Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
The energy had to be there first. If you had that in a dog, you could work with it. As canine
trainer Lisa Lit explained to a group of search-and-rescue handlers about building drive, “Let
them explode, then rechannel it.”
First comes the energy, then the expertise. Cognitive scientists have intensively studied the
notion of human expertise. We watch playful children start out banging incoherently on the
piano. That's a start, but it's the structured, guided practice and play with constant feedback
over an extended period of time that can turn random notes on a keyboard first into “Doe,
a deer, a female deer” and ultimately into Thelonious Monk's “'Round Midnight.” That is, if
a parental figure doesn't ruin the sound of music by haranguing the child to practice. Along
the way, a number of the motor behaviors for playing the piano become automatic, so the
child doesn't have to think about them. The fingers start to fly by themselves up and down
the ivories as body memory pulls them along.
The notion of expertise applied to dogs and other animals is scientifically controversial.
Working-dog trainers have no doubt that it exists, and they aren't worried about whether the
learning curves mimic humans', as long as the dogs learn, keep learning, and layer that know-
ledge.
The beginning of the process was what Nancy was teaching me and Solo: “What the heck
is that smell?” That early stage is important. Once that scent is second nature, add some dis-
tractions: some of Nancy's chickens, perhaps. A clumsy handler like me. I might teach a ju-
venile Solo to teeter on a low balance beam in the backyard and to keep his paws on the
board. I wouldn't comfort him if he fell off and yelped; I would urge him back in a happy,
relaxed voice until he could walk along the beam with a sure paw and confident grin.
William “Deak” Helton calls the entire emerging research arena of working dogs “canine
ergonomics”—the study of the relationship between the working dog and her environment.
The working dog learns the gymnastics of the body, mind—and nose. In due time, a good
disaster dog should be able to crawl and balance herself purposefully over the rubble of a col-
lapsed building, all while using her nose, then signaling to the handler what she has found.
That dexterity, that multitasking, is what Deak Helton calls “canine expertise.” And Deak is
a believer in the concept. “Although canine experts cannot verbalize their knowledge, this in
no way implies they do not have it,” he wrote.
There's resistance to the notion that dogs can be experts, among both cognitive psycholo-
gists and people who feel it gives any animal too much credit. “I think a major problem is the
bogeyman of anthropomorphism,” Deak said. Yet we can train people to do things that other
people can't do without training. “If you asked me to do a backflip and discovered I could
not do it now—untrained, unconditioned—would you conclude people cannot backflip?”
Watch gold-medal gymnast Gabby Douglas, the “Flying Squirrel,” at the 2012 Olympics and
try to imagine her first gymnastics lesson at the age of six.
