One of the hardest things we face when beginning training is choosing the method in which we will do so. We look to books, television, friends, and family for advice, however, everyone seems to contradict each other. We ask the vet, but depending on the vet each one seems to have a different method they recommend. To find the truth, we must look at the drives that are naturally instilled in the dog psyche and the behaviors we see in the everyday social interaction in natural packs.
Despite objections from some critics who would choose to ignore the facts, dogs really have not changed much in basic behavior from the wild ancestors they were bred from. The basic drives that dogs are born with typically come down to pack drive, food drive, and comfort drive. Pack drive can be recognized by the need for every dog to have social interaction. It is what presses dogs to work together with a common goal; to follow the basic orders of a social hierarchy system. Food drive is the basic instinct to eat for survival purposes. While food for survival might not be at risk for the domesticated dog, it still plays a part in their basic behavior. Comfort drive is the tendency to avoid pain and negative stimuli, or to seek shelter and positive stimuli like physical praise. In most cases these drives are complimentary. Without appeasing the food drive with sustenance, the dog’s ability to be comfortable would be at risk. The food drive subconsciously reinforces the pack drive because the dog’s chances of landing a good meal depends on a successful pack to hunt, find, and/or provide that food. The reality is that without the pack, the other two drives would not have their needs fulfilled.
Now back to that training “stuff,” do we use treats, do we skip the treats, should we be “all-positive,” should we use prong collars and slip chains? Obviously, we can see that in any case, the pack drive is most important to the survival of the natural dog. In natural interaction we see two very vivid clues; dogs give and receive both positive and negative stimuli from one another. In fact, no science based learning exists without four quadrants of learning: positive-positive stimuli, positive-negative stimuli, negative-positive stimuli, and negative-negative stimuli. The first part describes the nature of the stimuli, the second denoting whether a behavior is being discouraged or encouraged by the use of that stimulus. Now, as a pack, we are providing food, so the struggle for survival and its relation to food has already been appeased. We provide shelter, bedding, petting, and grooming, so the comfort drive is at least partially appeased. However, do we truly provide the social relations that our dogs require to be “all they can be?” Sure, they may go to daycare everyday, sure they might have a yard to run around in with their best doggy buddy, but does that make us part of the pack, or them part of ours? Do they go with us where we go to have fun, do they live for the school bus to arrive with children, do they live for the moments that we really focus our attention on them, or do they just coexist in our lives? The strongest motivator we have in the dog’s mind is their desire to be part of our pack and part of our lives. When we apply praise/ positive-attention for doing well, correction for pressing the social limitations and boundaries, and a goal to make the dog a part of our life in as many aspects as possible, we create a dog that works with our lives. When we throw the dog outside to avoid potential problems, leave the dog at home because it’s just too much hassle to take them with us, and don’t make an effort to build a solid relationship with our dog(s), our dogs make their own jobs, create their own lives, and make their own rules. Now we have a system that works: Food drive as it relates to survival is appeased, comfort is balanced with both needs met and positive and negative feedback from us at appropriate times, and the pack is acting like a family, like a team, like a working partnership for the same goal. This doesn’t mean treats don’t have a place in training, but training shouldn’t be about or dependant upon them. Perhaps we choose so often to base our training on them because we see it as more convenient than making an effort to build a good relationship with our pets.
Jonathan Brinkley
Puppies and their owner's learning together at Puppy Kindergarten
