Dog Training Using Pointing Gesture - Featuring Boudicca 092209

In this training demonstration I'm using a proposed hypothesis (Viranyi et al, 2008) called "pedagogy." I'm using eye contact and pointing gesture to teach Boudicca where I want her to position herself. In a previous experiment using shaping, but only moving my head in these same directions (gaze shifts) getting the behavior was more tedious and would have taken more time to shape. In Coren's book How to Speak Dog, he suggested dogs use their muzzle as a pointer, and fastened a cup to his face to test his theory. His goal was to teach his dog which jump to go over by facing the direction of the jump. Since we aren't equipped with a muzzle (just a nose), and if this were true, we need a stronger referential cue. I adjusted my training to a fully extended arm. A professional trainer knows how to eliminate that part of the cue!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• dog
• trainer
• training
• behavior
• pointing
• gesture
• joyce kesling
• pedagogy hypothesis
• responsible dog
• sarasota florida

[LuckyJLloyd]

Interesting stuff. I recently watched a documentry on the evolution of dogs and it said besides humans dogs are the only other animal able to understand the pointing gesture (not even the great apes) and are able to pick up on the direction of where we look. I believe it's to do with when our ancestors hunted with primitive dogs (first domesticated wolves) using hand signals to coordinate a hunt.