The Four Stages of Learning

Dog Training and the Four Stages of Learning

By LukEli K-9, Dog Training and Behavior Modification Specialist

LukEli K-9's friend Bauer, stopped by
 for a cameo appearance in todays blog post.

Do you remember back in elementary school when you were first learning how to read and write? To begin to understand how to use letters to create words and sentences you had to first learn what each individual letter meant. You were not born knowing that the letters on your screen make words, you could not even fathom the thought of making sentences or paragraphs or even blogs out of the strange squiggly and straight lines that make up each letter of the alphabet. The same ideas are true when teaching our dogs new behaviors. Dogs do not come with a remote control or programmable hard drive. Each behavior they learn has to be taught to them.

So many times, as a professional dog trainer, I see dog owners getting caught up in wanting their dogs to perform a new skill in the most exquisitely perfect most militia style possible. While this sounds like it should be what I would expect as dog training professional, that is far from accurate. So much of dog training is patience and diligence and remembering to rewarding the little pieces, taking the extra time and effort into trimming up the edges and eventually putting them together into the bigger picture.

Before I explain how to use the four stages of learning to your advantage, let me give you some basic ground rules for moving from one stage to the next. First, make sure that your dog is responding to the knowledge given to them with 80% accuracy in each stage before moving onto the next. This does not mean 80% accuracy in one session; this should be a percentage as a whole over the course of multiple training sessions. Also keep in mind that in each new phase of learning we are essentially changing the rules that were required of our dog for them to get a reward. Each time the rules change do not be surprised if your dog seems to forget some of the knowledge he learned in the preceding steps. This is why it is of the upmost importance to stay within the 80% accuracy mark before moving onto to the next phase.

The ACQUISITION or acquiring stage is the first stage of learning. This is the phase where animals, humans included, acquire new skills. In this stage of learning, emphasis is only placed on the accuracy of the response.

If our goal were to teach our dog to sit, the acquisition stage would require that I first teach the new behavior to him in a way he understands, followed by a reward for completing the required behavior accurately. Since this phase is the very first one helping the dog to understand what we want has to be very clear and consistent. For example, the sit cue should be an obvious hand movement or body positioning, remember to keep the signal the same every time.  At this point of learning I do not focus on making sure the dog is perfectly squared off, or that he is intently staring at me or even that he did it quickly, I am only concerned with him performing the required task, which was putting his bottom on the floor.

The second stage of learning is the FLUENCY, or automatic stage. This stage essentially is when the animal becomes fluent in the new knowledge he has acquired.

During your school education, once you learned what each letter of the alphabet meant it became very easy for you, almost automatic, for you to both recognize the letter as well as conjure up the sound it made fairly quickly and fluidly without too much added stress on your brain to remember what it was.

In relation to your dog learning how to sit, at this point the dog should respond to your cue in a timely and fluent manner. This stage of learning is also when we can start to focus on enhancing the speed of the dog’s responses to the cue. 

You should start gradually decreasing the big obvious hand signals associated with the cue to just a voice command. For example, maybe before your cue for sit was reaching over your dogs head towards his butt, decrease that signal to where you merely point one finger at his hind end, to eventually just saying the word.  Be careful not to back down the signals too quickly and remember to hit the 80% accuracy mark before changing the rules for reinforcement on your dog.

The third stage of learning is known as the GENERALIZATION or application phase. At this point in learning the dog must learn that the knowledge he acquired through the last two stages is relevant in a variety of circumstances and environments.

In order for you to learn how to make and read words, you had to learn to generalize that a B is always a B and always makes the same B sound no matter what letter was before or after it or on what kind of paper it was written on, a B was still a B. (I know that in the English language some letters change in different contexts but for the sake of this example don’t think about all those rules).

For your dog, the generalization of the sit cue would require you practice this cue in as many places and different distraction environments as you can possibly think of. In dog trainer lingo we call this stage working on the three “D’s”; The Distance from the dog in which you can give the command and the dog perform it accurately, the Duration of the time he has to hold the cue, and the Distraction level of the surrounding environment. It is absolutely necessary that you only increase the three “D’s” one at a time. You should not go to the middle of the dog park and ask your dog to sit for the duration of five minutes with a high level of distraction around him until you have worked up to that level.

The fourth and final stage of learning is the MAINTENANCE stage. The maintenance stage is the phase in which the dog incorporates the new knowledge he has learned into his behavioral repertoire.

In the same way you have the knowledge to accurately put together letters and ultimately read this article, your dog at this point should be polished and reasonably consistent. When the “sit” command is given the dog should automatically, fluently, consistently, perform the behavior. In order to keep this high rate of compliance to the sit cue, the maintenance phase of learning should not be overlooked or sped through. This is the most important stage for ensuring that your dog remembers the new knowledge he has learned long term. For some dogs this may only require that the behavior is practice during an occasional training session, for others this might entail repetitions from previous stages to ensure accuracy, speed, or generalization.

Every dog is capable of learning a new behavior and will become proficient through sufficient repetitions and progressions through these learning stages. You and your dog must move through each of these stages of learning if you wish to come to a reliable behavior in the end.  Now that you know and understand a bit more about the process your dog undergoes when learning, you’ll be able to refine your training habits to become a more effective trainer. For hands on help and individualized coaching on training techniques you can always enlist a dog training professional to help reach your goals.

If you have questions or would like more information about our programs, please contact us at LukElidogtraining@gmail.com