Abstract
Dogs are trained for a variety of working roles including assistance, protection, and detection work. Many canine working roles, in their modern iterations, were developed at the turn of the 20th century and training practices have since largely been passed down from trainer to trainer. In parallel, research in psychology has advanced our understanding of animal behavior, and specifically canine learning and cognition, over the last 20 years; however, this field has had little focus or practical impact on working dog training. The aims of this narrative review are to (1) orient the reader to key advances in animal behavior that we view as having important implications for working dog training, (2) highlight where such information is already implemented, and (3) indicate areas for future collaborative research bridging the gap between research and practice. Through a selective review of research on canine learning and behavior and training of working dogs, we hope to combine advances from scientists and practitioners to lead to better, more targeted, and functional research for working dogs.
Highlights
Dogs have long been “co-workers,” collaborating with humans to complete a myriad of jobs in addition to providing companionship
The term “working dog” encompasses dogs that perform a wide range of functional activities, we have limited the scope of this review to three primary types of working dogs, which in present times reflect a majority of working dogs: protection/apprehension dogs, detection dogs, and assistance dogs
Behavior appears most resistant to disruption and extinction when high rates of reinforcement are used compared to lower rates [(113–115), For a review see [116, 117]]. These results suggest that applied parametric studies that evaluate different schedules of reinforcement for working dogs engaging in their relevant task could be a useful future direction to produce the most robust behaviors in distracting environments
Summary
Dogs have long been “co-workers,” collaborating with humans to complete a myriad of jobs in addition to providing companionship. Over the last 100 years, the practice of training working dogs and the science of animal behavior and training have both made significant advances. The practice and the science of animal training have developed in separate domains, with little “cross-talk” or collaborative efforts to advance both fields simultaneously. The objective of this narrative review is to briefly describe the history and scientific advances of the study of animal behavior that we view as applicable to working dog training practices, and to identify areas for future collaborative research between researchers and practitioners to advance training practices for the twenty-first century
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