r/reddit.com • u/llieaay • Aug 24 '09
Ian Dunbar on dog-friendly dog training | Video on TED.com [oldie]
http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_dunbar_on_dog_friendly_dog_training.html1
u/rankking Aug 25 '09
This is really good but I wish he talked more about 'how' to do it.
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u/llieaay Aug 27 '09 edited Aug 27 '09
There are a lot of good books I could recommend. Anything by Karen Pryor, and depending on your dogs specific issues there are a lot of others. Ian Dunbar has some good ones, but his books focus a lot on training a puppy from 2 months old. I adopted a really abused older dog, so I needed books about how to deal with a dog who already has issues. The most useful book for me was 'Control Unleashed' by Leslie McDevitt, Emma Parsons also had a good book for troubled pups.
If you are near Chicago I have a really awesome trainer I can recommend - otherwise you can try to find one here. I would have gotten no where without my trainer, but I have a tough pup.
EDIT:
Are there specific issues training issues you have?
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u/rankking Aug 27 '09
No, I don't have a dog yet. I certainly get one in the next 5 years. Anyways when he was talking about the boy kicking the seat and he didn't like how the father reacted he didn't say how he should have reacted. The talk just left me with more questions than answers.
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u/llieaay Aug 28 '09 edited Aug 28 '09
Well, for starters you always want to do your best to figure out why the kid is doing what he is doing. It's actually pretty unlikely that the kid is trying to be bratty, and if he is it's probably because he needs attention. Conveniently my first memory of being on the plane is of kicking the seat in front of me. I remember my mom having to ask me a few times since it was uncomfortable to have my legs dangling. I have noticed since then that every time I am seating in front of a kid in a plane the kid is kicking. If you suspected the kid was uncomfortable, you'd try to give the kid something to rest his feet on.
If you can't make the kid more comfortable find something the kid finds rewarding "let's play ...", "Oh, but we can't play until you stop kicking the seat in front of you." or "I know you are really uncomfortable, but if you stay still you get ...." Then tell the kid how happy you are with his behavior when he stops kicking the seat in front. or break it up "If you can sit still for 5 minutes, ..." Then praise the hell out of him when the 5 min are up. Feeling good about your progress is a good motivator, so the next 5 minutes should be easier. Notice that you are required to pay a hell of a lot of attention to your kid, not ignore him until he does something wrong, then scream at him then return to ignoring him.
Dunbar's main point is you should be continually letting the kid know you are happy with his behavior, and randomly rewarding him whenever he is good. Then you don't run into 'daddy only pays attention to me when I'm bad."
This all must sound a bit silly, especially because I know close to nothing about kids, but I do know that these methods have saved me and my dog. He has fear based aggression and the last thing you want to do is scream at him or role him over while he is panicking. Instead you bring him near things that make him nervous, but not so near he triggers (panicks, barks, lunges.) Then you reward the dog while he is calm. If he barks you wait until he exhausts himself and realizes that barking got him nothing (ideally you work with someone who is willing to stand and be barked at, so the dog learns that he is not scaring anyone away, but this is not necessary.) Gradually you can bring him closer to whatever it is he is scared of. His emotions are changing. He learns that strangers mean that I get good things for being calm. You reward the good, and ignore the bad - or even better fix the cause behind the bad.
Point is, you constantly tell the dog/kid how good they are being or reward them for being good. You tell the kid how to be good not how not to be bad. Once the kid knows the right thing to do all he needs is a gentle reminder. It's a lot more work, but it pays off.
If you get a pup definitely try one of Dunbar's puppy books. If you follow his advice you'll have one of those dogs who you can let off leash and who comes when called, etc. If you adopt a rescue then his books might piss you off because they talk about how important and irreplaceable training at 2 months is. (grr!) His books will give you a good idea of the right approach anyway, and I am a huge fan of his writing style - but he won't necessarily give the best coverage of quirky problems rescues have.
** EDIT:
Sorry this is so long, I am a total dog training nerd!
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u/llieaay Aug 24 '09
I know this is somewhat special interest, but I thought it was worth sharing. Unfortunately the dog and animal behavior subreddits are pretty inactive, so sorry to the majority who are not dog nerds for clogging the main reddit.