Degrees of Freedom

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I love learning. When I was a kid I couldn’t wait to get home from school so I could do my homework, especially math. I still remember how the assignments started with the easy problems. And by the end they had gotten more complex and harder to figure out. I found solving the problems quite rewarding, even when they were hard. But when they were too hard, I’d often put them to the side and switch to spelling or reading homework and then come back to successfully solve the harder math problems. While the general rule in our house was that we weren’t to leave the table until our homework was finished, switching between subjects gave me the degrees of freedom I needed to keep me satisfied, willing and able to do more. But when I only had math homework, and all I had left was those challenging problems, I remember wishing that I had an out. In those moments, having to finish my homework before leaving the table seemed excruciating. I felt pressured. I hated math. I hated school. And I was spitting mad at my parents for their dumb rules.

When we’re training our dogs, we usually have a specific goal in mind. We have a picture in our mind’s eye of what the finished behavior should look like and, if we’re not careful, anything that deviates from that goal can be ignored or discounted. Even when we think we’re good at thin slicing the steps to achieve our goal, we can get so focused on the “if you want this cookie, do the thing” mentality that nothing else matters. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions and all the amazing training methodology in our toolbox in place, it turns into if you want to leave the table you have to finish the seemingly unsolvable math problem. This leaves the dog feeling pressured, without a way to resolve the situation. He doesn’t know how to be right.

But what if the dog had another way to be right? What if he had more agency, more degrees of freedom? What if he could switch to something he still found rewarding, like spelling or reading, when he felt the need to take the pressure off? As it turns out, degrees of freedom is actually a concept used in animal training to avoid the pitfalls and pressures of having only one way to be right.

Degrees of Freedom in Cooperative Care

Earlier this year I began incorporating this idea into cooperative care training with my dog Seger. We were working on him resting a front leg on a platform so that I could trim his nails. When he didn’t put his leg on the platform or took his foot away, he removed his consent, and I honored that. But the trouble with that concept by itself is that he still knew that the only way to get rewarded was to put his leg on the platform. What if he didn’t want to put his leg on the platform? What if he is physically couldn’t put his leg on the platform? What if he couldn’t solve the hard math problem in that moment for whatever reason? Using degrees of freedom gave him options – other ways that he could be right while taking away any pressure he might be feeling, regardless of why. So, while my goal was put your leg on the platform and let me do things to your foot, I began including other options for him which involve other skills he knew well and enjoyed. There was a mat off to the side that he could choose to go lay down on. There were objects on the floor that he could bring to me. Now, whenever he felt uncomfortable about the task at hand, which could be that I asked for too much on the previous rep, that he needed a break physically, that he just wanted to wrap up what we were working on or something entirely different, offering an alternate behavior on his own gave him another way to be right. On a broader spectrum he had a way to communicate with me so that I could honor much more than consent. I could honor the relationship.

Seger still got acknowledgement by way of praise or a treat when he chose to go to his mat or bring me a toy, but the intensity of the reward delivery was greater when he chose to put his leg on the platform. Interestingly, it was rare that he continued offering the other behaviors after he’d been acknowledged once, which told me that he was still in the game of put your leg on the platform. He simply needed a moment. On the rare occasion that he did continue to offer an alternate behavior, it was his way of telling me he was done with the skill at hand. What a great way to end an otherwise complicated training session than by rewarding him for something he was happily offering me!

Degrees of Freedom in Nose Work Training

Recently I’ve been considering degrees of freedom in nose work training. In multiple hide searches there seem to be many ideas and opinions floating around about what to do when a dog who goes back to a hide they’ve already found, some of which include disregarding the dog’s effort with “you’ve already found that one” or flat out ignoring the dog while they wait at source to be rewarded. But what if the dog is using the previously found hide as a degree of freedom? What if the dog is looking to take pressure off from the super hard math hide they can’t quite solve and just needs a moment? Lack of acknowledgement seems unfair and unproductive to me. Instead, wait to see what the dog does AFTER he refinds a hide:

  1. He may be using it as part of his problem-solving process to get to the next hide, which means he’ll move off that hide on his own and often finish the hard math problem.

  2. If he’s using the refind as a degree of freedom, he’ll likely stay there and wait for your acknowledgement. Offering praise or reward at that moment is all he needs to continue his search.

  3. Like Seger continuing to go to his mat or bring me his toy, on the rare occasion that the dog keeps going back to the refind, he may be telling you that he’d rather be finished with the hard math hide. That’s when you’re going to step in and change something to help him get it right, OR finish the search by rewarding one last time at the refind, putting him away, and then making an adjustment to help him get it right before trying it again later.

Using degrees of freedom in your dog’s training empowers the dog through agency, but it also empowers you as a trainer to listen to what your dog is trying to tell you, make adjustments for optimal performance and enrich your bond.

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