Appendix E

Behavior Matrix

Our Behavior Matrix and the companion key and definitions are meant to serve as quickguides to behavior counseling. The matrix on the following page lists the top 14 challengesfaced by owners and refers the counselor to a variety of recommended training processes.The numbers in each cell represent the order of importance for each recommended trainingprocess. The answer key and definitions give a quick review of what each training processconsists of. These are meant to be used as a reference, in conjunction with the followingbooks:

BEFORE and AFTER You Get Your Puppy, Dr. Dunbar’s Good Little Dog Book by Dr. IanDunbar, and Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson.

Serious behavior modification problems should be immediately referred to a local APDTdog trainer (see www.apdt.com for a list of trainers in your area).

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APPENDIX E. BEHAVIOR MATRIX

Behavior Matrix Key and Definitions

Classical Conditioning

Establishing a positive association between two things. Pairing something the animal al-ready enjoys (food, attention, sniffing, playing, access to a favorite toy) with a situation,person, animal, or object that has either no intrinsic value or an established negative con-notation to the animal, in order to establish or improve the emotional response to the latter.

Example: New pup should be hand-fed by children and men to ensure she grows up tofeel comfortable and confident around them. A confident, relaxed dog is less likely tobecome reactive and/or bite.

Example: Fido barks and lunges at other dogs when he is on leash. Whenever a dog ap-proaches Fido when he’s on leash, point out the approaching dog and give Fido a highvalue treat or a favorite toy, and lots of positive attention. Eventually Fido learns to asso-ciate the presence of dogs with “good things for Fido”, and stops reacting negatively.

Operant Conditioning

Providing immediate consequences in order to change behavior. An increase or decreasein conscious behavior as a result of the consequences that follow the animal’s responses.Simply put, if a behavior “works” for the animal—that is, if the animal gets something itlikes as a result of its behavior— it will exhibit that behavior more often; if the behaviordoes not “work,” it will happen less often and eventually disappear.

Rewards result in an increase in the frequency of behavior. Punishments, or ignoring thebehavior, result in a decrease in the frequency of behavior.

Example: When my owner calls me in the park and I respond by coming, she always eitherthrows the tennis ball or gives me a piece of freeze-dried liver, and then I almost alwaysget to go play again immediately. Coming to my owner in the park = a fun game of fetchor a tasty treat. I’d better get there in a hurry!

Lure-Reward Training

Using a desirable item such as a food treat or toy to coax the animal into a desirable posi-tion or location. Used as a way to manipulate an animal’s body without physically touch-ing the animal. Best for initial teaching only, should not become a necessary “crutch”.

Example: To teach the pup “sit” on cue, hold a lure right in front of the dog’s nose andslowly raise it above her head. Nose goes up, rear goes down, and voila! The dog sits!Also works very well for heeling or polite leash walking.

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Reward Training

Rewarding behavior you would like to see more of, when it naturally occurs.

Example: Every time your new dog eliminates outside, or in the proper designated area,reward with a piece of freeze-dried liver. Your dog will soon prefer to eliminate in the spotwhere he has previously been rewarded for doing so, and will quickly become housebro-ken.

Shaping

Rewarding successive approximations of a behavior, increasing the criteria for rewardsregularly, until you shape the animal into a new behavior. In other words, start small andtake what you can get. Reward the best response you see, even if it is not the end behavioryou want to teach the dog. As your dog gets better at 1 level of the desired behavior, beginto get pickier about the response so that you are gradually getting closer and closer to theultimate desired outcome.

Example: The goal is to teach Fido to sit politely when greeting people, but he is so excitedthat he jumps up and licks faces instead. He is too excited initially to sit still. Start byrewarding a simple “4 feet on the floor”, instead of asking for a “sit” right away. WhenFido is no longer jumping up but, perhaps, standing and wiggling happily, then add thecue for “sit”, and only reward the greetings where Fido sits.

Total Integration

Teaching the relevance of your request. Nothing In Life For Free: utilizing “life rewards”(that is, using all of the things your dog enjoys as rewards for desirable behavior, ratherthan giving them to her for free), using training preludes (short bits of training beforedoing something enjoyable with your dog, so the enjoyable thing functions as a rewardfor the good behavior) and, frequently, interludes (briefly interrupting enjoyable activitiesfor bits of training, so that the resumption of the activity functions as a reward for goodbehavior).

Example: To increase the value of, and response to, “sit”, always have Fifi sit before throw-ing the Frisbee for her. Fifi loves to play fetch, and every time you throw the toy youare unintentionally rewarding whatever she was doing immediately before you threw thefrisbee—it may as well be a behavior you would like to see more of.

Counter Conditioning

“If this is wrong, what is right?” Train in an alternative and, ideally, incompatible behavior.

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Example: Teach, “sit” for polite greeting, instead of jumping up on people to say hello.

Counter Conditioning (troubleshooting)

Set up a problem-specific training session. Plan a scenario to teach and repeatedly practicea desirable response.

Example: Teach polite greeting at the door with a “visitor” (a friend who’s willing tohelp you out by patiently ringing your doorbell and entering your house multiple times.)Repeat the “visit”, doorbell and all, several times in a row, until the dog sits voluntarilywhen you answer the door.

Progressive Desensitization

Gradually desensitizing the animal to situations, people, or objects with which he is un-comfortable. We do this by rewarding tolerable approximations of a situation that is stress-ful for the animal, and gradually increasing the criteria (often proximity) as the animal’stolerance threshold rises due to continued positive experiences (classical conditioning).

Example: Fido does not like his feet touched. When he is calm and hungry, trade touchesfor kibble, starting as far away from his feet as possible. As you gradually move towardshis feet, increase the value of the reward. As you reach his feet, reward each touch withhis favorite food. See The Open Paw Four Levels Training Program Manual for a detailedprotocol.

Reward Cessation

Removing opportunity for rewards as the consequence of an undesirable action. Discon-tinuing the rewarding factor of an animal’s behavior in order to decrease and, eventually,extinguish an undesirable behavior. This is usually combined with the introduction ofrewards for desirable behavior.

Example: To stop Fifi from pulling on leash, never move forward while she is pulling. Fifipulls on leash because she wants to move forward and, perhaps, even sniff something.If pulling never helps her reach her goal, she will learn to stop pulling so the walk cancontinue.

Extinction

The disappearance of a behavior due to lack of reinforcement. The behavior no longer“works”, so the animal stops doing it. Remember, if the animal is accustomed to being

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rewarded for a behavior, he won’t give it up right away—he’s going to “up the ante”several times before he gives up, so the behavior will often get worse before it disappears.This is called an “extinction burst.”

Example: Never reward or acknowledge a dog that is jumping up to say hello. Wait for acalm moment to greet him. If jumping up never gets the desired result (friendly greetingand attention), Fido will stop using jumping as a greeting, because it is a waste of energy.

Total Management

Managing the animal’s entire environment in order to control all of the consequences (re-wards and punishments) the animal experiences throughout the day. If you control theconsequences, you control the behavior. Manipulating the environment to assure error-less learning and to develop desirable habits and avoid the unintentional reinforcement ofundesirable behavior.

Example: Providing a long-term confinement area for the dog or cat to establish house-training. See Dr. Ian Dunbar’s “Before You Get Your Puppy” for the full details on long-term confinement.

Kong Stuffing

Stuffing a portion of the animal’s daily ration into a “Kong”—a virtually indestructiblehollow rubber toy. Kong-stuffing teaches the animal to focus on appropriate chew toysand provides mental and physical stimulation to pass the time. See the Open Paw FourLevel Training Manual for more details.

Hand-feeding

Example: Feed the animal’s daily ration of food by hand, preferably by many people inmany situations, rather than feeding from a bowl. Hand—feeding allows you to controlone of the most important activities in the animal’s life so that you can use it for trainingand rewards. This is a very powerful form of classical conditioning.

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