Clear communication is reinforcing

Kay Laurence
 July 2008

Your method of communicating will work on several levels and advancing your skills is not about using complex strategies but have exquisite and consistent communication, and learning the discipline to pay attention to detail.

On the surface it can be viewed as a simple code: “match this sound/signal/environment to the correct behaviour and you will be reinforced”.

At a deeper level it will be far more “connecting” than just verbal language, although the dog seeming to understand sentences impresses the hell out of non trainers. Connecting language links the two communicators together to the point where you don’t have to wonder whether the partner understands or not, it can be assumed. Imagine how reinforcing that is? Your dog understands you AND you understand your dog. The absence of that connection can be quite an uphill struggle and a represent a soured relationship where effort of trying to understand is loaded on one partner. 

On more than one occasion I have needed to use a dog to demonstrate. Using my own dogs may serve to inspire, but I do not consider it beneficial to them to be switched on for a few minutes and then dumped again. My training sessions are highly reinforcing for both of us, and I feel short changed if I only get a taster. Demonstration should serve one purpose – to enable the learner to see more clearly what I cannot communicate any other way. It is not an opportunity to demonstrate what is lacking, or that in the hands of an experienced trainer the dog is clearly capable. But often either or both of those elements will emerge.

If we look at “more experienced” we can include observation skills that allow me to anticipate the moment to click. This is often referred to as “good timing”, but I think having a good “eye” would be more accurate. Assuming that the neural pathways to the thumb are working fine, it is the process of observation and analysis that promotes good timing. From experience I can anticipate that most dogs will move in a similar way. When they plan to jump up they will lower their shoulders, when they plan to lift a front foot the weight will shift to the other front foot. They will look at something before they connect to it. My demonstration will often look like I have perfect timing, but in fact I am listening to the dog.

The second key element is talking to the dog, with clear language THEY can understand. By connecting with a dog I may have only just met, we have a good understanding of each others needs, can begin a conversation and the process is highly reinforcing. This is evident in the improvement in the behaviours, become faster, stronger and more enjoyable. How depressing for you, or it may be inspiring.

Poor communication, very often contrary communication, is putting bumpy ground between you and the dog and your journey forward is seriously challenged. It may even come to a halt if your dog is tired of trying to cross the mine field.

Communication is more than a cue and a click

Communication is about timing, when to support, when to hold still; responding to achievement; building predictable chains of behaviours; not changing your mind or being ambiguous.

Dogs “talk” almost entirely by visual signals of body language and scent which is completely foreign to us. A bark may indicate a few variations, but without the body language I can only distinguish between scary bark, play bark and frustration bark. The bark out of sight is designed to audibly alert. But when together the bark can indicate how the barker is feeling. For our training it is not particularly useful. Very often the dogs are shouting at us with body language but we don’t hear it.

Our choice of communication is verbal, but it presumes the listener has a similar vocabulary, sentence construction and cultural background. Even with these common elements we can still be confusing. (When you “take the puppy class” in the UK, you are most probably teaching it, not quite the same in the US where you are a student in the class. Same words different meaning.)

To be able to clearly communicate we need to match our body language to the intention of the communication. The dogs can learn patterns of movement very easily. But the danger comes when it is contrary to your cue: the handler who steps towards the dog and cues “sit”. (For the purpose of this article I shall refer to all communication as “talking” and “listening”, even though it may be through the visual senses.)

There are four channels in operation:

You are talking to the dog: 3 4 The dog is listening to you

The dog is talking to you: 3 4 You are listening to the dog

Good communication is a fluid balance along those channels. The dog should not be working hardest at either listening or talking, which leads us back to my demonstration with your dog. I ensure the balance relieves the dog of the struggle to solve the puzzle of what is wanted, what is right, and what did I earn that food for? Immediately this becomes reinforcing.

Exercises for Clear Communication

You can begin to learn sentences, or chains or actions, that the dog will learn easily and boost your communication skills. Begin with improving your skills within a training session and once you become competent you will be able to transfer the skills to everyday connections:

1. Clearly plan the routine for a training session.

My sessions begin with a clear up of my kitchen space, evicting the other students from the area with some free hunt-and-peck treats (I launch a handful into the garden). Whoever I call away from the hunt-and-peck opportunity in the garden leaves it at speed, no hesitation. The student for training hangs out in the kitchen whilst I doodle around collecting the treat box, getting training objects out, looking in my notes, setting up the video/chair. Remember anticipation is reinforcing. The other students will wait behind the door gate anticipating their turn.

During my doodling around I am probably talking to the dog about what we are going to do. This ensures they connect to me, and I am not just pottering around the kitchen as I normally do several times a day. The actions are very similar: fridge, pantry, table, TV, so I need to differentiate these actions as preparation for a training session with lots of eye contact and conversation. I can see the student taking notes, they are focussed, following my actions very carefully, and ignoring the other dogs. This is different from normal kitchen behaviour, since 6 dogs following me this intently would slow down any meal preparation.

It doesn’t matter what your set up is, it may be a car journey, caging, a different venue or room but look for a way to begin connecting to the dog as soon as you begin the routine. And DO NOT let your connection get broken, ignore the phone or other interruptions or demands. This anticipatory time with your dog is very precious.

2. Setting the dog up so that it is preparing to look for a cue.

The training session has opened, all the environmental cues are in place: treat bag, clicker, phone switched off, training journal etc. Go quiet with your body language, “listen” for the dog to say Give Us a Cue, and begin with some refresher cues of your recent training. I don’t not respond to behaviours that I am not obviously watching. If I am selecting treats from the box, looking for the clicker, I will not look directly at the dog, and any behaviour offered in this time will get no response from me. When I am ready, the direct eye contact is a clear opening cue to the dog that we are off. This is a perfect way to prevent the dog throwing behaviours at you to get your attention. There may be an exceptional movement that I’ve waited months for and spontaneously respond when it happens, but if the dog is a single event learner be very careful with this becoming an interrupter and attention getter. My Gordon boys both employed eye catching behaviour that just make people laugh, and it is a very successful strategy.

This preparation to becoming ready to give a cue is far stronger than just saying the dog’s name and if the dog is ready and anticipating the lesson they will return the focus. If you give a cue before the dog clearly says they are ready then you are risking a non-response.

I do not use the dog’s name at this time. The routine of the opening of the session should be a perfectly clear, loud series of cues that we are going to be sharing that special time together -training. But if you half begin, go off on another task, talk to your friend, sit down and then answer the phone, make clear eye contact but then look away to rummage in your bag, you are going to teach the dog it is not worth connecting to you, you are unpredictable, and quite punishing by switching the connection on and off. They may as well count the hairs on their back foot until you have your marbles lined up. Sigh.

3. Give the cue.

Learning to give clear and consistent cues is about self discipline. We are teaching a different species an unfamiliar language and would not introduce ambiguous cues in the early days, that takes lots and lots of experience. Every part of your cue: the word, the pitch, the volume, the tone, the hands, the shoulders, the face, the feet, your location, facing the dog should always be perfectly consistent. This takes skill, study and self discipline. If you are not consistent, or unaware of what you do, then go away, leave your poor dog alone with their front foot to study and go learn your skills. This is apprentice material, and no excuse can be given for not being good enough.

(Even person to person hesitation, or poor punctuation, can change the meaning entirely: There’s the famous telegram: “Not getting any better. Come at once” – which somehow came out the other end as, “Not getting any. Better come at once.” A sign stating, "we're here to help", would definitely disappoint the customers if the apostrophe were removed.)

4. Mark the response of the dog.

There are two responses that can be reinforced, and several reasons not to. You must be clear at which point your training has progressed to. If a new behaviour is recently paired with a new cue, a quick response to this new cue at the opening of your training session is EXCELLENT, and you would click and treat on the correct response. This may mean you temporarily interrupt the behaviour from completing.

If the response was not good: there was hesitation or the wrong behaviour, you would not click, nor would you wait for the behaviour to complete. Quickly, but gently interrupt the dog, and return to your training plan. You have expected too much too soon. The error was yours, and the dog must not be made to feel at fault. For a new behaviour, begin with the acquisition cue, refresh the movement and set the dog up for an error-less response. Associate a good reinforcement history before testing.

If your dog’s learning history is based on clicker training, then they have come to expect information within 2 or 3 seconds of their response. This information pattern must be adhered to until you have taught otherwise. Imagine it like a tennis game, you hit the ball, they return, you play back. Communication in learning is like a conversation going to and fro. But this falls apart if you hesitate – either because you are not sure whether to click or not, giving a late click confuses even more, and standing there with an “errrm…..” is a KILLLER for the dog. Information that the behaviour they have responded with is a “pile of poo” is excellent communication and in itself is more reinforcing that you pondering in silence.

At the moment when you would have clicked, you must respond in some way. You can be pleased (the ohmygodwheresmyclicker moment) or disappointed, or surprised, or laugh out loud. But you MUST respond. Similarly if it was incorrect, you must respond at the same time point. If non-response becomes the predictor of no reinforcement then progress beyond 2 or 3 seconds bites of training is fraught with miscommunication. The dog can easily come to believe that non-response must mean they are in error and the behaviour will fade quickly. Silence is the advanced version of reinforcement. The dog should have complete confidence that if they were wrong you would have clearly stopped them.

5. The click was responded to

This is an important part of the return shot. With the new learner an association with the clicker needs to be built, but with the experienced dog, always look for the dog responding to the click. They will either look straight at you, your hands, or their treat box, they may interrupt the behaviour or move up a gear to stronger, more confident response. Their response will depend on your teaching style and patterns. But if the dog does not respond, do not suddenly break off to collect the food. Kent, my lovely but dull, Gordon, is often away with the fairies during a behaviour and the distance between ear and brain seems to be the width of the kitchen. It may be 2 seconds before he looks at me after the click. Tossing a treat when he is talking to fairies does not promote good conversation. He clearly gets upset.

If you can improve your timing by checking that the dog looks at you after the click, and that looking at you begins the sequence of you looking for the right piece of food, then we have reinforced two parts of the behaviour for the price of one.

6. Deliver the Reinforcer

It makes so much difference how this is delivered. If you are going to give the dog the food directly in their location, then when they look at you after the click, clearly change your balance to move towards them. If you want them to come towards you and take from your hand, then open the palm, give a slight curtsey to invite them to step into your space and take their food. If you are going to toss the treat then give a really clear gesture that you are beginning a throw, and follow your arm through to point at the treat. Random tossing is very punishing. Be fair, they have earned their treat, don’t add a full blown search to the pleasure. You will taint the process. 

You do not have to hurry in your communication. In every class, both beginners and advanced, I ask someone to slow down with their hands. Delivery should not be instantaneous but the process of delivery should begin as soon as the dog checks in after the click, and you clearly say this treat is yours, and I am going to place it hear for you to enjoy.

7. Two hands are talking

It is natural for the dog to be watching your hands, not your face. We really do not communication by face, but our balance, poise, movement is far clearer, and the hands are the providers of the reinforcement. But by having two hands it is the equivalent of two people teaching at the same time, plus the Chairman of the Committee also known as your mouth.

If you are teaching the dog to focus on the target/stick, they can safely give 100% to that job and be confident they will hear the click. But, if when you prepare to click you also move the other hand to collect the treat which hand should the dog notice? The preparation of reinforcement? This is a dead end avenue: the dog stays focussed, hears the click, but misssd where you throw the treat (because they were still looking at the target), or the dog looks between the target and the hand with reinforcers and ends up with no success or the yo-yo behaviour? And yes, if you have yo-yo target focus it is likely to be your reinforcer hand movement in the dog’s highly tuned peripheral vision.

Be ultra clear which hand is talking, and making the transition from hand holding the target, to hand delivering the reinforcer. Practice the transition.

8. Cool, play again?

After the treat is delivered, stay connected, and reinforce the dog coming out of the moment of heaven and beginning the cycle of Give Us a Cue again. Some dogs get quite lost in the food moment, or may be taking the moment as a break. But as soon as they turn to re-connect, you must be there for them, not having a conversation with someone else.

9. Rhythm of the game

For some dogs their planet goes around a little slower than ours, for most dogs it goes around faster. I have seen very experienced handlers get quite flustered at the dog nagging for the next cue, and hassling the handler to hurry along.

The pace of the teaching should always follow the slowest element, be it you or the dog. Dogs are tremendously patient with us, provided we are clear: we are taking a break, I am totally confused but love you anyway and am seeking advise – settle down and take five. Be wary of the speed merchants getting reinforced by chivvying us along.

Also become aware of your dog’s pace changing. It will often start slowly with new behaviours and begin to speed up with confidence. But it may also slow down when they become unsure, or their sense of security has changed, or they are tired. Allow them to manage the pace through the Give Us a Cue connection. Until that happens they are not in the right place to hear the cue.

This changing pace or energy level should be listened to and as the teacher you should be able to respond appropriately. I’m sure most of you have tried to have a conversation with someone (usually a younger person) who talks too fast, or presumes you understand them when you don’t. It is not reinforcing, it takes far more effort to focus, translate and respond than talking to someone with the same language and pace. Eventually you will tire quickly and lose the will to keep trying. This is not “blowing you off”, but simply saying I can’t understand you anymore.

But if you are “in balance” with the speaker, or perhaps slightly faster, do me a favour and don’t finish their (my) sentences. It may be highly reinforcing for you to know you understand ….  but it is bleedin’ annoying for me!