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Hi Bruce – thanks for your thorough and professional reply! It sounds like the technique you use is very elegant and successful. Well done! If I am understanding correctly, you are saying that the main difference between what you do and what you are seeing in the video is the addition of the word, “Drop?”
The way I’m seeing this in the video is a simple conditioning – the word “Drop” predicts only good things (the food). I’m not seeing a forced choice of any kind. Drop = yum. The dog is releasing the item so that he can get to the food. His choice is relaxed and his entire body language in that third video is quite different than the first one!
Classical conditioning can be taught with any contextual cue or neutral sound. It sounds like the cue for the dogs you are working with is your approach (to whatever distance). Of course the “Drop” cue also has a human present – at a comfortable distance.
Classical conditioning is very powerful and yes, changes the emotional state of the dog. Of course we have to ensure that we are not affecting the emotional state in the other direction by adding our presence – you are very wise to consider distance! It’s always the first criteria I work with when doing CC/DS.
Could the cue “force a choice” when the dog has a high value resource? Here’s where “it depends” comes in. If done carefully, with the variables of distance, movement and value of the item being carefully orchestrated, it shouldn’t. If you are experiencing a different result, try looking at where you are splitting your variables. It’s possible you can tweak one or more and add more repetitions. The emotional conditioning should be a very slow progression. Each dog will vary. If you are getting a change toward more intense guarding, then it’s possible you moved too quickly through the levels.
The next time you work on this, consider shooting video and bringing it here and we can provide support!
What do you think?