“The Culture Clash” Chapter 2
Hard-Wiring: What the Dog Comes With (Predatory and Social Behavior)
Part 1
In Chapter 2 of “The Culture Clash,” Jean focuses on the hard-wiring of the dog, and how we can interact with them based on our knowledge. She discusses how dogs have this inert predatory behavior, no matter how many years humans have tried to breed it out of canines.
There are certain predatory behaviors in dogs, including hunting behaviors. Wolf biologist David Mech’s wolf predatory sequence is as follows:
Search
Stalk
Rush
Chase
Bite/hold/shake/kill
Dissect and eat
There are 2 additional behaviors that Jean adds: chewing and food-guarding. “Chewing keeps the crucial equipment, jaws, in good working order through isometric exercise.” Dogs also consume bone as part of their overall diet, and food guarding is natural when food is scarce. Many people think that food guarding for dogs is immutable.
Guarding is not just for food. It can be a toy, a bed/kennel, a cardboard box, or even stolen socks. These all have the potential to create a guarding scenario.
“How do we deal with guarding?” You may ask. You can use “stylized games involving behaviors in the search, stalk, chase, grab, and hold sequence.” This mental stimulation will bring you and your pup together closer than ever. Choices are endless and ultimately come down to your dog’s needs. Experiment here and there, and watch how your dog responds!
Here is a short list of mental stimulation games Jean mentions in the chapter:
Hide and Seek:
For this, your dog will need to be able to remain in a sit-stay while you go out of sight. Put the dog in a sit-stay out of visual contact with the room where you will hide the snack/item. Hide the object(s) and then start the search by releasing them. Prompt the search and even coach the dog if they can’t find the snack/item. Make sure you throw a party for your dog when they find it! Over time, increase the difficulty.
Remember to end only when the snack/item is found: “If you constantly bail the dog out, he will learn that giving up is the most effective strategy, rather than persevering.” Feel free to hide, yourself, and have the dog find you! Do this before leaving the house for a while, having hidden snacks/items around the room/area your dog has access to. This will make your dog love being alone, rather than scared.
Retrieving:
Jean and I share the insight that all dogs love fetch once they have learned properly how to play. There is a long history of under-stimulation when it comes to showing a dog how to love a fetch toy. It’s important to find the spark your dog has when teaching them how to retrieve, and that you get excited when it happens. This may look like moving the toy around a bunch, squeaking it, and becoming animated for your dog.
Unfortunately, the limiting factor is our patience with the dog. Remember to give “unambiguous and enthusiastic approval” when the dog retrieves or plays with the fetch toy. Many dogs have been scolded in their lifetime for fetching items we would prefer they don’t - such as our shoes and smelly gym socks. It can take time to overcome the fear your dog may experience when learning retrieval. Remember to take baby steps when learning how to retrieve.
“Shaping is a technique that involves reinforcing the dog’s best efforts and then gradually raising the standard until the behavior is as you wish.” Many people set a high standard for reinforcement and, in turn, ignore the behaviors we want. Remember, baby steps! Your dog doesn’t need to learn fetch in one training session, and likely won’t. “Timing is absolutely everything in training: if the dog does a reinforceable pick-up and carry, it’s critical this behavior be marked for reinforcement instantly and not seconds later when he may be doing some other behavior.” During this time, delivering food reinforcers to dogs is not always feasible, so the click/word used to show they’re correct will reinforce the dog.
“When you teach a dog to bring something to you rather than guard it or play keep-away, it is an example of DRI (differential reinforcement of an incompatible behavior).” Meaning, when you teach a behavior that is mutually exclusive to the one you’re trying to get rid of at the moment.
There are several things an owner can do to deter grabbing and running, and object guarding. You can provide reinforcement in ways like attention when the dog plays with their own toys. You can also interact with your dog to channel energy outward. You can also keep items your dog guards out of range until you can train them to retrieve and drop. Hopefully, you will also do some object-guarding prevention exercises at home. Making your dog a driven retriever will help manage the keep-away game.
Keep Away:
This is a game to help with retrieval. It’s one you can play inside, where you get excited and say “I’m gonna GET you!” And your dog must pick up their nearest toy and run. Chase until you break, sitting down and not playing again until the dog has brought you their toy. Then, start again! This will bring an end to the laundry stealers.
Tradition training comes with some obvious signs: some sort of special collar is usually used, praise is considered adequate reinforcement, and the alpha/pack theory is thrown around a lot. Sentences that come from owners are “he knows, he’s just stubborn” or “he’s trying to be dominant.”
There are a few, common things that traditional trainers fail to rule out when a dog doesn’t listen to a command:
WHAT: does your dog know what you’re asking and does it make sense in the current context?
WHY: has the trainer given your dog motivation?
OTHER OPTIONS: has the behavior you’re asking for been brooded against their competing motivation?
If all of these haven’t been covered, the dog isn’t trained. Your dog isn’t stubborn, they don’t have a hidden agenda, there’s no spite or rebellion, and no attitude in need of adjustment.
Here are Jean’s top 10 non-compliance excuses for undertrained and under-motivated dogs:
Dominance play by dog
Dog being spiteful from a recent event
Dog stubborn
Dog too excited or distracted
Dog tired, bored, or in wrong mood
Dog over-trained and bored
Breed-related difficulty
Dog under-exercised
Disruption in dog’s routine
Life-phase-related disobedience
Jean points out number 6. “overtrained” as a particularly absurd idea. You’ll see different honest reactions from dogs who are aversives-trained, such as lethargy and paralysis. This is a “result of the installation of behavior with the use of pain and startle.”
A specific aversive application is ear pinching. An example is a dog who must retrieve a dumbbell quickly enough or else endure the pinching of their ear. It can become animal abuse quickly when used by untrained owners in an arena where treats aren’t allowed. It’s still astonishing to see “expert” owners pinch their dog’s ear during competitions and listen to the dog scream “in the name of winning a competition.”
Torture can make any creature submit and obey. For example, Jean mentions the Spanish Inquisition and how they were able to get innocent people to admit they were demons through torture. “Aversive-oriented trainers argue that a dog who is not avoidance trained might - horror of horrors - refuse to retrieve in the ring.” If you use force-free training, “you lose an occasional ribbon and keep your soul.”
Next up: tug of war. For many decades trainers, breeders, and veterinarians warned owners to “never play tug of war… because it risks increasing aggression and/or dominance in the dog.” Tug behavior is far from that, and is actually “like structured roughhousing, it serves as a good barometer of the kind of control you have over the dog, most importantly over his jaws.” This game is an outlet for predatory behavior your dog naturally has. Of course, if it‘s played wrong (hard to do, but possible) it can be dangerous. “It’s good because it is intense, increases dog focus and confidence, and plugs into something very deep inside dogs.” By playing tug, you become the source of a very strong, reinforcing activity that combats under-stimulation.
The dominance argument has little weight for tug of war. “The implication [of dominance] is that dogs or wolves ascertain rank by grabbing the ends of an object and tugging to see who ‘wins.’” That scenario is more of a cooperative behavior than a dominant one.
When playing tug of war, it’s important to let the dog ‘win.’ In other words, you let go, the dog gets excited, and then brings the tug toy back to you for more play. If your dog leaves the game and hoards the toy, it’s often from the owner’s simple tactical errors. Perhaps your dog would like to play chase more than tug. Avoid running after the dog: you won’t win. Instead, turn around and feign disinterest. Once the dog realizes you won’t chase, they will find easily that engaging in tug of war will make you play with them.
It’s important to remember that “the only study ever performed on owners who play tug with their dogs vs. those that do not… yielded zero correlation between regular tug of war games and increased aggression.” Many owners have a hard time witnessing natural animal behavior; such as when dogs become excited and engaged in playing. Tug is a cooperative game, not competitive.
Here are some important “Tug Rules”:
Dog lets go when cued
Dog doesn’t grab the toy unless given permission
Take frequent obedience breaks
Zero tolerance of accidents
If you’re working with a reluctant tugger, don’t give up! They may be worried types, but they can still learn. Praise, praise, and more praise will help! Dish out treats for every small step your dog takes. Food reinforcement works wonders, but don’t forget to take them out of the tug game when ready. Once the dog understands the game of tug, the reward is the tug itself! Allow the dog to get as excited as they want, as long as they aren’t breaking any of the rules.
