The Basics of Training: A Primer for Dog Separation Anxiety Protocol
This blog is actually a lesson within the Pet Positive Separation Anxiety Training Program.
If you are interested in more like this, or seeing the visuals that go along with the explanation, you can sign up for the self-paced online course using this LINK.
Basic Principles
We're going to go into the basics of training in general for a nice primer to training as a concept. Then we're going to get into some more specifics about separation anxiety training in that context.
So to start talking about training, we have a couple of basic principles to get into. In order to teach anyone—any learner—something, you have to start with parts of a bigger picture and only expect some criteria or some part of the behavior at a time. We don't want to go right into expecting a dog to go to bed, lie down, and wait right off the bat. Instead, we might first start with: can you sit or lay down on a bed? Then can you go to the bed from a couple of feet away? So that's a whole lot of separate steps and separate criteria that we break apart. That was a really physical, specific example, but this concept applies across the board with all kinds of training and all kinds of behavior.
What we are doing all the time with training, with learning, is we are building associations. Associations can be anything, and your learner, your dog, determines what those associations are—if they are positive, excited, or if they're worried or panicky associations. All the time with training, we are trying to build positive or calm associations with the behaviors and activities that we like our dogs to be doing.
2 Types of Conditioning
Then we get into the science of types of training. There are two basic types of conditioning, and those are classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the type of stuff that we see in clicker training with treats, and even in other types of training that I don't partake in—and we'll talk about that a little bit later. The things we do affect our dog's behavior. And behavior can increase or decrease depending on how your dog feels about the consequences of that behavior. So in really technical terms, a behavior is reinforced if the behavior increases. For instance, if my dog saw that the consequence for sitting is a treat they really like, they might offer a sit more often. If something we do causes a behavior to decrease, that is called punishment, even if it's not punishment in the way that we might think of automatically. If when you asked for something your dog started to, like, bounce off the walls and as a consequence you put their toy away, or you put the treats away when that started to happen, they might not bounce off the wall (or do it less) in the future. They might reduce that behavior because we took something away. That is what's called negative punishment—something was taken away; and then to avoid that happening again, they stopped that behavior.
So, that's very technical. And the last part of operant conditioning is extinction; it's something you don't hear about as often. A lot of us are very familiar with positive reinforcement and positive punishment or negative punishment, but extinction is where there is no consequence from us, or there is no consequence for the behavior from the environment in general. And because of this lack of consequence, the behavior just decreases over time and maybe disappears. So an example of that is if my dog barks and I literally do nothing, they might bark less in that situation, whatever it might be. They also might not bark less, and we'll also talk about that.
So, that is all operant. That is adding or removing a stimulus, adding something to the environment or, very explicitly, not adding something to the environment in a way that changes behavior. Our separation training will be based in Classical Conditioning. A lot of us might be familiar with Pavlov who wrote a very influential study on classical conditioning. Pavlov had a bunch of dogs in this experiment where he would ring a bell and feed the dogs, and ring a bell and feed the dogs. Eventually over time, he could ring the bell and the dogs would salivate even if he did not give them food. So that is a classically conditioned physical response to the bell. Many people are familiar with applying this concept to helping reactive dogs. We often use a mixture of desensitization and counter-conditioning for our reactive dogs. Every time one of the reactive dog’s triggers pops up, we want to be at a distance and we give them food every time they see that trigger. Saw the dog, got a treat. Saw the dog, got a treat. And eventually, (formerly)reactive dog saw the dog, and instead of being fearful or concerned they glance up to you because we have conditioned a positive emotional response that, "Oh, I see dogs, and I get good things."
That is the basis of classical conditioning where we just build associations without asking for any specific behavior. We are just changing a dog's associations or feelings about different things.
But separation is so different from a lot of these examples I've given where, for one thing, we aren't there. We are literally not present. And some of our dogs, when we're not present, will either eat like nobody's business—they can eat, eat, eat, eat—and as soon as the food is gone, they will panic; or, some of our dogs in separation will refuse to eat at all. They will completely say, "I can't eat a treat until you're back home."
So what we need to do is very incremental exposures in a systematic and careful way to desensitize our dogs to the separation they're experiencing. Now, the concept behind this is that it is still fear-free. We are not causing our dogs to be super panicked and then returning, because that is flooding. That's giving them too much experience, and if you don't know by now, with separation anxiety, if you just flood them, the panic will only worsen, worsen, worsen, worsen. They're not going to just get over this separation anxiety. What we're doing is we're slowly exposing them to things that they can handle, and that is relaxing. A key concept here is that relaxation is incompatible with anxiety. So we're encouraging this association of relaxing with safe-feeling absence until they don't experience anxiety while alone.
So, I said basic- that gets a little complicated. But this is where this training is coming out of. We want to break everything into little parts and work on each of those little parts. We want to build associations of either enjoyment or calm, relaxation, with the behavior and with the stimulus or trigger that we want our dogs to feel better about.
What TO do instead of What NOT to do.
Once again, in all training in general, this concept applies. We want to train your dog what to do instead of what not to do. The concept here is that it is easier for your dog to follow guidelines and to do the things that we reinforce and encourage, rather than constantly being corrected: "No, no, no, not that, not that, stop, stop, stop." We want to say, "Oh, you're feeling a little excited, let's give you a chew to focus on. Oh, that's a really good choice, when you're excited, you can go do this thing which is in your environment to choose."
That again is a little bit physical compared to what we're doing, which is separation. But they might be running and chewing and scratching and howling and escaping and doing lots of behaviors, or they might just be pacing quietly, but they are doing some things that we might not find desirable for them or for us. We want to frame our training as what we want them to do as an alternative. Making sure that they have legal things to chew on. We want them to chew safely. We want them to relax when alone and go to comfortable places. And we want them to be able to—even if barking for short bouts is normal—we want them to be able to recover from those short bouts of barking.
So I want you to be compassionate in this moment and think about what you want your dog to do and how we can adjust the environment to make that possible and more accessible to your dog.
When training a dog what to do, I am often thinking about how to train my dog to do something when I ask. I don't want my dog to chew on something, I'm teaching them TO leave things, I'm teaching them TO chew on other things and reinforcing that.
But when it comes to big feelings—reactivity, panic, anxiety, fear, shyness of types—it is a little bit different where I am not able to ask them, "Can you leave that? Can you just look away from that trigger?" because their emotions run too high. They are basically doing things that are out of their control. They are over threshold, which means that they can't necessarily hear a cue. They're not able to hear "leave it," they're not able to process what you want in that moment because they're so intense, whether that is intensely stressed, anxious, or frustrated.
Because of that, because we can't simply ask for something and then say, "Hey, thanks for doing that," because they're not able to get there in one way or another, we instead go to that classical conditioning where we are just building a new emotional response to the trigger. Whatever the root of the behavior is - we are trying to change it.
There are two main ways that I work with clients to condition new emotional responses; desensitization and counter-conditioning. In combination these can be used where you work in ways that are under your dog's threshold, which might be a distance—like maybe we don't get too close to the trigger, we always stay under their threshold of stress—or it might be, in different cases, a volume. So if they are sound-triggered, then we always work under a volume that they can handle. In different ways, we are desensitizing by slowly working up to closer distances or higher volumes, while combining it with counterconditioning. Counterconditioning is introducing a stimulus to build an alternative association, an alternative response. That could be a toy—that could be, "Hey, I saw a dog, now let's go play." That could be food—"Hey, I saw a dog, now let's have a snack." It can be anything that gives a different response.
We already talked about why food or play doesn't necessarily work in our separation context, which is why we focus on systematic desensitization, which is very incrementally working under their threshold and with different parts of the picture, carefully exposing them to their limit and things that are easier than their limit in order to grow what their limit is.
Our separation anxiety protocol, which is based in systematic desensitization to separation, is a process. First, we are going to find that limit, also known as the threshold, where our dogs change from just alert or watchful into anxious or panic. So we're going to find that threshold in time or, if it's before you even leave, in stimulus—finding out which things you do specifically that are causing that panic. Then we're going to practice under the threshold. I usually think of this in terms of time, but the point is that we work under the threshold that we find. In doing that, we build relaxation over time, which is, as we said, incompatible with an anxiety response. They learn how to feel safe and relaxed under the threshold and realize that all the way up to the threshold they were safe, and so the threshold increases. They are safe and comfortable for longer. Then we reassess where that change is, and repeat the process. Find the threshold, practice under it to build the time, and then we reassess all over again. Repeating until we reach our total goal of alone time.
Fear Free, Force Free - all the time
In this training, it's actually important that you apply fear-free and force-free training methods, not only for separation anxiety, but in your dog's entire life. That might sound hard for some of us if it's a transition, but the point is that we need to make a safe learning environment so that our dogs will trust us when we're doing something really hard. Not only do we want to see as much behavior as possible while our dogs are alone so that we can identify early signs of stress and more intense signs of stress and interpret what they are feeling, we also want to make sure that when we challenge them, they know that, in general, we are not going to do something that they are afraid of. We're not yelling at them, and we're not going to come in and tell them how bad they are for pooping if they couldn't help it. We very much want to see all of the behavior that our dogs can show, and we want them to trust us that we will be nice, that we will be pleasant.
If you want some background or more information about fear-free, force-free methods, as well as why it is so important to do, I highly recommend checking out the AVSAB position statements about humane dog training LINK. AVSAB supports reward-based training and systematic desensitization that alleviates stress, keeps dogs feeling safe, and is more effective than aversive-based training or flooding/exposure plans.
Part of the point I am making here is that we WANT our dogs to express themselves. It will actually make this process easier if they will whine and bark and jump. Even though those are undesirable behaviors, we want to see it in this process so that we know when they are experiencing anxiety. If we do any behavior suppression or punishment while they're alone and it lasts—sometimes we try to suppress behavior and it still comes out anyway, but if it lasts—then what might happen is they have gaps in their anxiety response behaviors where they pause and maybe freeze or show nothing, and then suddenly it all comes out. There are some dogs who are 0 to 60 even if no behavior has been suppressed, but sometimes for dogs who would have had a more subtle build-up of their behavior, we will miss some of their signs because they have been punished and suppressed over time.
It's really important, not only for alone time but for all training, that you are not using aversive tools or equipment like shaker cans, stomping, sound, citronella or buzz collars, definitely not shock or prong collars, or aversive sound tools—things that do high frequency or sonic sounds towards your dog. These tools will cause punishment and possibly fear, even if it seems like your dog is happy and fine. They will cause your dog to build an association that is fear, pain, or discomfort-based. If your dog barks at a sound and then a citronella collar goes off and they have a stinky thing and they don't really like it, maybe they will stop barking at that sound, but they will also think that that sound is causing their discomfort. They will build a negative association and possibly reactivity to that sound rather than feel better about the sound and not be reactive to it.
Going back to the root of their behavior - we are specifically avoiding suppressing behaviors the way some people and products suggest; we're trying to help a dog feel completely better about their trigger. To feel like, "I can be calm around that." In alone time, they can learn to relax rather than feel afraid of doing anything. We want them to feel comfortable and free to move about so they can do whatever they want, like a nap or chewing on the chew that is always there—something that is comfortable, pleasant, of their choosing.
Happy training!
