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Do you believe in dog? 2016

Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts

14 June 2018

Not one way to do it. The ‘Do You Believe in Dog’ learning & training roundup #Train4Rewards

Not one way to do it. The ‘Do You Believe in Dog’ learning & training roundup #Train4Rewards

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Hey dog lover! What’s hidden behind most everything?

Why, it’s learning and training! 

While this probably sounds like a grand overstatement, it really isn’t. Here at Do You Believe in Dog, we’ve seen learning and training sneak into practically every nook and cranny of our relationship with dogs. But not all learning (or training) is the same.

Today, we’re participating in Companion Animal Psychology’s #Train4Rewards blog party 2018 by highlighting DYBID posts which taught us about reward-based training, often with the help of an excellent video! While we (Julie and Mia) write many of the posts here at DYBID, other canine science researchers have contributed to share their own research and findings. The posts below are relevant to all dogs and also explore where a dog lover can access good information on learning and training.
Check out the entire 2018 #Train4Rewards Blog Party

Dog training: Do you get the timing right?
What a difference a second can make! Clare Browne discusses her research on the effect of a 0 or 1 second reinforcement delay. [VIDEO INCLUDED]

Diabetic alert dogs: Seeking solutions with sniffing canines and science
Cat Reeve shares her work with diabetic alert dogs (DADs). How do dogs learn to alert when a person has a hypoglycemic event (low blood sugar)? What samples should we use to teach them? [VIDEO INCLUDED]

Copy dogs?
Claudia Fugazza reminds us that reward-based training can, and should, get social. Claudia explains how dogs can learn new behaviors by observing and copying their handler. Dogs are the new copycats. [VIDEO INCLUDED]

How to make fireworks less upsetting for dogs
When something scary comes along, there’s something you should know. We can help our dogs. Veterinarian Sophia Yin shows us how. [VIDEO INCLUDED]

51 Shades of Grey: Misuse, misunderstanding and misinformation of the concepts of “dominance” and “punishment”
Simon Gadbois looks at science as a method of inquiry, and explores its purpose and applications in the real world.

The science of carrots and sticks
Mia reflects on a training day the the Melbourne Aquarium and highlights a great book by McGreevy and Boakes called ‘Carrots and Sticks: Principles of Animal Training.’

Dog-eared books
Guess what? Our recommended book list from 2013 is still relevant today! 

Be sure to check out other posts participating in the Train for Rewards Blog Party 2018.

Julie Hecht & Mia Cobb
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18 June 2015

#SPARCS2015 Canine Science for Everyone is 19-21 June - Watch Online Free!

#SPARCS2015 Canine Science for Everyone is 19-21 June - Watch Online Free!



#SPARCS2015, the canine science conference we're hosting in Phoenix, is taking place almost now, June 19-21. 

 You can watch the live broadcast for FREE just by going to http://www.sparcsinitiative.org/live-broadcast/
Watching SPARCS2015 is THIS easy
No login, just free access by going to the website. It seems too easy, but it's true!

 The conference begins at 9 AM Pacific Time on Friday, June 19th, and speaker talk times and titles are listed here. Stay with us each day until 7:00 PM Pacific Time through until Sunday, June 21. Convert to your local time zone here
For a basic idea of starting times in your part of the world, we made a list:

Last year, over 40,000 people joined the second SPARCS initiative conference from all around the world. This year, we're expecting to top those numbers! 

This year the conference will feature daily themes of Learning & Memory; Dogs Around the World and Stress: Physiology, Cognition & Behavior - Full program available here.

Hear from some of the best minds in canine science from the comforts of your own home whether that be in your pyjamas from bed, sipping wine on the couch, or while dancing on your kitchen table, we don't care. Your choice.

We know it's really Phoenix - relax!

Through the 3-day event, follow the presentations, and join in using #SPARCS2015. You can share your comments and questions on Twitter by including #SPARCS2015 on your tweets.

Part of our role as hosts is bringing the online audience into the conversation, so get on Twitter and join in!

Canine Science For Everyone!

Mia & Julie

If you'd like to support the initiative that share leading canine science to you live for free, you can get a SPARCS membership, or make a donation (as big or little amount as you like!) from the 'donate' tab that will be on-screen during the broadcast. SPARCS aims to help fund future research in canine science through a series of grants, and this will only be possible with the support of those watching. If every person watching donated $5, it would count.

Here we are! In Phoenix! Cacti! Dogs! Science! We have all!
http://www.sparcsinitiative.org/live-broadcast/
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3 June 2015

Set SPARCS to your brain: canine science for EVERYONE! (With ticket giveaway)

Set SPARCS to your brain: canine science for EVERYONE! (With ticket giveaway)

JOIN US! #SPARCS2015 - INFO & TICKET GIVEAWAY


The goals of the Society for the Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science are simple: 
SPARCS is an initiative to promote research and education in canine science. Their profits fuel research grants and education in canine science.
There's a lot to love right there. And we do!

We're excited to announce that Do You Believe in Dog? founders, Mia and Julie, will be hosting the annual SPARCS event again. Catch up here to revisit our experiences of #SPARCS2013 and #SPARCS2014. We hope you'll be joining us too, wherever you are in the world, because the event will be live streamed online, for free! 


 Each year, SPARCS holds a three-day canine science conference with each day dedicated to a different dog behavior topic. This year's topics are: Learning & Memory, Dogs Around the World and Stress: Physiology, Cognition & Behavior. The wide range of excellent speakers can been seen, along with their bio's in detail on the SPARCS website:


19-20 June  |  Phoenix Convention Centre  |  Arizona, USA

How can you get involved?

If you'd like to join us in Phoneix, Arizona (USA), there are a few ways to get there:
  1. Join SPARCS: GOLD membership gets you a free ticket to the conference and unlimited access to the recordings of the broadcasts for one year. SILVER membership gets you a ticket to one day of the conference and unlimited access to the recordings of the broadcasts (from ALL years) for twelve months.
  2. Attend the conference: You can purchase access to the conference directly through the SPARCS website here
  3. Tune in to the FREE live stream of the conference from ANYWHERE in the world: You can sign up to be notified when the live stream is active here: http://www.sparcsinitiative.org/broadcast/
  4. Follow the conference on social media: We'll be making sure people can follow the action on Twitter (follow #SPARCS2015)


Want to win free registration to #SPARCS2015?

We want you to! We're thrilled to have two free registrations for the 3-day #SPARCS2015 event to give away to members of the Do you Believe in Dog? community. 

To enter, let us know why YOU want to attend this major canine science event, 
and who will benefit if YOU attend.

You can make your submission here on the blog, or over on Facebook, or Twitter.
Mia and Julie will select who receives a free registration to #SPARCS2015 at the Phoenix Convention Centre, 19-21 June 2015.

Tag your comment with #SPARCS2015

Competition closes: 07 June 2015

Winners announced here: 08 June 2015



Competition is for SPARCS 2015 conference registration (valued US$399) only.
Travel and accommodation expenses to attend not covered. Judges' decision will be final. 
If selected, but unable to attend, please contact doyoubelieveindog@gmail.com so another person can be selected.
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Society for the Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science

9 March 2015

How dogs get the point: what enables canines to interpret human gestures?

How dogs get the point: what enables canines to interpret human gestures?

Guest post by: Lucia Lazarowski, PhD candidate. Her research is available via free promotional access in the journal Behavioural Processes until February, 2016.

 Hi Mia and Julie,

As a long-time fan of the blog, it is an honor to be a guest contributor! I am especially excited to tell DYBID readers about this research because it was somewhat of a pet project (pun intended). I am now a PhD student at Auburn University, but this study was done while I was working at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. At NCSU, I worked with a team of veterinarians and animal behaviorists on a several projects aimed at improving selection and training of military working dogs, and I was primarily involved with studies related to explosives detection. 
Meanwhile in the canine cognition world, a hot topic was that of dogs’ ability to follow human gestures. Several studies have demonstrated that dogs are able to use human gestures, like pointing, to find hidden treats. An interesting finding that fueled a lot of the research in this area is that dogs perform better on these tasks than chimpanzees, our closest relatives, and wolves, dogs’ closest relatives. Is it possible that dogs are able to read and use human gestures because they co-evolved with humans, endowing them with a specialized human-like type of social cognition that their ancestors missed out on? Or, is it that dogs are such an integrated part of our lives that through our daily interactions they learn that paying attention to our body language pays off?

These two viewpoints have sparked a heated debate among canine scientists. In order to tease apart the roles of domestication and experience (or the nature/nurture debate, as your high school psychology teacher would call it), researchers have tested canines of different species (domesticated and wild-type) and different life histories (human-reared and feral). The domestication hypothesis, which suggests that point-following is an innate skill that dogs have acquired in a case of convergent evolution with humans, predicts that domestication alone is sufficient for point-following. The learning hypothesis, on the other hand, contends that dogs must learn through experience to follow human gestures, regardless of domestication status. 

 The fact that chimps and wolves do not appear to utilize human pointing as dogs do seems to support domestication as an explanation. But, (plot twist!) if wolves are raised with humans from an early age and are tested in appropriate conditions, they can perform as well or even better than dogs.  To recap, groups that have succeeded at human pointing tasks include canines that are domesticated and socialized (pet dogs), non-domesticated and un-socialized (wolves), and non-domesticated and socialized (hand-reared wolves).  Hopefully at this point the missing piece of the puzzle is obvious: what about domestic dogs that have not been heavily exposed to humans? This vital yet untested sub-group of canines would help tip the scales in the domestication vs. experience debate.

At NCSU, we were gearing up to begin a new study investigating factors related to olfactory learning in canine explosives detection. The dogs acquired for this study were mixed-breed males around 1 year old, and unlike our previous studies which used trained military working dogs, these were laboratory-reared dogs. It occurred to me that this would be the perfect opportunity to test a group of dogs that met all of the proposed criteria for the “missing link”: laboratory dogs lack the same experiences that pet dogs living in human homes have (including the possibly critical opportunity to learn about human gestures), but they are socialized to humans at an early age and thus not fearful like feral dogs may be. Another bonus is that their life histories are known and documented, unlike dogs found in a shelter that at some point may have lived with people. If the opportunity to learn about human gestures is critical for point-following behavior to develop and not just domestication alone, these dogs would be expected to perform worse than pet dogs on point-following tasks. 





We tested 11 laboratory dogs and 9 pet dogs using methods established in previous studies in which dogs watched as humans performed two types of point (“easy” and “hard”, for simplicity’s sake).  What we found was that while pet dogs followed the harder point to the correct container significantly higher than chance, the laboratory dogs did not. Both groups of dogs were able to locate the correct container using the easier point, demonstrating that any failures were not due methodological flaws or to an inability to perform the demands of the task (note that success on these easier point trials can be explained by simpler mechanisms like physical proximity to the container).
 
Our results seem to suggest that exposure to humans and the opportunity to learn about the meanings of gestures plays an important role in dogs’ ability to follow pointing. 

 Interestingly, a few dogs in the pet group performed just as poorly as the laboratory dogs, which would lend further support to the idea that individual experiences shape these abilities. Further, failures by the laboratory dogs are not likely caused by cognitive deficits due to an impoverished environment; the dogs received environmental enrichment including daily interactions with kennel and research staff, play-time with conspecifics, outdoor exercise, and a variety of toys (and after completing this experiment, participated in daily socialization and reward-based training sessions to facilitate future adoptions). Though domestication may likely contribute to dogs’ gesture-reading skills, specific life experiences may also be critical for their manifestation. 

P.S.: A happily-ever-after to this story: one of the subjects from this cohort, ‘Captain’, was adopted upon completion of the studies... by me! 

Lucia and Captain - all smiles!

Author
Lucia Lazarowski is a PhD student at Auburn University in the Comparative Cognition Laboratory. They collaborate with the Canine Performance Sciences program at Auburn University (Facebook).

If you found this interesting, you may also enjoy our guest post by Dr Bradley Smith: Take a walk on the wild side: Dingo science, or see all of our guest contributors.

 Images: Copyright Lucia Lazarowski. 

References:
Lazarowski L. (2015). A comparison of pet and purpose-bred research dog (Canis familiaris) performance on human-guided object-choice tasks, Behavioural Processes, 110 60-67. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2014.09.021 [OPEN ACCESS until Feb 2016]

 Kaminski, J., Nitzschner, M., 2013. Do dogs get the point? A review of dog-human communication ability. Learn Motiv. 44 (4), 294–302.

Udell, M.A.R., Dorey, N.R., Wynne, C.D.L., 2010. What did domestication do to dogs? A new account of dogs’ sensitivity to human actions. Biol Rev. 85 (2), 327–345.

 Reid, P., 2009. Adapting to the human world: Dogs’ responsiveness to our social cues. Behav Process. 80 (3), 325–333. 

 © 2015 Lucia Lazarowski | Do You Believe in Dog?
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