Dr Jonica Newby

The dog is man and woman's best friend, but how good a friend to your dog are you? We all like to think our dogs are really happy with us. But how can we be sure? A new study of dogs being hugged suggests most of us are not actually very good at telling. And that made us wonder - are our dogs really happy, and can we use science to make them happier? So we recruited three regular dog owners, called a team of experts and designed a daunting two-week challenge for them and for you. Our aim - over two episodes to use this challenge and the latest science to supercharge their canine communication skills and develop a happier relationship with their dogs. It's all part of a new science, dubbed dogmanship.

Prof Paul McGreevy

I'm passionate about dogmanship, simply because it turns the lens on humans.

Leanne

Roxy!

Dr Jonica Newby

But will it be enough to turn untrained pets...

Matt

C'mon!

Dr Jonica Newby

..into household super dogs...

Leanne

Roxy, get the phone.

Dr Jonica Newby

...in just two weeks? It's day one and our recruits are all meeting for the first time. There's young Claudia and her surfing Spoodle, Poppy.

Claudia

She is a surf pup and a beach babe and I have full faith in her and yeah, I'm real excited.

Dr Jonica Newby

Leanne and little Roxy, the Chihuahua.

Leanne

People actually physically come up to us and say, "Oh, they're such yappy dogs. They're annoying. They're just small little rodents." We found a totally different side to Chihuahuas. We're hoping through this experience we'll be able to show other people that as well.

Dr Jonica Newby

And landscaper Matt with his sidekick Angus.

Matt

He goes to work with me every day. A lot of the clients enjoy having him onsite. And he's just a lovely dog.

Dr Jonica Newby

None of them have the slightest idea yet the challenge we have in mind for them, so it's time now for our first dogmanship specialist to reveal all. Ryan Tate has not only prepared dogs for starring roles in film, he's also a marine biologist and former seal trainer. He's an expert in the science of animal learning.

Ryan Tate

So do any of you ever lose your keys?

Leanne

All the time.

Ryan Tate

Or what about that phone?

Claudia

Yep. Yep.

Ryan Tate

OK. Well, how would you like if your dog could search and locate those items anywhere in your house?

Matt

That'd be great.

Leanne

That'd be good.

Ryan Tate

Be pretty cool, right? Well, this is your task - you're going to train your dog to do this at home. And the catch is you've only got two weeks to do it. Don't freak out, though. We're gonna help you along the way. We're gonna help you develop a whole lot of new skills to communicate with your dog and develop a happier relationship. We're gonna help you become your dog's life coach.

Claudia

Sounds good. I think we can do it, can't we, Poppy?

Leanne

I think SHE can do it. Can we do it? I don't know.

Dr Jonica Newby

Leanne isn't the only one with doubts. It is a big ask, even for a professional trainer.

Ryan Tate

We've got untrained dogs, novice owners. I don't think many professional trainers could actually do this in two weeks.

Dr Jonica Newby

Before we start them, Ryan wants a baseline of each person's current canine communication skills.

Ryan Tate

We're gonna take Angus out of sight and I want you to ask him to come and sit.

Matt

Angus! Angus! Come here, boy. Good boy. Oi. Angus.

Claudia

Poppy! Come here.

Leanne

Come to mummy! Roxy.

Claudia

Poppy.

Leanne

Roxy.

Matt

C'mon!

Claudia

Poppy. Poppy, sit.

Leanne

Sit. Oh, hold on. Let her shake it out.

Dr Jonica Newby

Slightly worse than we'd hoped.

Leanne

Roxy, sit! Oh, good girl!

Dr Jonica Newby

But if Ryan is currently reconsidering his two-week deadline, he hides it well. As we prepare to teach them a new science-based way of communicating with their dogs.

Ryan Tate

OK, so the first thing we're gonna teach your dogs is what's known as a bridging reinforcer, or a bridge. That's where we pair a specific sound with a reward. The thing is, though, not every dog likes the same reward best, so we're gonna set up what's known as a reinforcer test. Straight to the chicken. Oh, chicken. And cheese.

Claudia

Ooh.

Ryan Tate

Ooh. She touched the tennis ball.

Dr Jonica Newby

The test is repeated a few times, to be sure.

Ryan Tate

Oh, good girl.

Dr Jonica Newby

So it's chicken for Angus. Cheese for Roxy. And for Poppy, it's the ball. Now we know each dog's preferred reinforcer, we're ready to pair it with a sound and make the bridge.

Ryan Tate

Stand. Sit. Drop.

Dr Jonica Newby

Ryan has chosen the word 'yes' as the bridge sound. But it could be any sound. Many trainers use a clicker or a whistle.

Ryan Tate

Watch his behaviour change when I do it. It's like, Harry, we're working. Yes! Whee. Good boy. And so for him, that word 'yes' is as good as a promise to say, "You're about to get your favourite reward."

Claudia

So we're gonna learn how to do this?

Ryan Tate

Absolutely.

Claudia

That's awesome.

Leanne

I'm ready.

Ryan Tate

So get your rewards ready first.

Leanne

OK.

Ryan Tate

And...I want you to be nice and still. Dogs are really tuned in to movement. And then as soon as you say that word, the reward comes.

Leanne

Yes!

Ryan Tate

Perfect, Leanne.

Dr Jonica Newby

What we're doing here is setting up a new pathway in the dog's brain, so that every time it hears the word 'yes' it gets a rush of pleasure.

Claudia

Yes.

Ryan Tate

Nice one.

Claudia

Good girl.

Dr Jonica Newby

Why bother, though? Why not just give the food when the dog does the right thing, rather than create a bridge sound?

Matt

Yes.

Ryan Tate

Oh, that was a great one! See how he looked back at you? He's already starting to get it.

Dr Jonica Newby

Well, it's all about timing. The science we're drawing on here is called learning theory. It's the science that explains and underpins all learning in animals and people.

Ryan Tate

So you can imagine trying to work with an animal like this, they're big, they're semi-aquatic and they're potentially dangerous. You literally can't force them to do anything. So you really need to understand what motivates that animal to want to learn and how can you communicate with them clearly.

Dr Jonica Newby

Learning theory goes back at least 100 years, perhaps its best-known pioneer being B.F. Skinner, who coined the term 'operant conditioning'. While the marine mammal world has used learning theory science for decades, it's only more recently that dog owners have considered it.

Ryan Tate

If the dog's owners understand learning theory, they communicate clearly with the dog which means the dog isn't getting mixed messages. The dog is not getting confused and trying to guess 'what do you want?' It's unlocking a language. The owners are learning to read their dogs and their dogs are learning to communicate back, through their responses.

Dr Jonica Newby

And fundamental to that language is accurate timing on our part. The longer you delay the reinforcement, the less likely they are to form a new association and learn.

Ryan Tate

So let's say we want to teach Mali here to pick up this article on the ground and bring it back to us. He can't read our minds so we have to be really precise with when we bridge the whistle.

Woman

Good boy.

Dr Jonica Newby

There. It's incredibly quick. And the whistle is much faster than she can throw food. Now imagine if you delayed that whistle signal just two seconds. A seal can do a lot in two seconds.

Ryan Tate

So within that two seconds, he looked away, looked back and even vocalised and moved his whiskers. So in his mind, he's probably performed half a dozen different behaviours, he doesn't know which one he's being reinforced for.

Woman

Good boy.

Dr Jonica Newby

But with precise bridging via the whistle, looked what he learns in under a minute. That's fantastic!

Ryan Tate

Pretty clever, hey?

Dr Jonica Newby

So how important is timing to your dog's learning? That answer became clear in this remarkable experiment conducted by Dr Clare Browne, an expert on dog behaviour, at the University of Waikato. Note the blue box and the yellow box. Both boxes have been laced with a food smell to encourage the dog to explore. Unbeknownst to the dog, the yellow box has been rigged with an infra-red beam. So when the head pokes in, a beep sounds and food is delivered instantly. You can see her thinking about it. "What made the food come out?" There we go. With such clear feedback, dogs easily learn the task is to place their heads in the yellow box. Now watch what happens when the scientists introduce just a one second delay before the food is delivered. It seems such a minimal difference. But incredibly, that additional second is enough to confuse everything. The dog can't work out what it did to trigger the reward and eventually goes to sleep. Like most of them did with the one second delay. As with the seals, even in seconds, a dog can do a lot. How does it know which of these moves is being rewarded? Is it the lick of the lips? The drop? The tail wag? The open mouth? With a bridge reinforcer, you can deliver the message instantly. Much faster than you can throw a ball. It's extremely clear, and that will supercharge your dog's learning.

Claudia

Yes.

Ryan Tate

There we go. He's starting to see it.

Dr Jonica Newby

As well as making it fun.

Ryan Tate

Look how much he's enjoying that. Look at that tail and that bum go. He loves it.

Dr Jonica Newby

Well, they are clearly enjoying it. At what point should we stop?

Claudia

Yes.

Dr Jonica Newby

Our tendency as humans is to think practice makes perfect. And if we just keep going, it will get even more perfect. But in fact, studies have shown that shorter duration sessions are better for canine learning.

Ryan Tate

On average, I'm gonna say, for these guys, anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, two to five repetitions per day. So honestly, the dogs will tell you when you've done enough. And you need to be watching for those subtle cues.

Dr Jonica Newby

And vitally, every session must finish on a high.

Ryan Tate

It's called peak training. And the dog leaves going, "I won. And I want to do that again. 'Cause winning feels good."

Dr Jonica Newby

And while the dogs finish day one on a high, so do the owners.

Claudia

When they told us, I was kind of like, "Oh, wow. Can I really do that?"

Leanne

We are so excited! We can't wait to see what Roxy's capable of.

Dr Jonica Newby

We've worked on improving your canine communication but how good are you at reading your dog? Let's find out. Do dogs like hugs?

Woman 1

Oh, Humphrey loves hugs!

Woman 2

I wouldn't say all do.

Woman 3

I know mine do.

Dr Jonica Newby

Yeah?

Woman 3

Yeah. I think they do.

Dr Jonica Newby

Earlier this year, a Canadian scientist gathered over 300 internet photos of dogs being hugged and found an astonishing 82% of dogs were showing signs of stress.

Prof Emeritus Stanley Coren

Most dogs were hating it. So what that says to me is that people just don't know the signs of stress in their own dogs. And look, they're putting these photos of their obviously unhappy dogs out on the internet for everybody to see. And the signs they're missing are the ears slicked down and back. The head turned to the side to avoid eye contact. The stress yawn. Or licking the air with their tongues.

Prof Paul McGreevy

Hugging is a great example of how we can misread what dogs actually want. Dogs haven't evolved to hug each other. So why we should imagine that they want to be seized in that way is beyond me.

Dr Jonica Newby

I have a question for you.

Woman

OK.

Dr Jonica Newby

I'm going to show you some pictures. And I want you to tell me whether the dog is happy or not.

Woman

OK.

Dr Jonica Newby

Happy or not?

Woman

Yeah, I think so. Yep.

Dr Jonica Newby

What makes you say happy?

Woman

Ah, the expression. I know it looks like he's smiling.

Dr Jonica Newby

How about you? Can you tell if these dogs are happy? Well, in fact, the ones on the left are all stressed.

Woman

Oh, really?

Dr Jonica Newby

Yeah.

Prof Emeritus Stanley Coren

There are several studies of people's ability to read dogs' emotion. And on the whole, people tend to do pretty poorly. That's a problem. Because you might think you're doing something which makes your dog happy. But it might actually be making him miserable. Some dogs like to be hugged. But you need to know whether yours is telling you, "No".

Dr Jonica Newby

It's day three of our coaching program and our owners are meeting their second dogmanship specialist. Animal behaviour professor Paul McGreevy is in charge of the dogmanship research group at Sydney University. He's going to find out how good they are at reading THEIR dogs.

Prof Paul McGreevy

OK, folks, what I'd like to do is show you a short video of a young dog being tickled on the chest. And what I'd like you to do is tell me how happy you think this dog is.

Dr Jonica Newby

Watch closely. What do you think?

Leanne

It reminded me of being hugged by an old aunty or something. It's like you tolerate it but... it wasn't that comfortable.

Claudia

Wanna get out of that situation.

Leanne

Yeah!

Prof Paul McGreevy

What if I told you that in that short 30-second clip, the dog actually showed eight signs of stress?

Matt

Wow.

Claudia

I thought maybe, like, the head going down was one of them.

Prof Paul McGreevy

Very good. OK, so if we take a close look, you can see the dog is moving back when the hand approaches.

Claudia

Yep.

Prof Paul McGreevy

You spotted that. And then if we move forward, we're looking for signs of stress. These includes turning away, lip-licking. There's a turn away. OK, there. Did you see that lip-lick there?

Matt

Yes.

Prof Paul McGreevy

Many of these behaviours are completely normal behaviours - lip-licking is normal. Yawning is normal. Turning away is normal. But it's the context in which these appear that tells us that the animal may be in some sort of conflict or stress.

Dr Jonica Newby

Now we're going to confront them with some of the subtle signals their own dogs were sending on the first day. Here's Poppy. There's a big scratch when there's no real reason to do it. A stress yawn. And a lick of the lips.

Leanne

Oh, big lick.

Claudia

Yeah. 'Cause I had to push her bum down. Yeah. You wouldn't like that.

Dr Jonica Newby

Would you have picked those as stress behaviours?

Leanne

No!

Matt

I certainly hadn't.

Leanne

Not at all.

Dr Jonica Newby

Now Roxy, whose stress speciality is the full body shake.

Claudia

Look at her.

Leanne

Yeah. She does that, like, 1,000 times a day.

Prof Paul McGreevy

You may notice that after this crash course in dogmanship that you see less of it.

Leanne

I hope so. 'Cause it annoys me.

Dr Jonica Newby

And finally, Angus.

Matt

Put on a happy face, mate. Put on a happy face. The ears have dropped. He's yawned. And now he's scratching himself. He's not a happy kid, is he?

Dr Jonica Newby

And a lip-lick. All in the space of four seconds.

Prof Paul McGreevy

That was a personal best.

Prof Paul McGreevy

Count all of them in.

Leanne

A+.

Dr Jonica Newby

This doesn't necessarily mean the dogs are suffering but they are telling us they're under pressure. If it's excessive, maybe backtrack your coaching to something easier.

Prof Paul McGreevy

The dogs are giving signals all the time. And it's our job to read that signalling. To understand what the dog's trying to tell us. And that's what a good life coach would do. And you'll get more and more great behaviours out of your dog if the dog's in a happy place.

Dr Jonica Newby

This science of dogmanship session is proving an eye-opener for our group.

Claudia

I think it's, like, cool. Because she's talking to me. Weird, but all day she's talking to me and I didn't even realise.

Prof Paul McGreevy

I think there are a lot of people who undoubtedly love their dogs, um, who are making some serious mistakes. And science is there to help all of us get the very best relationship with our dogs.

Dr Jonica Newby

And if there's one serious mistake many dog owners make, it's the fallacy of the guilty look.

Woman

Buddy, did you chew this shoe?

Dr Jonica Newby

You've probably seen this look - the hangdog expression. The 'oops, I know I did a bad thing'. At least, that's what many of us believe it means. YouTube is riddled with clips such as this one, put up by owners convinced their dogs feel guilty.

Man

Goodness, Denver, you didn't?

Dr Jonica Newby

But what is the so-called guilty look? In a seminal experiment by Dr Alexandra Horowitz, an expert in canine cognition, the owner is told to order their dog not to eat the treat, and leaves the room.

Woman

Leave it.

Dr Jonica Newby

But in some cases, the researcher takes the food and lies about it.

Woman 2

Come back in. She ate it.

Woman

What did you do?

Dr Jonica Newby

The so-called guilty look proved unrelated to whether the dog had disobeyed an instruction. It only appeared more when the owner thought the dog was guilty.

Adj. Assoc. Prof. Alexandra Horowitz

They showed more guilty look when the owner scolded them. In fact, they started looking guilty before their owners even scolded them. So if we believe that the guilty look indicates the dog really has an understanding of right and wrong, I think we'd be potentially punishing dogs needlessly and unfairly.

Dr Jonica Newby

This so-called guilty look is actually an appeasement look, warding off our anger. And it's not surprising they throw us an appeasement look even before we scold. Study after study is proving they are exceptionally good at reading us. The fact is, humans and dogs have a unique mutual understanding. We've been evolving together for tens of thousands of years. Compared with wolves, dog brains are exquisitely attuned to our human signals. Here in Budapest, scientists from the renowned Wolf Science Center and family dog research project have shown just how attuned to us dogs have become. Dogs are able to follow a human pointing hand, whereas wolves struggle with this. Then there's the fact dog expressions so often seem to reflect human expressions, even down to the additional muscles in their eyebrows which allow them to do this. The trouble is, we are naturally so good at communicating, does it blind us to all the times we are miscommunicating?

Prof Paul McGreevy

We think we're teaching the dog not to chew. But what the dog learns is that we're unpredictable, possibly threatening, and we happen to be holding a shoe. If dogmanship can stop people punishing their dogs through sheer ignorance, then I'll be a very happy vet.

Dr Jonica Newby

It's day four of our dogmanship science course. And so far they've learned a lot about how to communicate precisely through a bridge reinforcer and how to read what dogs are saying. Now Ryan and I are keen to check their progress and take them to the next stage in their ambitious quest to turn untrained pets into household sniffer dogs in two weeks.

Ryan Tate

Alright, Claudia, the first thing you want to do is test how good a bridge you have made for Poppy. So wait until her attention is on something else.

Claudia

Yes!

Ryan Tate

Oh, that is perfect! That's exactly what we want to see.

Claudia

That's good.

Ryan Tate

Now we can train.

Claudia

Sweet. Good girl.

Dr Jonica Newby

Now the bridge is established in Poppy's brain, Claudia can use it to communicate with her that she wants Poppy to find her wallet.

Claudia

There we go.

Ryan Tate

Right. Here is the magic ball. That's yours. And I want you to place the wallet somewhere. And as soon as she shows any level of interest in it, you're gonna bridge and roll that ball straight under her nose.

Claudia

Yes.

Ryan Tate

Perfect start! That is a winner. So what we're doing now is a part of learning theory known as shaping, where we're essentially playing a game of hot and cold with the dog. If the dog moves towards the article, it hears the bridge, which means you're getting warm. If the dog doesn't move towards it, it just gets nothing. We just simply wait it out. She's looking around. She's thinking, "What do I have to do?" Don't move. Don't look at her.

Claudia

Yes.

Ryan Tate

Nice one!

Dr Jonica Newby

As the session progresses, Ryan wants more from Poppy before she gets the bridge word. It's a process known in learning theory as successive approximation.

Claudia

Yes.

Ryan Tate

OK. So she really looked at it then. This next time, what I'd like you to aim for is maybe either her head moving down or even one paw towards it, OK? So we're upping our approximations.

Claudia

Yes. Good girl.

Ryan Tate

Nice one. Let's give her a little rest there. So she's working out it's something to do with moving her head. I don't think she knows for sure it's the wallet.

Dr Jonica Newby

Today's coaching is broken up into three sessions of a few minutes. By the end of which, we saw this...

Ryan Tate

Ooh, that...

Claudia

Yes!

Ryan Tate

Oh, there we go, Poppy!

Claudia

Good girl.

Ryan Tate

Praise her up. Give her a couple of rewards.

Claudia

Good girl! Come here.

Ryan Tate

And then we're gonna give her a breather. We're gonna end that session on a high so she remembers a great success at the end of her session.

Dr Jonica Newby

Poppy is a star pupil. And so, it turns out, is little Roxy, who's now being introduced to her target -Leanne's phone.

Ryan Tate

Any look towards it, sniff towards it, move towards it...

Leanne

Yes!

Ryan Tate

There you go. Nice one. I'll just move it again.

Leanne

Yes.

Ryan Tate

Oh, perfect.

Leanne

Yes.

Ryan Tate

This is great.

Dr Jonica Newby

Thanks to Leanne's spot-on timing, Roxy surprises even Ryan with her progress.

Ryan Tate

Can you see how much she's enjoying that and it's a challenge for her? She absolutely loves it. And I think dogs, specifically like Chihuahuas, they thrive on that challenge. Being made to think for themselves is something we don't often give them enough credit for. Or opportunities to allow her to do. Wait for it. Whenever I say...

Leanne

Yes!

Ryan Tate

There we go.

Dr Jonica Newby

Not only is Roxy enjoying the new mental stimulation, Leanne has noticed another, profound change.

Leanne

I feel like from this weekend, something has shifted already. Her happiness and contentment, but also something with the two of us, connected as well.

Dr Jonica Newby

Remember, this is the dog that on day one was showing her constant anxiety through whole body shaking all the time.

Leanne

She's not as needy. I like that. We were just hanging out. It was lovely.

Ryan Tate

Yeah, cool.

Leanne

Yeah.

Ryan Tate

I've seen some really cool stuff. So things like, through the dog just having some very simple training, or some fun games with the owner, all of a sudden, things like excessive pacing or digging or barking, just start to decrease. Because the dog's no longer being exposed to this person who is irate with them all the time. The dog knows you're happier with them. It's calmer, less anxiety, you've got a happier dog.

Matt

G'day, Jonica. Hi, Ryan.

Dr Jonica Newby

Hi. Last on our home visit list, it's Matt and Angus. Surprisingly, they're the ones that have got stuck.

Matt

So this is sort of what we've had happen. Very little response to the keys.

Ryan Tate

Yep.

Dr Jonica Newby

This dog has become obsessed with just staring at the food. So Ryan has decided he has to try something completely different.

Ryan Tate

This may or may not work. But there's lots of different ways to do it.

Dr Jonica Newby

He's resorted to baiting the keys with food.

Ryan Tate

Let him have it.

Matt

Yes. Did he miss that?

Ryan Tate

That's alright. That's fine.

Matt

Yes.

Ryan Tate

Perfect timing, Matt. That's much better. I'm not gonna put any food under it this time, OK? So I'm just gonna pretend to. And then when he gets those keys, I want you to bridge.

Dr Jonica Newby

Finally, the new strategy seems to work. And although Angus is still behind the others, he too ends on a high.

Ryan Tate

This is gonna be a hard one. So just wait him out.

Matt

Yes.

Ryan Tate

Beautiful.

Matt

Good, Angus.

Ryan Tate

Take him back. Take him back. And we'll wrap that session there, Matt. Well done.

Dr Jonica Newby

We finish the day with Ryan briefing everyone on their homework.

Ryan Tate

To five times per day, for that length of time. So no longer than about three minutes. She'll be nailing this in two weeks.

Dr Jonica Newby

We're part-way through our dogmanship course and while Roxy and Poppy have wowed Ryan today, they're still a long way from becoming lost wallet sniffer dogs. As for Angus...

Ryan Tate

The one I'm worried about is the Labrador. It's like his food drive is so high, he actually can't think in the presence of food. Straight to the chicken.

Dr Jonica Newby

So far, we've worked on dog communication and listening skills. In part two of this science of dogmanship special, we'll learn how our own personalities impact our dogs.

Elyssa Payne

People scoring higher in neuroticism tend to use excessive hand movements when they train and excessive verbal commands.

Woman

Sit! Sit.

Elyssa Payne

It's an overload of information for the dog.

Dr Jonica Newby

We reveal new technology helping answer the ultimate question - is my dog happy in life?

Mia Cobb

And it is the first app of its kind in the world designed to monitor and maximise your dog's quality of life.

Dr Jonica Newby

And find out if any of these dog owners can turn untrained pets into household sniffer dogs in just two weeks.