Review of a book on dog behaviour
Today, I’d
like to share with you a book I recently read about behavioural problems in
dogs: MARY R. BURCH and Jon S. Bailey (1999), How Dogs Learn. 1st ed. Howell
Book House, Wiley Publishing Inc.
Dr. Bailey, Professor Emeritus of
Psychology at Florida State University and Co-Director of the FSU Panama City
Masters Program in Applied Behavior Analysis, is also President of Behavior
Management Consultants, Inc.
Between the two of them, they have
published hundreds of articles and several books on dog training.
How dogs Learn treats the subject of operant conditioning in the world of dog training. It explains,
clearly, with great detail and at length all the principles, techniques,
resources, tools and nuances involved in operant conditioning and illustrates
them with plenty of examples. In the first two chapters, the authors give a
detailed account of the historic background that lead to the emergence of this
training technique; the book explains how both scientists/researchers and dog trainers
ended up using very similar techniques, sometimes fruit of their own experience
with the animals, and sometimes taking into consideration what one another was
doing.
In the main body of the book, the authors explain and review the basic
principles of behavior and try to give an answer to some unsocial or undesired
pet behaviours, looking deep into the possible causes for them without
forgetting possible medical causes, which many times are overlooked by owners,
trainers, and even veterinarians. Once possible medical causes have been
discarded, many tips are provided in terms of how to readdress/modify this type
of behaviour. The books goes through the different methods for teaching new
behaviours (reinforcement, shaping, prompting and fading, chaining) and,
perhaps more importantly, methods to get rid of unwanted behaviours such as
extinction, differential reinforcement, antecedent control.
Towards the end, there is a reflection about the ethics of the use of
punishment in training techniques. It is obvious that the authors prefer the
use of positive reinforcers rather
than negative ones ("Any decision to use punishment should be made only
after trying positive alternatives"), although they think the use of
punishment might be justified in certain exceptional cases (e.g., if the dogs
needs to learn quickly in order to save its life). But, they add something I
had never thought of and which I found very reasonable: "Try the punisher
on yourself", in order to experience the level of discomfort the dog is
going to experience itself.
I was pleasantly surprised because I didn't expect a book with
that level of scientific and technical detail and accuracy to be, at the same
time, so easy to read. Agreed, I am a vet and I am mad about the subject, so I
have to admit that it might be a bit over the top for the average dog owner,
but in my opinion the book almost reads like a novel and it integrates lots of
concepts and data without even noticing it. The use of examples, graphics,
tables, explanations and illustrations contributes to this easiness and helps
to improve memorization. The design of the pages, with frequent aide
memoires (the little paw prints), diagrams, etc., took me back to my days as a
student, when I used to draw them all the time myself to help me remember. The book
uses technical words, but at the same time it explains them using natural
language. All the examples are easy to follow and explanatory, very helpful to
understand some of the more difficult concepts.
I also liked the
chapters headings, in italics and a smaller font, which I found both helpful
(to understand what the main heading means, memorize said meaning and have an
approximate idea of what the contents of the chapters are going to be), and
funny. I think a bit of humour helps greatly to memorize things and makes the
reading a lot more enjoyable.
I think my
favourite ones probably are "You're getting warmer" for
"Shaping", "Can you give me a hint?" for "Prompting
and fading" and "Click here for more options" for "Using
Conditioned Reinforcement".
I really
appreciate the way in which the book is structured, the way in which the
authors approach the subject, first with a title that goes straight to the
point and uses plain language (e.g., Schedules of reinforcement: which ones and
how many?). Then, an explanation follows written with clear language and easy
to follow. If that's not enough, many chapters include examples from the real
live and, as I mentioned before, the whole book is interspersed with graphics,
tables, pictures, etc. If the concept is still too hard to grasp, a simple
explanation a five-year-old can understand is given ("In other words, make
it easier to be good and the dog is more likely to be goog"), which I find
very helpful indeed.
In my opinion, this book is very useful for dog trainers, but also for
conscious dog owners, veterinary students and even veterinarians who decide to
deepen or refresh their knowledge in this field.
Many owners, who tend to humanize their pets, would benefit a great
deal from reading this book, but more importantly, their pets would obtain the
greatest benefit. In my professional life I have come across many owners who
resented their dogs because, they said, they were doing their best to make
their lives difficult, or were vengeful, or resented their owners, or were just
plain difficult. Well, you're wrong, I would have liked to tell them. I tried
my best to explain to them that, as How
Dogs Learn explains, the animals are always right in the way
they behave, i.e., they just follow their behavioural rules. If they are
behaving in a way we don't like, it is us who are at fault, either because we
haven't been able to provide the right environment, or reinforcement, or
message, or signal, or because we are indeed reinforcing inadvertently the very
same conduct we want to eliminate (like, ending up giving in to a begging dog,
which constitutes intermittent reinforcement, which encourages the conduct even
more!). Or like patting and consoling a scared dog when we want the dog not to
fear that specific stimulus. The examples are endless.
We are the rational beings, and therefore, the responsibility is ours.
I believe How Dogs Learn is
successful in conveying this message and, if the book only achieved this, it
would already be worth reading it.
There are many other books that treat the same subject (in its entirety
or as part of a book that covers more subjects), but they are either too simple
or too complex.
I personally found the book G.
LANDSBERG, W. Hunthausen, L. Ackerman (2003), Handbook
of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat. 2nd ed. Elsevier
Saunders extremely useful and a source of academical and technical knowledge,
but I would never recommend it as a pleasurable reading for the average dog
owner, or maybe even dog trainers. The complexity and depth with which it
approaches every subject too much if you are not interested in acquiring a
university-level kind of knowledge.
On the other hand,
if what the reader wants is to deepen their knowledge on a certain topic, How
Dogs Learn offers a long list of references to keep them busy for a
long time.
The Index I found
very well organized, thorough and useful. Apart from the Chapters index, the
book includes an alphabetical index which was of great help to me when I had to
answer the questions in this module.
The illustrations could have been better, granted, maybe clearer,
bigger, in colour, with better definition... but that would have probably increased
the price of the book and done nothing much to improve the quality of the text
or the technical knowledge it contains.
A CD-Rom would have been a great addition to the book, since it would
have helped navigate through it much more easily and the finding of information
much faster and thorough. Again, that would have increased the price of the
book but, in this case it would have probably been well worth it.
On the whole, I enjoyed the book. I learnt many things from it, not so
much about the reasons for inadequate behaviour, but certainly a lot about
training techniques and ways to modify behaviour. I found it extremely useful
and I am sure I will refer back to it many times in the future.
And don't worry. In my next article I will go back to the translation world.
