Allelomimetic behaviour

[Peartree]

Something that I came across the other day in a Facebook post and have not heard the term used before. Do any of you use this in your training?
Definition from Wikipedia
Description
Allelomimetic behavior or allomimetic behavior is a range of activities in which the performance of a behavior increases the probability of that behavior being performed by other nearby animals.

 

[snowbunny]

I can't think how I specifically use this in training to create behaviours, although I do as a reinforcer - jumping, running etc. And in play, too: Squidge likes to play a game where we take it in turns to thump the sofa with our "hands"; if I sit on the sofa with my cheek against the headrest, Ginny will do the same, and if I look away, she will, too. She loves that

I would like to take some mimicry courses at some point, where you teach the dog to watch what you do then copy it, but that's probably different to what's being described here, as it's a structured process to teach them to copy your body movements.

Couple of videos for mimicry here: Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - FE345: Imitation and Mimicry - You Can Do It

 

[Boogie]

At puppy class unwanted behaviours are certainly ‘caught’ very quickly!

When pups are tiny the ones which are ’disruptive’ (my word) are behind screens so that the others can’t see them until they ‘behave’ (also my word). When older some pups don’t attend class and have 1-1 lessons only for the same reason.

When demonstrating a new skill the trainer chooses the receptive and willing pups to show us humans and the others pups what to do. When we do recall (which they have to do past a cordon of sitting pups!) the ones who ‘don’t get it yet’ are last to do it so that the others see mostly the correct behaviour happening.

That seems to say they do pick up each other’s behaviour, desirable and undesirable.

Maybe - I have no knowledge, I just do what is asked and I observe that it has worked in every class over the last seven pups.

 

[Peartree]

It’s interesting because I have used it without really understanding why, only a gut feeling that it must work, but when I’ve told people they don’t seem to either believe or they dismiss it. I just didn’t know that it was a ‘thing’ as I’ve never heard it described before.

In the post the trainer had one of her older dogs push a button on the floor to be rewarded and then the puppy started mimicking the behaviour. She then said that this was allelomimetic behaviour.

I used it because I had Bingley doing lovely front sits with a dummy but every time I asked Diesel to sit with something in his mouth he would just spit. I had tried for months to get the behaviour and one day thought that it might help if he watched Bing. I sat them close together, started the exercise with Bing and I could almost see moment when Diesel realised what he was supposed to do. We got there in about 5 goes after months of trying. He is a dog with very little frustration tolerance and would anticipate and overthink things all the time. I’ve told trainers about this and they’ve not been interested or told me that having dogs very close when working just increases frustration.

I agree that bad behaviours can be caught very quickly. Holding dogs for a trainer who was competing I was struck by how all her dogs leads were chewed and that all her dogs exhibited this behaviour under stress. It struck me that such a successful trainer would have such a problem with all her dogs that there must be some sort of pack learning happening.

 

[Candy]

At flyball the trainer we had used to put the dogs in a certain order to run so that a dog who had 'got it' would go directly before one that was more easily distracted, in the hope that it would copy the dog that had gone before it. This sometimes worked and sometimes didn't!
I just have to add, with perhaps the merest hint of smugness in my voice that Joy was a dog that 'got it'. She was a little

 

[snowbunny]

My dogs do not seem to learn from mimicking each other at all. Neither good nor bad behaviour, other than those things that "make sense" are pack behaviours, such as running/chasing and barking. Watching one another perform a behaviour doesn't help them learn it any faster. I'm not saying it's not a thing, because it obviously is, just that it's not necessarily something that can be relied upon, either in the good or the bad way.

An example would be a sit-stay. I've seen how dogs have kept a sit-stay longer than they have been trained to do so, because they are copying other steady dogs around them. But W&S staying in a strong sit-stay doesn't influence Squidge or Ginny's ability to do so in the slightest.

I guess it's one of these things that's worth a punt, but don't put all your eggs in that basket

 

[Beanwood]

I agree that bad behaviours can be caught very quickly. Holding dogs for a trainer who was competing I was struck by how all her dogs leads were chewed and that all her dogs exhibited this behaviour under stress. It struck me that such a successful trainer would have such a problem with all her dogs that there must be some sort of pack learning happening.

This is interesting. I do wonder if this is an example of a contagious stress response, different from true mimicry, that has evolved into learned behaviour over a period of time. This is an interesting study, Long term stress levels are synchronised in dogs and their owners

Equally we know that oxytocin can produce the opposite effect. Think the soft doe eyes of Casper for example, or stroking the fur of soft and gentle Benson, very, very soothing.....

I have to be incredibly careful regarding my emotional state and Otter, she is very sensitive to my mood, to the point when I was bawling over a giraffe sadly being pts on the television this morning, she became quite upset and put herself back to bed!

 

[snowbunny]

I was bawling over a giraffe sadly being pts

Oh, that was on in the background while I was working! So sad!!! I might have missed it, did they do an autopsy and find out what was wrong with him?

 

[Beanwood]

Oh, that was on in the background while I was working! So sad!!! I might have missed it, did they do an autopsy and find out what was wrong with him?

I don't know what the eventual diagnosis was, too busy trying to reassure Otter. It wasn't TB, so rest of the herd at least was safe.

 

[Stacia]

I have to be incredibly careful regarding my emotional state and Otter, she is very sensitive to my mood, to the point when I was bawling over a giraffe sadly being pts on the television this morning, she became quite upset and put herself back to bed!

Oh dear, was he put to sleep, I couldn't bear to watch just in case, but hoped I would be wrong and he would live. Rourke is very susceptible to me being sad and looks very concerned. A friend from some time ago who is a gun dog trainer, always said 'monkey see, monkey do', I think there is some truth in that.