BehavioRx Case of the Month
for February 2006

Training for Dependable Obedience

The family of Mom, Dad and three teenage daughters arrived with their highly excited and unruly 10 month old, spayed Golden retriever, "Holly," for their first session. the dog towed "Dottie" (Mom) toward me as soon as they cleared the car. I asked Mom to release the leash and to call Holly back to her immediately, which resulted in Holly rushing to me to jump up and try to lick my face. A quick side-step left Holly turning, where she saw me sitting down and asking the family to join us and take a seat in our semi-circle of deck chairs. "Bill," (Dad) grabbed Holly's leash and dragged her with him to his chair, saying, "See our problem? She's great at home, but a nut case anywhere else. We all spent 8 weeks in obedience class, did our homework at least three times a week, but we can't take her to the park or the beach without being totally embarrassed."

During the consultation we learned that what Bill indicated all the family's experience and attitude... they were about fed up with Holly's exuberance. We also
learned that their obedience instructor rated Holly's training in class as highly successful, including the recall, which involved putting Holly on a Sit-Stay, leaving
her, walking 30 feet away and then calling her to "come," which she did dependably. However, we also discovered that Pavlov's surprising experience with one of his most treasured laboratory dogs, and small mixed breed female, whom he nick-named "Brains," was not known to the students. Dottie was a psychologist, Bill a lawyer, and all the girls were excellent students, so they quickly grasped how Pavlov's lesson applied to their situation.

This famous pioneer in conditioned reflexes discovered that dogs must be trained in at least four very different locations before they will dependably demonstrate their retention in another new location.  The story goes as follows:  One of his favorite dogs was nicknamed "Brains." She had learned to walk using with foot movements that were truly remarkable to see. So Pavlov decided to have a lecture appearance with her. She Brains was placed on her platform for the performance and given the start cue, she merely stood there, stock still, staring through the auditorium's flood lights, apparently fascinated by the crowd that had gathered for her debut.

Being a clever fellow, Pavlov went back to his laboratory, did some genius-type thinking, and then started re-teaching Brains her cute walking exercises in different
locations with different distractions. After she had mastered it in four new areas and distractions, she performed nicely in the fifth context. Hence, the experimental
lab's adaptation of an old Hindu religious tenet of the "Principle of Four." However, outside of academic settings, in real life, several and even many more locations may be necessary, depending on the dog, its teachers and the difficulty of the exercise.

Holly and her fine family were excused from our six week long consultation program when they said they'd like to try to apply their exercises at our Sun Valley Ranch right away, then spend a couple of weeks going to more locations.

After we had discussed the need for all family members to teach Holly, both with the family group and on their own so that she wasn't trained into responding only when all the family was present, Bill made out a check for a single meeting and the exuberant group departed on a new adventure. 8 weeks later, Bill phoned to report that everything worked out beautifully. He said their most difficult challenge for the "Come" command had been at the back at the "Colony" in Malibu, where residents, at that time, allowed their dogs to run freely... most of whom were out of anyone's control.

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