There are currently two discussions happening in the animal training world that are related to how people should choose what approaches to try first when they decide an animal’s behavior needs to change. One of the discussions involves a magazine columnist—at the magazine where I held my first job, though our tenures did not overlap—who wrote a personal essay about his decision to use a shock collar on his dog after first failing at certain goals with unspecified positive reinforcement approaches. The other discussion is about the Hierarchy of Behavior Change Procedures, a visual tool developed by one of my mentors, Dr. Susan Friedman, to help animal caregivers choose the effective approach that lets the learner retain the most control and also produces the most behavior that we might associate with good welfare and “positive” emotions.

These guidelines and the more nuanced article originally intended to inform their use have been used most recently as the basis for the "LIMA standard," a set of professional ethics adopted by a number of prominent animal training organizations, and as such of course should be revisited and reexamined regularly. For me, one of the most salient points of a new article Dr. Friedman published about the hierarchy this week is that the use of procedures that are ethically preferable, such as reinforcement (procedures that strengthen desired behavior), may require more expertise and experience than the use of punishment (procedures that decrease or suppress behavior), which we all get plenty of practice at from the day we are born, and which, when it is effective, can provide immediate gratification. While learning is a lifelong process for trainers as well as animals, she argues, those who are paid to dispense behavior advice in particular should seek education, experience, and mentoring to make sure animals don’t pay too dearly for whatever our current shortcomings may be.

The idea that how effectively one can use reinforcement depends on the knowledge and skill one has at the time came to mind when reading criticism of the magazine article by professional dog trainers (which is what called my attention to it), and then again when editing the following short before-and-after video (shared with permission from my client). Although the video shows only the beginning of a training process, I think it is a good example of how reinforcement-based strategies may succeed or fail, or fall somewhere in between, based on nuances that rely on education, experience, or both. (I would also add that while most humans are experienced with punishment, using it while minimizing the risk of fallout depends on similar nuances and most of us are not so good at that.)

The dog in the video below generally behaves to escape and avoid having her paws handled and her nails trimmed with any kind of handheld device. Her devoted and patient owner is a previous client, and with very minimal help from me a couple years ago, she taught the dog to file her own nails using a scratch board. But she still needs a way to tackle the dew claws, and so she had recently embarked on a plan to help her dog feel comfortable having her nails Dremeled. She asked for my help because she got stuck. I recognized where she got stuck, because I’ve been stuck there before. In fact, I got stuck in a similar place with my own dog years ago, and, full disclosure, I didn’t work through it in as pretty a way as you’ll see below. But I have more knowledge and experience now than then I did then, and I hope I’ll have more next week, next month, and a year from now.

Here’s the video. The first clip is the beginning of our session, conducted via Zoom on May 28, 2020. The second clip was sent by the owner on May 30:

Some excellent thigs the owner was already doing:

• Starting with the dog in a settled base position that was already trained and associated with lots of good stuff
• Working in a space where the dog could leave at any time
• Breaking her goal down into small steps--she has also already separately associated the sound of the Dremel with bacon and begun using the Dremel to grind penne to introduce the way the sound will change when it is used on a nail (a technique I like to call "pasta alla Torelli" because I learned it from Laura Monaco Torelli)
• Moving deliberately so she did not surprise the dog
• Using food items that her dog loves. Bacon!
• Asking for help when she got stuck

Here are all the little things we changed after reviewing where things stood, in order to get to where things are now:

• Skip the clicker and just use hand movement to mark behavior, which will improve timing of reinforcement.
• Elevate the mat on the couch so that the dog’s paws are hanging over edge. That way, she doesn’t have to stand up or lift her tiny leg up awkwardly from a down position on the floor to offer a paw. She can then remain in a comfortable and stable position while her paw is in the hand.
• Aim for the dog to initiate contact, rather than to “allow touching.” (Note: The dog’s willingness to do this this likely came from my client’s prior simple pairing of touching + treat.)
• Wait to start the next trial until the dog finishes eating, so that the prior treat is not still in play before the next contact is made. That way the dog doesn't have to choose between eating and leaving and we can more clearly see whether she is participating voluntarily. We are also less likely to make her suspicious of treats because they're not predicting being touched.
• When she’s done eating, watch what she does. Pick a behavior, or several, that will cue you to present the next trial, such as looking at you or lifting a paw. If you don’t see the behavior you’re looking for, or if it comes hesitantly; adjust the plan.
• To get rid of the “swiping” behavior, the product of withholding the click to get duration, temporarily reduce the requirement for the paw touch to smallest success point (h/t Laura Monaco Torelli), the smallest perfect behavior (h/t Mary Hunter, though I may be misremembering her language), the shortest antecedent-behavior-consequence loop (h/t Alexandra Kurland), or whatever you want to call it. Reinforce the moment the paw makes contact with the hand, which will actually mean anticipating when it is about to make contact and moving the treat hand a little early.
• Deliver the treat low, under her nose, so that she does not have to lift her head or stand up to eat, and can easily keep the paw in your hand.
• Rebuild duration from this point by treating for just a second or two of leaving the paw in your palm.
• Begin to gradually increase the time between treats.
• End the trial while the paw is solidly resting in the hand by removing your hand and stopping treats.
• In the space created when treats can be delivered farther apart, introduce approximations toward holding and manipulating the paw. (More nuances of this step have since been discussed, but are not fully demonstrated in the video.)

Further clarifications I saw the opportunity to make after watching the second video:

• Whatever you’re going to do, that’s the deal for that trial. If you are ready to increase your criterion, do it on the next trial, and not in the middle of the current one. Don’t change the deal mid-handshake.
• When you hear yourself thinking “man, she’s doing great, let’s get one more,” toss a treat off the mat and see if she comes back quickly and enthusiastically to ask for more. If she doesn’t, end the session and adjust the plan.

We still have a ways to go before I would call the dog “comfortable” with paw handling, but this is such great progress for a day’s work, and small changes made a large difference. Further, I’m certain that my peers and mentors, including those named above, would see even more opportunity for improvement. (In fact, I can hear Laura Monaco Torelli in my head now, reminding me to intersperse other fun and well-known behaviors.) There’s almost always a way to do better.

Lest this inspire despair, know that in many if not most cases, your ever-changing best will be plenty. This is evident from the number of people currently living more or less happily with dogs and vice-versa, despite a lack of training and less than perfect behavior on both sides and yes, even the occasional aversive stimulus.

But my point here is: If you’ve tried reinforcement and it has failed, there may still be a lot you can do before you start assuming you must use more aversive procedures, and some of it can make a big difference fast. (Notes: 1. This client, as far as I know, was not considering more aversive procedures. 2. I'm not saying the magazine writer did or didn't try such things, or how the use of the shock collar affected his dog's welfare; I have no idea.)

As far as the application of the hierarchy goes, it is worth noting that this process of giving the learner more control involves both positive and negative reinforcement procedures. The dog can take her paw away and that behavior will be allowed to serve its function of escape or avoidance; she won’t need to squirm or bite in order to stop the procedure if we miscalculate what she’s ready for. Or she can meet the current training criterion and get treats, which also happen to be followed by release. And she can leave the session entirely any time she likes.

Ideally criteria are set carefully, so that she doesn’t choose to take her paw away or leave very often, if at all, and we see loose body language and low latency. But I would also be interested, based on some very cool work by both Ken Ramirez (2017, teaching a beluga whale to say “no”) and researchers in the human world (Rajaraman et al., 2019, “enhanced choice model”), in seeing what might happen if we gave her the same treat for taking her paw away or some other alternative behavior as well.

Are there arguments to be made that a process like this is not always the least intrusive, or least restrictive, effective approach? Sure. First, it remains to be seen if this will be effective in the long run. Second, if this were a dog who had come from the shelter with nails curling into her paw pads, it would probably not be the option that immediately provided the best welfare. I would likely recommend having a kind vet or groomer get the job done in some other context, and then start work in a different setting on cooperating with nail trims. But happily this dog has nail-filing in her repertoire, and an owner with the resources and time to improve her own skills.