Chapter 5. Learning: "On the Spot Therapy"

5.1

Jdi Tmea / EyeEm/Getty Images

You think your dog Spot is pretty great. He’s your best friend. When you are upset, Spot will put his head in your lap, which is comforting. You read recently about therapy dogs—dogs that go to hospitals, nursing homes, or other settings to visit with and comfort patients—and you think Spot might do a good job. You decide to do some research on the Web and find the website for Dogs Who Help.

5.2

Transcript

CARRY SANDERS: For two days, all 15-year-old, David Yepes, has heard and thought about are his injuries from the second explosion.

WOMAN: This is remarkable.

CARRY SANDERS: But, today, David smiled.

DAVID: Yeah, we have a dog at home, but he's a small Yorkie terrier.

CARRY SANDERS: For just a moment, Luther and Ruthie made the shrapnel that tore through his left leg and the painful second degree burns almost an afterthought.

DAVID: It's relaxing, it kind of takes my mind away from everything that's going on.

CARRY SANDERS: Today, Lutheran church charities deployed the Comfort Brigade at Tufts Medical Center; dogs that have recently been working with other recovering children in Newtown, Connecticut. Quiet, peaceful visitors, who Leighanne Yanny says, set her nerves at ease just hours before the surgery on her wounded leg.

LEIGHANNE: Animals, you know, they just have a different sense. You know, they don't-- they don't talk back to you.

WOMAN: Oh my goodness. Hi.

CARRY SANDERS: The comfort dogs are like furry therapists, and it's not just those who were injured that need relief.

How nice is it for you to have just a different moment here with a dog?

WOMAN 2: My stress level has gone way down.

CARRY SANDERS: They sense love.

TIM HETNER: They sense that somebody is caring. And they sense that, in the midst of darkness, there's light.

This is Luther.

CARRY SANDERS: Companionship, compassion, and comfort when it's needed the most.

LEIGHANNE: You are a big puppy for two.

CARRY SANDERS: Carry Sanders. NBC News, Boston.

5.3

You click to another part of the website and see the list of tasks that Spot would need to perform in order to be a therapy dog.

Dogs must complete the following tests:

1. Sit and stay
2. Lay down and stay
3. Stay while an owner walks away and then come to an owner at the end of a 20-foot leash
4. Visit with a person and allow self to be petted
5. Handle situations in a medical setting without reacting (such as people in wheelchairs or on crutches, individuals rushing past, children playing outside)
6. Ignore treat or food offered by a patient or left on the ground (“Leave it” command)
7. Meet another dog without a problem

5.4

You are now excited about working with Spot to help him become a therapy dog. However, he does not yet know how to perform all of these tasks, and you are not sure of the best way to train him.

You need to remember what you read about learning in the chapter in order to teach Spot these skills. You do remember something about a dog and a man named Pavlov, so you review the following information about classical conditioning.

Thinkstock/Getty Images

Paul Fleet/Shutterstock

5.5

You realize that classical conditioning will not help you train Spot, so you need to look for another learning technique. You decide to go online to try to find another website that might be helpful. You find the following site, which looks promising.

To teach your dog a new trick or behavior, you want to use the principles of operant conditioning. These techniques involve using reinforcement or punishment to get a dog to do behaviors that you want and discourage behaviors that you do not want.

We recommend that owners exclusively use positive reinforcement, where dogs are rewarded for their behaviors. The most obvious rewards are primary reinforcers like treats, but dogs can respond just as well to secondary reinforcers such as an enthusiastic word or a kind pat. Using secondary reinforcers will also ensure your dog doesn’t get too much of a good thing – treats! – which might have negative consequences for his health. We do not recommend the use of negative reinforcement, as it may confuse the dog: You’d have to give him something he didn’t want before he even performed the behavior. In addition, we believe that positive punishment such as yelling at or striking your dog is cruel and unnecessary. Instead, use negative punishment by withholding attention and praise from the dog until he engages in the behavior you want.

5.6

You decide that you want to put operant conditioning, particularly reinforcement, into practice to help you train Spot. You find that the simple commands such as “Sit!” and “Stay!” are fairly easy to train using either primary reinforcers (treats) or secondary reinforcers (saying “good dog” or petting Spot). However, you run into a roadblock when you try to teach Spot to approach people in wheelchairs and allow them to pet him—critical behaviors if he is going to work in a hospital setting. Although Spot generally approaches and allows any person to pet him, he doesn’t seem to recognize it is a person when she or he is in a wheelchair. Trying to reinforce him for this behavior isn’t working: He just sits and cocks his head at you, seemingly confused as to what you are asking. You remember that a friend of yours runs a dog bed and breakfast and used to train dogs. You email her to ask for help, and she sends you the following in response.

Read Email

5.7

After reading your friend’s email about shaping, you remember the following example from your text about getting a child to eat his vegetables. Over a period of time, reinforcement is given for behaviors that are closer and closer to the goal. This process might help you think about how to help Spot.

iStock/Thinkstock

5.8

Using what you have learned so far about reinforcement and shaping, decide whether you should use positive reinforcement (by saying “Good dog!”) or negative reinforcement (by ignoring certain behaviors) for each of the following behaviors in order to help Spot understand you want him to approach a wheelchair.

5.9

Spot has now learned all the necessary skills and taken his test! Although you have to wait for your results, you are pretty confident that Spot did well. While you are waiting, you decide to research opportunities for therapy dogs in your area so that you are ready to go. You find the following video online.

5.10

You just received the results of Spot’s Therapy Dog test! You open up the mail to see what they are.

Open Mail

5.11