Dog Behavior Training and Advice

Archive for June, 2010

Dog training with orthodox behavior and unorthodox behavior

Dog training teaches us that thinking outside the box must be done at the appropriate time to be most effective. In dog training, our personal lives, and in business we must understand what is orthodox behavior and unorthodox behavior. Then we need to know which behavior is appropriate for the situation and the right time to utilize each of them.

In my last post I talked about how in any activity, including dog training, thinking inside the box involves taking an orthodox approach. However, in dog training or any social interaction thinking inside the box if used as a point of reference for spatial positioning can also be thinking outside the box. While it’s common to use the box as a reference point in many physical arts, it’s not so common in dog training. Therefore when we’re training a dog, thinking inside the box can also be thinking outside the box. Here we are taking what to some may seem like an orthodox approach to spatial positioning and using it in a novel way. Therefore the orthodox becomes the unorthodox.

I enjoy reading classic Chinese and Japanese texts. Using an orthodox and unorthodox approach to difficult situations is something that’s often talked about or at least hinted at in many classic Chinese and Japanese books.

Recently I attended a social media marketing presentation with a group of social media marketing friends. One of the subjects covered was innovations in marketing. While these ideas where presented for social media they can be applied to all fields of endeavor. You may be asking, so what’s the big idea. One big idea is the innovation secrets that led to the renaissance and then to our modern era. The idea that pulled Europe out of the Dark Ages involved thinking outside the box. Thinking outside the box in this case involved crosspollination. The innovative ideas that brought Europe to the forefront of world power were based on sharing information.  Sharing ideas across disciplines allowed unique solutions to cross the boundaries of guilds and clans. One of the lessons of the renaissance as well as the social media marketing presentation is that we need to look outside our own areas of expertise to innovate.

Most of my best ideas about dog training came from outside the dog training industry. When I was young those ideas came for people who were doing behavior therapy with people. Incorporating reinforcement theory and interesting application from a clinical human setting to dog training was, at that time unorthodox. Now the majority of dog trainers consider training with the principals of operant conditioning and positive reinforcement standard practice. So what used to be an unorthodox style of training has over time become the orthodox training style.

Once operant conditioning and positive reinforcement styles of dog training started to become popular I was working on new dog training techniques. The area I borrow from this time was the physical arts. While I had been using and in turn perfecting many of these techniques almost since the beginning of my dog training career, I did not start teaching them until positive reinforcement styles of dog training started to catch on. For many years I thought using the points of reference found in physical arts as my own dog training secrets. You know what, they still differentiate my training style from others. I can teach people in a step by step and repeatable fashion what many dog trainers have a difficult time teaching. When I saw that most good dog trainers were using positive reinforcement techniques I codified the physical and spatial relationship principals into easy to follow points of reference.

It is during this period that I began incorporating mediation exercises into my dog training practice. I did not always call them meditation drills and I still don’t. I teach them as just another dog training technique. I began teaching some chi energy exercises to training clients at this time also. The physical orientation points of reference dog training phase was a necessary step to the next phase that I am still in.

My main interests now are in what lays beyond the codified principals of operant conditioning and the mechanical steps of dog training. What lays in the hard to codify realms of human (and I presume animal) emotions. The emotions I am most interested in are the ones that seem to defy the rules of operant conditioning. Although these emotions act as though they defy the principals of operant conditioning, I suspect they in fact conform to them. This is an area of interest that has always fascinated me. What lays at the heart of spirituality? What is the power of Myth?

Wishing you the very best in dog training and in life,
Andrew Ledford

Dog Training and thinking inside the box seems like a natural subject for me. If you’ve participated in my dog training programs or read my book you would justifiable think this blog idea resulted from some human/dog team interaction. While I often speak about training inside the box I was inspired to write this blog post from @dino_dogan’s Twitter post.

Thinking inside the box vs. thinking outside the box

Thinking inside the box
As usual I feel that dog training is a great metaphor for other areas of our lives. In dog training as in other areas of life we can consider thinking inside the box as the straight forward orthodox approach. You can learn more about box training by enrolling in my online dog training school

I believe that we’re always training within a box, the Awareness box. Training inside the box is the first spatial orientation exercise in my dog training program. First we must learn to train within a structured system before we can move to a more fluid form of expression. The box represents that structure. I believe in Chinese mythology the square represents Earth. Until we have a solid understanding we must remain firmly grounded. And even when we move beyond the orthodox we must remain balanced.

The Awareness Box is comprised of eight directions or positions. The eight positions consist of four sides and four corners. These eight positions makeup the angles of movement and the reference points for orientation. The complex version of the Awareness Box is best imagined as a three dimensional cube.

Thinking outside the box
In dog training as in other areas of life we can consider thinking outside the box as the roundabout or unorthodox approach. I hope to cover this in a separate post.

Adaptive Dog Training Logo

My dog training logo is an interesting example, although it’s completely backward from how I usually teach the Awareness Box concept. But it’s close enough that even though it is reversed, it still visually conveys the concept. After it’s understood we can explain the details. The Adaptive Dog Training logo visually encompasses both thinking inside the box and thinking outside the box, It is both conventional and unconventional at the same time. In a traditional context I think it is a type of unorthodox orthodoxy. This may be a difficult concept to understand in a Socratic sense but it makes more sense when contemplated in a Taoistic system. As China rises to greater world power we must strive to understand different systems of thought if we are to flourish. Dog training is flexible enough that it can be used as a vehicle for learning about many aspects of human nature.
If you are interested in learning more about what humans can learn from dogs go to http://RenChenZa.com

Wishing you the very best in dog training and in life,
Andrew Ledford