Debi believes in a positive, force-free, game-based approach to training. The key to successful training is to make the dog an active participant in the training and effectively communicate what it is we want them to do, rather than punishing them for what we don’t want them to do.

By controlling the learning environment, the antecedent arrangement, we can encourage the dog to make good decisions and be rewarded for doing so. There are no bad dogs, just dogs that find behavior we deem undesirable as innately reinforcing. However, positive is not permissive. Our job is to make desirable behavior more reinforcing and to communicate this effectively to the dog. The owner’s focus should always be on what the dog is doing right and not what he is doing wrong.   

We use a learning principle called the Law of Effect. Behaviors that are rewarded increase in frequency, intensity, or duration.   Kokua training methods use rewards from three categories: Food, Toys, Interactions.  Students are taught when and how to use them, and most importantly, when not to use them.  I teach how to create certainty in behaviors by manipulating the environment for the dog, your role as the trainer, placment of reinforcement, and how efficient and effective your movements, and/or lack of movements, are.  The nuances make such a difference!

There are many myths about dogs and how to train them, many of these being based upon tradition.  The narrative is ‘some dogs need this,’ or ‘this is faster,’ or ‘the positive reinforcement folk are lying to you,’ or ‘not all punishment-based trainers train this way’ (with compulsion).  You can buy an electric collar at the hardware store.  You don’t need any understanding of animal behavior or of dog training.  You could slap it on, you could push the button, and you will get results. You will get a suppression of behavior, and you will feel the illusion that ‘you have arrived’.

Kokua Dog Training uses positive game-based methods based upon modern science’s understanding of how dogs learn.  All the governing bodies, such as The Association of Veterinary Behaviorists and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, who have recently changed their guidelines to do away with any opportunity for somebody to believe it’s okay to mildly correct dogs, agree there is no place for physical corrections or fear and intimidation in dog training.  By following scientific principles of learning, we can be clear for our dog, and ‘clarity is kindness’.  Our dog’s confidence will grow as he learns to ‘trust the process’.  

Other organizations or individual trainers who use “balanced” or aversive methods (e.g., electronic collars, prong collars, physical corrections) are operating outside of the scientific consensus established by major veterinary and animal behavior bodies, such as the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB). The latter organizations consistently find that aversive methods pose significant risks to the dog’s welfare and do not yield better results than purely reward-based training.

Q: But shouldn’t  I correct my dog so he knows what he has done ‘wrong’?

A: Keep in mind that dogs are ‘A-moral’.   They do not know ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. They know ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’. It is safe to get in the trash when you are away and not safe to get in the trash when you are home.

When people see dogs behave in a way that they (the human) interpret as emotions such as shame, guilt, etc, keep in mind that what you are actually seeing is appeasement behavior that dogs use to communicate with other dogs to create safety and avoid conflict.   We need to learn to speak a bit of “dog”.

Balanced trainers do not think they are purposely being unkind to their dogs when they’re using a collar correction or electrical stimulation or shock, whatever you want to call it. However, science and research tell us a different story from the animal’s perspective, and we see it in ‘fallout’: unwanted, unpredictable side effects- sometimes right away, sometimes later on.

Q: What if my dog is reactive?

A: Reactivity is an emotional response to a situation, environment, or stimuli.  It can manifest in ranges from overly-excited to aggressive.  We can train behavior.  We CANNOT train emotions.  Rather than punishing an emotion we use desensitization and counter-conditioning to help the dog chose a different emotional response to whatever he is ‘reacting’ to.  I DO NOT use flooding or punishments.

Reprimands are not part of the training process for the following reasons:

• They are often associated with the trainer
• They do not tell your dog what ‘to do.’
• They create fear and anxiety
• They inhibit learning and creativity
• They can cause and exacerbate behavior problems
• If used to teach a behavior, the behavior is performed only to avoid punishment.   

Q:  What about me being a pack leader and not letting my dog be dominant? 

A: This misguided theory is still making its way up thru the gutter.  From Outmoded Notion of the Alpha Wolf by David Mech: an American biologist specializing in the study of wolves and who did the original research on wolves.

“The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf literature at least partly because of my book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, published in 1970, republished in paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it….One of the outdated pieces of information is the concept of the alpha wolf. “Alpha” implies competing with others and becoming top dog by winning a contest or battle.  However, most wolves who lead packs achieved their position simply by mating and producing pups, which then became their pack. In other words they are merely breeders, or parents, and that’s all we call them today, the “breeding male,” “breeding female,” or “male parent,” “female parent,” or the “adult male” or “adult female.” In the rare packs that include more than one breeding animal, the “dominant breeder” can be called that, and any breeding daughter can be called a “subordinate breeder.”    https://davemech.org/

A:  From Animal Planet’s It’s Me or the Dog by Victoria Stillwell: (she takes aggressive dogs and rehabilitates them using ONLY positive reinforcement)

“Dogs are sensitive, emotional, vulnerable beings and they need us to help to teach them and to care for them…They‘re not out for world domination. Your dog doesn‘t necessarily want to be top dog. Your dog just wants to understand what is expected. It‘s ridiculous to think you need to be dominant so your dog can be submissive. If you turn a dog over and hold a dog down, and the dog gives up, this is not a dog that is showing submission; it is a dog who didn‘t have a choice and shut down. Dominance training methods are dangerous and rarely teach dogs. Positive reinforcement methods allow dogs space to think and they are effective.”

Q: How Can We Get Behavior?   

A: There are a variety of ways to train behavior.  A few include:

• Capturing – wait for it to happen – good for behaviors that dogs do automatically

Example: captured sit or down- Dog sits: we mark and treat, dog repeats the behavior

• Targeting – use a target to ‘get‘ the dog into position

Example: targeted down, roll over, spin: Teach the dog to touch a wooden spoon and then move the spoon so the dog follows it while reinforcing in incremental layers.

• Shaping – rewarding ever-closer approximations of a desired behavior – this is the most powerful way to use a Clicker….it‘s like playing the hot/cold game that we played as children. If we set up the environment to make the right thing easy, we easily get behavior we can reinforce.  Learning becomes easy.  We shape with clarity!

Q:  What about Luring? 

A: You can use lures, but neuroscience shows that luring confuses food and thinking. There are far superior ways to get faster, clearer and cleaner results.

Q: What about Clicker Training?

A: Clicker, or marker, training is a subset of all animal training and is based in the sciences of behaviorism (behavior analysis), ethology (animal behavior), and neuroscience.

Q: What is Clicker Training?

A: “Clicker Training“ is a simple way of saying ‘training with a marker signal’.  Using a marker signal is a science based teaching method where the marker identifies for the animal when it is doing the right thing, (usually from a small noisemaker called a “clicker” but it could be a whistle, a tongue noise, a flashlight, a thumbs up, a verbal ‘yes’ or anything else that is consistent and stands out) . The marker is always followed by something the animal wants-a treat, toy or even permission for something desired.

The scientific principles of Operant Conditioning state that since the animal was positively reinforced for his behavior, he is likely to repeat the action. All animals respond to the science of marker training, from the smallest spider to the largest whale. It is a force free method of communicating across species.  This training is about:

• inter-species communication
• learning how to achieve your goals using positive reinforcement, trust and respect
• the dog becoming an active participant in its learning
• having fun with your dog

Q: What kinds of behaviors can be trained with a marker?

A:  This clear form of inter-species communication is an effective, safe, and humane way to teach any animal any behavior that it is physically and mentally capable of performing. Other marker trainers routinely train horses, dolphins, bears, sea lions and some train such divergent species as lobsters, spiders, birds,guinea pigs, butterflys, fish, turtles, lizards, etc….any animal can be trained; yes even humans–then we call it TAGTeach.

Q: What are the benefits of Clicker Training?

A: Clicker Trained animals are always ready to learn new behaviors. They come to love the process of learning. They remember behaviors years later because they were ‘aware’ as they learned them, rather than acquiring them without awareness. They develop confidence because they have been successful in the past.  They are enthusiastic because they expect the consequences of their success to be pleasurable.

Q:  Will I have to use a marker forever?

A:  No, absolutely not. You don’t even have to use a ‘clicker’, you can use any consistent, salient sound or light to ‘mark’ a behavior.  Laser pointers (never pointed at the dog) work great for deaf dogs and with fish, as does a flashlight. Once a behavior is on cue, you no longer use the marker UNTIL you want to train a NEW behavior. The marker is simply a clear, common ‘language’ between you and your dog. The marker is ONLY used to teach NEW behaviors.

Q:  Why can’t I just use food or praise? Isn’t that still positive training?

A:  Yes it is, but there are a few special things, nuances, about the clicker that make it more effective than just a treat or praise:

• The marker acts like a tiny camera in the dog’s mind. It takes of picture of the exact moment he did the right thing. When using other positive training methods, treats and praise are usually delivered after the dog has performed the behavior making it harder to link the reinforcer with the action in his mind. This is why some people call clicker training ‘precision training’…it is very precise and fast.
• When you use a marker signal, your dog will learn desirable behavior amazingly quickly. The marker provides a consistent, non-emotional marker so your dog always receives the same information. The marker is also distinct from other signals in the environment.

Q:  If I don’t use a command, how will my dog know what we are working on?

A:  Your dog is undoubtedly very smart but he is not born knowing your spoken language. In clicker training we add the cue (or command) AFTER the dog has learned to do the behavior. In effect, we give the behavior a name once the dog is doing it. We add a name to the behavior, so that you can tell the dog WHEN to do the behavior. This can be a new concept to get used to, but it is extremely effective.

Q:  There is so much to know and it is all so new. What if I make mistakes?

A:  The good thing about marker training is that it is a very gentle way of training. If we make mistakes, it may take a little longer to train a behavior, but that doesn’t matter to our dogs. Our dogs are very forgiving creatures. Even if you make mistakes you will not cause your dog or your relationship with your dog any harm with marker training.

Q:  Can a dog that has been trained “traditionally” learn with a clicker?

A:  Absolutely. “Crossover” trainers are often amazed at the change that comes over their dogs when they switch to clicker training. Previously hesitant and shy dogs become enthusiastic and creative learners. To try clicker training with a dog previously trained with traditional methods, don’t begin with a behavior the dog already knows—try something completely new and fun…preferably a trick, and remember, Training Should Be Fun!

NOTE:  Dogs who have been trained with positive reinforcement and are then subjected to traditional methods involving the use of punishers are likely to begin to struggle with what has already been learned, including showing anxiety, apprehension, avoidance, or other unwanted problems.  Clarity, safety in the training environment, confidence and joy are lost and replaced with confusion, lack of safety, less trust and less reliable outcomes of training.