Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Robotic Crate Training for Dogs



Robotic dog training.  It's back to the future as imagined by B.F. Skinner and Keller and Marianne Breland.

Dog training is repetitive and technology can fix that.

People are poor at timing and consistency and tech can fix that.

People are impatient and emotional and tech is not.

Along with rewards-based training there will be low-stim e-collars which will find little objection since inconsistent human beings with poor timing will not be part of the equation. Electric fences for cattle and sheep draw no controversy, and neither do invisible radio fences. The problem people have with e-collars is not electricity or the dog, but that people are inconsistent and have poor timing. Technology can fix that.

Here we see an entire kennel of dogs turning from one form of self-rewarding behavior (barking) to feeding.

How practical is this device for group training dogs?  I think it might depend on the size of the group. But if the goal is to simply teach the dogs to kennel on command, this would work great.  The web says simply putting the feeder on a timer also works to reduce anxiety and kennel barking, as the dogs are now focused on the positive that will come when the next bit of kibble drops.

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