Hunting Dogs

Gary Wilkes is an acclaimed animal behaviorist and trainer, an author and columnist on those topics, and the founder of his own brand of Click and Treat Training—a training system built around clickers as the core of an operant conditioning system. Carol Brown, who spearheads the young-dog development program at George Hickox Bird Dogs, introduced me to Gary and his work, and I’ve become such a convert that this year I’m offering two sessions of the George Hickox School of Dog Training where Gary will be our co-instructor.

I can attest to the benefits of clicker-and-treat training. Since incorporating this training into our canine develop program, we have seen our dogs and clients’ dogs respond quicker and with a more upbeat attitude toward learning.

I recently had a chance to speak with Gary Wilkes about the method and to ask him some questions.

George: OK, so when Carol told me I should look into this clicker training, I admit I was skeptical. My impression was that the clicker-training cult always talked about all-positive training and whined that the itty-bitty puppy would have its feelings hurt if we gave it a correction. Many missionaries of the clicker portrayed this training as practically a religious experience and the only tool that a trainer should use. Tell me about it.

Gary: I spent eight years working in shelters. During that time I decided that although there may be a canine overpopulation problem, it’s never going to get fixed if people can’t live with the dogs they have. That’s what got me started learning about behavior and training.

I’ve looked at every source I could find to help me understand dog behavior. From my perspective, the all-positive philosophy is nuts. If you’re cleaning a kennel and a wet, friendly Chessie jumps up on you, you knee it in the chest and it stops jumping on you. People who are concerned that the experience is going to somehow traumatize a 100-pound retriever have great imaginations but no knowledge about what really happens. This is pretty common in the all-positive-training world. What actually happens is that the dog instantly “sucks up” and “gets straight”—usually by sitting with a wagging tail and hoping you’ll pet him.

By criticizing fantasy trainers, I’m not letting traditional trainers off the hook. Not every dog is tough enough to handle an e-collar or choke chain as the primary training tool. Dogs that can’t handle that kind of correction can make great working dogs, but they require some finesse to make that happen. The working dogs I’ve trained, frankly, haven’t been the best-bred dogs in the world and have not been uniformly tough. That doesn’t mean I have the option of telling the owners to get other dogs. Using a broader set of tools allows me to bring a greater number of dogs up to a working standard.

George: What do you mean by “a broader set of tools?”

Gary: There’s an old saying that if all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail. One of the pitfalls in the road of any trainer is deciding to rule out methods. By having a broad spectrum of tools with a solid foundation, I have been able to do things that otherwise would have been beyond my ability or would have failed because of my limited perspective. I have fixed behavior problems with nine species of animals, ranging from a 600-pound aggressive sea lion to two ancient coyotes at the Phoenix Zoo who never left their den when the zoo had guests. Having those experiences has helped me refine methods that I utilize with dogs.

George: Why a clicker?

Gary: All trainers face the same dual task: They must provide their dog with specific information about how to perform a behavior and enough motivation to do it. Most people depend on good breeding to give them a dog whose motivation is built in. That still leaves the information side of the equation. Depending too much on good breeding can result in exceptionally good performance and bone-headed failure.

For example, a dog that is exceptionally birdie may have a problem with honoring a point or flushing when he’s not supposed to. A retriever that has all the makings of a great hunter may still mouth birds and need to be taught the forced retrieve in order to have a proper delivery and present the bird fit for the table. The bottom line is that the two-part equation requires more than just a highly motivated dog. You have to have a skilled dog to put the motivation to work.

If you lack a working knowledge of how to connect information with motivation, your dog will forever be a loose cannon. If you assume that you can solve these problems by hammering the dog, you run the risk that the dog will shut down in the field. That’s one area where clicker training excels. It provides a balanced combination of skills and motivation that avoids shutdowns and utilizes the dog’s natural drive. If a handler doesn’t have the finest, toughest gundog in the world, he’ll have to make up for it with skill building.

George: No truer words of training have ever been spoken. Does this mean that clicker training is “all-positive?”

Gary: Jeez, no! The people who have attempted to sell that proposition have never produced the working animals to prove that it works. That’s because they can’t. No matter what species of animal you’re talking about, there will always come a day when the critter decides to disobey your command. If you train a dog with all positives, this day comes even sooner. That’s because the dog has all the information but no motivation to do the job. Basically, if there is no downside to failure and success takes effort, the dog is going to quit. This is why all-positive training will never be able to create dependable dogs.

George: Can you give me an example of how having both sides of the coin can improve training?

Gary: At a seminar I gave in Oregon a few months ago, I was teaching a 14-week-old Lab pup to “Down/Stay.” The dog was getting clicks and treats for going down and staying there, even if it was only for a few seconds. Once the pup was holding the position for about five seconds, I added punishment for failure. This particular type of punishment comes in the form of a rolled-up towel bound by a couple of rubber bands to make a big impression when I throw it hard—with the intention of bonking the dog, not just startling it. Now the pup had two sets of consequences simultaneously. Stay and you get treats; move and you get bonked. It worked within about 15 minutes and gave us a bonus behavior at no extra cost. The pup started responding to “Stay,” a behavior [COMMAND?] she hadn’t learned previously. By rewarding her for immobility and punishing her for movement, we increased the likelihood that she would give us the desired behavior. And that’s what it’s all about.

For example, if you have a dog that insists on hunting close, you can use freestanding targets to get him to range farther from your side. If the dog is target trained, you can modify the distance he ranges in about 15 minutes. Because the fix is done with primarily positive reinforcement [HOW?], the dog’s overall attitude doesn’t miss a beat. If you choose, instead, to use the e-collar to push him out farther, softer dogs will be more concerned about getting burned than the task at hand. To be clear, I firmly believe that there are times when clobbering the dog is the best first choice of a skilled trainer. I am suggesting that having both sides of the equation make for a broader set of solutions.

George: Tell me more about target training.

Gary: Simply stated: Targeting is the ability to control a dog’s focus and attention. The actual process means you teach the dog to touch the end of a target stick or freestanding target with his nose. It doesn’t sound like much of a behavior until you realize that you can teach a 12-week-old puppy how to go from Point A to Point B months before you would normally start teaching directed movements. Holding a target stick by your side, you can teach an eight-week-old pup the rudiments of heeling. By building the behaviors early, you pave the way for the serious work that will take place later. In essence, you have two choices: Either wait several months until the dog is old enough to handle getting stimulation to introduce these behaviors, or use the e-collar to enforce an already existing behavior. In my experience, giving the dog all the parts of the puzzle in advance makes the transition to e-collar training a whole lot easier. If an owner is confronted with a dog that either blows off the e-collar or caves in when he is leaned on, having a full set of tools on the positive side can get things back on the right track in a hurry.

In target training a handler has the ability to selectively focus a dog’s attention. Almost every behavior we teach a dog requires some form of targeting. When a dog walks at “Heel,” he is visually targeting his master’s hip. If a dog is retrieving a pheasant, he is selectively focusing on the downed bird. By incorporating a target stick into training, the possibilities are almost endless. Teaching “Heel,” quartering, lefts, rights, backs, go-outs, and the professional delivery of a retrieved object are some examples of targeting paying big dividends.

Editor's Note: For more information on Gary Wilkes' Click and Treat and target training, visit www.clickandtreat.com