5 seconds (different toe each time, work your way around to all toes)

As with brushing, 5 seconds at a time may be the maximum for your puppy. If you choose to clip instead, then work your way up to the clipping in a gradual way as well. For example, you can trim a toothpick near the paw in order to copy the sound of the clippers.

As you can see, this concept can be extended to many things that we need to do to our dogs. For example, we can do the same with cleaning the ears. Targeting a Post-It could be the MPS for that as well, or targeting the cotton ball with the nose. If you have other kinds of grooming or things that must be done to your dog, use the More Please Signal to get cooperation there, too.

Food for thought: What could you use as a More Please Signal for the examination of a conformation (show) dog?

Resources for this section:

Bassett, L., & Buchanan-Smith, H. M. (2007). Effects of predictability on the welfare of captive animals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 102(3), 223-245.

Hains, S. M., & Muir, D. W. (1996). Effects of stimulus contingency in infant-adult interactions. Infant Behavior and Development, 19(1), 49-61.

Solkoff, Norman, and Candice Cotton. “Contingency awareness in premature infants.” Perceptual and motor skills 41.3 (1975): 709-710.

Watson, J. S. (1966). The development and generalization of” contingency awareness” in early infancy: Some hypotheses. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, 123-135.

Watson, J. S., & Ramey, C. T. (1972). Reactions to response-contingent stimulation in early infancy. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, 219-227.

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