Cognitive Canine II explains more thoroughly the foundation of science behind Cognitive Canine I. Where Cognitive Canine I dared to theorize that your dog CAN think, Cognitive Canine II gives an overview of the study of cognition, using these theories to explain HOW dogs think.

Cognitive Canine II goes where no dog book has gone before. It will challenge your current thinking and will make you a better trainer regardless of methods you choose. It will forever change the way you view your dog’s cognitive capabilities, enhancing your working relationship.

Cognitive Canine II discusses the science of knowledge acquisition, relating it to how dogs learn. Cognitive elements of perception, memory, attention, and motivation are studied and ideas presented for how we might better work with our canine companions.

Cognitive Canine II explores current canine behavior theories and training methods. It then discusses their validity from the cognitive perspective. You’ll understand how dogs think, freeing you to train for optimum understanding rather than memorizing a training system.

Whether professional trainer or dog lover, this book challenges your current thinking and enhances your working relationship with your dog. Join the revolution and read on to unleash your dog’s full cognitive potential!

Lisa Lit has a diverse canine background. An acute observer, she was first to recognize cognitive principles in working dogs. Her voracious appetite for knowledge results in ongoing participation in the new field of canine cognition.

Her experience includes AKC obedience, search and rescue, protection, agility, and pet obedience. Lisa trained multiple dogs through Utility, earning most titles with minimum tries. She and her dog Josh placed in Super Dog at the Gaines National Obedience Competition. Josh was the first cadaver dog certified under Arizona State Standards. Lisa co-developed Dressage Dog, the application of classical dressage principles for power and lightness in dogs.

Lisa’s gift for writing in a concise, informative, enjoyable manner is evident in her Cognitive Canine series.

The Cognitive Perspective & Learning

The cognitive perspective considers how various mental processes affect learning. These mental processes affect how a dog reacts to conditioning, and how learning from an ecological perspective occurs. The cognitive perspective looks at learning as a complex, multi-faceted process involving a variety of sources and procedures. Learning is a process where the dog is constantly absorbing information and processing it. The dog is also making decisions how to act based not only on that information, but also on independent wants and desires not necessarily related to anything currently being input.

As discussed in Cognitive Canine I, training a dog involves a constant balancing of want-to, or motivation, and have-to, or compulsion, in the dog. Handlers with working dogs often try to find dogs where the desired drives are "factory-installed." This certainly makes training a dog easier. But there are many disciplines, such as competition obedience, where not too many dogs have a pre-installed "directed jumping drive." Especially in America, where a vast assortment of breeds is used in this discipline, finding this balance between want-to and ave-to is even more important. An understanding of how memory works, how latent learning (learning in the absence of reinforcement) occurs, how to optimize use of observational learning, and which learning techniques have been demonstrated to maximize motivation can only benefit handlers in all disciplines.

As previously stated:

The fact that cognitive functions occur at a level where they cannot necessarily be objectively observed or measured does not mean that they do not happen; nor does it mean that they should be ignored.

Considering just one perspective limits solutions to problems, limits training creativity, and can create boredom and frustration for both handler and dog. Understanding the interaction of the perspectives can only improve training and benefit the dog-handler relationship.

Myth: Dogs Only Learn By Trial-and-Error

Fact: Both traditional training and operant conditioning
are trial-and-error learning

The Three Perspectives – An Interaction

The three perspectives to dog training presented in the introduction can all be seen to interact as follows:

So cognition can be viewed as the forest, with behaviorism and the traditional approach both trees in that forest. Operant conditioning, electronic training, the choke chain – these are all limbs on those trees. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment are all branches on those limbs.

MYTH: Dogs Only Learn by Trial-and-Error

FACT: Both Traditional Training and Operant Conditioning are Trial-and-Error Learning; dogs learn in a variety of ways.

By definition, when trained by operant conditioning, dogs are learning by trial-and-error from feedback that evaluates their behavior but does not indicate the correct response (Schmajuk, 1997). In other words, the dog is never shown the right thing to do "up front." The dog must generate responses. Then the handler accepts one response either by rewarding or by stopping punishment.

So, in shaping behavior using a clicker, the clicker evaluates (correct) behavior. The clicker never shows the dog, or indicates, what is to be done. Likewise, in traditional training based on the "Universal Correction" or "collar pop," there is feedback evaluating behavior (collar pop = something’s wrong). The collar pop does not indicate what should be done. Thus both traditional training and shaping can be considered forms of operant conditioning, and thus are both forms of trial-and-error learning. In essence, the dog makes a guess.

There are four possible consequences to that guess:

So really, what it all boils down to is that both traditional training (training using a choke collar and the universal correction) and clicker training are forms of operant conditioning. They both involve trial-and-error learning from feedback that evaluates behavior but does not indicate the correct response.