Canine Behaviour & Training

1. Canine Behaviour & Training Ways of Explaining Behaviour 13th October 2012

2. Ways of Explaining Behaviour Session 1

3. What is a ‘behaviour’?

4. What is a ‘behaviour’? A behaviour is a response to an internal or external stimuli

5. “Behavioural Stimulus” • Stimulus=Trigger • Stimulants stimulate= the 5 senses • Animal Responds to stimuli through voluntary or involuntary effecter muscle contraction • Senses and effecter muscles controlled by nervous system

6. What is ‘psychology’? A relatively new science ( about 130 year old) Difficult to define “Psychology simply cannot be defined…psychology is what scientists and philosophers have created to try understand the minds and behaviours of various organisms.” (Penguin Dictionary)

7. What is ‘psychology’? Psychology is the study of the mind (so animal or dog psychology is the study of animal/dog mind!)

8. How have we found out about dog psychology? Adapted (and modified) the findings of research with humans (dogs have also helped with human research) This is known as “comparative psychology”

9. For the purpose of this course Canine Psychology is: The study of the behaviour and some of the reasons why the behaviour has taken place

10. Ethology The study of behaviour. Concepts of Ethology have changed over time as have people’s ideas about behaviour, how animals learn & ‘the mind’ have changed

11. Learning & the mind Greek Philosophers-Learning was about finding ‘truth’…animals though could no even feel pain! Socrates Plato Aristotle (469-399BC) (427-347BC) (384-322BC) Dialectism Rationalism Empiricism Discovering truth Discovering Discovering through truth through about the conversation self-reflection world around by using senses

12. Learning & the mind • Roman Philosophers- • Learning was about developing skill • Roman Catholic Church • (500-1500AD) • Memorisation • Recitation • Transmission • based Learning

13. Learning & the mind • Renaissance Philosophers- (1400-1500AD) • Learning was about: • Exploration • Freedom of thought (Humanism) • Thinking and understand ideas • Influential figures at this time: • Copernicus (1473-1543) • Martin Luther (1483-1546)

14. Learning & the mind • Renaissance Philosophers- • (1500-1700AD) • Influential figures at this time and their ideas: • Descartes (1596-1650): Revival of Plato’s ideas of innate knowledge, defined reflex action (early nature approach) • Locke (1632-1704): Revived ideas of Aristotle that the mind is a blank canvas to be shaped by environment (nurture approach) • Rousseau (1712-1778): Presented ideas of shaping that occurs through experience of things around (nurture) • Kant (1724-1804): Extended Plato’s rationalist theory to include a ‘prior’ knowledge which can be built on with experience (interactionalist)

15. Learning & the mind Psychology based learning- (1800-1900AD) Scientific approaches Thorndike Pavlov Skinner (1874-1949) (1849-1936) (1904-1990) Stimulus Response Learning by Trial and Error Association association. Outcomes and with trial and error Natural responses consequences (an impulse reaction) and learnt responses And more recently things like IQ and intelligence have become more of interest

16. The effect of biology of behaviour • Inheritance of Traits (Genes) • Behaves way of dam or sire • Instinctive Behaviours (that of the specie) • Innate behaviours (that of the breed) • Known as:Nature approach

17. Inherited Traits=characteristics • Physical • Physiological • Behavioural (as brain is an organ also)

18. Genetic Predispositions (the likelihood of being sufficiently motivated to) digging killing vermin herding trekking scent guarding

19. The effect of biology (non-inherited)-internal stimuli • Pain • Hunger & Food given (e.g allergies) • Thirst • Hormones • Disease

20. Instinctive & Innate Behaviours

21. Instinct • “Natural Motivation to specific behavioural performance” • Occurs as part of a fixed action pattern I.e one stimulus triggers a behaviour and that behaviour (along with stimulus) triggers next • Instinctive Behaviours link to survival (although all behaviours do!) • Examples of Instinctive Dog Behaviours:

22. Instinctive Dog Behaviours • Lick offspring • Find teat • Suckle • Perform certain communication? (appeasing gestures, barking, scenting..) • Chewing • Reproducing? Some times it is hard to tell if behaviours are purely Instinctive or part learnt.

23. Innate Dog Behaviours These are what are often seen as breed traits and relate to the breed groups dogs fit into: • Guarding • Herding • Trekking • Chasing • Capturing • Retrieving

24. How the breed groups developed Guarding = working dogs people started keeping stock Food Source herding =pastoral(humans got sense!) companion= toy + utility Hunting human hunting methods developed treking retrieving chasing+capturing hounds gundogs hounds+ terriers

25. In training we link the innate behaviours to ‘desires’ (or more commonly referred to as motivations) and use dogs motivational preferences to encourage learning and to effectively reward

26. NEED desires= • NEED reward= • WANT desire= • WANT reward= • LIKE desire= • LIKE reward=

27. So, instinctive behaviours relate to survival and reproduction (caring for young, hunting (or parts there of), communication to work co-operatively and prevent conflict. Some instinctive behaviours relate to the ‘fight and flight’ responses which are initiated by the sympathetic involuntary nervous system.

28. The Nervous System • Central and Peripheral Nervous System • Autonomic (involuntary) vs Somatic (voluntary) • Sympathetic vs Parasympathetic

29. The Autonomic Nervous System is further divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous responses. The parasympathetic responses are normal functioning responses maintaining homeostasis (natural balance) whilst the sympathetic controls the important flight/flight response seen in animals and humans. The diagram summarises the divisions.

30. Nervous Reflexes Reflex Arc- Involuntary Peripheral Nervous Response

31. Involuntary Nervous responses cause… • Flight, Fight and Freeze Responses • All animals have flight and fight responses. These are behavioural responses that come as a result of an influx of adrenaline around the body, and the response of the sympathetic nervous system to a potential danger or threat. • The involuntary response to run or fight back is present in all animals including humans, as it is necessary for survival. Most animals will choose flight over fight as fighting is costly. • The degree of flight or fight and the option chosen at that time will depend on various factors including: • ·Genetic programming (“flightiness”) • ·Experience, training, socialisation and habituation of the animal (if the animal can recognise quickly that there is nothing really to fear) • ·Health and fitness (if it has the ability to flee or defend) • ·Escape option (can it get away) • ·Resources of value (if there is something worth protecting other than itself e.g food, offspring) • An alternative option is Freeze, known as Tonic Immobilisation

32. Level of behavioural response dependant on: • Genes (personality) “flightiness” • Experience (socialisation & habituation) • Habituation • Escape options • Resources Can we over ride instinctive behaviours? In human personality types those of higher neuroticism find themselves easily upset or nervous from minor stressors, they have low activation thresholds (i.e can’t tolerate much arousal) and are unable to prevent or control emotional reactions. On the other hand very stable (low neuroticism) people have much more emotional control, calm and controlled under pressure. The same may appear in dogs as an element of ‘nature’ (and possibly nurture)

33. Yes! with learning through training (voluntary nervous system) • If we assume all behaviour is due to genes or biology (including instinct) then we have a problem, in that in a similar way to physical characteristics we won’t be able to change them

34. The effect of learning on behaviour (behaviourists school of thought) • Performs behaviour as a result of environment (external stimulus) • Behaviours are learnt (from dam, sire or siblings) • Comes from own experience • Nurture approach

35. External Stimuli • Temperature • Light intensity • Other animals and people • Novel & Learnt Stimuli

36. Learning (in brief) • Socially • By Association • By trial & error e.g puppy steal bone from adult…growl followed by snap, to avoid snap get away as growl heard, growling and snapping are frightening, keep away with adults from bones.. This might be learnt through one trial learning. (but also associative learning occurring)

37. Combined effects • Interactionist Approach Relationship between nature and nurture

38. Cognition Mental processes such as thinking or the ability to work things out in one’s head. Cognitive abilities of animals have always been questioned; Aristotle decided that although animals could learn and remember only people were really capable of thinking.

39. Emotions An area where human and canine mental processes are compared and show both similarities and differences is emotions. Scientifically one should be cautious in make the comparisons so not to be Anthropomorphic.

40. Anthropomorphism Caution should be used when talking about emotions e.g “happiness” in animals including dogs. To be ‘happy’ is an emotional state, just as it is to be ‘sad’ or ‘bored’. We do not know for a FACT that dogs experience these emotions in the same way we do. Physiological responses can be linked to emotional feelings such as release of oxytocin and endorphins, adrenaline and cortisol. To attribute human emotions to animals is considered Anthropomorphic, and although may be suitable for anecdotal speech has no scientific grounding.

41. Describing Emotions Since the time of Aristotle understanding of animal and canine mind has moved on, physiological evidence suggests similarities in some parts of the brain that are involved with emotion, but in the case of the dog this part is much smaller as more brain is dedicated to sensory perceptions. Although recent research suggests animals have consciousness (self awareness), their ability to feel of emotions is still very controversial. Explaining our emotions is generally not easy…so how do we be able to expect to explain canine ones?

42. Could be said that dogs that are easily trained are intelligent…but can only be trained in areas where have aptitude.

43. IQ and intelligence Some dogs have demonstrated remarkable intelligence. In some cases their intelligence is the ability to read tiny subtle non verbal cues from us!

44. The ability to do what appear highly intelligent tasks can be linked back to our nature, nurture and interactionist approach For example why is it not common to see a Yorkie herd sheep? • Too small, • Not learned it • Not inherited aptitude to do so nor being give opportunity to learn

45. Looking at Breeds …their common physical traits (adapted for roles) …breed aptitudes (innate behaviours) commonly seen in the breed or breed group

46. Gundogs

47. dolicocephalic Hounds

48. Pastoral

49. Working

50. Terriers