Month: August 2021

Why head halters are an essential element of force free training…

Today I was at a dog-friendly beach, and I watched pet owners arrive with dogs on a variety of shoulder distorting harnesses. Some were front clip, some were back clip, some with literally hobbles wrapped around the front legs, some were not restrictive at all, and others were somewhere in-between.

I had my own dog on a head halter, because that’s the safe way for me to handle him. A family with a new german shepherd puppy arriving in a few weeks told me their plan: prong and shock. Why?

“I’ve heard that head halters can rub against the delicate nerves in the dog’s nose. I’m surprised your dog doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. With a prong, you can train the dog instantly, complete control.”

I really hate fake news, because the fake news about head halters is causing some people to resist this humane, gentle, effective training device, and instead choose devices that are proven to escalate aggression (prong/choke/shock), cause injuries and deformities in canines (restrictive harnesses and flat collars), or result in injuries to human handlers (flat collars and harnesses in general). So here is my rant to hopefully counter the disinformation that is out there about head halters.

1. Unlike other gear, head halter trainers learn upon purchase that we must condition dogs to voluntarily accept a head halter. It’s not about force nor hobbling. The process we use to teach dogs to be led with a head halter helps trainers understand dogs better, and become better, more compassionate, trainers.

2. It’s easier/safer to handle a big strong dog because they don’t have so much leverage. This is a geometry thing, not a nerve thing.

Trained german shepherd, leashed with head halter.

3. Yes, there are nerves all over a dog’s body. Armpits, shoulders, ribs are especially ticklish and sensitive. The vagus nerve is in the chest and the body harness makes it difficult to access the dog’s chest to stroke the dog’s chest. Head halters rest on the hard part of the skull, and they don’t compress any soft tissue, and you can read down and scratch your dog’s chest whenever you want, nothing is in the way.

Caught my dog reacting on a head halter, you can see how he it helps me redirect him to away from the surprise dog.

4. Dogs gradually outgrow the need for headhalters, so why does it seem like people use restrictive body harnesses even when dogs are off duty? Maybe because it’s hard to get some harnesses on and off? While pet owners understand they need to condition dogs to wear the head halter, pet owners often don’t understand that they shouldn’t just slap on a body harness and start walking and tugging the dog around.

4 Head halters can gently turn the dogs head away from a distraction. When a dog is on a body harness, if the handler is trying to guide a dog away from a reactivity situation, they are pulling the dog’s whole body, while the dog’s head is still staring at the distraction.

5. You never need to pull on a dog in a head halter, you can just move your hand so you are holding the leash beside the dog’s face. That’s it, now the dog has no leverage. Whereas if the dog is on a body harness and starts to react, even if you move your hand to hold the leash beside the dog, the dog can pull you down or drag you.

6. I use harnesses for skijoring and tracking so harnesses cue pulling and sniffing. A head halter is very different and helps dogs be clearer about what we’re doing.

Opposition reflex in action: body harnesses restrict soft tissue and can contribute to musculoskeletal injuries and disorders, in both animals!

7. It’s so easy to carry a head halter in my pocket, put it on and off, and only use it if I am in an environment or situation where I need the extra safety that a head halter allows. My dogs have noticed a pattern where if they pull on the flat collar, I’ll put the head halter on them. Sometimes it seems like they actually WANT to be on a head halter, they want mommy to hold their hand! It’s conditioned relaxation, so the head halter reassures, I am in charge, and they don’t need to worry about anything in the environment.

Should I use food in dog training?

M’Ocean enjoying the food at a party, using a snufflemat!

This is a question I am often asked, and I see the question online as well. And no wonder: how often do we see “The Dog Whisperer” using food on his program?

But truthfully, if you “don’t want to use food,” your dog will die. You are going to “use food,” and every time you do, your dog will learn something about how the world operates, and how s/he can operate the world. F

In behavior science terminology, food is a primary reinforcer. That means, we are born with an instinctive drive to get food, and so the delivery of food reinforces (ie strengthens) whatever behavior happened right before the food was delivered. Other primary reinforcers for dogs are freedom, physical comfort, opportunities to sniff, hunt, play, socialize. Eventually, we will learn to use ALL of these primary (plus secondary) reinforcers to shape the behaviors of our dogs.

See one of my dogs laying nicely on a mat, in a quiet down-stay in a busy dog training hall? That’s my dog, “begging at the table,” except there is no table and the cue isn’t me sitting down at a table with a plate of food. The cue is the mat, and the context of where we are and what we’re doing, and they know if they lay there (you could call that “beg”) long enough, the wait will be rewarded.

Why is it that people often “don’t want to use food,”but they aren’t as reluctant to punish? Maybe food is inconvenient? Instead of delivering treats, Cesar Milan says “fsst!”, and then he uses (and sells) pinch/prong/shock/choke, and if you watch enough episodes with the sound turned off, you’ll see him choking, twisting a dog’s ear, or delivering his famous swift kick to the ribs (no close ups of that). But no food.

Use of force or punishment is reinforcing to us. It makes us feel powerful as we can see an immediate impact, it creates an illusion of control or success, but what we don’t see immediately is the longterm impacts. Using force and punishment builds uncertainty into dogs. It stimulates reluctance or resistance, avoidance in our pet, when what we really want is to get them to participate.

And just so we’re on the same page, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviorists just came out with a position paper, reflecting decades of research, that reinforcement based training is the most effective way to resolve any behavior problem. https://avsab.org/resources/position-statements/ .

So, learning how to most effectively, efficiently use food, as well as other reinforcers, is a key component of understanding how to train any animal. Food is not the only primary reinforcer. Freedom and movement, physical comfort, are also a primary reinforcers that pet owners dish out arbitrarily, unconsciously delivering reinforcement when dogs are barking at the door, pulling at the leash, or otherwise misbehaving.

Learning how to use food and freedom, as well as secondary (learned) reinforcers, such as toys, games, cues, allows dogs to become confident in how the world works. Instead of avoiding you (or Cesar’s “sst” which he often follows with a swift kick to the ribs or off camera ear pinch), your dog is orienting to you, and offering you behaviors that s/he knows will help the dog get where or what he wants. You’re working with your dog, instead of just trying to control your dog.

Using food consciously in dog training is like teaching your dog how to drive you, like you’d teach a kid to drive a car: this is always your gas pedal, and this is always brake. And the car doesn’t go by itself, you need to have the key and you need to know how to start, stop and steer the car. You need to know the rules. If you don’t know how to use primary and secondary reinforcers, but instead deliver reinforcers with a sprinkle of punishers haphazardly throughout the day, that would be like trying to teach someone how to drive when red sometimes means go. If you aren’t consciously aware of reinforcement and how you are using it, your dog will be confused about how to successfully operate your world.

Bottom line: yeah, you are going to use food. It’s impossible to avoid “using food.” So the bigger question is, do you know HOW to use food? That’s where we begin.