Purpose in Dog Training: The Subjective Aim in Play+
Uncovering the Hidden Layer of Purpose and Process in Dog Training
Crossposted @ gododogstuff.com
What & Why – Subjective Aim
What am I doing here and why am I doing this thing? This is my Subjective Aim
Subjective Aim refers to the dog's desired outcome or goal in any given scenario within the Play+ training methodology. It is the dog's intention behind their actions, which is formed based on their....
The Subjective Aim is an important feature of Play+, the Process Philosophy of PlayPlay is willing, self-induced engagement in, and the experience of, novel, consequent opportunity., a feature traditionally left out of the training equation entirely or turned into a single constant like “the CookieA Cookie is traditionally thought of as a food treat given as positive reinforcement. In that definition, a cookie is a discrete piece of food reinforcement. In many dog training discussions, the idea...”, “the behavior”, or “the criteria”. What we are doing and why we are doing it are critical if you and I are going to work together. Would you agree?
If you want the money and I want to do a good job, how is our teamwork gonna go? How will our business do?
It depends, doesn’t it. Sometimes this works out, sometimes it doesn’t. If our Subjective Aims overlap well enough and the situation plays out right, your penchant for money and my penchant for doing a good job will harmonize and we will be successful. IF…
What The… Situation Plays Out Just Right
This is what the Skinner Box is for. This is why we manage the environment. This is why we set up constraints that both enable and prohibit unwanted actions or skills. We ensure that the situation plays out just right, not only to do what we intend, but to learn what is being done.
We manage the situation to help clarify to dog and handler what we are actually doing here — not just to “get” the skill. If we just care about the end result or the actions the clarity of what we’re doing here is going to suffer.
I’m sending you over the Jump!
I’m getting the Cookie!
Success! …when they overlap or the situation plays out just right.
Synthetic Success is Fool’s Gold
This fools us and the dog into thinking we know what we’re doing and “I’m getting the cookie.” synthetically becomes, “He knows how to do this.”
“I’m teaching the dog to go over the jump.” synthetically becomes, “There will be a cookie there.” for the dog.
These are divergent Subjective Aims, the dog and handler’s goals do not resonate; they’re only related within the situations they happen to happen in.
These Subjective Aims are more than motivation, skills, or mechanics, and the solutions to our problems are too. Most all of our trouble in dog training, the things we struggle with and give us gray hair happen because the dog and handler do not share the same Aim yet think they do because the situation has played out nicely.
Why? What’s the Point?
When the Subjective Aims of both dog and handler remain in the same ballpark we are successful. When they diverge we’re in trouble. If the dog wants to take the jump to get the cookie and the handler wants to go over the jump and is willing to give a cookie, this will work; our Aims directly overlap. This is essentially the textbook layout of how behaviors happen, and it’s entirely dependent upon the situation.
But no cookies on the competition field. No cookies on skill 2 of a 10 chain skill. No cookies if I don’t have them on me. What now? What does the dog look for when the known Aim is invalid? What’s the point? That’s a tough training spot
Spot is a “go to a place”, or “go to a mat” behavior. This means that the dog seeks out and performs a duration behavior on a spot of the handler’s choosing. A... to be in for everybody.
When the dog shares the handler’s Subjective Aim, “I’m going over the jump,” then the dog is attuned to jumping information and opportunities. A dog that is looking for opportunities to take the jump is a different critter than a dog that is doing jumps to get cookies.
Why, on the dog’s behalf, is a critically neglected idea in dog training. Why indeed?
Because That’s Where the Cookies Happen – Hiding the Process Layer
I teach the Back Up skill using Rear Foot Targeting. I teach it in a channel, an empty ladder, made of two pvc house gutters. The dog crosses over one of the rails, and steps inside. I mark, pump ‘em full of cookies, then ask them out with my “Off“ cue. I use the ThresholdA dog’s working state can be said to be over or under Threshold. A dog that is over Threshold has trouble working. A dog that is under Threshold is in good shape to... to create a duration behavior of “inside the channel”.
After I’m done, the dog wants to be in the channel. That’s my goal. Not to get the dog to stay in the channel, but to want to be there. I set the dog’s subjective aim with this. I’ve done it for decades and just realized this year that I’m not just creating desire for duration, but I’m crafting a Subjective Aim: “I want to be in the channel.”
This enabling constraint affords me a straight line while backing up because the dog doesn’t want to leave the channel. If exercised and embodied in a variety of environments and usage situations, it also turns into an Ideal Skill: “In / Out of the Gap”.
Ideal Skills Afford Shared Aims
Ideal Skills
Skills are purposeful actions that require information from the environment. In Play+, performance revolves around Actions & Skills rather than behaviors. are ready-to-hand tools or mental affordances that are available to dog and handler to solve problems and interact cooperatively. This is a functional process & correspondence layer in action; it takes two Subjective Aims, both set to Tango.
So I dismiss
If a dog is dismissed, it means the handler is "off limits". Dismissal does not mean the dog has to leave, just that the handler is not available. Dismissal is a valuable drive... the dog, and the dog immediately, or shortly thereafter, walks over and into the channel and look at me. “What’s Up?”
They’ll look me in the eye, 10 minutes later and walk over to the channel. They often lie down in there. I’m sure you’ve seen this happen before while training duration behaviors. It’s always explained away as,”…because that’s where the cookies happen.”
True, but not complete. The dog made a plan to go do that. That’s an Aim. An aim rooted in desire, perhaps, but it’s an aim. To hand-wave it away as “because that’s where the cookies happen” is sophistry, plain and simple; a fallacious argument.
What is the Process Layer?
The process layer of reality is our Ideal World, the headspace for our value structure and things we value and also where & how we store and access Ideal Skills, Chains & Processes for interacting with those valued things. It is a whole layer of reality ignored in the example above and branded heretical by behaviorism and +R training. It is the layer where the questions “What are we actually doing here?” is “Why are we doing this?” are asked and answered.
Play+ | Acknowledging Correspondence & Process
My dogs have a belief that being in that channel is good. They then walk over and get in there. If they don’t get a cookie, that’s cool. They’ll lie down and sleep there; it’s a cool place.
That’s actually happening. Happens all the time. Hand wave it away as “that’s where the cookies happen”, might be true, but the dog made a plan and stuck to it – also undeniably true.
Play+, the Process Philosophy of Play, leverages communication and attuned interaction to embody, develop, and understand this process layer which leads to more tightly correlated Subjective Aims and a playing partner that knows what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. The dog becomes a Teammate; a teammate who can and will make the relevant play.
Subjective Aims: the Purpose of the Process
The process and correspondence layers are where the Subjective Aim is created. It is where the handler decides what to do and why to do it. It’s where the dog decides what to do and when to do it. It’s where we prove Why?
Many of us that have good working relationships with our dogs have this Process Layer stuff going on. Many of us won’t talk about it, as it’s an immediate disqualification from the Science™. This is ending. The gatekeeping and stymied correspondence with reality in dog training that has been hiding the Process Layer is being called out on many fronts.
I’ve been working on this for a few years now, and I’ve got an Aim: I am going to disclose the process layer of dog training and will do so through play.
I hope you’ll support my work here. It’s gonna be bangin’.
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