I am reading an article in Outside magazine titled “The Metric System” about exercise gadgets and studies as to why most people abandoned the gadget altogether. One of the reasons why this happens according to John Bartholomew, professor of Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, who specializes in exercise psychology, is because…
I was recently quite frustrated with the fact that my dogs had no interest in going after the thrown less-than-perfect Frisbee, that I had to introduce changes in their playtime. The changes that I introduced in our following Frisbee sessions are all based on principles of animal learning which everyone wanting to work with animals…
I am sure that if you hang out with “dog people” – especially folks that are interested in dog sports you have heard the term “drive” and its derivatives such as: “high-drive”, “low-drive” etc. used ad nauseam. But what is “drive”, really? The answer(s), of course, depends on whom you ask. Drive has been described…
This morning I am gathering the Frisbees and the energy to start working with my dogs. Both Deuce and Rio appear excited at this point. Good, I think. I throw my first air-born Frisbee for Deuce and he remains standing looking at me as if asking me what do I want him to do about…
I am about to make some popcorn – one of my favorite snacks – as John is out walking with the dogs. I pause to think of what to put on the popcorn. Not so much because I am undecided about what I want, but because I normally share the bag of popcorn with Deuce…
Previously I wrote about ways by which we could ascertain if a behavior modification plan is actually working in changing the targeted behavior. Today, I’d like to expand on another reliable way of knowing whether success has been reached or even if we are on the right track. I recently met with a couple that…
John and I are spending some time cleaning the leaves from the outside plants that are now living in our living room for the colder months. I take a cloth with some water and I wipe off some white residue that stubbornly returns to the leaves even after we have sprayed them with some benign…
The dogs and I are playing outside with the beloved “orange ball”. Deuce is running to get the ball while Rio is tugging with gusto with me. I see Deuce running past me holding the big ball tightly in his mouth. He is dashing towards the house literally ignoring me as I call him to…
As promised, the conversation as to if punishment works continues. Before I dive into the explanation and exploration of this topic, I want to make my position clear: I DO NOT ENCOURAGE OWNERS TO PUNISH THEIR DOGS. INSTEAD, I ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO LEARN HOW TO USE EFFECTIVE AND HUMANE METHODS TO GET TO THE SAME…
There is a lot of confusion about the definition of punishment as the term has a different connotation in everyday parlance and the behavioral sciences. The behavioral sciences define punishment as the presentation of an aversive. An aversive, just to refresh some folks’ memory, is the presentation of anything an animal wants to avoid. As…