Steve Goward – Dogs Trust

1. The amazing brain Steve Goward – Dogs Trust

2. Do animals have emotions? Do animals have a good memory? Do animals dream? Is an animals mental health important? Do animals think?

3. Glass ½ empty or ½ full? Creating a positive outlook for your dogs Learning sets, cognitive bias & Insight learning

4. Ever struggled to find the answer?

5. Don’t know which way to turn?

6. Then you get that moment of inspiration!

7. Please click on the link below to view the video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdZ9P_tWFSw

8. Definition • Insight learning is the abrupt realization of a problem's solution. • Usually followed by “why didn’t I think of that earlier?!!!!”

9. It is a completely cognitive experience that requires the ability to visualize the problem and the solution internally - in the mind's eye, so to speak - before initiating a behavioural response.

10. Are we the only ones who have these lightbulb moments?

11. Kohler’s research suggests not

12. Kohler’s early experiments

13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz6uvIbWZE

14. So if Apes can do it what about other species? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDg0AKfM8EY

15. What about dogs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=margEYxC0PM

16. If that was too easy what about this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=250L_YVV6dM

17. Having a history of problem solving increases likelihood of insight learning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaITA7eBZE

18. How do we get practiced in problem solving?

19. Ever heard the phrase learning to learn? • Harry Harlow proposed a new method for measuring higher learning abilities of animals in 1949.

20. Harlow suggested that humans and other highly intelligent animals not only mastered isolated tasks but also noticed patterns and shortcuts that made them more efficient learners.

21. They not only learned, they learned to learn, becoming faster at solving new problems as they gained experience solving similar classes of problems (Harlow, 1949).

22. Hallo Czesc • One practical illustration of learning-set theory is language learning. Many people who learn a foreign language find it easier to learn a second language—even a third language or more. Halla Bonjour Xaipete Hola

23. Speed of problem solving improved with previous experience of similar problems. • People + crosswords/sudoku

24. The learning set/ current thinking • Previous experiences with similar training/learning. • Events in the dogs life that affects their rate of learning. • The way they were learnt will have an effect on future learning. • Cognitive bias research

25. So what (& How) do we teach our dogs? Or Or Or

26. There are two types of learning set • Positive learning set • Negative learning set

28. Positive learning set • Is a set of learning that has been more positive than negative.

29. Negative learning set • Punishment or negative reinforcement will potentially create a negative learning set.

31. Cognitive bias • we have shown that rats in unpredictable housing show behaviour indicating reduced anticipation of a positive event. This compares with findings for depressed or anxious humans, who also have reduced expectation of positive events and interpret ambiguous stimuli negatively. Emma J. Harding, Elizabeth S. Paul, Michael Mendl Centre for Behavioural Biology, Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Bristol,

32. These results demonstrate for the first time that environmental enrichment can induce an optimistic cognitive bias in rats previously housed in standard caging, possibly indicative of a more positive affective state. These results add support to the suggestion that measuring cognitive biases can give an insight into animal emotional states; this has implications for animal welfare and preclinical testing of potential therapeutics for mood disorders.

33. Cognitive bias (Michael Mendl et al 2010)

34. Human example • Those of you faced with constant negative interactions with your community are more likely to have a negative bias towards new interactions with people. • You are more likely to go into a situation expecting it to go bad.

36. Why tip the balance? • A dog with a positive learning set will be more likely to keep trying, even though he may find a particular session hard. • If your dog has achieved success more than failure he will be better placed mentally to deal with new situations and environments. • This directly ties in with building a good reinforcement bank account.

37. When positive training is used over and over the synapses involved strengthen and are better prepared for the next training session. • This is often when we start to see dogs exhibit new and varied behaviours in an attempt to gain the reinforcer and how a creative dog is moulded.

38. What kind of person are you?

39. Or

40. So lets stop under estimating them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5sXqk4j9jk

41. Final thoughts • So whether we are training in a positive way, building centres with the dog’s welfare as the focus or enriching the environment, we are all trying to create dogs that go into their new home with a positive outlook on life and therefore be successful and forgive our mistakes that we inevitably are going to make, we are human after all.

42. We all deserve some joy ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnkS-hP6vYc

43. Thank you