Every Interaction is a Training Session
It’s hard to separate the two conditions between a training session and in “informal” interaction with our pet. The most obvious differences are the contexts and reinforcers. A formal training session generally looks like positioning yourself near the animal with a treat pouch positioned around your waist, providing prompts and cues that tell your animal if they do [insert behavior] then they will receive chicken, hotdog, cheese, or some other tasty treat. The trainer intentionally provides these valuable outcomes for behavior so that the animal learns a new skill fast. All the while, the trainer and animal are practicing the art of two way communication meaning the trainer is adjusting prompts and the environment based on the behavior and body language they see from the animal. It’s like a dance. When the training session is over, we remove our treat pouch, and the animal learns to go back to their environment to find naturally occurring reinforcers such as resting in a sunny spot, getting a drink of water, leaning into you for pets, playing with a toy, sniffing around, etc.
And then we live with our animal. We are a massive piece of their environment. That means our dialogue does not stop just because the treat pouch is removed.
Interacting with our pets resumes the dialogue we are familiar with during training sessions. The two-way communication is ever present when we approach the animal, or when they approach us, but the context looks different, and we shift our reinforcers to things like verbal praise, petting, playing, cuddling, table scraps, kibble, and more. One of the strongest reinforcers we have in our toolbelt is allowing the animal to choose to interact, or to escape. The ability to leave or “say no” holds a lot of value for future interactions. Empowering a pet with control and consent is an innate reinforcer that can actually strengthen your relationship, and give you information about what your pet is uncomfortable with.
Some of the most common interactions with our pets are also learning opportunities. A pet can learn to love to be held or to hate it based on past experiences and current conditions. My cat, Rocky, typically loves to be picked up. The consequence is an opportunity to rest behind my neck like a scarf, drape his front legs on either side of my shoulder like a tree branch, and then he cheek rubs my shoulder and purrs. Maybe the reinforcer is a higher point, a warm perch, or the ability to practice natural cat behaviors. Reaching my hands towards Rocky is the cue, Rocky lifting his paws and perching on my shoulder is the behavior, and the consequence is a positive outcome. I know the consequence is reinforcing because future behavior is repeated.
If at another point I reach down, start to pick him up, and he moves away, that’s ok. Sometimes there are varying degrees of motivation for the reinforcers at our disposal. Time of day, competing reinforcers in the environment, or even the number of times he’s been held that day can all be factors in why he doesn’t want to be held now, in the current context.
Other times when our hands reach out to animals, it signals petting. Consent for petting can look like moving closer to you, leaning their body into you, a dog wagging their tail, a cat rubbing against your hand, or staying in position with relaxed body language. No consent or signs of discomfort can look like moving away or stiffened body language (species specific) as your hand approaches or after you’ve started petting. When an animal is communicating that they are uncomfortable with an interaction, the best response on our end is to give them space at the first sign. If we ignore early signals of discomfort, even unintentionally, we run the risk of getting bit or scratched, and we can hurt the relationship with our animal.
Animals prompt us for reinforcing interactions, too. It’s actually a beautiful moment when they do because it’s a measure of trust. It’s a measure of how valuable your interactions are for them. Moments like when Rocky lifts his paws to climb up to my shoulder without me reaching out to him first. When my other cat, Louie, rubs on my legs so that I follow him to something he needs help with (like opening the catio door or filling his puzzle feeder). Sometimes our animal’s prompts are incompatible with our needs though, like a dog continuously jumping on you as soon as you walk through the door, and that’s when training can be a helpful tool so that we can teach the dog what to do instead to get our attention.
There is quite a bit of crossover between our informal interactions and training sessions, and they can have a lot of influence over one another. One client I worked with had just adopted a dog who ran away when hands reached out. This was problematic because when the dog needed her leash attached, she ran in the opposite direction. The dog learned to associate hands with being restrained and sometimes being physically removed from reinforcers outside. The leash even became an aversive stimulus where the dog avoided the person altogether because a leash was in their hands. In formal training sessions, the dog made incredible strides. She learned how to give consent for her collar being touched, and received reinforcers such as treats and going for a walk after the leash was attached.
However, in between sessions if the collar was grabbed, even gently, for something that seemed non-invasive like being brushed, we had to essentially start over in the next training session. When it was time for our leash attachment session, the dog was moving away from hands once again because of those moments in between. So we worked on a voluntary brushing behavior so that the collar did not need to be held. From there, we were able rebuild trust and get back to the dialogue where we ask, “may I touch your collar and then give you a treat?” and the dog would lean in as if to say, “yes, you may.”
Living with our pets doesn’t have to feel chaotic or problematic. When we marry the positive interactions with the positive reinforcement training to build skills, we can have a beautifully harmonious relationship with our pets. We can learn how to communicate with them all the time, not only when there are treats. The animal controls their behavior and we control our part of their environment. We set the stage for an invitation and thank them with a reinforcer we know they value.
