Sorry for the absent of Blog updates this Spring......

*I have been busy teaching 18 classes a week at Poetic Gold Farm in Falmouth, Maine
*Taken on the role as head trainer for the Pets For Vets Program for the state of Maine 2014
*Managing 10-12 in home private sessions per week
*Maintain training of my own 4 dogs
*Manage a relationship with my 3 teenagers, 2 home from college
*Focused on my 17 year old daughter's emotional high school softball season
*Most importantly celebrated 25 year wedding anniversary to my wonderful husband

As I write this I am in Newport, RI for the SPRCS initiative conference which stands for the Society for the Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science.  My brain is swirling with new concepts I want to share with my clients in the areas of temperament testing, breed differences, learning theory, canine body language, agonistic signals, motivational tools, small dog syndrome and much much more!

For those of you interested in June 28th, classes held in Falmouth, I do have just a few spots in the following:
9 am Family Dog I
10 am Family Dog advanced
11 am Controlled Unleashed

Best,
Judy

New Class Schedule for June......

Class Schedule

Here's my upcoming class schedule!  

Spring Seminars:
May TBD Surviving Canine Adolescence at Poetic Gold Farm, Falmouth ME
July 27th Canine Communication, Dog to Dog at It's A Dogs World, York ME

All classes listed below are taught by Judy Moore,
Associate Certified Dog Behavior Consultant


No Classes will be held on the following dates:
Wednesday, May 14, 2014

AKC Star Puppy  Class (6-Weeks) $140

• 8 AM Saturday's beginning April 19th, at Poetic Gold Farm
• 8 AM Saturday's beginning June 28th, at Poetic Gold Farm

Family Dog (basic obedience) (6-Weeks) $140

• 6 PM Wednesday's beginning April 30, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 9 AM Monday's beginning April 28th, at Poetic Gold Farm FULL
• 5 PM Monday's beginning April 28th, at Poetic Gold Farm  FULL
• 9 AM Saturday's beginning May 3rd, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 9 AM Monday's beginning June 9th, at Poetic Gold Farm
• 5 PM Monday's beginning June 9th, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 6 PM Wednesday's beginning June 11th, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 9 AM Saturday's beginning June 28, at Poetic Gold Farm 

Family Dog Advanced (distance control/ recall) (6-Weeks) $140

• 10 AM Monday's beginning April 28th, at Poetic Gold Farm
• 5 PM Wednesday's beginning April 30th, at Poetic Gold Farm
• 10 AM Saturday's beginning April 19th, at Poetic Gold Farm FULL
• 10 AM Monday's beginning June 9th, at Poetic Gold Farm
• 5 PM Wednesday's beginning April 30th, at Poetic Gold Farm
• 10 AM Saturday's beginning June 28th, at Poetic Gold Farm

Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Certification (6- Weeks) $140

• 11:30 PM Wednesday's beginning April 16th, at Poetic Gold Farm
• 11:30 PM Wednesday's beginning June 11th, at Poetic Gold Farm

Outdoor Adventure (6-Weeks)  - getting reliable behaviors away from home $150

• 12:30 Monday's beginning April 14th, at Poetic Gold Farm (full)
• 1:30 PM Saturday's beginning April 19th, at Poetic Gold Farm (full)
• 12:30 Monday's beginning June 9th, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 1:30 PM Saturday's beginning June 28th, at Poetic Gold Farm 

Control Unleashed  (6-Weeks)  - increase dogs focus and confidence $150

• 11 AM Monday's beginning April 14th, at Poetic Gold Farm (full)
• 6 PM Monday's beginning April 14th, at Poetic Gold Farm (full)
• 12:30 PM Wednesday's beginning April 16th, at Poetic Gold Farm (full)
• 11 AM Saturday's beginning April 19th, at Poetic Gold Farm (full)
• 11 AM Monday's beginning June 9th, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 6 PM Monday's beginning June 9th, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 12:30 PM Wednesday's beginning June 11th, at Poetic Gold Farm 
• 11 AM Saturday's beginning June 28th, at Poetic Gold Farm 

Human Directed Aggression (6-Weeks) T.A.C.T. Program $150

• 7:00 PM Mondays beginning April 14th, at Poetic Gold Farm (very full)
• 7:00 PM Mondays beginning June 9th, at Poetic Gold Farm

Frustrated Greeters / Behavior Adjustment Training  $150

• 7 PM Wednesday's beginning April 30th, at Poetic Gold Farm (1 spot left)
• 7 PM Wednesday's beginning June 11th, at Poetic Gold Farm

Poetic Gold Farm 7 Trillium Road, Falmouth, ME 04105 

• Please drive slowly entering Lady Slipper as well as on Trillium (continue on gravel road) 
• Registration fees paid directly to Canine Behavior Counseling, LLC

No Classes will be held on the following dates:
Wednesday, May 14th 2014

Easter Break

Happy Easter!!

No classes April 21st through April 25th at Poetic Gold Farm or Tender Touch as many of my clients are out of town on Spring Break and visiting family.

See everyone back this Saturday April 26th.

Best,
Judy

Positive Reinforcement Training is Best

Interesting study reported in Psychology Today. I am not surprised by the findings — just further confirmation of my Training approach. Judy Moore

The Effect of Training Method on Stress Levels in Dogs | Psychology Today

The Effect of Training Method on Stress Levels in Dogs

Discipline-based training increases stress levels in dogs.

At a dog training seminar that I attended recently I found myself engaged in a familiar conversation, namely the effect of various types of dog training methods on the behavior of pet dogs. Nowadays the line seems to be drawn between two camps, one advocating "positive dog training" (which uses rewards such as food and play) versus "discipline-based training" (which incorporates slip collars and leash tugs and other physical interventions to enforce compliance).

To give you a bit of a technical background, in reality there are only four methods that are used to teach dogs the kinds of tasks and behaviors that we humans are interested in having them learn. The first is called positive reinforcement, where the term "reinforcement" refers to anything that increases the likelihood that the dog will repeat a behavior. The "positive" refers to the fact that we give the dog something that he wants, like a treat. The second method is called negative reinforcement, where the "negative" refers to taking something unwanted or annoying away, so for example, if you pull up on the leash causing a choke chain to tighten and push down on the dog's hindquarters while you tell him to sit, the negative reinforcement comes when the dog goes into the sitting position you take away the pressure around his neck and on his lower back. The other two methods involve punishment. A punisher is anything that reduces the likelihood that a dog will repeat a behavior. Positive punishment refers to the fact that when a dog does something which we don't want him to do we apply something the dog doesn't like, which could be a slap or a loud reprimand. Negative punishment involves taking something that the individual wants away from him. A human example would be if the child acts out the dinner table he doesn't get dessert when everybody else does. Positive dog training is almost always based on positive reinforcement, while discipline-based training uses a combination of negative reinforcement and positive punishment.

Prior to the mid-1940s, most dog training was done using discipline-based training, since most of the early training models came from military dog trainers who had the idea that a dog should be trained using the same kind of discipline-based procedures that were used for human recruits. The change toward more positive training came about because of a series of books written by Blanche Saunders. Although by today's positive training standards she was still a bit harsh, she clearly recognized the value of rewards and was much softer on her canine students than most trainers before her. Over time, positive dog training has come to dominate the canine training scene, following much along the model of the techniques used by Ian Dunbar and others. However over the past few years, due to the influence of certain high profile dog trainers who have popular television series like Cesar Millan, discipline-based training has begun to gain in popularity.

One of the people in the group that I was speaking with insisted that discipline-based training procedures should not have been abandoned, and that no real proof exists showing negative effects on dogs. She complained that there was a bias among canine researchers, who she referred to as "foodies" since they usually reward the dogs with a stream of food treats. "Just because we live in a kinder and gentler world doesn't mean that we can't teach a dog that when he does something we don't like it has negative consequences," she said. "Properly applied, by people who know what they're doing, there's nothing wrong with negative reinforcement or a little bit of punishment. The problem is that most researchers and the people they get to train the dogs they test probably don't really believe in discipline-based training, and so they either overdo it, or don't work as hard at using it properly."

As luck would have it I had just finished going over an article that was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior* that directly dealt with this issue. It was done by two French researchers, Stéphanie Deldalle  and Florence Gaunet who wanted to test the effect of the two training styles. They wanted to use the most naturalistic setting that they could find, and to collect data based on observation rather than upon changes in blood chemistry or heart rate or other invasive procedures. What they did first was to attend a number of dog training classes in their vicinity and observe the training procedures that were used. In the end they selected one class which used positive dog training methods almost exclusively and contrasted it to another dog training class which used discipline-based methods (mostly negative reinforcement). They reasoned that the instructors in both of these classes were teaching their students using the method that they favored because, as trainers, they believed it was the most efficient system and would produce the best results.

Once the classes were selected, dog and owner pairs were brought in and tested on familiar exercises such as heeling and sitting on command. There were 26 dogs trained using discipline-based procedures and 24 using positive training. The researchers were not looking at actual learning performance, but rather were measuring the amount of stress that dogs appeared to show when performing their learned exercises. They used easily observable behaviors associated with stress, such as mouth licking, yawning, scratching, sniffing, shivering, whining, low posture, attempts to run away, and whether or not the dog avoided making eye contact with their handler.

The results were rather straightforward. If we simply look at whether a dog showed any of the stress related behaviors we find that 65% of the discipline-based trained dogs showed at least one such sign, as compared to only 8% of the positively train dogs. For some selected behaviors the differences were quite striking, such as in mouth licking (38% discipline; 8% positive), yawning (23% discipline; 0% positive), and low posture (46% discipline; 8% positive). One of the results which I found most interesting had to do with whether or not the dog looked at the owner's face. Both humans and dogs have a tendency to avoid looking at things that raise their stress levels or make them uncomfortable, so the fact that only 38% of the discipline trained dogs looked at their owners faces as compared to 88% of the positively trained dogs seems telling.

This is a small study, but because it is done using actual class trained pet dogs and instructors who believe in their particular training method, it is quite interesting. It seems to be just one more study that suggests that using punishment and negative reinforcement can produce potentially harmful and unwanted emotional changes in dogs. For additional findings on similar topics click here or click here.

Stanley Coren is the author of many books including: The Wisdom of Dogs; Do Dogs Dream? Born to Bark; The Modern Dog; Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? The Pawprints of History; How Dogs Think; How To Speak Dog; Why We Love the Dogs We Do; What Do Dogs Know? The Intelligence of Dogs; Why Does My Dog Act That Way? Understanding Dogs for Dummies; Sleep Thieves; The Left-hander Syndrome

 Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission

* Data from: Stéphanie Deldalle & Florence Gaunet (2014). Effects of 2 training methods on stress-related behaviors of the dog (Canis Familiaris) and on the dog-owner relationship. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 9, 58 – 65.

How to Raise a Dog Friendly Puppy

 This is an example of an email I receive from distressed puppy owners several times per month....

"My dog was taken to the dog park at least 6 times a month during the first 7 months of his/her life, in addition to daily interactions with dogs we let him play with all the dogs on the beach!  Once he/she turned 10 months old he/she started becoming aggressive with large pushy dogs or any dog who challenged him/her. He/she can get along with some smaller dogs depending on that dog.  My dog has two adult dogs that he/she has known since he/she was 8-10 weeks old that he/she gets along GREAT with." 

Will your puppy be exposed to being pushed around by rough adolescent 

dogs?  Is it true aggression breeds more aggression?  Do you know who your dog is playing with now and what that friend is teaching your dog?  Is it true a puppy can be over socialized?

As a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant I am swamped with dog aggressive dogs who owners all report they were fine when they were puppies.

All of these dogs who were once dog friendly have one thing in common....they have experienced bully behavior through social learning.

Ask anyone who has raised a puppy and allowed that pup to play with other young puppies

Henry and Nell clearly express their
intentions to engage in mutual play.

in a supervised class or the neighbors friendly dog or their family members friendly dog and they will tell you that their dog has remained friendly.  They have never encouraged their pup to play in large packs of rough adolescent canine play.  As a bonus, these puppies leash manners are wonderful as they are not use to being able to pull their owners to every dog they see.

If I get a puppy next year which is a strong possibly, I will make sure I know who my pup is playing with and I will observe this play so my puppy does not become too confident and begin being a bully to other dogs.  I will absolutely allow my dog the joy's of playing, however with only very friendly dogs that I know and if he/she begins to be too pushy, I will step in immediately to lower the arousal, even if I have to step in many times during the same play session so it does not become over the top or rough.  Practiced behaviors become strong habits, let's make sure our dogs are practicing good habits each day so they remain dog friendly.

Seek out a friend with a very social dog and slowly introduce them by taking a 30 minute walk near each other.  After this long walk, you should have a good idea if both dogs are interested in interacting or not. My Outdoor Adventure Class give owners a safe place to allow their dogs to play while being supervised.  Often members of class exchange numbers and meet outside of class knowing that arranging play dates will keep their dogs play skills appropriate.