Stepping out of the frame - seeing the bigger picture

If you're involved in dog training, you have probably heard about training behaviours, and proofing them in different environments (and around distractions). After doing this, we can often expect a certain outcome. When it doesn't occur, we can sometimes think we have a training 'issue' - something that needs to be 'fixed'. The truth is, there is so much more at play than that, and we need to look at the bigger picture to fully understand what can influence our dog's decision making (looking a bit further than reinforcers/reinforcement history, environmental stimulation, etc). Without doing so, we can sometimes overlook factors that are crucial to the dogs involved.

Despite often having the best of intentions with our methods and beliefs...we are still human. We can still see things in a negative way, and see things that need to be fixed - rather than just being able to 'see'. We spot a behaviour, we quickly come to a conclusion about the behaviour, and decide if we do X, Y, Z with the dog to train something in, then we will start seeing different behaviour. Colleagues within the industry are starting some fantastic (and much needed) conversations about the emotional needs behind behaviour, and I can't wait to see these conversations continue to unfold. What I want to write about below is taking the time to observe behaviour before making decisions - something I am so passionate about (and I think that comes across to anyone who meets me).

I'll give you an example that I have been fortunate enough to witness myself (because this highlights these things so well), one that I find really interesting.

Rex and Sephora know each other. Both are adult dogs. Rex is a very sweet dog. Rex is dog tolerant, and does not mind dogs in his environment - he walks with known dogs - but would prefer his own space and can be a little bit conflicted at times. There can be some tension when dogs do get within a close proximity to Rex and some very low level guarding of certain things in situations (not regularly). Rex communicates this very well with body language. Rex recalls very well to anyone who uses his cue.

Sephora is a good communicator and reads situations well. Having known Rex for a while, she does not attempt to engage in play with him on walks, and instead they occupy the same space, scent swap, and can have enjoyable walks together in their environment. Sephora is aware of situations that may cause tension with Rex and chooses to avoid these. Sephora also has good recall - but not around Rex.

On a walk, Sephora was recalled to her guardian. Sephora paused, Rex did not. Rex ran to Sephora's guardian (they have similar cue words) and waited with them. Sephora's guardian looked to Sephora, who was looking at them but unmoving. Sephora yawned, then shook off, and walked a different way.

Recall issue, right? That's what this looks like on the surface, and was how it looked to Sephora's guardian too. But why - because Sephora has good recall in all other circumstances, just doesn't seem to on walks with Rex. She doesn't run off, but is hesitant, where as usually, she u-turns back to her guardian! Was it the time of day? Was it the environment? Was she unwell or in pain? All reasonable questions, but let's break this situation down, stepping out of the frame for a second.

Relationships, social learning and social interaction - this all kind of wraps itself in to one thing in this example. Sephora and Rex had known each other for quite a while. By this stage, Sephora knows that Rex likes his own space. She has been in enough situations with some low level tension to know that Rex wouldn't like her approaching him in this instance, possibly whilst waiting for a reward for recalling well. Unfortunately, Rex had positioned himself directly in front of Sephora's guardian. This left Sephora feeling conflicted (hence the stress yawn followed by a shake off), and she made a choice based on the social/environmental situation. The choice was not to recall in this instance. Nothing happened as a result of this, she carried on mooching around, her guardian walked in another direction whilst Rex was busy and recalled Sephora without using a cue that would bring Rex over too.

What could have happened? She could have recalled, and this could have created tension between the two dogs; it is possible that this has happened in the past - not necessarily a serious escalation, but enough for Sephora to be aware of it and not make the same choice again.

So in this example, Sephora chose not to recall as this was a better choice for her to make with the social dynamics at play in that moment, which prevented any conflict or tension between herself and Rex.

The key things in this specific scenario:

- Social skills, social learning, and social habits

- Relationships and personalities

- Environment and resources

...put together, in this example, it didn't matter how good the reinforcement history was; Sephora made a choice largely based on the social and environmental situation. Even though she has good recall generally. I find this really interesting.

On the surface this looked like a 'recall thing', a 'training thing', but the truth is it was so much more than that. The amazing thing was that the dogs in this scenario figured out and observed these social subtleties in a matter of seconds. How amazing is that?

Now I'm not saying we just don't recall Sephora when Rex is around. If they're going to be spending time off lead around each other, both dogs need to be recalled appropriately to their own guardians. This is where humans have to acknowledge the observations made, the needs of each dog, and plan for this happening again - something as simple as splitting up and recalling Rex separately from Sephora, if we know Rex will go where ever the rewards will come from.

Let's also not assume that Sephora will make the same decision every time. These things can be fluid.

So, the take away from this.

We need to take our training brains and ideas out of these situations sometimes. It doesn't mean our training brains are wrong, but sometimes we could see a different side of things by hitting pause on our train of thought. We can then examine these occurrences for what they are. What we actually know, see, and observe - leaving out what we think should be occurring. If we can then combine the two, we will come to more informed conclusions that are often more beneficial to the dog, and can plan based on this. I think of this as stepping out of the frame, to allow us to see the bigger picture. Our dogs are phenomenal observers. Nobody can teach us more about dogs, than dogs. So let's practice learning from our furry friends and applying the same observational techniques rather than coming to our speedy conclusions. The results (much like the example above) can be very interesting and are often much more complex than just 'a training issue'.

Sally Lewis 2021