DPU
Posted : 12/1/2007 8:03:59 PM
A little bit about Dr. Yin, IMO, not a lot of time or hands-on experience in vet medicine nor in dog behavior modification. With time and experience, she will learn to respect JQP and their relationship with the family pet. This should influence the contents of the video. I do like her quote about under socialization being the cause of a lot of behavior problems.
By the way, the OP should have qualified this thread with a warning of DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. The videos shows:
- Training a dog in the street.
- Striking a dog
- using boobytraps
- Making sure a dog is hungry before training
- Using a body block to prevent a dog from leaving a car. This is so dangerous.
- Mentions PTS for food resource guarding
- creates a dog fight situation for purposes of demonostrating
- Never shows a successful behavior change in the setting of real life
"It’s Saturday morning at something known as chicken training camp. For the next five days, a small group of trainers will teach chickens to do peculiar things like peck at a black dot on a laser cue or knock down colored bowling pins in a sequence. A secret weapon being developed for the Pentagon perhaps, or something to do with the Central Intelligence Agency?
“No,” said Dr. Sophia Yin, a veterinarian who specializes in behavior problems, “we are learning the mechanism of positive reinforcement to shape behavior, or put simply, teaching the animal what's right by rewarding it for the correct behavior.”
Chickens are used because they are fast and smart and they can figure things out. They are the best teaching tools for training animals, and they're more laughs than anything on television, she said.
“A lot of people have misconceptions about animals. You have to understand how animals learn, they repeat behavior they are rewarded for,” said Dr. Yin, “they pattern their behavior on what they receive from their caretakers. I find that owners usually rewarded bad behavior.”
She received her degree in veterinary medicine from UC Davis in 1993. After seeing that a sizeable number of problems encountered in clinic were behavior-related, however, she decided to specialize in behavior problems.
In 2001 she earned a Masters in Behavior Problems, and since then, her schedule would be considered daunting by anybody's definition. When she is not lecturing at her alma mater, shuttling between numerous conferences and seminars, or working. at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists, she is on the road making house calls.
She works at zoos with exotic species, such as lemurs, ostriches, giraffes, and warthogs, as well as with more mundane critters, like dogs, cats, and horses. She's trained dogs for competition obedience, house etiquette, and sheep and duck herding, and assisted with difficult dog classes.
In between, she has also found time to write two books, numerous articles, and make over forty training videos. She is the pet columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle as well as for professional publications, like Dog Fancy, Cat Fancy and Dog & Kennel, and she has appeared on television and radio.
And her publishing company, CattleDog Publishing, puts out a very popular book with the curious title The Small Animal Veterinary Nerdbook. It's a pocket-sized book with tables and charts and other information for students now used by thousands of professionals both here and abroad.
In veterinary school, said Dr. Yin, students have to put together a loose-leaf guide for quick reference in clinics and classes. It became known as the nerd book because the nerdiest student always had the best book.
Just like human beings, animals have their bad hair days too, or more appropriately, bad fur days. They can suffer from some human-type problems, such as compulsive and repetitive disorders, depression, anxiety, and from a lack of attention, according to Dr. Yin.
“A lot of animals don't get appropriate socialization, so often fear is the default behavior, and it then degenerates into other things. 30 percent of dogs and cats end up in animal shelters, and 30 percent of animals go to the shelter because of behavior problems,” she said.
But devising a treatment plan for an animal can be difficult, since unlike traditional talk-based psychotherapy animals cannot elucidate on their feelings.
“We don’t have any way to know what they are thinking. Animals are not born knowing English. Imagine seeing a crowd with flailing arms and distorting mouths, but you can't understand the words coming out. Chances are your pet has experienced something similar,” she said.
Her therapy consists of using common sense and positive reinforcement, or giving them a treat for the right behavior. More formally, it’s known as operant conditioning.
“While animals are experts at learning to read human body language, half the time when you think your horse or dog knows what you want, he's just feeling his way around,” she said.
When she’s not on the road, she likes to spend time at home with her pets, an Australian Cattle Dog named Zoe, her Jack Russell Terrier, Jonesy, and her two chickens, Stella and No Name.
“If there is a problem, you should bring your animal in right way. It is better to go to someone who is a specialist in animal behavior problems,” said Dr. Yin."