Appendix E

Behavior Matrix
Our Behavior Matrix and the companion key and denitions are meant to serve as quick guides to behavior counseling. The matrix on the following page lists the top 14 challenges faced by owners and refers the counselor to a variety of recommended training processes. The numbers in each cell represent the order of importance for each recommended training process. The answer key and denitions give a quick review of what each training process consists of. These are meant to be used as a reference, in conjunction with the following books: BEFORE and AFTER You Get Your Puppy, Dr. Dunbars Good Little Dog Book by Dr. Ian Dunbar, and Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson. Serious behavior modication problems should be immediately referred to a local APDT dog trainer (see www.apdt.com for a list of trainers in your area).

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Classical Condit. Reward Shaping Extinc.

Operant Condit. Reward Cess. Hand feed

LureReward Counter Condit.

Total Integr. Progres. Desens. Kong Stuff.

Troubleshooting

Total Mgt

New Puppy

2 5 3 3 4
if fear motivated

6 7 2 1 3 3 3 5 5 3 4 3 4 4 6 5 7 4 3 3
if mouthy

4 5 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 3 2 2 2 1 3 2

New Adult

Housesoiling

Chewing

Barking

if fear motivated

Digging

Escaping

Jumping Up

7 6 8 4 3

Leash Pulling

on walk

No Recall

2 2 1 5 1 1 2

Remedial Socialization Biting if L3 or less

if mouthy

Fighting

Fearfulness

APPENDIX E. BEHAVIOR MATRIX

Behavior Matrix Key and Denitions

Classical Conditioning Establishing a positive association between two things. Pairing something the animal already enjoys (food, attention, snifng, playing, access to a favorite toy) with a situation, person, animal, or object that has either no intrinsic value or an established negative connotation to the animal, in order to establish or improve the emotional response to the latter. Example: New pup should be hand-fed by children and men to ensure she grows up to feel comfortable and condent around them. A condent, relaxed dog is less likely to become reactive and/or bite. Example: Fido barks and lunges at other dogs when he is on leash. Whenever a dog approaches Fido when hes on leash, point out the approaching dog and give Fido a high value treat or a favorite toy, and lots of positive attention. Eventually Fido learns to associate the presence of dogs with good things for Fido, and stops reacting negatively. Operant Conditioning Providing immediate consequences in order to change behavior. An increase or decrease in conscious behavior as a result of the consequences that follow the animals responses. Simply put, if a behavior works for the animalthat is, if the animal gets something it likes as a result of its behavior it will exhibit that behavior more often; if the behavior does not work, it will happen less often and eventually disappear. Rewards result in an increase in the frequency of behavior. Punishments, or ignoring the behavior, result in a decrease in the frequency of behavior. Example: When my owner calls me in the park and I respond by coming, she always either throws the tennis ball or gives me a piece of freeze-dried liver, and then I almost always get to go play again immediately. Coming to my owner in the park = a fun game of fetch or a tasty treat. Id better get there in a hurry! Lure-Reward Training Using a desirable item such as a food treat or toy to coax the animal into a desirable position or location. Used as a way to manipulate an animals body without physically touching the animal. Best for initial teaching only, should not become a necessary crutch. Example: To teach the pup sit on cue, hold a lure right in front of the dogs nose and slowly raise it above her head. Nose goes up, rear goes down, and voila! The dog sits! Also works very well for heeling or polite leash walking. www.openpaw.org 249

BEHAVIOR MATRIX KEY AND DEFINITIONS Reward Training Rewarding behavior you would like to see more of, when it naturally occurs. Example: Every time your new dog eliminates outside, or in the proper designated area, reward with a piece of freeze-dried liver. Your dog will soon prefer to eliminate in the spot where he has previously been rewarded for doing so, and will quickly become housebroken. Shaping Rewarding successive approximations of a behavior, increasing the criteria for rewards regularly, until you shape the animal into a new behavior. In other words, start small and take what you can get. Reward the best response you see, even if it is not the end behavior you want to teach the dog. As your dog gets better at 1 level of the desired behavior, begin to get pickier about the response so that you are gradually getting closer and closer to the ultimate desired outcome. Example: The goal is to teach Fido to sit politely when greeting people, but he is so excited that he jumps up and licks faces instead. He is too excited initially to sit still. Start by rewarding a simple 4 feet on the oor, instead of asking for a sit right away. When Fido is no longer jumping up but, perhaps, standing and wiggling happily, then add the cue for sit, and only reward the greetings where Fido sits. Total Integration Teaching the relevance of your request. Nothing In Life For Free: utilizing life rewards (that is, using all of the things your dog enjoys as rewards for desirable behavior, rather than giving them to her for free), using training preludes (short bits of training before doing something enjoyable with your dog, so the enjoyable thing functions as a reward for the good behavior) and, frequently, interludes (briey interrupting enjoyable activities for bits of training, so that the resumption of the activity functions as a reward for good behavior). Example: To increase the value of, and response to, sit, always have Fi sit before throwing the Frisbee for her. Fi loves to play fetch, and every time you throw the toy you are unintentionally rewarding whatever she was doing immediately before you threw the frisbeeit may as well be a behavior you would like to see more of. Counter Conditioning If this is wrong, what is right? Train in an alternative and, ideally, incompatible behavior. 250 www.openpaw.org

APPENDIX E. BEHAVIOR MATRIX Example: Teach, sit for polite greeting, instead of jumping up on people to say hello. Counter Conditioning (troubleshooting) Set up a problem-specic training session. Plan a scenario to teach and repeatedly practice a desirable response. Example: Teach polite greeting at the door with a visitor (a friend whos willing to help you out by patiently ringing your doorbell and entering your house multiple times.) Repeat the visit, doorbell and all, several times in a row, until the dog sits voluntarily when you answer the door. Progressive Desensitization Gradually desensitizing the animal to situations, people, or objects with which he is uncomfortable. We do this by rewarding tolerable approximations of a situation that is stressful for the animal, and gradually increasing the criteria (often proximity) as the animals tolerance threshold rises due to continued positive experiences (classical conditioning). Example: Fido does not like his feet touched. When he is calm and hungry, trade touches for kibble, starting as far away from his feet as possible. As you gradually move towards his feet, increase the value of the reward. As you reach his feet, reward each touch with his favorite food. See The Open Paw Four Levels Training Program Manual for a detailed protocol. Reward Cessation Removing opportunity for rewards as the consequence of an undesirable action. Discontinuing the rewarding factor of an animals behavior in order to decrease and, eventually, extinguish an undesirable behavior. This is usually combined with the introduction of rewards for desirable behavior. Example: To stop Fi from pulling on leash, never move forward while she is pulling. Fi pulls on leash because she wants to move forward and, perhaps, even sniff something. If pulling never helps her reach her goal, she will learn to stop pulling so the walk can continue. Extinction The disappearance of a behavior due to lack of reinforcement. The behavior no longer works, so the animal stops doing it. Remember, if the animal is accustomed to being www.openpaw.org 251

BEHAVIOR MATRIX KEY AND DEFINITIONS rewarded for a behavior, he wont give it up right awayhes going to up the ante several times before he gives up, so the behavior will often get worse before it disappears. This is called an extinction burst. Example: Never reward or acknowledge a dog that is jumping up to say hello. Wait for a calm moment to greet him. If jumping up never gets the desired result (friendly greeting and attention), Fido will stop using jumping as a greeting, because it is a waste of energy. Total Management Managing the animals entire environment in order to control all of the consequences (rewards and punishments) the animal experiences throughout the day. If you control the consequences, you control the behavior. Manipulating the environment to assure errorless learning and to develop desirable habits and avoid the unintentional reinforcement of undesirable behavior. Example: Providing a long-term connement area for the dog or cat to establish housetraining. See Dr. Ian Dunbars Before You Get Your Puppy for the full details on longterm connement. Kong Stufng Stufng a portion of the animals daily ration into a Konga virtually indestructible hollow rubber toy. Kong-stufng teaches the animal to focus on appropriate chew toys and provides mental and physical stimulation to pass the time. See the Open Paw Four Level Training Manual for more details. Hand-feeding Example: Feed the animals daily ration of food by hand, preferably by many people in many situations, rather than feeding from a bowl. Handfeeding allows you to control one of the most important activities in the animals life so that you can use it for training and rewards. This is a very powerful form of classical conditioning.

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