Today, we are going to talk about the brief history of dog training from the perspective of a balanced approach. Dog training has advanced significantly over the past few decades. It wasn’t so long ago that trainers used punishment, intimidation, and cruel equipment to train dogs, and sadly, some trainers still use these methods and tools today. But an ever-increasing number of trainers are turning to gentle, positive, reward-based training techniques. This podcast (article) will examine the evolution of dog training and how we’ve become more enlightened in teaching our canine companions.
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I am Michele Forto, the lead trainer at Alaska Dog Works. We offer a balanced approach to dog training that is built on the fundamental principles that took almost a century to develop. We are not fad trainers, and we don’t subscribe to every technique that is available today in the world of dog training. We train dogs in a way that works and is built on scientific principles that work. Today, we will provide a brief history of dog training.
From cruelty to kindness, our approach to dog training has evolved significantly. When I started dog training professionally more than a decade, I learned most of my skills from my husband Robert who got most of his experience in the early 1990s by going to one of the first fully immersive programs at the time, National Canine. Over the years, we learned the latest techniques from not only the best in the industry but also by spending a heck of a lot of time just sitting and observing canine behavior and training hundreds, if not thousands, of dogs. We feel we are in a unique position compared to many other trainers in our area because we live with a pack of sled dogs. This laboratory, if you will, is a great observational system for understanding canine behavior, much in line with many of the people listed in the article, ‘A Brief History of Dog Training.’
The birth of animal psychology
One of the first documented studies of animal behavior involves the story of a horse named Clever Hans. Right around the turn of the 20th century, Clever Hans gained notoriety for solving arithmetic problems. Oskar Pfungst, a student at the Psychological Institute of Berlin in 1907, studied the supposedly numerically gifted equine. He concluded that although Hans may indeed have been clever, he wasn’t counting. Instead, the horse was reading his handler’s unintentional cues to show he had “solved” the problems. Clever Hans didn’t win any mathematical scholarships, but he did point out the need for more empirical methods of studying animal behavior.
Around the same time, scientist Ivan Pavlov was studying the canine digestive system. He noticed his dog subjects would salivate when presented with food. In one of his most famous experiments, Pavlov presented a specific sound to his canine subjects just before feeding them. Through repeated trials, he observed that the dogs would salivate in response to the sound, even when the food was not present. The anticipation of the food produced the same effect as the food itself. This associative process, termed “classical conditioning”, became the foundation for our current understanding of animal behavior.
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) was one of the first to apply a scientific and statistical approach to motivational education and the use of positive reinforcement. He discovered that behaviors producing a desired effect are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors that create an unpleasant effect are less likely to be repeated. Thorndike called this the “Law of Effect”. Understanding how this phenomenon influences canine behavior is key to understanding how to encourage or discourage a dog’s behavior and is fundamental to practical training.
One of the most well-known figures in the field of behaviorism, Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner (1904-1980) created a device for measuring animal behavior — the now-famous Skinner Box. The apparatus consisted of a lever, a slot for food rewards, and a water source. The animal would be placed inside the box and would begin to move around. Without much to explore, it would eventually hit the lever — and viola, food would drop into the tray. Soon enough, the animal learned that pressing the lever delivered a reward, and “operant conditioning” was born.
Skinner’s work built upon Thorndike’s Law of Effect, but it revealed a much more detailed picture of the principles of learning. He thus had a significant impact on the field of modern dog training. From Skinner’s work, we know that desired behaviors should be reinforced, that behaviors can be shaped in incremental steps, and that immediate rather than delayed reinforcement facilitates the most reliable learning.
Dog training during the World Wars
Dog training as a profession got off to a rocky start during the two World Wars, primarily due to the demand for trained military dogs. This spurred the “Revolution of Compulsion”, when dogs were trained using harsh, punitive methods. Konrad Most, who was credited with this movement, played a role in the formation of the German Canine Research Society and the Society for Animal Psychology. His aversive punishment-based methods were popularized in his book, Training Dogs: A Manual, first published in 1910.
The military quickly adopted Most’s principles of training and passed on this knowledge to many in its ranks. The US Government lent “credibility” to Most’s harsh training methods, and soon the general public adopted the same aversive techniques with their dogs. Such methods have proven resilient, and some of today’s trainers continue to espouse similar training techniques.
The rise of force-free, reward-based training
Fortunately, the movement towards gentler training methods began in the years following World War II, when B.F. Skinner’s work was popularized by two of his students, Keller and Marian Breland. Their work promoted humane training methods and fostered their widespread adoption worldwide.
In 1947, the Brelands founded Animal Behavior Enterprises, which combined the fields of professional animal training and modern behavioral science. Their mission was to teach people a more humane way of training animals. Using the principles of operant conditioning, they trained thousands of animals for various purposes. The Brelands moved the dog training field towards an alternative educational process that relied on kindness rather than force.
Several years after Keller Breland passed away, Marian married Bob Bailey, the first director of training in the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program. The couple worked with Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit organization that trains dogs to assist individuals with disabilities. The Baileys ‘contribution to positive reinforcement dog training cannot be overstated.
Dog training in the 80s and 90s
Many dog trainers came along in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, but it was Karen Pryor’s Don’t Shoot the Dog, published in 1984, that provided a strong foothold for today’s force-free, reward-based training methods. She introduced the mainstream dog training community to clicker training, which helped propel force-free, science-based humane training methods to new heights around the world.
No history of reward-based dog training would be complete without mentioning Dr. Ian Dunbar. A veterinarian and animal behaviorist, he has authored several books, and in 1982, began teaching off-leash puppy socialization and training classes. He also created and developed the San Francisco SPCA’s Animal Behavior Department. In 1993, Dunbar founded the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, and over the past 35 years, he has given over 1,000 presentations worldwide to popularize puppy socialization and dog-friendly training.
Another notable trainer is Terry Ryan, an award-winning author who began training dogs in 1968. According to legacycanine.com, “She was Program Coordinator for the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, from 1981 until 1994. The programs involved the study of the human-animal bond and the implementation of animal-assisted therapy programs. She was one of the original members of the Delta Society (now called Pet Partners), an international resource on the human-animal bond. Terry wrote some of Delta’s early training literature and was one of the first Delta Pet Partners animal evaluators. She presented several times at The International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organization’s symposia.”
Along with Bob and Marian Bailey, Ryan held training camps around the world to introduce positive reinforcement training to a growing number of trainers, demonstrating how operant conditioning could be made more accessible and applicable to dog behavior.
Now, with the arrival of the 21st century, a growing number of well-known positive trainers are strengthening the movement toward compassionate, reward-based training (see below). Thanks to all these dedicated individuals, a new approach to training family dogs has taken root. The aversive methods prevalent in earlier decades, such as hitting, jerking, shocking, and pinning, have gradually but steadily given way to kinder, more humane, and compassionate training. The result is happier, healthier, better-behaved dogs!
The 21st century — solidifying the foundation of humane training
In addition to the essential figures discussed in this article, several notable trainers have helped consolidate the movement for humane, positive-reinforcement dog training in the 21st century. There are too many to mention here, but they include:
- Dr Michael W. Fox – author, veterinarian, and animal behaviorist (net)
- Karen Overall – authored the Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats, and is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behavior (dacvb.org)
- Paul Owens – the original Dog Whisperer, renowned trainer and author (com)
- Victoria Stilwell — famous dog trainer, author, and presenter of Animal Planet’s hit TV series It’s Me or the Dog (com)
- Nicole Wilde — prolific author and international presenter (com)
- Sophia Yin (deceased) — veterinarian and internationally-respected trainer and author
Quick facts about the evolution of dog training
Dogs and people have been teaming up for centuries, but you’d have a hard time finding anything written about formal dog training before the 1800s. From the records we have, it’s fairly evident that the positive reinforcement dog training movement didn’t emerge until the late 20th century. Before then, the human/canine relationship hadn’t always proven easy for the dog, as we humans often resorted to using the stick over the carrot.
Yet as our understanding of canine behavior has slowly grown, so too has our empathy and compassion, and we have evolved more humane ways of understanding and communicating with dogs. Today’s positive reinforcement dog training methods have their origins in clinical scientific experimentation, but at their core, they are founded on the fundamental principle of kindness.
We hope you enjoyed our very brief history of dog training. If you would like to learn more, we encourage you to seek us out on social media. Just search Dog Works Radio, and as always, visit our website, Alaska Dog Works, for many more training tips and tricks.
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