Category: Common Problems ¤
  Author: Dani Weinberg ¤
   Title: Two Reward System Follow Up ¤

>1) we state repeatedly that dogs do not generalize well, so how does this
>technique work without "taking it on the road?"

It probably doesn't work very well - just like any other training. If you want 
to be really solid, you have to teach the dog to generalize the behavior.

>
>2) all behaviors need at least occasional reinforcement, so do we have to
>repeat this exercise at some regular interval?

Depends on the dog. With my high-dive German Shepherd girl (whose first 
birthday is today!), I repeat Two -REward training at every possible 
opportunity, wherever we are. For example, she's my demo dog in my Pet Partners 
class. I tether her to the wall before the students arrive and do 2-reward 
training with her if she barks at their arrival - just walk away, wait for her 
to calm herself, then go back and R+. I've found that I don't even have to give 
my students any special instructions - just that they should completely ignore 
her and go about their business of entering the training room and getting 
settled with their dogs.

>3) it is suggested that the subject dog not be allowed access to other dogs
>during this training, so what happens if we encounter other dogs when we
>are out for a walk?

That's a tough one. This would be a good time for your friend to practice her 
handling skills in the presence of other dogs that trigger her own to behave 
aggressively. That means: stand still, breath, relax, try to catch her dog 
early in the aggression behavior chain and R+ for early precursors or ask for 
incompatible behaviors, or at the very least wait it out until her dog returns 
attention to her for which she can then R+. (This assumes that the other dog is 
on leash. If it's not, it's a whole different ball game.)

>4) if we could ask John Fisher, what would he say about combining "Calming
>Signals" with his method?

Don't know what John would have said, but our own Trish King has made some 
helpful comments on this. She suggests that we actually look for a calming 
signal as the behavior we're reinforcing in the dog - rather than go the Dead 
Man's route and look for "not barking." So if the dog turns her head or yawns 
or sits or lies down, those are good behaviors to reinforce. With my own dog, 
I've been reinforcing eye contact, and I think that's a more direct route to 
what we ultimately want - but it may take a while to get that from some dogs, 
especially if they're not trained.

Dani Weinberg
Albuquerque, NM