Social Learning Ep165

Episode 165 of the podcast, what is social Learning? How does it work against us, and how can it work for us? Find out this week.

You're listening to the Creating Great Grooming Dogs podcast. I'm Chrissy Neumyer Smith.

I'm a certified professional groomer, a certified behavior consultant for canines, a grooming instructor at Whole Pet Grooming Academy, where I also teach my online program, Master groomer behavior specialist, and I'm the owner of Happy Critters in Nashua, New Hampshire. And this, my friends and colleagues, is the podcast where grooming and training meet.

Social learning. Social learning is so neat. So social learning is when dogs are learning by observing other dogs or by observing people or another animal.

And it happens an awful lot. It's something really, really common.

It's part of why a lot of us as dog owners kind of want to get a new dog while we have a dog here to help with the training process. You know, like, dogs that live with an older dog pick up on house training differently than the puppy who just lives amongst a bunch of humans.

So social learning is really kind of neat. Dogs will follow each other and try to figure out how to do the things that an older dog is doing. So puppies do it, adult dogs do it.

But let me talk to you a little bit about where it can help us and where it can go wrong in the grooming setting, because there are a couple big things about social learning in the grooming setting. Now, let's say you have a room full of dogs. They're in crates and stuff and in various stages of being groomed.

You're in a grooming shop environment, and one dog is having trouble. One dog is having some difficulty being groomed, maybe starts whining, maybe starts barking, maybe starts growling. But other dogs are observing that.

And I want you to think about that, because other dogs in the room are now having their appearance opinions about what's happening over there. And I think that we as people can kind of relate to that.

Maybe you were a kid and, you know, maybe the dentist wasn't particularly scary, but if you heard another kid screaming and crying in the other room with the dentist, you might become a little bit more afraid. And I think we have observed dogs doing that plenty of times.

One dog is on the table and he's getting nervous and, and depending on how this plays out, if someone is, you know, adding a muzzle and maybe getting upset and the dog sprays his anal glands and all this other stuff is happening for a lot of the other Animals in the room, this could become terrifying, this could become scary. This could become something that they really worry about.

Even if maybe their opinion before was this is okay, or maybe if their opinion was that they didn't really have much of an opinion yet, especially with like a first time dog, a dog who it's their first time being groomed or their first time being dropped off someplace, or maybe it's just their first time in your facility or in your grooming van or with you at their house grooming them, but it's their first time, their first impression of you and your system and what's going on in this day in this grooming setting. And it can be really, really scary. So we want dogs to think that this is safe, calm, comfortable, cooperative.

I know I say it an awful lot, but I want it to be safe, safe. I want these dogs to think that this is a safe environment. They can trust us. Nothing scary is happening.

Because the problems that we see in dog grooming, the problems that we see, the behavior issues that we observe, are because dogs find it unpleasant, uncomfortable and or scary.

So if we're working with a dog who is in this state of it's unpleasant, uncomfortable, or scary, the way that we work on that and the way that we help calm them down is something that other animals are observing, other animals in the room are watching that, and we don't often think about it. So I'm going to give you an example. I had a dog in the tub and this little dog was kind of new to being groomed, a little bit nervous.

And I'm going through all the motions of like, hey, sweetie, you're okay. This is a dog who needs to be jollied up a little bit, like, oh, it's all right, you're fine. A little bit. Playful voices.

This dog kind of tends to curl up in a scary little ball. And then someone in the other side of the room has a dog who's screaming, right?

And they're not doing anything about it because they're patiently and lovingly. This isn't a judgment call, but patiently and lovingly kind of going, well, you got to get used to it. It's okay, I'm not hurting you.

While they run the high velocity dryer over that dog's head. Not the way I would choose to do it again, but not a judgment call. I'm just saying this is what happens an awful lot for many of us.

But now the dog that I'm working with is like, you know, you're telling me this is fine. And this is safe. But I doubt you. I'm really getting wound up because that dog over there is clearly saying, this is not safe. This is not fun.

This is not okay. That dog is doing a call for help that the dog I'm working on is now getting really nervous. Dogs in crates are getting really nervous.

Any other dog in the area to hear that can become really nervous.

And so we need to think about social learning that it's not just about the dog that's on your table or the dog who's getting the nail trim or the dog who just walked in with their owner. We need to think about all of the dogs in our care at that moment.

And that's part of why, if we start working on behavior with every single dog, make that important, we can also avoid some of the pitfalls.

If we are just focused on finishing that trim and that dog is nervous and that dog is scared, and all the other dogs are watching, the rest of our day could be far more stressful with every other dog that we work on. It's not just about the dog on our table. We want all of them to think that this is safe and this is fine and this is okay. Now there.

That's one of the ways that it can work against us. Social learning can work against us.

When one dog is clearly having a hard time, and maybe we haven't had a good experience trying to help calm that dog down. Or maybe this is a situation where we feel pressured to get this trim done even though this dog is having a hard time. And I know that happens a lot.

I talk to a lot of groomers about that. I'm trying to get you guys away from that feeling that you have to get a haircut done, because here we are.

Now this dog's having a hard time sending out an alert that like, hey, guys, fight this. This is terrible. This is scary. This is. This is uncomfortable. This is unpleasant. I'm scared. I'm scared. Stop.

And the other dogs are starting to respond, too. It happens all the time, and you might not notice it until you have one of those really kind of neat days where every single dog was good.

And I kind of hope that everybody has more and more of those.

If you're a listener and you've been implementing stuff, hopefully you're seeing more and more of those days where every single dog that came in that day is just totally fine, and the whole vibe of that room changes. Why? Because those dogs are being good.

But we can also say because those dogs are watching another dog having a Good time or being, you know, handled in a pleasant way. Nothing scary is happening. Now, when we talk about the. The way that social learning can work for us is let's say you have a brand new customer.

Maybe it's a puppy, maybe it's a. A new customer.

They just moved into town from out of state, but this is a new dog, and you book them for a time when all of the dogs that are in there that day or for that time are total rock stars for grooming.

Now, the reason for that is because if we can have that new dog's first impression, be I'm observing them handling these other dogs who think this is fine, right? Social learning. This dog is now observing another dog who's just standing there holding still, dryers on their head. Do, do, do, do, do.

Everything's fine. And we don't often think about that when we're trying to introduce a dog to a whole system.

I used to tell people, if your dog is having difficulty being groomed, let's try to find a day in time that's going to be quieter for just that reason. I don't want your dog watching another dog having a meltdown while your dog has a meltdown. Right?

The social learning aspect of that is gonna work against us.

If we can book that dog for a time when that dog feels like, oh, look at these other dogs, and they all think this is just fine, it can make a huge difference.

Just observing another dog having their head dried, having their nails ground just like totally relaxed about it, can change the way that that dog is going to behave for us. Not everything we do is going to be dog training.

Sometimes we just have to set up the environment in such a way that it's going to work for us, set up our environment so that that dog is going to have the best possible experience. And that doesn't necessarily mean that we need to have cookies. But you know what? Cookies help.

If cookies are allowed where you're at and you have some good protocols in place about making sure nobody has allergies, humans or dogs, cookies could help.

But even if it's just a matter of booking a time frame where that dog is going to be observing dogs who are being calm now, social learning goes beyond just dogs watching dogs. In the next part, we're going to talk a little bit more about that.

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Another thing that we can do with social learning, which is really kind of Neat. We can demonstrate for dogs what we're going to do. What? Are you crazy? No, really, we can.

So there are a couple ways that we can demonstrate something for a dog, and that's not even necessarily on them. Let me give you an example. If I have one dog observing me grooming another dog.

So if I'm at somebody's house because I'm house calling, if I am at someone's house and I have a dog on the table and their newer dog or their less experienced dog is observing in the room, just being there in the room.

But if I start talking through everything I'm doing with the dog on my table, so if I started saying like, hey, look, I'm going to do his nails, I'm going to pick up your foot and I'm going to touch this toe, even if the dog I'm grooming doesn't need the descriptions anymore, doesn't need to be talked at through it anymore, the dog who is observing can watch that. Now, not all dogs are great at observation.

There are plenty of dogs that are just going to be like, I'm running around my house, you know, but if we can get them into a point where it's like, hey, listen, I'm going to have you sit on your mom's lap while I'm grooming this dog, or I'm going to have you in a crate that's nearby or on a leash where you can watch what we're doing.

If we have a dog actively engaging and watching us groom an experienced dog, and then we can add what we're doing, what we're doing, how we're doing it, what tools we're using. Let that dog observe that their buddy. Or maybe it's a stranger. If you're in a grooming shop, maybe it's a dog they've never met.

But that other dog, hey, here are the nail clippers. Here's the grinder. And let them take a look at it. See that other dog respond neutral, like, yep, whatever. Nail clippers, okay.

They can learn from that and they can pick up on the things that we are trying to do, like, huh, okay, so now you're going to try to lift his foot. Okay. And that other dog isn't really worried about it. And you're talking them through it. You're talking both dogs through it.

So there's the dog that's experienced, who's fine with it, and you're talking them through it as if they were a baby, as if they were new, which I find that I tend to do with a new dog, but not as much when I've been grooming them for a while. But it's harmless. An older dog might just be like, you're awfully chatty today, Chrissy, and that's okay.

But the younger dog or the less experienced dog or the dog who is nervous can be watching that interaction and they learn from that. And maybe it doesn't mean that they're going to be like perfect when it's their turn, but the mystery can be lessened.

It's not as scary as it might have been because now they've seen, oh, weird, okay, so she said loud noise, which, you know, she said blah, blah, blah, blah. And then that thing turned on and she said, blah, blah, blah and another loud thing turned on. Maybe blah blah blah means loud noise.

And they start picking up on that stuff. But also they start picking up on, someone's going to warn you before a new tool comes over. Someone's going to tell you where we're going to touch.

Someone's going to work with you and help you balance things like that. They start to notice. Now again, not every dog, not every dog is going to pick up on these things. But so many dogs do.

Many, many dogs do, especially if they are dogs that these owners are actively training with.

I think that a lot of dogs that are actively involved with some sort of dog training are far more likely to look at what humans are doing and try to figure us out versus dogs that are like, oh, well, he's a lovable pet. We put his food down for him, we send him outside. But that dog hasn't really put together like what sit means yet. I think we've all met that dog.

My next door neighbors have an 11 year old dog that I taught him how to sit this week.

You know, like just sometimes people don't talk to their dogs a lot, but the ones that get trained a lot, the dogs that are being worked with, they pick up on it and they start to notice what we're doing. Now the other thing about when we start talking about observing other dogs is that we're also helping this dog understand the mood. The mood.

Listen, I'm your buddy, not trying to hurt you. We can introduce tools from a distance instead of just introducing tools as we need them on that dog during their grooming.

Imagine how weird it would be for a dog if the first time they ever experience a high velocity dryer is when it's turned on with the dryer pointed at their head. And I think most of us don't do that. But every once in a while you see somebody doing that. Like, can you imagine how terrifying that would be? Doodle.

Here comes a new experience I've never had. And the high velocity dryer turns on, aimed at my face.

I think most of us would be a little bit annoyed by that if we think about if they can observe what is happening from their safe distance and just kind of watch it. So I'm going to give another example here for social learning.

When I was teaching my last dog about flyball, Isa would try to do stuff because I asked her to. She didn't really understand a flyball thing, and she was trying to do stuff, but it was really abstract.

And if you're not familiar with flyball, well, look it up. It's great sport. It's two lanes, four dogs each. First dogs go, and they run over four jumps.

Hit the trigger box, get the ball, carry it back over four jumps. Second dogs go. Third dogs go. Fourth dogs go super fast, super interesting. But when you're teaching it, you're teaching it, like, one thing at a time.

And it takes a long time before you have anything to look at. And she just wasn't quite catching on what we were doing.

So I started bringing her in the training room and letting her observe every other dog while they're doing it. And something clicked.

Being in the room and watching dogs, the whole team, the experienced team doing their full runs, is when she started to figure it out. So when faced with four jumps, I go over four jumps. When I bring the ball back, I get the tug.

When they hit the box to get the ball, they do it that way. And I know I'm being anthropomorphic, but observing other dogs made it real for her.

Otherwise, it was just, why do you want me to move in this direction and touch this thing and do that thing? It's just kind of weird. Sure, I'll do it.

But social learning, watching the other dogs doing it, watching the other dogs doing it from a variety of angles and getting to really see what it is I'm trying to teach her to do. So I think that we really need to think about the ways that we can show dogs what we're doing. How fun.

So another thing that I do, and I don't know if you guys have tried this or not, but if I'm working with a dog and it's just us, there are no other dogs around. I will also use some social learning because I'll show them what my tools are and often do it on my forearm. Like hey, this is a brush.

Look, I'll show you. And rub that brush over my arm. It's just a brush. Doesn't hurt. I've dremeled my own nail. Hey, look. See, this is what it looks like.

Just dremeling my own nail. It's fine. Doesn't hurt. I've done combs in the dryer. I often will turn on the dryer and then point it at myself.

Let them see what it does on my forearm. Let them see what it does when I point it at my own cheek. Oh, my God. She points it at her face. That's social learning.

Those are examples of social learning.

I am observing another individual and the way that they're interacting with a tool or the way that they're interacting with each other and learning from that. And for many, many dogs, it puts a little bit of context into what we're doing.

They might not know why we need to dremel their nails or why we need to dry their head, but if we can show them that it's safe by letting them observe another animal or even us, just to give them something to think about before it's their turn to try it.

If you'd like more information, you can join the Facebook group Creating Great Grooming Dogs podcast or the Facebook page Creating Great Grooming Dogs. I really look forward to hearing from you.