Dr. TEmple Grandin, Phd – animal behaviourist

If I could pick one animal behaviourist to sit and talk with – it would be Temple Grandin.

If you’ve never seen the movie “Temple Grandin”, I urge you to do so. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the mind of autism and animals – simply a different way to look at animals and the way we/they think. The “thunder shirt” for example is based on her “squeeze machine”, a set up that she made to give her a hug when she was upset or whatever.

There is too much Skinner in the dog training world today, it’s time to move on and think different. Temple has the ideology that animals think in pictures, just like she does. I see it in Monty all too often. The apartment complex we live in is very quiet, especially now with Covid on the go. If we get on the elevator 100 times, maybe 1 or 2 times out of that 100 – someone will be on the elevator. In Monty’s mind, the elevator is empty – that’s the picture. Change the picture, someone is now in the elevator – he reacts to the change. Not in a negative fashion, but the person shouldn’t be there. The picture has changed. If Monty goes to the neighbours, he takes a sweep through her place – and he will investigate anything that’s changed – is that thinking in pictures?

In the same way, in my opinion, dogs only have a “plan A” and they aren’t very good at formulating a “plan B”. If a dogs “Plan A” is to bark and show aggression to drive people away as an example – that’s the picture that needs to be changed. That’s all the dog has learned to do – so how do we change that “plan A” and inject a positive plan B? In that instance, someone needs to show them that their “plan A” isn’t going to work against me.

As an example, I worked with a Boston Terrier cross a couple of years ago, this dog was absolute rage in a cage. When I entered the room alone (no owner), the dog went ballistic – it’s all he knew to do. It’s biting the crate, trying to attack people that came near the crate – performing self harm by biting the crate. Blood was coming out of its gums. People seen this and went in the other direction – that dog is crazy. However, I approached the crate calmly – and when I slid the crate lock open – the dog stopped. I changed the picture, I’m not running away, ready or not, I’m coming in. Open the door a crack, the dog simply went calm – why? Because I showed him that his “plan A” that worked with everyone else isn’t going to work on me. Introduce the leash, let him smell it – and he followed me out of the crate calmly.

Now we have a confused dog, now it’s time to change the picture and inject a positive plan B.

We as dog owners or trainers need to start changing our own thinking, to start focusing on how and what the animal is thinking. Skinner didn’t care about the animals thought process, he didn’t care about that silly “black box” (the brain) cause we have “operant conditioning”.

In her book “Animals In Translation: Using The Mysteries Of Autism To Decode Animal Behavior” – Temple absolutely nails the overall bad state of dog training today. Skinner has been dead for 30 years, best forgotten, so much has changed since his death – and it’s time for us to change the way we work with dogs. Trainers are screaming about scientific method – but they are all going back to Skinner.

Temple’s book “Animals In Translation: Using The Mysteries Of Autism To Decode Animal Behavior” is listed on archive.org as opensource and is downloadable in many different formats. Click the link and scroll down.

https://archive.org/details/B-001-014-311/page/n1/mode/2up