Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, Volume 3, Procedures and Protocols E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 2399

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

The Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training series provides a coherent and integrated approach to understanding and controlling dog behavior. In Volume 3, various themes introduced in Volumes 1 and 2 are expanded upon, especially causally significant social, biological, and behavioral influences that impact on the etiology of behavior problems and their treatment. Ethological observations, relevant behavioral and neurobiological research, and dog behavior clinical findings are reviewed and critiqued in detail. Many of the training concepts, procedures, and protocols described have not been previously published, making this book a unique contribution to dog behavior and training literature.

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Cynopraxic Training: Basic Procedures and Techniques

PART 1: FOUNDATIONS AND THEORY

PART 2: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

PART 3: TRAINING PROJECTS AND EXERCISES

2 House Training, Destructive Behavior, and Appetitive Problems

PART 1: HOUSE TRAINING

PART 2: DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN PUPPIES

PART 3: DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN ADULT DOGS

PART 4: APPETITIVE PROBLEMS

PART 5: CRATE TRAINING

3 Fears and Phobias

PART 1: ORIENTATION AND BASIC CONCEPTS

PART 2: FEARS AND PHOBIAS: TREATMENT PROCEDURES AND PROTOCOLS

4 Separation Distress and Panic

PART 1: NEUROBIOLOGY AND ONTOGENETIC INFLUENCES

PART 2: SEPARATION DISTRESS AND PANIC: TREATMENT PROCEDURES AND PROTOCOLS

5 Compulsive and Hyperactive Excesses

PART 1: COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOR DISORDERS

PART 2: HYPERACTIVITY AND HYPERKINESIS

6 Neurobiology and Development of Aggression

PART 1: EVOLUTION AND NEUROBIOLOGY

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT AND CONTROL OF PUPPY COMPETITIVE BEHAVIOR

7 Canine Domestic Aggression

PART 1: SOCIAL COMPETITION AND AGGRESSION

PART 2: ASSESSING AND TREATING CANINE DOMESTIC AGGRESSION

PART 3: CHILDREN AND DOG AGGRESSION

8 Impulsive, Extrafamilial, and Intraspecific Aggression

PART 1: INTRAFAMILIAL AND EXTRAFAMILIAL AGGRESSION

PART 2: INTRASPECIFIC AGGRESSION

9 Biobehavioral Monitoring and Electronic Control of Behavior

PART 1: MONITORING AUTONOMIC AND EMOTIONAL STATES

PART 2: ELECTRONIC TRAINING

10 Cynopraxis: Theory, Philosophy, and Ethics

PART 1: TRAINING THEORY

PART 2: BONDING THEORY

PART 3: ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY

A Sit-Stay Program

MODIFIED SIT-STAY INSTRUCTIONS

SIT-STAY TASKS

REFERENCE

B Sit, Down, Stand, and Stay Practice Variations

C Posture-Facilitated Relaxation (PFR) Training

BASIC GUIDELINES AND PFR TECHNIQUES

PFR TRAINING INSTRUCTIONS

REFERENCES

D Puppy Temperament Testing and Evaluation

TEMPERAMENT TESTING

TESTING PROCEDURES

SIGNIFICANCE AND INTERPRETATION

REFERENCES

Index

Steven R. Lindsay, MA, is a dog behavior consultant and trainer who lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where he provides a variety of behavioral training and counseling services. In addition to his long career in working with companion dogs, he previously evaluated and trained military working dogs as a member of the U.S. Army Biosensor Research Team (Superdog Program).

©2005 Blackwell PublishingAll rights reserved

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Cover image: “Puppies in Snow,” by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Japanese Edo period. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

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First edition, 2005

The Library of Congress has catalogued Volume One as follows:

Lindsay, Steven R.Handbook of applied dog behavior and training / Steven R. Lindsay; foreword by Victoria Lea Voith.— 1st ed.p. cm.Contents: v. 1. Adaption and learningISBN 0-8138-0754-91. Dogs—Behavior. 2. Dogs—Training. I. Title.

SF433.1.56 1999636.7'0887—dc21

99-052013

The last digit is the print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Preface

A unifying focus of the Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training has been to collect and organize a coherent and integrated body of scientific knowledge with practical and theoretical relevance for understanding and controlling dog behavior—especially problem behavior. The information has been collected from diverse areas of scientific research, including canine evolution and domestication, ethology, behavioral ontogeny, neurobiology, cognition and emotion, and learning. The process of assembling and organizing the information contained in this work bears a resemblance to what E. O. Wilson (1998) has referred to as consilience, that is, an inventive linking together of facts and theory from different scientific disciplines to produce a framework of explanation and novel hypotheses. This eclectic process of tying together data-based theoretical accounts and experimental findings from diverse fields not only reveals a significant interdisciplinary order and unity between them, it also produces an astonishing diversity of new ideas and possibilities for taking a fresh look at the organization and disorganization of dog behavior.

The selection of topics covered in Volume 3, Procedures and Protocols, has been largely based on criteria of practical relevance and value for dog behavior specialists providing professional behavior therapy, counseling, and training services. Various themes introduced in Volumes 1 and 2 are revisited and expanded upon, especially with regard to significant social, biological, and behavioral influences that impact the etiology of behavior problems and their treatment. Although Volume 3 can stand alone for reference purposes, fully appreciating the finer details and distinctions referred to in the text requires that readers be familiar with the contents of Volumes 1 and 2. There is extensive cross-referencing to these previous volumes, especially when a topic covered requires additional background information or explanation not reviewed in the discussion. Ethological observations, relevant behavioral and neurobiological research, and dog behavior clinical findings are reviewed and critiqued, while various protocols, procedures and techniques are introduced and explained in detail.

Advances in neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, and psychobiology are revolutionizing our understanding of the neural substrates mediating emotion, cognition, executive functions (attention and impulse control), and learning. In addition to studying normal function and development, brain scientists have accumulated a growing and impressive body of scientific information concerning the organic and stress-related causes of abnormal behavior. Of special interest are experimental efforts under way to tease out and trace the neural substrates mediating expressive emotional behavior and learning. According to a prominent psychobiological theory of emotion postulated by Panksepp (1998), emotional command systems interact in biologically prepared ways to modulate (inhibit or excite) and shape the expression of motivated behavior. Behavioral disturbances may result from adverse learning or traumatic events disrupting the equilibrium of emotional systems—a theory possessing significant practical value for understanding and treating a variety of dog behavior problems. Panksepp’s quadrant of emotional command systems nicely dovetails with the primary drives traditionally ascribed to dog behavior. Another exciting area of basic neurobiological research that is relevant for applied dog behaviorists and trainers involves work that is tracing the neural basis of reward. For example, strong data suggest that dopaminergic reward circuits are activated or depressed in accordance with the occurrence of positive and negative predictions errors—findings that have far-reaching theoretical and practical implications. The neurobehavioral investigation of expectancy, comparator mechanisms, and prediction error is poised to revolutionize our understanding of learning and the significance of reward and punishment. Prediction and control expectancies, calibrated establishing operations, emotional command systems, and the prediction-error hypothesis figure prominently in cynopraxic training theory.

Vulnerability to emotional distress and stress appears to play a significant predisposing role in the etiology of many dog behavior problems. The ability of dogs to cope with stressful situations is influenced significantly by the type and degree of stress that they are exposed to in early development. Although some limited exposure to stress is beneficial, inappropriate stress and traumatic fear conditioning may produce a lasting adverse effect on the way dogs cope with stressful situations in adulthood. The organization and functional integrity of the brain are strongly influenced by prenatal and early postnatal stress, perhaps predisposing dogs to develop a variety of stress-related behavior problems and disorders. A very active and productive area of brain research has been dedicated to exploring the effects of adverse postnatal stress on the developing brain and behavior. Some of this research has been reviewed in the context of potential factors that predispose affected dogs to develop aggression and separation-related problems. In addition, brain scientists are closing in on the genes, receptors, circuits, and complex matrix of biochemical pathways mediating the learning and expression of emotional behaviors. This research suggests that highly effective and precisely targeted medications might be available in the not-too-distant future for controlling fear-related problems and aggression that currently remain refractory to conventional treatment. Finally, neurobiology has considerable value for identifying putative organic causes of behavioral disorder and the probable mechanisms mediating pharmacological benefits, which is information of considerable value to veterinarians requiring coherent rationales for prescribing psychotropic medications to manage behavior problems. Knowledge of neurobiology and behavioral pharmacology offers nonmedical behavior modifiers insight into the close link between brain function, emotion, and behavior, and provides an improved appreciation of the use of drug therapy in the treatment of behavior problems.

What a dog does, its propensity to learn, the range of what it learns, and the way it goes about learning it are preemptively influenced by biological constraints. These phylogenetic predispositions include both evolutionary adaptations of an ancient origin as well as more recent changes wrought by domestication and selective breeding. Although heredity exerts a powerful effect, the social and physical environment plays a decisive role in the way these biological propensities are expressed in a dog’s behavioral phenotype. From conception to senescence, biobehavioral ontogeny is in a continuous process of change and adaptation, with each stage in a dog’s development affecting subsequent phenotypic physical and behavioral characteristics and organization (epigenesis). Whereas normal and protective environments nurture adaptive behavior, abnormal and distressing environments facilitate the elaboration of various emotional and behavioral disturbances increasing a dog’s vulnerability to serious adjustment problems. In addition to the disturbing effects of adverse early experiences (e.g., prenatal and neonatal stress, early abuse and trauma, and social deprivation), a wide range of disorganizing emotional and behavioral effects are mediated by stressful or neurotogenic environments possessing insufficient order and regularity to promote social competence and adaptive success.

Environmental pressures shape both phylogenetic and ontogenetic adaptations. Dogs are compelled by an ever-present array of internal and external environmental pressures to adjust in various ways. In addition to an assortment of relatively rigid adjustment mechanisms (e.g., reflexes and modal action patterns), dogs are biologically equipped to adjust to environmental pressures by means of behavioral changes organized by learning. Dogs possess sophisticated cognitive, instrumental, and associative learning abilities that enable them to cope with and adapt to complex and variable environmental circumstances. These abilities enable dogs to find and exploit necessary resources (comfort seeking) and to detect, escape, or avoid environmental hazards in the process of doing so (safety seeking). Competent instrumental control over significant aversive and attractive events is only possible to the extent that a dog is able to anticipate and prepare for their occurrence in advance, which requires that the environment possess a certain degree of regularity and constancy with respect to such events and that the dog possess the ability to codify the benefits of experience into a useful and accessible form. The predictive information needed is obtained by means of classical conditioning, whereby contexts and incidental stimuli that regularly anticipate significant events are associatively linked, thereby preparing the dog emotionally and behaviorally to respond effectively. Learning of this sort provides a major organizing or disorganizing influence via the formation of prediction expectancies and preparatory appetitive and emotional establishing operations. Behavior operating under excessively disordered circumstances tends to produce varying levels of conflict and stress (anxiety and frustration), attentional strain and disturbance, impulse-control deficits, insecurity, emotional reactivity and panic, and behavioral incompetence—sequelae often associated with common dog behavior problems.

Just as evolution depends on an organism’s capacity to maintain stability while changing, the optimization of prediction-control efforts depends on a balance between necessity and uncertainty. Whereas evolutionary advances are the results of life and death experiments etched into a species’ genome and transmitted by genetically related individuals to progeny, behavioral adaptation proceeds in accord with interactive experiments consisting of social exchanges and transactions that transmit a collective culture, whereby culturally related individuals and their progeny are able to coexist in relative harmony and security (comfort and safety). Although the attainment of enhanced prediction and control over environmental events is a significant adaptive priority of organized behavior, learning does not proceed by the confirmation of prediction and control expectancies alone, but depends on adjustments resulting from the detection of prediction errors. Logically speaking, well-predicted and well-controlled events routinely produced by the dog do not require that it learn anything else about them beyond what it already knows, at least so long as the situation remains the same. The occurrence of such anticipated outcomes may elicit strong emotions conducive to comfort and safety (e.g., gratification and relaxation) that may incidentally excite or inhibit behavioral output, but it does not produce reward or punishment unless the anticipated outcome is found to be better or less aversive than expected. Adaptive learning depends on environmental conditions that provide enough order to foster reliable predictions together with sufficient change and variety to produce prediction dissonance. Either extreme of excessive regimentation or disorder (confusion) is inimical to instrumental learning. Consequently, given the deleterious effects of either extreme order or disorder, behavior therapy and training activities should be designed to strike a balance between the dog’s need for order and its need for variability.

Chapter 1 provides a foundation of procedures and techniques used for basic training and the prevention or management of a variety of behavior problems. Basic training is an important aspect of cynopraxic therapy, playing a significant role in the treatment of virtually all behavior problems by improving interactive dynamics and establishing a platform of training and conditioning that complements and facilitates the implementation of behavior-therapy procedures. Emphasis is placed on the importance of integrating training activities into the home and bringing the dog under the control of everyday rewards and play—a process referred to as integrated compliance training (ICT). Although food reinforcement figures prominently in many cynopraxic training and therapy procedures, strong emphasis is placed on the pivotal role of affection and play for mediating behavior change via a normalization of human-dog interaction. Play is particularly valued for its capacity to mediate cognitive and emotional transactions conducive to fairness, mutual appreciation, and interactive harmony. In addition to providing means for integrating and elaborating complex patterns of motivated behavior, play mediates powerful therapeutic effects by balancing emotional command systems, enhancing the human-dog bond, and improving the dog’s quality of life. In general, attractive motivational incentives are used to facilitate a perception of control over significant events and enhanced power (competence and confidence).

Cynopraxic training efforts are distinguished by a focus on attentional functions (attending and orienting behavior), expectancies, and emotional establishing operations. Creating a framework of mutual attention and focus between the trainer and the dog is critical for communication, emotional transactions, and the bonding process. Attention control plays an important role in most dog behavior therapy and training procedures insofar as it mediates improved impulse control, social engagement, and autonomic attunement. Focusing training efforts on attending and orienting behavior is extremely efficient for establishing control over highly motivated behavior, especially when it is combined with the activation of potent conditioned and unconditioned appetitive and emotional establishing operations. For attention control to be maximally effective, it requires timeliness, ideally linking orienting stimuli, conditioned reinforcement, and establishing operations with the earliest intentional movements in anticipation of action, the target arc. Intensive orienting and target-arc training with positive prediction error exert a number of far-reaching benefits in the context of cynopraxic behavior therapy, virtually rebooting attentional functions, invigorating the social engagement system, and modifying preattentive biases. Rather than attempting to establish direct control over highly motivated and complex behavior by head-on means, many behavioral efforts are facilitated by first training a dog to orient toward the trainer, to attend (make sustained eye contact) in response to its name, and to pursue deictic signals or commands directing the dog’s attention by gesture and gaze, and then building a small repertoire of reliable basic-training modules and routines (e.g., come, sit, down, stay, and controlled walking) via reward-based efforts incorporating both attractive and aversive motivational incentives. By means of basic training, attention control is progressively integrated with behavioral adjustments incompatible with undesirable activities and gradually unlinks attentional connections with competing sources of gratification and reward (distractions).

Chapter 2 contains foundation procedures and techniques for the control of inappropriate elimination, appetitive and ingestive behavior problems, and destructive exploratory activities. These basic areas of adjustment can exert a profound and enduring adverse effect on the bond and the dog’s quality of life. Dog’s that habitually eliminate in the house or destroy personal belongings may foster a high degree of familial resentment, often leading to excessive confinement, abusive punishment, or relinquishment. The section on house training completes a discussion on elimination problems begun in Volume 2, where several procedures and techniques used for controlling common elimination problems are discussed. In addition to methods used for controlling destructive behavior, various techniques are explored for the management and treatment of pica and coprophagy. The eating of nondigestible items is a significant health concern because it may result in life-threatening intestinal obstructions. Coprophagy also represents a health risk, but the greatest risk of harm is the damage such behavior does to the human-dog bond. Since coprophagy is highly offensive to the average dog owner’s sensibilities, the disgust for the habit is easily transferred to the dog, especially in cases where small children affectionately interact with the dog. As a result, excessive or persistent coprophagy should receive prompt medical and behavioral attention aimed at resolving it, rather than be brushed off as an innocuous canine vice.

Chapter 3 explores the functional and dysfunctional significance of fear together with a variety of techniques and procedures used to treat fear-related behavior problems. Maladaptive fear and anxiety figure prominently in the etiology of many adjustment problems as well as serious behavior problems. Once established, certain fear reactions may become virtually permanent, forming highly durable and extinction-resistant associations with conditioned eliciting stimuli. Dogs exhibiting such phobias are often treated with procedures aimed at reducing fearful arousal while exposure is organized in a way that encourages more effective coping strategies when faced with fear-eliciting situations. These procedures usually involve some form of graded interactive exposure or desensitization process carried out in combination with counterconditioning. Many fearful behavior patterns appear to operate under the influence of faulty prediction and control expectancies. Avoidance behavior occurring in association with fearful arousal may prevent a dog from discovering that its fear is unfounded, simply because the dog does not remain in the situation to recognize that it is not dangerous and that the anticipated aversive outcome does not occur. In essence, since the expected outcome never occurs, the avoidance response confirms the control expectancy. Consequently, response-prevention procedures are often used to block avoidance behavior with the goal of demonstrating to the dog that the aversive contingency no longer exists, thereby gradually extinguishing the avoidance response. Graduated exposure and response prevention are usually performed in conjunction with fear-antagonizing counterconditioning efforts and instrumental training efforts aimed at shaping behavior and expectancies incompatible with avoidance and fear. In addition to dysfunctional or faulty prediction and control expectancies, many common canine fears appear to stem from competency doubts arising in potentially dangerous or risky situations. Counterconditioning techniques are of little value in treating fears maintained under the anxiety and pessimism of competency doubts. In such cases, fear is treated by means of graded interactive exposure in combination with the progressive development of various skills needed to successfully control the feared situation (e.g., climbing stairs). Along with developing competent skills, the dog naturally becomes more confident and relaxed—a potent counterconditioning effect that follows from training and systematic skill development. In addition to social fears and avoidance, many aggression problems appear to stem from competency deficits, whereby the dog enters into provocative exchanges under an expectation of failure. Cynopraxic training enables dogs to cope more effectively with fear through the empowerment resulting from reward-based training. Learning to control the occurrence of attractive and aversive motivational stimuli promotes an improved sense of power that enables dogs to approach situations perceived as threats or challenges with a positive expectancy bias.

Chapter 4 addresses problems that occur in association with emotional agitation and distress at separation. The term separation distress has been chosen over the more commonly used term separation anxiety because the former term seems to capture more accurately the diversity of the emotional causes and varied presenting signs that characterize this collection of behavior problems. Although dogs distressed at separation often exhibit anxiety and worry, they also exhibit signs of frustration and panic, which are coactive states of arousal that likely arise from different causes and that may accordingly require different strategies of control and management. The term separation distress seems preferable to separation anxiety because the former is sufficiently general to encompass a varied group of coactive emotional influences, while remaining consistent with the experimental use of the term, denoting the propensity of young animals to become agitated or depressed when separated from maternal and sibling attachment objects or others with whom a state of reciprocal autonomic regulation or attunement has been established through interactive exchange. Also, separation distress appears to originate in a circuit dedicated to the generation of a special type of aversive emotional arousal associated with social loss, which is emotional activity that is sensitive to a variety of coactive excitatory and inhibitory influences, including anger, frustration, anxiety, and fear. Adopting the term separation distress also helps to distance separation reactivity in dogs from potentially misleading connotations and implications derived from the use of the term separation anxiety in child psychiatry.

Currently, the most common procedures used to control problematic separation distress are systematic desensitization and detachment training. These procedures are discussed in detail. Both procedures are hampered by compliance problems, on the one hand, due to technical and practical difficulties associated with the implementation of systematic desensitization and, on the other hand, stemming from the unwillingness of many dog owners to consistently impose restrictions on their dog’s affection- and contact-seeking behavior. Various protocols emphasizing the importance of secure place and social attachments in the treatment of problematic separation distress are presented. Instead of breaking down the attachment between the owner and the dog or exclusively relying on techniques to reduce anxiety or other coactive symptoms presenting at separation, emphasis is placed on training and therapy procedures that improve the quality of the existing attachment and bond. Essentially, the goal of such training is replace dependent and insecure or nervous attachment dynamics and reactive patterns of separation behavior with a more mature and trusting bond while systematically shaping a more competent repertoire of separation behaviors. These objectives are achieved by means of various behavior therapy procedures, including the implementation of a program of variable and reward-dense separation exposures (planned departures), with the goal of organizing more secure separation expectancies and enabling the dog to endure stressful separations without becoming overly reactive or panicked. Training activities that increase social trust and secure attachments (comfort and safety) are central to the effective treatment of separation-related problems.

An increased vulnerability to separation distress (and aggression) may be causally related to stressful insults occurring at a formative stage of development. To evaluate possible causal linkages between prenatal and postnatal stress on developing behavior, relevant lines of neurobiological research are reviewed, which is a theme that is continued in the context of aggression problems in Chapter 8. Interestingly, separation-distress problems often share with serious aggression problems an element of panic (reactive incompetence) arising in association with social exchanges and transactions that threaten a loss of comfort or safety. Both sets of adjustment problems present with a similar autoprotective urgency, but, of course, operating under diametrically opposed incentives aimed at producing quite opposite effects, yet sharing equally reactive and incompetent means, namely, efforts to increase proximity (separation distress) versus efforts to decrease proximity and contact (intrafamilial threats and attacks). Separation distress and intrafamilial aggression appear to share a common hub of vulnerability and autonomic dysregulation that develops in the process of forming regulative attachments with people, making such problems and their treatment preeminently cynopraxic in nature, and underscoring the necessity of therapy and training activities to reduce social ambivalence and entrapment tensions, promote comfort, safety, and power (security), and secure place and social attachments. Although genetic and stress-related neurobiological factors probably play a predisposing role in the development of many separation-distress and aggression problems, giving owners appropriate counseling and providing at-risk puppies with supplemental training may substantially help to ameliorate or prevent some of these problems. Initiating protective and counteractive measures at an early stage in the epigenetic process is more likely to succeed than belated heroic efforts performed after the problem behavior is well established. Of particular importance in this regard is the provision of secure environmental circumstances, the development of a trusting bond, and training efforts to help the puppy or dog learn how to cope more competently with the periodic loss of comfort or safety resulting from social separation.

Chapter 5 deals with various procedures and protocols used for controlling and managing excessive behavior. Compulsive excesses are under the control of a variety of evoking and exacerbating influences, many of which remain obscure. Dogs prone to motor compulsions are often highly active and intolerant of frustration (choleric or c-type dogs), whereas dogs showing self-directed compulsions (e.g., licking) may be particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of anxiety and depression (melancholic or m-type dogs). One theory suggests that compulsive actions may trigger reward circuits that help to maintain the activity in the absence of other sources of extrinsic reward, perhaps reflecting a failure of the dog to obtain adequate reward in more adaptive ways. Control and management programs frequently include efforts to remove or minimize adverse sources of social (interactive conflict and tension) and environmental stress, consisting of significant events perceived as uncontrollable, while introducing training activities designed to normalize executive cognitive functions (attention and impulse control). Play therapy is often employed to balance emotional command systems, provide a source of reward and gratifying interaction with the owner, and increase object interest and environmental exploratory activities. Finally, a variety of behavior-therapy and training procedures are described for the treatment of specific compulsive behaviors, including diverting or disrupting techniques, counterconditioning, shaping incompatible behaviors, bringing the compulsive behavior under stimulus control, exposure with response prevention and blocking, and, in the case of refractory or physically harmful compulsions, inhibitory techniques.

Impairments associated with compulsivity and hyperactivity appear to represent the opposite ends of a common continuum or spectrum related by functional significance. Whereas compulsive dogs tend toward introversion, repetitive self-directed activities, and intolerance for anxiety and danger, hyperactive dogs are typically extraverted, tend toward highly variable and other-directed activities, exhibit a high degree of fearless (bold) behavior, and show intolerance for frustration and a propensity toward impulsive aggression. Whereas compulsive dogs have trouble controlling autodirected activities, hyperactive dogs exhibit difficulty controlling allodirected activities, exhibiting executive disturbances affecting their ability to regulate ongoing activity voluntarily. These correspond to passive and active modal activities launched to cope with drive-activating stimulation but disengaged from competent prediction-control expectancies, giving compulsive behavior and obsessional appearance. The compulsive-impulsive continuum may represent a significant temperament dimension that has been differentially selected and preserved during the dog’s evolution. Depending on environmental conditions, the traits of compulsivity or impulsivity may be variably adaptive or maladaptive with respect to survival. Traits associated with hyperactivity and impulsive behavior may be conducive to survival under conditions of adversity and scarcity, whereas compulsive traits may be more adaptive and useful under conditions of plenty, suggesting the possibility that phylogenetic survival modes and quality-of-life factors may play a significant role in the expression of such traits (see Phylogenetic Survival Modes in Chapter 10).

The executive attention and impulse-control deficiencies associated with hyperactivity are improved by reward-based integrated compliance training aimed at shaping improved attending and waiting behaviors. Explicit training of attention skills appears to focus and invigorate impaired executive impulse-control functions. As a result of the hyperactive dog’s preference for novelty and surprising events, attention training makes use of prediction dissonance (i.e., varying the size, type, and frequency of attractive outcomes) to build attention and impulse control. Without gaining conditioned control over attention, there is little possibility for effectively and consistently interrupting highly motivated activities, activating antagonistic appetitive or emotional establishing operations, or prompting incompatible instrumental behavior. In addition to attention therapy, time-out, response blocking, overcorrection, and posture-facilitated relaxation training are employed to help discourage behavioral excesses. Perhaps the most valuable strategy for controlling and managing hyperactivity and associated problems is to integrate attention and impulse-control training into the context of play.

Chapters 6, 7, and 8 are dedicated to exploring the etiology, safe management, and treatment of a broad spectrum of common aggression problems. Aggression problems are distinguished by a significant factor of risk and danger to the cynopraxic therapist/trainer, the client family, and the public at large. Calculating and managing these risks in an informed and professional manner is an important aspect of interventions involving aggressive dogs, particularly involving dogs with a history of delivering hard and damaging bites. Assessment, decisions on whether to accept cases, articulation of working hypotheses, selection of a course of therapy and training, evaluation of the benefits of training, and prognostic opinions require that the cynopraxic therapist possess a significant amount of technical knowledge and direct experience handling aggressive dogs. In addition to bringing competence to the situation, the cynopraxic therapist/trainer must be able to convey a realistic picture of the risks involved and the likely benefit of training. The owner needs to be made aware that the control and management of aggression problems is an art that is prone to many uncertainties and vagaries with respect to outcomes, but may nonetheless help to improve the dog’s behavior and reduce the risk of aggression by instituting appropriate and effective precautions, reducing interactive conflicts and tensions, increasing the occurrence of prosocial behavior, and improving the dog’s confidence and ability to relax. Nevertheless, the risk cannot be entirely eliminated, and the dog might bite at some point in the future, despite the most conscientious efforts. On principle, serious aggression problems cannot be cured but many can be successfully controlled by means of preventive and preemptive management, behavior therapy, and training. This limited prognosis is a far cry from what most owners want to hear about the fate of their aggressive dog, but it is something that needs to be driven home with no waffling or exceptions—there will always be some risk for a similar or worse bite in the future. To be successful requires of the family a lifelong commitment to preemptive management and training. In accordance with the dead-dog rule (training objectives should not be guided by assessment markers that a dead dog can satisfy), successful training and therapy are not measured merely by the absence of an aggressive episode for some period (dead dogs do not bite), but more significantly success is measured by an increase in socially competent, cooperative, and friendly behavior in situations that previously provoked reactive incompetence and aggression.

The dog’s dependency on human prerogative and fickleness for obtaining its survival needs places significant pressure on it to learn how to anticipate and control human contingencies of reward and punishment. As a result, social interaction that lacks adequate predictability and controllability may produce significant conflict, stress (anxiety and frustration), and social ambivalence, potentially exerting a persistent deleterious effect on the dog’s ability to organize competent social behavior and trusting expectancies regarding social change. The dog cannot simply leave a disorganized and emotionally destructive situation but is forced to cope and adjust to it (entrapment). Unable to leave the relationship and pressed to the limits of its ability to cope with its vagaries and inconsistencies, the predisposed dog may become progressively agitated, irritable, intolerant, emotionally rigid, and reactively incompetent. Consequently, the process of cynopraxic counseling and therapy is guided by a principle of fairness in which both the family’s expectations and the dog’s needs and limitations are acknowledged and given appropriate weight and consideration when resolving interactive conflicts and tensions that interfere with the development of a trusting bond. Finally, quality-of-life issues need to be carefully assessed and addressed, insofar as they adversely affect the dog’s ability to develop a secure place and social attachments as well as predispose it to increased irritability and emotional reactivity. Dogs that are sick, in pain, improperly fed, inadequately exercised, denied play and variegated forms of environmental stimulation, excessively confined or isolated, and so forth may show signs of increasing irritability and progressive autoprotective insularity and reactive intolerance toward social interference and contact.

How dogs cope with social ambivalence and entrapment dynamics depends on a variety of predisposing factors, including heredity, prenatal and postnatal stress, and the quality of early socialization and training activities. In addition to impairing cognitive functions, excessive emotional stress, inadequate or inappropriate socialization, and abusive-traumatic handling may focalize persistent disturbances in vulnerable emotional command systems (anger/rage system). Potentially serious emotional disturbances of this kind may be produced by abusive social transactions involving the simultaneous elicitation of high levels of fear and anger. In extreme cases, a history of abusive handling may impair a dog’s ability to modulate aggressive arousal in response to even mildly provocative stimulation. Under such circumstances, fear or anger may spark a spiraling and rapidly escalating state of emotional reactivity (panic), thereby setting the stage for an reactive attack arising from a dog’s incompetent attempt to cope. In moderate cases, abusive transactions may predispose a dog to conflict-related stress (anxiety and frustration) associated with close social contact. Consequently, the dog may exhibit an increased sensitivity to anxiety or frustration occurring in association with minor intrusions and losses of comfort (frustration) or risks to safety (anxiety), thereby intensifying autoprotective behavior and increasing the dog’s readiness to threaten or bite. In all cases, a dog’s ability to form a trusting bond with humans is significantly harmed by abusive and traumatic handling. The extent of harm and the type of emotional disturbance that such handling produces depends on a dog’s temperament, the severity of the emotionally destructive transaction, and the presence or absence of reconciliation efforts and ameliorating influences (e.g., supplemental socialization and training).

A failure to establish or to maintain a trusting bond appears to play a prominent role in the development or exacerbation of many domestic aggression problems. The rehabilitation of an aggressive dog is not so much about imposing a structure of dominant and subordinate roles (although the necessity of setting appropriate limits should not be neglected) as it is concerned with the restoration of interactive order and harmony by means of affectionate, appetitive, and playful interactions, with the goal of increasing interactive cooperation, familiarity, and trust between the owner and the dog. The comfort and safety associated with orderly and nurturing interaction serve to increase a dog’s enjoyment of social contact as well as to improve its tolerance for intrusive interaction. In addition to facilitating fairness and friendliness, play appears to enable dogs to cope with social uncertainty in a more positive way. In general, the dog that has formed trusting expectancies toward the owner is more likely to exhibit tolerance and restraint when exposed to provocative stimulation than is the dog that is uncertain or socialized to distrust the owner. Dogs that have formed a trusting bond appear to give the owner (and others) the benefit of doubt when faced with uncertain situations rather than interpreting provocative or unexpected transactions in worst-case terms and jumping to threatening or retaliatory conclusions. In the absence of a flexible and trusting bond, human-dog interaction is prone to degenerate, resulting in varying degrees of persistent uncertainty and suspicion, anger and irritability, distrust, and reactive incompetence. These sorts of social expectancies and emotional establishing operations combine to lower reactive thresholds and increase the likelihood that the dog might threaten or attack in response to innocuous social intrusions. Identifying puppies that show reactive tendencies at an early age or exhibit other indicators of increased risk (low fear and anger thresholds) and providing puppy owners with counseling on proper training and management may protect against the development of more serious aggression problems later.

In recent years, there has been a growing professional use and interest in electronic devices for dog-training and behavior-modification purposes. Unfortunately, scant little technical information has been written on the proper use of such devices in the context of canine behavior therapy and dog training—a situation that is especially problematic with respect to radio-controlled collars. With significant trepidation and concern about the potential for abuse, Chapter 9 addresses the use of electronic devices in the context of problem solving and training. When properly used, such devices and techniques can be highly effective and humane for the control of certain otherwise intractable or difficult-to-control behavior problems. It is the author’s sincere hope that cynopraxic trainers will use electronic devices, and other tools that produce aversive stimulation and startle, sparingly and with an appropriate degree of restraint and respect for the dog and not fall into the trap of reaching for an electronic collar whenever a tough problem presents itself. Aversive tools and techniques can be extremely useful as motivational incentives to promote behavioral change in the context of reward-based training efforts, but they should not become an alternative to affectionate, playful, and creative attractive incentives. Aversive procedures should be applied in conformity with the dead-dog rule (see Dead-dog Rule in Volume 2, Chapter 2), the least intrusive and minimally aversive (LIMA) principle, and cynopraxic goals.

As a philosophy and method for investigating natural phenomena, science is generally a powerful and productive way for acquiring, organizing, and putting knowledge to work. Scientifically informed and coherent procedures and protocols are more likely to work and survive the test of time by virtue of their explanatory value, efficacy (combining simplicity, efficiency, and effectiveness), and adaptability, that is, their ability to continuously adjust and improve in accord with scientific progress. However, despite the obvious value of the scientific method for obtaining descriptive and causal information, the scientific method suffers from a lack of serious regard and sensitivity for some of the more subjective and emotional aspects of human-dog interaction. Interactive exchanges (particularly problem behavior) are not simply factual events but emotional transactions with various levels of meaning and significance that will forever slip through the Cartesian grid. In addition to practical criteria of success, canine behavior-therapy and training procedures must be applicable to the domestic situation, offer benefits for both the human-dog bond and the dog’s quality of life, and be humane. As a result of these special requirements, scientific means are tempered and given humane direction by confining their use to the pursuit of cynopraxic goals and vision.

In writing this series, the author has directed a significant amount of attention toward developing a theory compatible with scientific and cynopraxic interests in order to establish a firm but flexible foundation for the advancement of canine behavior counseling therapy and training. Chapter 10 draws together the central elements of cynopraxic bonding, training, and biobehavioral theory. These theoretical concepts and principles have been discussed and elaborated to various degrees throughout the Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, and readers should refer to relevant sections in Volumes 1 and 2 for additional discussion regarding cynopraxic bonding theory, philosophy, and ethics. The goals of cynopraxic theory are to clarify cynopraxic processes, to develop an account of learning that is compatible with cynopraxic objectives, and to establish a simplified and coherent language for describing organizational learning processes associated with cynopraxic training and therapy. Cynopraxic theory incorporates a pragmatic principle of fallibility, acknowledging the possibility of error in its inferences and explanations, thereby embracing a readiness to adjust in accordance with future scientific progress; however, the dyadic goals of cynopraxic training and therapy are considered indisputable, namely, enhancing the human-dog bond while improving the dog’s quality of life. The study of cynopraxic bonding, training theory, and practice arts is referred to as cynopraxiology.

No compendium of instructions can take the place of competent professional help for properly assessing canine behavior problems and prescribing behavior-therapy and training recommendations. The assessment procedures, instructions, guidelines, recommended devices and uses, behavior-therapy protocols, and training techniques described in Volume 3 assume that the user is appropriately experienced, knowledgeable, skilled, and qualified to apply them in a selective, competent, and safe manner. The proper selection and implementation of behavior-therapy and training procedures require that the behavior practitioner possess a thorough appreciation of their therapeutic benefits, risks, and potential adverse side effects. Aggression problems are particularly risky and problematic and should only be treated under the supervision of a competent professional qualified to give such advice and instruction. Improperly treated aggression problems may rapidly worsen, becoming more dangerous and difficult to manage or control. While Volume 3 offers educational information that may be of significant value to dog owners and others interested in dog behavior, it is not intended as an alternative to professional cynopraxic counseling and supervised treatment activities.

REFERENCES

Panksepp J (1998). Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wilson EO (1998). Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York: Vintage.

Acknowledgments

Writing a book is the culmination of many influences and the help of many people. I have enjoyed the encouragement and support of numerous individuals who have given me valuable advice and inspiration, engaged me in useful discussion, or have simply been helpful in tracking down information or other small matters and details. Listing and individually thanking all of these wonderful people would be impossible and not without the risk of overlooking someone in the process. So, instead of thanking some of you, I hope that it suffices to thank all of you for your unselfish help. I also thank the clients who have entrusted me with the responsibility of helping them work through behavior problems with their dogs. The concept of cynopraxis and many of the procedures and protocols described in Volume 3 could not have been developed without their confidence and participation. A special thank you is due to Christina Cole for her many sacrifices on by behalf and her steadfast support of the project from its inception to completion.

1

Cynopraxic Training: Basic Procedures and Techniques

PART 1: FOUNDATIONS AND THEORY

Benefits of Cynopraxic Training

Specific Benefits of Various Exercises

Orienting and Attending Response

Sit-Stay and Down-Stay

Controlled Walking

Quick-sit

Down, Down-Stay, and Instant-down

Starting Exercise

Heeling

Recall and Halt-Stay

Behavioral Equilibrium

Signals and Communication

Attention and Impulse Control

Interrupting Behavior

Training and Play

The Training Space

Instrumental Reward and Punishment

Control Incentives and Reinforcement

Classical Conditioning, Prediction, and Reward

Prediction and Control Expectancies

Instrumental Control Modules and Modal Strategies

Establishing Operations

Diverters and Disrupters

Directive Prompts and Blocking

Distractions: Extraneous Sources of Reward

Least Intrusive and Minimally Aversive

PART 2: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

Training Tools

Flat-strap and Martingale Collars

Limited-slip Collars

Conventional Slip Collars

Prong Collars

Halter Collars

Fixed-action Halter Collars

Fixed-action and Slip-action Harnesses

Leash and Long Line

Hip-hitch

Miscellaneous Items

Bridges, Markers, and Flags

The Training Session

Play Training

PART 3: TRAINING PROJECTS AND EXERCISES

Introductory Lessons

Bridge Conditioning

Following and Coming

Orienting Response

Attending Response

Targeting and Prompting

Stay Training

Play and Controlled Walking

Clicking and Controlled Walking

On-leash and Off-leash Practice

Walking on Leash

Leash Handling

Leash-training Techniques

Long-line Training

Slack-leash Walking

Controlled-leash Walking and Hip-hitch

Halter Training

Basic Exercises

Starting Exercise

Laying Down from the Sit Position

Sitting from the Down and Stand Positions

Integrated Cycle of Basic Exercises

Stay Training

Stay from the Starting Position

Stop, Stay, and Come

Quick-sit and Instant-down

Go-lie-down

Heeling

Major Faults

Minor Faults

Heeling Square

Automatic Sit

Interrupting the Automatic Sit

Releasing the Dog from the Heeling Pattern

Walking Stand-Stay and Distance Exercises

Recall Training

References

PART 1: FOUNDATIONS AND THEORY

BENEFITS OF CYNOPRAXIC TRAINING

A coevolutionary process of mutual exchange and adjustment appears to have prepared a biological bond between people and dogs making them compatible to live together in the home (see Coevolution, Play, Communication, and Aggression in Chapter 6). The training process helps to perfect and intensify this evolutionary bond while enhancing our mutual appreciation of one another. In addition to enhancing the ability of people and dogs to relate, training serves the obligatory role of improving the quality of canine life under the constraints of domesticity. Learning to come reliably when called or to walk on leash without pulling, along with sundry other useful and critical behaviors, provides an effective and safe means to liberate dogs from the drudgery of excessive confinement and an overly narrow social and environmental life experience. In effect, no activity offers more potential benefit for enhancing the human-dog bond and improving the dog’s quality of life than training (see in Volume 1, Chapter 10).