Upfront: Driving Dogs

Have you ever wondered about adopting a dog? But then decided that shelter dogs aren't good enough? Well, in New Zealand three shelter dogs, were trained to drive modified Mini Coopers. Ginny; a year old beardie whippet mix, Porter; a 11 month bearded collie cross, and Monty; a 19-month-old giant schnauzer cross were all trained to drive. The dogs are rescues at the Auckland SPCA and were taught to drive to prove to the public that shelter dogs, although once abused, are smart, just as smart as purebreds. If people knew how smart shelter dogs are, maybe more people will adopt them, preventing thousands of rescues to be euthanized each year. Simply because people forget about the abused and abandoned, that can still make great intelligent pets.
The three dogs were trained extensively by professional dog trainers for two months before mainly Porter and Monty got to take driving tests described as a world-first. "It's all the dog doing it," trainer Mark Vette said. "He's started the key, put the paw on the brake to allow it to go into gear, put it into drive, paw on the steering wheel, accelerator on, and off he goes down the track."The Mini Coopers  used was designed for the dog's use. They have handles fitted on the steering wheels and dashboard-height brakes, so the dogs can easily stop the car as well as accelerator pedals too. Also, the cars include a speed limiter so that the cars cannot exceed a walking pace. And for the dog's safety; there are special harnesses like seat belts. However, Ginny didn't take the driving class on live TV with her pals, broadcasted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. CEO or the Auckland SPCA, Christine Kalin said that Ginny will receive less adoption applications, since she didn't get as much air-time. "We've had people offer to adopt Monty and Porter," Kalin said. "We've had less interest in Ginny so she's the one we'd really love not to have in the shelter too long."
 The dogs were trained using a training method called "operant conditioning". "Operant conditioning" is when the animal is rewarded for repeatedly doing certain actions, such as shifting gears or turning the steering wheel. The stimulus is added to environment when the desired action is done and taken away when the action wasn't done or done correctly. Many animals have been trained using this method, but dogs use it the most often. Dogs have been trained to rescue people, sniff our drugs, detect oil spills and drugs and even some cancers through this method. Also another method the dog's trainers used is clicker training. When the dog does the desired action, a clicker is clicked and the dog gets a reward, so the dog learns to accept the click as a good thing or as a recievance of the reward. The actions can be combined and so the dog gets a click and a reward after driving, rather than just turning the wheel.
I believe the idea of training rescue dogs to drive is a brilliant idea. People will see how smart dogs are in general and stop buying purebred dogs, or at least give shelter dogs a chance. They can be just as good pets as purebreds. Like the proverb,"Don't judge people based on their relatives", can be applied to dogs. Dogs personalities should be top priority to the adopter, not their relatives. About
 25% of shelter animals are purebreds, and need good homes. Showing people that shelter dogs are smart and if they are that smart, they deserve a good home, is a fantastic idea. As for the training of the dogs to drive, I use the same technique for my rabbit and cavy in training them to do agility, both of which were rescues.

 All credit goes to original owners.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/11/driving-dogs-pass-test_n_2278191.html#slide=343035
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDrivingDogs
Upfront  Issue: January 28, 2013  Page 3  News & Trends

Keep On Chasin' Your Dreams,
Caitlin