Posted by Jerry Bradshaw
on September 24, 2009, 8:59 am, in reply to "Outside the box"
75.199.182.45
Pete:
I agree, I think the biggest issues I see with cops traiing dogs are for them to solve problems by using behavioral methods(rather than forcing a round peg in a square hole) - such as systematic de-conditioning - it is sometimes easier for them (because the cost is relatively low) to just return the dog to a vendor when they encounter a problem.
On the trainers at sea world...I've sat through some lectures with sea mammal trainers and they sometimes dont understand the differences between training dogs and what they do, mainly the fact that your police dog has to perform in a new venue every day (unlike a mammal in a tank) and face scenarios that are always different - this is where compulsion comes in to generalize responses to various different situations by setting limits on behaviors so you can "correct on the go" more easily rather than limiting yourself to witholding rewards to change behavior. The idea that you can't use a pinch collar on a whale does not imply you shouldn't use it on a dog for whom it was designed to be used and is possible for it to be used. That is faulty logic, but is often something I have heard from purely positive trainers who git their impetus from these sea mammal trainers.
But in the end you are right - it is always good to think outside the box and there is always something to take from other trainers no matter how different they may seem .... Especially in problem solving, operant methods are misunderstood and often underutilized.
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