Why is it necessary to include correction for chase behaviours? Wouldn’t it be beautiful if it were possible to stop (extinguish) a pre-formed chase behaviour (predatory sequence) with reward alone? Believe me, if it could be reliably achieved, I’d be the first to do it – In fact, I’d do nothing else! Unfortunately however – It is not possible – And there is a very good reason why not … **In order to stop (extinguish) an existing behaviour, the trainer/owner must remove the reinforcing aspect of it; consistently.** Now in respect of chase behaviours (let’s say towards cats), the most common misinterpretation of what is actually occurring (and so consequently the most incorrect trainer response) is to form the assumption that the ‘cat’ Is reinforcing the chase – That the dog wants to catch the cat. So … In line with ** above, many trainers recommend one of the following courses of action: Don’t let the dog near cats! Don’t let the dog off lead. Be vigilant and build a stronger recall. Teach the dog that cats represent an opportunity for reward – known as training an incompatible behaviour Put ‘chasing’ on cue (under stimulus control) – ie, teach the dog ‘chase’ – ‘No chase’ Basically, a mixture of advice ranging from the unbelievable to the unachievable! Management (no’s 1 and 2) ought to flash as a warning beacon for a trainer who does not know how to address the situation. No 3 is sound advice (anyway), but does not address the actual issue, and No’s 4 and 5 are indicative of a psychology academic who is unable to demonstrate their advice in practise! The cat is not the reward and so the cat does not reinforce the chase. If this were the case, then the fact that the dog rarely (if ever) catches the cat would soon put an end to the behaviour, after all, what’s rewarding about something you never attain? The chase is the reward, and so it is the chase which in turn reinforces the chase. The chase is intrinsically rewarding, dogs love to perform it simply because they love to perform it; the cat is simply the trigger. This is known as the ‘sign stimulus’ – basically a trigger which then trips an internal sequence (neurological and chemical reaction) causing the external (physical) behaviour pattern – the chase! This sequence (known as a Fixed Action Pattern) is ‘hardwired’ – It is genetic. Because it is a behaviour ‘chain’ essential to individual survival (as well as the furtherance of the species), the chase sequence carries its own (inbuilt) rewards; it is self-reinforcing. This being the case, chase behaviours are extremely resistant to extinction. Contrary to virtually every cat-chasing owner’s proclamations – “Your dog does not hate cats”!! – It is simply the case that for your dog, a cat ‘flips the switch’. So how do we remove the reinforcing capacity of a self-reinforcing behaviour? There is only one reliable way in which to achieve this aim and that is to make an expected rewarding behaviour; aversive. In other words, make a good feeling; bad. BUT …. We would only do so in response to a specific trigger (cats), whilst simultaneously rewarding the avoidance of cats with the reward opportunity of chasing something acceptable – a ball, a Frisbee, rabbits and so forth, or something else of importance to the dog. In doing this, we still allow the expression of the ‘natural’ behaviour, but we effectively ‘reassign’ the cat from ‘trigger-status’, to ‘avoidance-status’. This new status needs to be consistently experienced in response to various cats in various locations to facilitate a lasting replacement of the former response. Something to think on – post your replies to the following … Consider this … A guy, for whatever reason is attracted to brunettes, blondes or reds do nothing for him. He has a history of rewards with brunettes but that aside, he cannot explain why he is only attracted to them. He doesn’t dislike non-brunettes, he just does not find them in any way attractive. So now we decide that we wish to make women with red hair more attractive than brunettes for our man. We want him to actively avoid brunettes. How would you suggest we go about it? :-)
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 18:55:30 +0000
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