Robert Forto

dog training

Influential Dog Trainers and Their Contributions- Part 3

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Pfaffenberger, Scott, Fuller, Reynolds

Trainers for decades have understood that there is more to training canines than a set of procedures, or simple applications of principles, no matter how sound.  A trainer must be patient, and an astute observer of the canine’s body language.  The best trainers all have one thing in common, they know how to read the dog.

Effective trainers understand the entire dog.  It cannot be denied that learning theory is important or that behaviors can be increased or decreased with reinforcement or punishment.  However, breed or species differences and genetics are an often overlooked part of the equation that determines how well a canine is trained.  A Labrador or Golden Retriever would be a much better choice than an English Bulldog for work where picking up items is important. Understanding the breed goes a long way in determining the training procedure.

Clarence Pfaffenberger was responsible for screening and evaluating canines for the Guide Dogs for the Blind and Dogs for Defense organizations.  In 1963, he published The New Knowledge of Dog Behavior, a work that underscored the importance of genetic knowledge when breeding canines for specific uses. Pfaffenberger developed some of the earliest behavior and temperament tests.

Dr. John Paul Scott and his colleague Dr. John Fuller have spent in excess of twenty-years doing research on canines.  Their work focuses on the role that heredity assumes in the development of canine behavior.

Scott and Fuller published Genetics and the Social Behaviors of the Dog, which is considered by many to be the Rosetta Stone of canine behavior.  They are also credited with the discovery, and identification of the critical socialization periods of puppies.  Their research showed what many trainers have always suspected; there are significant differences between breeds when it comes to motivational characteristics and a lot of those are related to breeding practices.

In relation to breeding in dog sledding, Dr. Arleigh Reynolds is a balancing act of action, access and admiration. Many people want access to Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds is a canine exercise physiologist and nutritionist and he is lucky enough to mix his love of sled dogs, research, and teaching into a job that he adores. Reynolds is one of the most renowned mushing researchers in the field. He holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is also a breeder of some of the best sled dogs in the sport. Reynolds is a line-breeder. Line-breeding procreates pups using the same or closely related ancestors on both sides of the pedigree. The purpose is to foster dogs that are increasingly similar in size, temperament and uniformity, which is important because a higher percent make the team.

Clarence Pfaffenberger worked closely with Scott and Fuller, and was given credit for his “real-world” testing of Scott and Fuller’s laboratory generated theories. Dogs breeding for the sport of mushing is very similar to the work of these researchers.

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Dr. Robert Forto is the training director for Dog Works Training Center, a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner, and the host of the popular Dog Doctor Radio Show

Overview on Aggression Seminar held at Denver Dog Works

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Overview Aggression Seminar held at Denver Dog Works

This past weekend Robert Forto canine behaviorist, aggression expert held an aggression seminar.  The students in the class quickly learned that human ideals and labeling put dogs into categories that are not necessarily correct once the situation and the behaviors are observed.

For instance, many dogs are labeled as having fear aggression when the fear itself is not being identified and could be that the dog has never been exposed to whatever is making it appear fearful.  There are four critical periods that puppies go through and should be exposed to certain social situations at specific times of their young lives to ensure that they mature into well-balanced dogs no matter what their breed or intended use.

Forto, had quite a few examples of dogs with varying degrees and types of aggression, all of these dogs it was found in their detailed history reports lacked proper socialization and exposure in the first year of life.

One of the dogs, a Visla; a breed which is timid in nature was fearful of the new situation but literally looking her owner right in the eye for direction and when it wasn’t there she would use defensive flight/fight drives to stave off the danger of the unfamiliar situation. Sudden movements, looking too long, even lying by Forto’s feet and him slightly moving got a reaction from this Visla.  After the seminar was finished this dog learned some confidence by Dr. Forto teaching her handler to watch her dog and read her signals, become the leader she is asking you to be in her life.

Another dog who peaked my interest during the seminar was an eight year old Golden Retriever who during the second critical period of his life or five months of age, watched his canine mother attack and nearly kill a Jack Russell Terrier who wouldn’t leave them alone.  He watched his canine mother attack three other times in the first year of his life.  He was also “sheltered” from social situations involving other dogs, people, and places.  Forto had this beautiful Golden Retriever who is undergoing a lengthy board and train to take part in the seminar.  The dog reacted differently to male handlers than female handlers, but for the most part reacted in a calm non-aggressive fashion when the handlers remained calm and assertive utilizing his obedience training as a positive foundation and to redirect his energy toward what he viewed as a threat.

I encourage every dog owner, doggie day care staff member, dog park frequenter, dog trainer, or just observers to take this seminar.  It is an afternoon that will change your outlook on dog behavior and how we force human emotions onto our dogs inappropriately.  For more information visit Alaska Dog Works or become fans of theirs on Facebook where they post events all the time.

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Robert Forto is the host of The Dog Works Radio Show and is the training director of Alaska Dog Works. Robert Forto can be reached through his website at www.alaskadogworks.com

Influential Dog Trainers and their Contributions Part 2

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Influential Dog Trainers and their Contributions Part 2

This is continuing series on the most influential people in dog training and how they effect how we train dogs today.

Most and Koehler

Colonel Conrad Most wrote Training Dogs in 1910.  This work is thought by many to be one of, if not the first, dog training “how to” manual.  Colonel Most began training police dogs in 1906 in Germany.  Soon thereafter he began to explain canine learning tendencies from a handler’s perspective.  In his manual Training Dogs the Colonel exhibited an extraordinary understanding of the principles of operant conditioning, this was nearly thirty-years prior to the publication of B. F. Skinner’s The Behavior of Organisms.  In the 1940’s Colonel Most was sharing his knowledge with the trainers at the German Dog Farm, a center that trained dogs for the blind.  Many of his methods would be considered “heavy-handed” by today’s standards; nevertheless, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the Colonel’s contribution to the training procedures used by previous guide dog trainers, many of which are still used today.

William Koehler (1934-1998) began his career by training dogs for the military.  After World War II, Koehler became the lead trainer of the Orange Empire Dog Club, which was well known, and envied for the large number of obedience titles that it’s members earned.

William Koehler, along with his son Dick, purportedly had trained in excess of forty thousand canines at their own training facility.  Just as with Colonel Conrad Most, Koehler’s training method would be considered “heavy-handed” by many and downright inhumane by some.  He based his procedure largely on a combination of negative reinforcement and punishment.   Negative reinforcement is built upon the premise of the canine complying in order to remove or avoid an unpleasant stimulus.  Punishment, on the other hand, is described as a consequence that will make a behavior less likely to reoccur in the future.  Just as with positive reinforcement procedures, the principles are built on the foundation laid by Thorndike’s Law of Effect.

Mary R. Burch, Ph.D., and Jon S. Bailey, Ph.D. met and observed Bill Koehler in the course of their research.  They stated that Koehler “…appeared then to be a kind and gentle man, and he clearly loved dogs.”

Many have described Koehler’s methods as “heavy-handed”, but in all fairness, he was one of the few trainers in the country in the 1980’s that was known for his ability to rehabilitate tough dogs, and was often the canine’s last hope.  Again, whether one agrees with his methods or not, Koehler’s impact on dog training procedures can not be understated. Nor can his contribution to the effectiveness of negative reinforcement be understated.  While dog training has indeed moved toward a friendlier, more positive approach, perhaps several of Most’s and Koehler’s methods are used today in a majority of police, military, and advanced assistance dog training facilities.

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Robert Forto is the host of The Dog Works Radio Show and is the training director of Alaska Dog Works. Robert Forto can be reached through his website at www.alaskadogworks.com

Influential Dog Trainers and their Contributions Part 1

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By Robert Forto

Walker and Saunders

Lead Dog RevengeHelene Whitehouse Walker was a respected breeder of Standard Poodles.  Poodles were suffering from the stereotype that they were “sissies”, so in 1933 Walker decided to show dog fanciers that poodles were much more than just a pretty face.

Walker was by all accounts a persuasive woman.  She began approaching dog clubs and breeders alike with the idea of something that had never been done before, holding competitive obedience trails at conformation dog shows.  In 1933, at Mount Kisco, New York, eight dogs competed in America’s first obedience trial.  North Westchester and Somerset Hills Kennel Clubs followed suit with obedience trials at their dog shows the following year.  By 1936 the American Kennel Club (A.K.C.) developed the Regulations and Standards for Obedience Test Trials, and was using those regulations at licensed obedience events.

In 1937, Helene Walker and Blanche Saunders went on a cross country trip giving obedience demonstrations in order to sell the idea that training one’s dog was beneficial to the owner and the public.  Four years later the New England Dog Training Club became the first obedience club to become a member of the A.K.C.  Sixty-five years later there are over five hundred obedience clubs that are members of the A.K.C.

Blanche Saunders continued the campaign that she and Walker started on their incredible 1937 trek with amazing tenacity.  She promoted the emerging sport of dog obedience at some of the nation’s largest venues and the most prestigious events.  Saunders demonstrated dog obedience techniques in front of a crowd of seventy-thousand at Yankee Stadium.  Her and her dogs also appeared at the premier event of National Dog Week, The Westminster Dog Show at Rockefeller Center.

The Complete Book of Dog Obedience by Saunders was published in 1954 and is purportedly the first book written “specifically for obedience instructors.”  Treat Training and other positive reinforcement methods of training canines were virtually unknown in Saunders’ era.  Training methods of the time revolved around the solicitation of escape and avoidance behaviors.  In How Dogs Learn (1999), Burch and Bailey write:

“Saunders advocated praise, kindness, and fairness.  She listed ‘too little praise’ as one of the most common mistakes of dog owners.  Saunders was perhaps the first author to repeatedly stress the importance of reinforcement in training, thus starting the trend toward the positive training methods used today.”

Saunders did however specifically state that food should never be used to train canines, but that it was acceptable to use “a tidbit now and then to overcome a problem.”  Saunders showed remarkable foresight in the understanding of what really motivates a dog.

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Robert Forto is the host of The Dog Works Radio Show and is the training director of Alaska Dog Works. Robert Forto can be reached through his website at www.alaskadogworks.com

Dog Training and the Social Fabric of America

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Dog Training and the Social Fabric of America

By Robert Forto

My name is Robert Forto and I am a canine behaviorist and the owner of Denver Dog Works in Colorado and Alaska Dog Works. I specialize in canine aggression and violent dogs and I will admit that people’s political leanings do influence how they care for and train their dogs. I am researching this topic for an upcoming paper and I hope to have the results out before this year’s election. In the days of Big Government and Big Brother everybody has an opinion on how a person should own, handle, train, restrict and allow various forms of behavior of their dogs in public and in private.

In the news recently a big-time NFL star has gone to prison for animal cruelty and others have had their dog’s party to the judicial process for everything from instinctual behaviors of an Australian Shepherd to irate home-owners at a Home Owners Association meeting fueled by the fact that dog’s do bark.

I spent a great deal of time in my practice educating the public about the nuances of canine behavior and my professional opinion on everything from banned breeds, violent dogs, canine aggression, dogs-at-large and many more. I am a firm believer that the way that people handle their dog’s is a gauge of their political, financial, societal, environmental and religious beliefs. All of these leanings give the canine trainer or behaviorist valuable insight on how we can help our clients in their quest for having a well behaved dog and the ability to cope with a litigious society so bent on making our furry friends social outcasts while these people stand on their soap boxes and complain about dogs when their underlying fear is far something greater.

For those of you who read this blog I’m sure you’ve figured out that I don’t usually write all nice and sweet and fluffy things about dogs. This is one of those articles that is not sweet and fluffy. It’s what is happening in our society in the world of dogs. The politics of owning a dog nowadays is not cute or fluffy by any stretch of the imagination. In this article I am going to address just one area: Breed Specific Legislation. In coming articles I will delve into other topics that conger up our societal ills relating to dogs. I thought that dog’s were supposed to be regarded as our best friends. It is a shame that the actions of a few have given so many a bad rap.

The Band Aid

I remember growing up when people took responsibility for their actions but apparently the government feels they need to mandate everything today rather than hold people accountable. The fight for animal welfare started as a noble fight but has degenerated into opposing sides of animal rights versus animal welfare and it is appearing more and more like it isn’t about animals at all. Dogs seem to be at the top of the hit list with Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) leading the way. By banning breeds as many European countries do, we’re only falling into the trap of thinking by putting this band-aid on things our problems will go away. Banning a breed does nothing more than drive the criminals who abuse and use these breeds to choose yet another, and another and another until eventually we have no more breeds left. Therein lays the crux of the problem I think.

The Problem

The problem is a human one not a dog one although it is always the animals who pay the price for human actions. One faction of the animal fight thinks the solution to world peace and harmony is to free all animals and that freedom means killing them because then they are truly free. That sounds rather harsh and violent to me, so how does more violence end violence? It doesn’t and that is just stupid.

Another faction has sat by and watched and now are scrambling to try and catch up and fix things but aren’t sure how or where to start. The problem is, the politicians care about votes so they are readily grasping at the straws of Breed Specific Legislation to control so-called “vicious” dogs. Dangerous dog laws really address the owners as they should so focusing on those makes far more sense but since when do politicians care about making sense?

The factions wanting all domestic animal ownership ended are in control and are doing a great job of “educating” our children and our college students into believing their rhetoric. We have a lot of propaganda and financing to fight to end all this nonsense. Maybe it’s just using plain common sense again.

The Solution

I think a first step is to educate. Educate people about what it means to own a dog. Educate at the family level first. This is where we can make the most impact.

Secondly, that we need to take responsibility for our own actions. When we decide to own and bring home a dog it is our responsibility to know how to take care of a dog, the nature of a dog, and how train our dog to be a good canine citizen. If we would all do that we would have no need for stupid laws that want to mandate away our rights as US citizens such as mandatory spaying or neutering and micro chipping and training.

We would have no need for politicians wanting to band aid a human social problem with Breed Specific Legislation. We would have no need for factions wanting to destroy animals to “free” them. But I must be thinking of Utopia or maybe heaven, because everyone would rather have the government doing their thinking for them these days it seems. Maybe I am just living in the wrong era.

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Robert Forto is the host of The Dog Works Radio Show and is the training director of Alaska Dog Works. Robert Forto can be reached through his website at www.alaskadogworks.com