Understanding Reinforcement

As I have mentioned several times, I have 2 loves in my life, my job and my dog. As for my job, I am a  behaviour analyst who works with individuals with autism and related disorders. My career path, studying and understanding behaviour and behaviour change principles, has given me an in depth knowledge of all the principles that govern behaviour in human and non-human species (a lot of research is still done with animals).

Given my unique background, I often forget that not everyone understands and uses reinforcement with their pets. I was reminded of this in one of my favourite blog's, Furry Four Legged Foster Friends http://www.furryfosters.net/, post yesterday. Mel talked about having a "life changing" moment when being at a talk that mentioned reinforcement. This has made me think I should write about reinforcement.

Reinforcement is anything that INCREASES the chances of the behaviour in the future.

There are 2 types of reinforcement:
Positive Reinforcement - adding something to the environment that increases the future of a behaviour in the future (in dog terms this likely is food, toys, pets, praise - for most of us it is $$$)
Negative Reinforcement - removing something from the environment that increases the future of a behaviour in the future (For my cat Bagheera, smacking Lee in the face when she comes to close allows him to stop/remove her butt sniffs - in human terms, the best example, is finally cleaning your room so your mom stops nagging you).

Punishment on the other hand is anything that DECREASES the chances of the behaviour in the future. (Again there is positive and negative, but I won't go into that now).

Common Challenges with Using Reinforcement:
1) You only know something is a reinforcer at another time in the future (do we see the behaviour increase later?) - just because the creature involved seems to enjoy it, it is only a reinforcer if later you see the behaviour increase.

2) Sometimes what we think are punishers actually are reinforcers: Sometimes (especially in my work with kids), we think we are punishing someone with a reprimand for example, but if the behaviour doesn't changes, or worse increases, well, the reprimand probably was a reinforcer!

3) Just because something is a reinforcer right now, it may not be in 2 minutes or tomorrow. The science explains the concepts of deprivation and satiation. Deprivation is when you haven't had something for a while and the value of it is much higher because you have been deprived (think about a long car ride and how reinforcing access to a bathroom is after it as compared to the bathroom's normal value). Satiation is when you have had too much of something and the reinforcing value of it declines (think of the value of food after a holiday dinner pig out).

4) New behaviours may need to have access to the reinforcer a different, undetermined number of times that you can't know before you start:) So giving your dog a cookie once when they sit doesn't mean they will sit in the future. They may need to be reinforced for this behaviour many times.

Hints for using reinforcement with your dog:
1) You need to reinforce any behaviour you want to see more of!

2) If you are seeing more of a behaviour you don't want to see, you need to figure out what is the reinforcer that is maintaining this behaviour and stop it! (Easier said then done!)

3) Have a variety of potential reinforcers/preferred items. By mixing it up, you can create deprivation and avoid satiation.  People laugh at the number of different treats/toys I have for Lee, but I do it to allow me to manipulate her motivation to get her to do what I want/need her to do.

4) Save the most powerful potential reinforcer/preferred items for specific behaviours.  Lee only gets access to her current favourite, beef liver, when I am doing her nail desensitization

program.

5) Often very small pieces can be reinforcing. By using small pieces, you can reinforce more often without satiation.

6) Reinforce often!

Happy Reinforcing!

Does your pet have a song?

I sing to my pets a lot. Often they are made up songs to whatever tune is in my head and sometimes I sing real ones. My cats never have had a song, but my dogs have.

Loki's song was "the Difference", by Matchbox Twenty. The December we got him nearly 10 years ago, I spent many hours standing on the corner hoping he would pee. There is a line in the song that use to get stuck in my head in the middle of the night "Slow dancing on the boulevard in the quiet moments while the city's still dark." For the 8 years of his life, I sang this to him.

Gemi came around during our CSI phase, and her song was the Who's "Who are you?"  This became her song because she would get mad when we would sing the "who, who" part. She didn't like it. We thought it was funny. Poor girl! In her last year of life, she earned a second song "Fire Woman" by the Cult, so maybe this made up for her main song being one designed to annoy her:) She got this song because it was on in the car on the way to the park several times. She was sitting all regal like in the back seat, with the window partly opened, looking like a queen, and I thought it fit her.

I realized recently, Hailey does not have a song yet. While I sing to her, there is not one song that is "hers". She may argue that this is further proof that I don't love her and she is abused and neglected (I don't think anyone is going to believe that!).  So I am now on a mission to finder her a song.

Does your pet have a song?

Who rescued who?

The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside

Feline Friday - Almost play

This is as close to play and Hailey and Baggy are ever going to get. I must say I never thought I would live to see the day when Baggy (who is 16.5) would even play this much with a dog. The power of his "stick". (Playing "stick" has always been Baggy's favourite game.)

Nail cutting at week 1.5

I have been systematically desensitizing Lee to the nail clippers, so that nail cutting will become less traumatic for her. Last Monday, I showed a video of her on day one, in a post called Baseline Data.

Here we are now, 1.5 weeks later. We have made some progress!

Wordless Wednesday

Grief at Month 3

It is hard to believe that another Gemi-less month has passed. This month feels very similar to last month in terms of grief.

I had my first panic attack of the month over the weekend. We were at the dog park and a dog was playing rough with Lee. I had wicked flashbacks to the accident, I felt dizzy and sick and started to cry and I had to keep walking and leave my husband to deal with it. I just couldn't. So going to the park alone is still not a safe thing for me to do.

 It still remains a challenge to picture her alive and well. There is still a stab in my heart everything I talk about her (even if it is sharing a fun story about her).

I must admit at this point I am tired of having to tell the "Gemi is dead" story. When I thought I had told everyone in the world, I run across someone who doesn't know and I have to talk about it again. Clearly more people need to read my blog.

Recently, I was discussing grief with a friend who had complications of an ectopic pregnancy and lost the baby about a month before Gemi died. We had not discussed the actual manifestations of our grief. When you are in the early stages of grief, you can't talk about the feelings you are living, you just have to focus on continuing to live. We both describe the feeling as suffocating and both had the worst time while in the bath or shower. Funny how our physical reactions to two different losses were so similar.

This month will be challenging. I will be returning to the scene of the accident at the end of the month to celebrate the big guy's birthday. I try not to think about it and will just deal with it when it is time.

So I still go by day by day and hope tomorrow will be a little better than yesterday.

   Princess Gemi the day Loki died

My serious girl