History

One interesting aspect of scientific research is that you never know when a simple question will suddenly catapult you into a wild race for answers followed by a lifetime's worth of ideas and possibilities. In July of 2003 ,my research took such a turn when, out the blue, I received a message from The Sharper Image, a San Francisco-based gadget company. "We want to develop an "electronic mood translation device," they said. "One that really works."

Because my research was on barking as communication in dogs, I knew what they meant. They wanted a bark translator. But I also knew that the cost of research and development for such a product would take many years and much more money to develop than any company would want to invest. And anyway, it's better to learn to translate your dog's barks yourself. So, when I received the their message, I basically replied, "No that won't work." But, unable to resist the idea of working with a company that could probably make any animal training device I conjured up, I went on, "but how about these ideas instead."

Their product idea had to do with barking, excessive barking is a huge problem for dog owners, and the current products dealing with excessive barking all focus on punishment and thus come with a number of pitfalls or unwanted behavioral side-effects. So I suggested, "How about making a device that addresses the barking issue by rewarding quiet behavior and that's backed up by research to prove that it works?" "Such a product would sure make my behavior housecall work a lot easier," I thought to myself.

The Gadget
Well,18 months later the product is out.The Treat & Train Dog Training
System for decreasing barking, jumping, door dashing, and other unruly
behaviors that dogs exhibit when guests come to the door. The techno-gadget part of the system is a remote-controlled kibble-dispensing machine that emits a tone and immediately releases a treat when your dog performs the correct behavior. The key is the timing- owners can now time the reward right as their dog performs the correct behavior without having to fumble for the food or run up to Dozer to deliver the treat. As a result, the dog know exactly what he's doing right.

The gadget is cool and the first time I used it I finally understood why men like remote controls so much. The part of the Treat & Train that really makes it work though is the carefully developed protocol for training dogs to run to a rug and lie down quietly on cue even in the face of major distractions such as repeated doorbell ringing or knocking, loud shouting, people running around, front door wide open, guests walking around, or people trying to eat a peaceful dinner.

The Pilot Study
The research was designed and carried out in three stages. I started with pilot testing using 10 dogs to look at different variations of techniques I had already used. This turned out to be more complicated than I initially thought. Training dogs myself is fairly straightforward, but my goal here was to design a program that the average dog-owner pair with no previous training experience could perform successfully with as few errors as possible. I quickly solicited suggestions from Bob Bailey, former general manager of the Animal Behavior Enterprises (the largest animal training company based on scientific methods that has ever existed), Karen Pryor, author of Don't Shoot the Dog, Eduardo Fernandez, one of my research collaborators and over a grueling several weeks, came up with a protocol. One that took me about six days to complete per dog. Now I had to test how well it really worked.

The First Experiment: Examining the Protocol
In January of 2004, my assistants and I carried out the first research experiment at The Canine Connection Dog Training facility owned by Dr. Sarah Richardson, in Chico, California. We took six unruly dogs and worked them through each step or the protocol. Each time we performed a repetition or trial, we recorded correct and incorrect responses. Then we followed strict criteria. Nine out of ten correct trials in a row and go to the next step. Miss more than two out of ten and repeat the step. Miss five or more out of ten and go back a step. Despite having dogs of different breeds and temperaments, all of the dogs made it through the protocol in eight days and the steps were easy enough that dogs performed each trial correctly over 90% of the time. That means they made mistakes less than 10% of the time. So now we had a protocol that we knew was easy to carry out.




The Second Experiment: Clinical Trial
The next step was the clinical trial to see how it worked in real homes. We called for the most poorly behaved door-greeting dogs we could find and made owners prove their dogs were unruly enough. Owners had to videotape their dogs for one minute during three guest visits so we could quantify the bad behaviors. We got what we asked for. Fifteen dogs who barked on average 19.3 times, jumped 8.2 times and spent over 75% of their time crowding the door or crowding the guest. The worst in each category barked over 40 times, jumped over 20 times, gnawed on visitors arms, and one even had a history of lunging so hard to get out the door that he once dislocated his owner¹s shoulder.

Some owners were skeptical about whether the program would work for their unruly dog, but all wanted their dog to be better behaved. So, armed with an instruction manual, a rough instructional video, and a prototype kibble-dispensing machine, the owners diligently worked through the program just as a regular person might. That is, instead of practicing every day as they were directed, skipped many days in a row, took long vacations, accidentally skipped steps, and performed steps incorrectly, which meant we had to check on them regularly to ensure they were staying on track. In spite of the setbacks, all dogs metamorphosed into polite door greeters within two to sixteen weeks with the average owner spending 20-30 minutes a day and taking about a month of consecutive training days to complete the study. By the end, dogs on average barked less than one time per minute, and since they all stayed on their rugs virtually the entire time, none jumped on or crowded the guests.

The Instructional DVD
At this point we had a training program that we knew worked even when owners did the training with their own dogs. Unfortunately, developing an effective training program is only half the work. Creating instructional materials that would compel owners to perform the steps correctly would be the key to success. This sounds simple until you realize that animal training is a technical skill, a sport, just like tennis or golf. If your timing is off or you do something a little bit different, you don't get the results you want. And just watching someone demonstrate the correct technique isn't enough. Good instructors break the techniques into their component parts in order to reveal the important nuances.

With this in mind I designed an instructional DVD using dogs in different stages of the learning process so that viewers could see how dogs look while they're learning the exercises as well as how they look once they know the exercises. Most steps are illustrated using several dogs, each step is illustrated several times, and the finer points are highlighted with close-ups and slow motion. Additionally, while the DVD features me demonstrating techniques correctly, it also features owners demonstrating the mistakes they have made and special "nerd alerts" that humorously illustrate additional errors you should avoid. We also show how to deal with most of the pitfalls owners might come across.

As you might guess, the DVD is quite extensive. It includes over 30 dogs and it includes information on how your dog learns as well as ancillary exercises that will help you get dog through the program quickly. And the DVD has even been tested via focus group viewing in which I asked viewers to perform the techniques that they just observed so that I could evaluate their interpretation. The DVD contains thirteen chapters and two bonus chapters and is meant to be watched in 10 minute segments. Total length - 3.5 hours.

The instruction manual:
Click to view an excerpt from the training manual.

Once you watch the DVD segment you can also then refer to the accompanying instruction manual as a quick reference.

More information
So how do you get one or find more information? Order at www.sharperimage.com.

                 

To join the yahoo group, an independently run group where T&T users discuss their experiences and offer advice on using the Treat & Train, send mail to: TreatNTrain-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and include a short sentence or two about why you are joining this group.