PROFESSIONALISM

This has been a tough couple of weeks for me. I’ve been extremely frustrated with my contractors – specifically, my graphics guy and my computer guy.

My graphics guy has been having a hard time making it as a small business person so has taken a part-time job. Consequently, I can never get hold of him, and it’s like pulling teeth to get him to return a phone call. Of course, that was a problem before he got a part-time job – it’s just worse, now. I’ve had similar problems with graphics people in the past – I put it down to their artsy temperament!

However, I have a business to run and this model isn’t serving me well. A couple of weekends ago, I spent 8 hours trying to create a graphic my graphics guy could do in 15 minutes. I’ve pretty much decided I have to take a course and learn how to run my graphics program so I have the basics – time and money out the door because I can’t find a good contractor!

My computer guy is a whole ‘nother story! He answers his phone and makes appointments with me. Here’s a little history for the last couple of weeks:

We set an appointment for the 18th – I had a list of small-to-medium issues I needed taken care of – most important of which was setting up a network.

He had several issues he needed to research so took the laptop so he could work on it at his shop and was supposed to have it back to me on the 24th, at the latest.

Meanwhile, he only fixed a couple of very minor issues on my list, and left my computer in worse shape than when he came! (For instance, I wanted the laptop to be able to print, but now my desktop computer defaults to the laptop printer, and I can’t get it to default to where it should be! Eeeek!)

I called to confirm on the 23rd and was assured I’d have it on the 24th.

On the 26th, I still didn’t have the laptop, so I called again.

He immediately goes on the offense saying he called but I wasn’t home and he thought I might have gone out of town! Well, that’s ridiculous – I was probably on the phone, and he didn’t leave a message or call the next day.

His response to me was “I did due diligence.”

That evening (the 26th), his assistant called and wanted me to meet him ½ mile from my house to pick up the computer, because he didn’t want to bother to take down directions to my house.

Yesterday (the 30th), I called to set up a remote session to finish setting up the network and we set an appointment for between 2:00-2:30. I never heard from him.

So, today I’m on the phone calling new computer guys – I have to have one, but I need one I can count on.

“What’s the moral of this story?” you ask. “Why should we care about your personnel problems?” Well, dog trainers are contractors. We should be very aware of the service (and impression) we’re giving to our clients. We shouldn’t get complacent and think that because we’ve been working with them long enough to have a friendly relationship, we can slack on our service. The “due diligence” comment from my computer guy was really the straw that broke this camel’s back. I don’t want due diligence from my contractors – I want great service.

I don’t know that this is the reasoning behind the hierarchy, but it seems to me that the higher the level, the less stressful on the animal. In other words, antecedent control (another term for management) is less stressful than the next level down, which is R+. All learning is somewhat stressful, so, simply removing the stimulus that sets the occasion for these behaviors is less stressful than training the dog to do something different.

In our weekly phone calls for my Professional Dog Trainer Course students, I’m finding myself referring to the hierarchy more and more. Our phone calls are student-driven – i.e., they come to the call with questions, training scenarios they’re having problems with, etc., and we discuss these issues with a goal of clarifying how theory can inform us in real life application.

As we discuss these situations, I find myself saying things like

• “Where does this fall in the humane hierarchy?”
• “Why would you choose this protocol before trying DRI? Have you referred to the humane hierarchy?”
• “Who can tell me the levels of the humane hierarchy?”
• “You are expected to know the humane hierarchy and be able to recite it from memory.”

Knowing the humane hierarchy does not necessarily mean you must actually implement each level of the hierarchy before moving to the next level. It means you should understand the levels and be able to make an informed decision (from experience) as to what is going to work best in this situation.

I would expect the newer the trainer, the more they have to think about this; however, experienced trainers will know immediately that they are going to, for example, combine management, DRA (differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior) and P- (negative punishment) for a dog that persistently and obnoxiously jumps up on people; whereas, a softer dog who is jumping up and very lightly putting his paws on you may only need management and DRA.

The humane hierarchy can also help experienced trainers. We often automatically go to a technique that we know works without thinking about why. For instance, when working with reactive dogs there are three techniques that are all effective and actually very similar with minor variations: D/CC* (desensitization and counter-conditioning), DRA, and R- (negative reinforcement – CAT or BAT, for instance). Every trainer should have these three tools in their toolbox, but they can use the humane hierarchy to inform them about which is preferable and in what order.

The humane hierarchy also makes us better critical thinkers. It makes us think about what other trainers are saying, and analyze whether or not it makes sense to us. So, I think the humane hierarchy is a great tool and one we should all know by heart!

*Note: D/CC is not included in the humane hierarchy, but I believe it should be included on the same level as R+.

This means to narrowly define your market niche. There are many niches in dog consulting:

• Children
• Aggression
• Agility
• Separation Anxiety
• Etc.

Think about your market, think about what you seem to be doing a lot of, and think about what you enjoy. Considering these three things, you can develop a market niche.

Once you’ve developed a niche, you have a very defined market to target. You can think about the magazines they read, the media they watch and listen to, where they shop, and so on. This can really help with your advertising dollar, as well as basic marketing. You can put your energies and dollars into very specific venues which will give you a better return on investment.

But, going back to the saying, “market narrowly, deliver broadly,” the beauty of having a market niche is that you don’t have to delivery solely to that market! If you do a good job for someone within your target market, chances are they have a friend outside your market – and they’ll refer you!

First, a little science and terminology. Every behavior an animal exhibits is genetic – i.e., they have the genetics that allow that behavior to happen. Pigs are genetically designed to root; dogs are genetically designed to leave urine markers; fish are genetically designed to separate air from water so they can live in water; etc.

Genetic traits are loosely divided into three categories: reflexes, action patterns and behavior traits. Reflexes are more uniform in nature and the least subject to modification; action patterns are more variable in nature and more subject to modification than reflexes, but less than behavior traits; behavior traits are extremely variable from individual-to-individual, and the most easily modified. Always remember that ALL behavior can be modified – it’s just easier to modify some than others!

Predatory drift is an action pattern. It is a food gathering behavior, which in certain animals is called predation. Let’s be very clear here that predatory drift is NOT aggression! It is predation. Most play behavior revolves around normal hunting behaviors – stalking, chasing, etc. Predatory drift often begins as normal play, and something triggers the larger dog and he drifts over into predation.

The reason predatory drift is so dangerous is because it often happens between dogs that have a great size difference. Even though many dogs have lost the “kill” piece of the predatory sequence, that size difference can result in death almost instantly.

Some trainers believe you can pinpoint dogs that are prone to predatory drift, but I’m not sure I agree with this. Certainly there are dogs that are more predatory than others, but this is really a different situation; predatory dogs can be screened based on prior behavior. Predatory drift can happen with any dog – dogs that have never shown any predatory inclinations or aggression to other dogs and even dogs that have been good buddies for a long time. And, it happens in an instant and is generally not preventable.

Things that typically trigger predatory drift are running dogs, injured or struggling dogs, squealing dogs, dogs being ganged up on, and any situation where there’s a big size differential. Because of the risk to small dogs, dog parks and day cares are increasingly setting up play areas specifically for small dogs. If you are an owner of a small dog, it’s important to be aware of this behavior and take steps to protect your dog from potential injury or death; if you have a career in dog training, make a point to educate your owners and take precautions in your business.

Related articles

• What Does Schooling to Become a Dog Trainer Entail? (becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com)

There is a whole body of knowledge about how animals learn – it’s called learning theory. We’ve been studying these principles for years (remember Pavlov and Skinner?). These are well established principles of learning and every dog training school should devote a significant portion of their curriculum to these learning principles.

It’s also important that a good school address business issues. Most people who become professional dog trainers will be in business for themselves. Now, the school doesn’t have to give you the equivalent of a business degree, but they should cover basics of how to set up and run a small business, professionalism and marketing.

Dog behavior is also a very important part of a good curriculum. There’s a lot of misinformation about dog behavior floating around – some of it is just plain wrong, some of it is not relevant to training. New trainers need to be able to critically assess behavior and make good decisions about how to go about changing that behavior. In order to do that, you need to understand both dog behavior and the principles of learning.

And, of course, how to train a dog is essential. But – I would hope EVERY school that trains dog trainers would have this component!

If you’d like to learn more about how to become a dog trainer, please visit http://becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com.

Burlingham highlights eight businesses that have opted to stay small (even though they have the potential to go very big) and become exceptional employers and members of their community. These businesses are very diverse (from a rock musician to a storage company to a New York City restaurateur!); however, they have certain things in common:

• They want to be the best at what they do;
• They’ve been recognized by independent bodies for their work and/or community contributions;
• They’ve had the opportunity to raise a lot of capital and become large companies, but chose another route;
• They have company goals that include issues outside the main goal of making money – i.e., community, work environment, and lifestyle goals;
• In order to achieve their non-monetary goals, they’ve opted to remained privately owned.

Now, I know that most dog trainers are not going to meet some of these criteria. Still, I think there are some wonderful lessons we can learn from these businesses about how to get involved in our community in important ways and how to treat our employees so they are loyal to the company. And, from the money point of view, in many ways, this book meshes very nicely with the Law of Attraction. Because these businesses have loftier goals than simply making money they attract good employees, goodwill from the community, good relationships with vendors and clients and money!

This was a fun book to read. It isn’t technical – it’s more like someone’s personal story – but it’s very inspiring and uplifting. I’ll leave the details for you to read about, and I highly recommend that you do.

Of course, we LOVE behavior – after all, that’s what we do and for most of us it’s a passion. So that’s one reason we sign up for those courses – we enjoy them. I think that marketing is a mystery to most consultants. We know we should do it, but we don’t really know how. When we do market, we often see lackadaisical results and that discourages us from future marketing endeavors.

Unlike advertising, marketing can be very inexpensive; but, it’s a process and often takes time to come to fruition. You shouldn’t expect immediate results with most of your marketing efforts. Your results will be an accumulation of consistent marketing – sometimes over years!

Think of your goals and how marketing can help attain them. What are your short-term goals? What are your long-term goals? Will simply dropping business cards at the vet’s office help with those goals, or do you need something a bit more involved? Marketing should be a win-win – don’t think of it as selling yourself, but as mutually beneficial. If you look at it as providing a service for someone else, perhaps you’ll be more comfortable than if you are simply trying to get the local veterinarian to refer to you. Finally, there’s always something you can do that’s within your comfort zone!

Ok – here’s a recap of what’s happened and an explanation of the second error. At about 1:15, Jane raises two criteria. Then, at around 2:00 Jane realizes she’s made a mistake and takes action to correct it – I don’t think she knows exactly what she did wrong, but she knows, because of her low rate of reinforcement, that she’s done something wrong. She pats her leg, changes her position, picks up the object, etc., but still asks the dog to pick the object up from the floor and deliver to hand.

During all of this the dog is still in the game – she hasn’t lost him, but he’s confused and frustrated. Finally, at 3:00, she goes back to picking up the object and having the dog take it and drop it. BUT, she has the dog take it 4 times with no reinforcement and doesn’t reinforce him; on the 5^th trial, he goes quite a while without taking the object. That time, at 3 minutes and 20 seconds she reinforces the take and drop.

Ideally, Jane would have reinforced the dog when he first targeted the object after she picked it up instead of waiting for something more – get him back in the game and quickly bring him back to the level he was before she raised 2 criteria at once.

Jane went 2 minutes and 5 seconds without reinforcing anything, which is a very long time when training a new behavior. She’s lucky she didn’t lose the dog altogether – he’s a willing participant, but simply doesn’t know what to do. She continues with a low rate of reinforcement because she’s waiting for a specific criteria (I’m not sure what it is), and you can see the dog’s behavior become less and less enthusiastic. Finally, at about 4:20, she forgets about her old criteria and backs up to the old criteria – Hurray! She’s realized she needs to get the dog back into the game before she can raise the criteria.

A lot of people would blame this on the dog, saying he’s bored, or he’s deliberately blowing her off; the reality is that the trainer made a fundamental error which she eventually realized and corrected. As Jane continues in her quest to become a professional dog trainer, she will learn, understand and recognize these errors when she, and others, make them. Then she will truly be a professional dog trainer!

If you’d like to learn more about how to become a dog trainer, please visit http://becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com.

Ok – here’s the answer. At about 1:15 seconds, Jane decides to raise the criteria so her dog is dropping the object into her hand, instead of on the floor. When she does this, she requires the dog to “deliver to hand,” but she also wants him to pick the object up from the floor, instead of holding it in her hand for the dog to take as she had previously done. This is also a change in criteria, resulting in two criteria raises instead of just one.

The dog completely falls apart. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do, and starts showing a lot of stress behaviors such as panting, as well as displacement behaviors such as rolling on the ground.

After a little while, Jane realizes her mistake and takes steps to correct it; however, she then goes on to make another fundamental error. Can you figure out what that second error is? Check out the video below.

I’ll post the answer in a couple of days. Good luck!

[flv]http://becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com/Audio-Video/3-14-11post-new.flv[/flv]

If you’d like to learn more about how to become a dog trainer, please visit http://becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com.

One of the advanced dog training concepts that most people don’t understand is that you only raise one criterion at a time. There are essentially four things we train for: distance, duration, distraction, and handler orientation.  When raising criteria, you should pick one of these, raise the criterion just a teeny bit, and leave everything else the same – or even lower the other criteria, depending on the difficulty of the new requirement.

This video is a lovely illustration of why this rule exists. Jane’s criteria has been the dog taking the object and holding it for just a very short time. This is going along quite well. She then decides she wants the dog to drop the object into her hand, which is a requirement of the final behavior.

Can you spot the TWO criteria increases? I’ll give you a couple of days to see if you can get the correct response, and then I’ll post the answer, along with the second half of the video and another question. Good luck!

[flv]http://becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com/Audio-Video/3-11-11post-new.flv[/flv]

If you’d like to learn more about how to become a dog trainer, please visit http://becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com.