[This was a post to DogTrek and PositiveGunDogs lists on January 28, 2011]
I recently found a reference to something called "loss aversion" and checked out this article:
I wonder if loss aversion is involved in a training procedure I call the Walk Out (WO). I use it to strengthen the whistle sit, typically on a blind retrieve: If the dog doesn't sit when I blow the whistle, I immediately call out "No, sit", repeating if necessary until the dog sits or if the dog gets up again, walk out to the dog, gently slip on a lead, quietly walk the dog back to the start line, and re-run the retrieve.
I understand that not all dogs will respond correctly to the verbal "sit" cue in this situation, so this can't be used for all dogs. But I've found it to be a powerful tool. Jody Baker has mentioned that WOs are also effective in other sports. At my dog's experience level, a WO significantly improves responsiveness for many retrieves afterwards.
All that's happening is that the dog is losing the opportunity to complete the retrieve on that send-out if she doesn't sit on the whistle, so she becomes much more likely to respond correctly. I'm not sure why that would work as well as it does. Maybe because it's a kind of loss aversion.
LL&L
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversionAlthough "loss aversion" is not a behaviorist term, and its applicability to a non-human species looks pretty tenuous in the article, I found this statement compelling within a behaviorist context: "Some studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains."
I wonder if loss aversion is involved in a training procedure I call the Walk Out (WO). I use it to strengthen the whistle sit, typically on a blind retrieve: If the dog doesn't sit when I blow the whistle, I immediately call out "No, sit", repeating if necessary until the dog sits or if the dog gets up again, walk out to the dog, gently slip on a lead, quietly walk the dog back to the start line, and re-run the retrieve.
I understand that not all dogs will respond correctly to the verbal "sit" cue in this situation, so this can't be used for all dogs. But I've found it to be a powerful tool. Jody Baker has mentioned that WOs are also effective in other sports. At my dog's experience level, a WO significantly improves responsiveness for many retrieves afterwards.
All that's happening is that the dog is losing the opportunity to complete the retrieve on that send-out if she doesn't sit on the whistle, so she becomes much more likely to respond correctly. I'm not sure why that would work as well as it does. Maybe because it's a kind of loss aversion.
LL&L
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