Stop Dog Jumping
In the late 1800's, a German high school mathematics instructor named Wilhelm Von Osten began parading around his horse, "Clever Hans."
You see, Clever Hans was no ordinary horse. Clever Hans could add, subtract, multiply, divide, work with fractions, tell time, keep track of the calendar, differentiate musical tones, read, spell and understand German.
Clever Hans would be asked a question and he would tap his hoof on the ground until he came to the right answer.
People came from all over to see Clever Hans give the answers to some very difficult math questions.
But some folks were not impressed with Clever Hans. They thought that it was all some kind of trick.
The German board of education agreed and appointed a commission to investigate Hans.
Did Hans really add, subtract, multiply, divide, work with fractions, tell time, keep track of the calendar, differentiate musical tones and read, spell and understand German?
The quick answer...NO.
Hans did not know how to do any of the things that his owner claimed.
Hans was not a mathematical genius--but--what they learned was that Hans was an expert at reading body language.
The investigators discovered that when a question was asked of Hans, he would start to tap his hoof until he came to the correct answer.
He knew the correct answer by watching for cues given by the person asking the questions.
The questioner's posture and facial expressions changed in ways that were consistent with an increase in tension, which was released when the horse made the final "correct" tap.
How does this effect you and your training?
Read on.
Unintentional reinforcement plays a big role in your training.
A lot of the behaviors that dogs do are the result of the way we react to them.
There are certain behaviors that are reinforced in your dog unintentionally that we don't necessarily like.
A very common behavior is jumping. Dogs are very excitable, social animals. They are happy to see us when we come home and they jump up to greet.
We give some type of reinforcement. We either pet and talk to the dog or we push and yell at the dog to "GET DOWN."
Pay attention to the way you interact with your dog when she is jumping.
Learn what reinforces the jumping. When you are petting your dog or yelling at your dog for jumping you are giving attention to the behavior, which in turn reinforces the behavior.
If you want your dog to jump, keep petting or yelling at your dog and the behavior will get stronger.
Since we now understand the Clever Hans effect, we will deal with the jumping by NOT giving any attention to the behavior.
When you walk into your house a good thing to do is to simply walk past your dog and don't give him ANY attention.
There are three forms of attention. You give your dog attention when you look, talk or touch your dog. You have to make sure that you are not giving any form of attention to the jumping. As you walk past your dog or if you are standing still, do not give any attention until your dog stops jumping.
Once your dog stops jumping and all four paws are on the ground, you can turn on the attention.
With your dog's four paws on the ground you can look, talk and touch your dog and let her know what a good dog she is for not jumping.
If your dog starts to jump again when you turn on the attention, quickly turn it off.
No attention until you get the right behavior. This can work for a lot of different behaviors.