Teaching Manners, Behaviors, and Relationships
Fidose of Reality reviewed A Dog Named Boo!
Fidose of Reality reviewed A Dog Named Boo!
To whet your appetite, here’s a quote:
[quote style=”boxed”]The human-animal bond chronicled in this book as Boo transcends from abandonment to miracle dog is one every dog lover will want to experience.[/quote]
Here’s a link to the full review: A Dog Named Boo Book Review.
Enjoy!
French police embrace positive reinforcement behavior modification to improve driving safety.
Apparently along the route to the south of France from Paris to Orleans to Limoges to Toulouse drivers during the four weeks of the national “vacances” will be rewarded for good driving with coupons for approximately sixty dollars’ worth of gas.
While the nay-sayers might call it bribery, the fact is that behavior modification is always more effective when a desired behavior is rewarded. It doesn’t even matter if the subjects – drivers in this case – know their behavior is being modified.
Punishing bad driving over the years has not modified the general habits of drivers to make them drive more safely. But it does act as a source of revenue for municipalities – so one wonders who is really getting the positive reinforcement for bad driving. Yes, you guessed it – the city, state, or other local municipality is hoping you will speed through their sleepy little town so they can collect a fine.
They know from years of good, solid behavioral science that punishment will not correct your driving habits – it will just make the subject (again the driver in this case) try to avoid the punishment. So, again from good solid behavioral science they know all they need to do is simply move the speed trap and the whole process starts all over again. They want to keep punishing you not to make you a safer driver, but to make up for budget deficits. They know you will not change your driving habits over the long term for a punishment ticket – and they are happy about that.
However, if you knew that by not tailgating, or not speeding, or by using your blinker, you could end up with sixty dollars’ worth of gas you would actually be happy to see the police and show them what a good job you were doing. Over time you would want to drive safely in the hopes of getting the sixty bucks and this would become your conditioned new behavior.
Positive reinforcement in this case modifies your behavior to drive more safely.
Punishment in this case modifies your behavior to be a better look-out for the speed traps and keep driving outside the rules of the road.
Positive Reinforcement is not just for dog training and, once your mind is keyed to pick up on it, you’ll be amazed by how often it occurs in our own lives. If Chief Inspector Dreyfus realized this when dealing with Clouseau all those years he wouldn’t have ended up in an asylum.
It was the fifth, the smallest, who drew me in immediately. A smaller baby boy with a black velvet coat and bewildered brown eyes, he was clearly much slower than his littermates. He wandered through his siblings’ roughhousing, a toddler in a roller derby. They kept knocking him over as they zoomed by. As soon as he got up, they’d body-slam him to the ground again. When he did manage to get out of their way, he drifted aimlessly around the pen.
He was like the eight ball in a game of puppy pool set into motion by an invisible cue ball, bouncing uncontrollably off the sides of the box, bumping into one side and veering off, before hitting the other and bouncing off again.
Before I knew I had reached out to pick him up, he was in my hands. Something told me this puppy needed to come home with me.
No name for him yet. So, we called him “White Chest” for the rest of his first day with us.
Before long, the puppy found the dog who would become his best friend, Dante lying on his side—a pose that must have reminded the baby of his mother, given the way he started rooting around Dante’s belly. Dante picked up his head, eyeing the baby suspiciously. Then, Dante’s huge snout whisked the confused tyke away, sending him across the floor, skidding to a halt. Undaunted, the little guy padded back toward Dante, his approach more cautious and respectful this time; little White Chest had no intention of making the same mistake twice. He bounced and bowed in Dante’s direction signaling that he just wanted to play…
Dante took the baby Boo under his wing and all ninety-five pounds of Dante was gentle and patient as he taught Boo through play.
Read more in A Dog Named Boo: How One Dog and One Woman Rescued Each Other and the Lives They Transformed Along the Way.
Good Dog Play videos
Good dog play can be a lovely thing. It can also be confusing, misinterpreted, and at worst shift rapidly to serious predation, defense, or offensive.
Sometimes you can easily see it is all good, like here the Great Dane and the Frenchie were in basic class together. They are mismatched by size but perfectly matched in their play style.
In this video puppy Poppy is desperate to play with the older dog. The older dog is giving great signals to Poppy indicating that she is not interested in puppy play. Poppy adjusted her play to mirror the older dog. Yay Poppy!
If things were indeed getting too intense, you have saved the day so your dog can happily play another day without a negative association. And if you were overly cautious, you can always send them back in if you were wrong.
To see the full video of Pax’e and Ruby playing see lisa3dogstraining on instagram
Click here for more information on upcoming classes.
On September 2nd Shelby passed from complications of kidney failure. When we grieve we process and ponder. It is there that we can see the lessons Shelby brought for us.
Every dog that comes into our lives arrives with a syllabus for us. It is our job to decipher what lessons they are teaching.
On September 2nd Shelby passed from complications of kidney failure and her household of three Mini Schnauzers, a gaggle of cats, and of course her humans Jill and Linda, too, was left with a vacant spot.
When we grieve we process and ponder. It is there that we can see the lessons Shelby brought for us.
She was even tempered, smart and lived her life in the balance. Always up for the walk, she wore the silly hats in class, leapt from the couch for the outside adventures, and happily joined in for the barking at the passing bikes or pedestrians. And, if she were human, she’d always be the first to hold the door for a stranger, or give a hug exactly when it was needed.
Illness plagued Shelby in her last years. Mamas Linda and Jill managed Shelby’s fluids and meds like pros. Coordinating her care was complicated at times – we should all have a medical advocate like Linda. Shelby withstood every prod, poke, new medicine, prescription food, limited diets, and multiple trips to the vet’s with her usual good nature while never getting cranky or snarky with her house mates.
I can see three lessons that Shelby brought for us, perhaps others can see more.
The first was balance – play hard, bark loud, and always be kind to everyone you meet.
The second was all about taking things in stride, from illnesses, to losses, to changes in the home, Shelby was always good with it all. I know for some, this one doesn’t seem like much. But from my own perspective, this is an almost saint-like quality that alludes me on most days.
The third one was about the connections the Universe often shows us that we dismiss or doubt because there are no double-blind studies to confirm what we see.
Remember, in astrological terms, birthdays are not always on the same date on our calendar, but follow the alignment of the planets as they were at our birth. So, who knows…perhaps there’s an even tighter link between Shelby and Kinsey than our calendar shows.
These are the things that make us scratch our heads because we have no good answers for the nature of these connections. However, we can say without doubt, that Shelby and Kinsey had a bond that transcends our mortal understanding.
Shelby will be very missed by her family and all of us who knew her as the sweet, easy-going, gentle soul that she was.
However, she and Kinsey will no longer be missing each other.
