Sammy Finds a New Home

For some behaviours it is more ideal if we can use other, more "natural" reinforcers that can maintain the behaviour long term "in the real world" – ALSO when the trainer is no longer present with clicker & treats.

In recent years, increasingly more animal trainers have become familiar with "The Constructional Approach". This approach can be said to be a further development of behaviour analysis as we know it from B. F. Skinner and others.

Two trainers who have done a fantastic job spreading knowledge of "The Constructional Approach" in the dog training community are Sean Will and Maasa Nishimuta.

In the film below you can see how they use "Constructional Affection" to teach a reactive rescue dog more appropriate behaviour – in order to increase the chances that he can finally be rehomed.

Clicker trainers will recognise many familiar principles in this training:

• The trainers reinforce behaviours that the dog offers "voluntarily" without assistance
• The criteria are increased very gradually, and not before the dog has mastered the previous step
• The trainers use a (visual) "marker" to mark correct behaviour.

But there are also important differences from how clicker training is usually performed, for example when we work with obedience training etc:

• They work with a "natural" reinforcer (affection/attention) that will be present in greeting situations also in the future when the trainer is no longer present.
• They also use a marker (i.e. "showing the palms of the hands") that will also often be present in greeting situations in "the real world".
• They do NOT use extinction in the form of "withholding the reinforcer" when the dog makes a mistake. Instead they give the dog a "smaller" reinforcer (gentle patting with one hand) when it shows unwanted behaviour such as jumping, and a "larger" reinforcer (more affection with both hands) when it shows desired behaviour (paws on the ground).

The Constructional Approach for Animal Trainers 2022

In 2022, Canis Hundeskole arranged a webinar series of 8 live webinars where Sean Will & Maasa Nishimuta for the first time (?) presented these principles to a larger number of Norwegian dog trainers.

Throughout these webinars they went through the fundamental theory of "The Constructional Approach". They also presented the practical techniques "Constructional Aggression Treatment" and "Constructional Affection" in detail.

If you want to learn more about "The Constructional Approach", a good starting point is the website [www.caawt.com](http://www.caawt.com)