Gary Wilkes is founder of "Click and Treat (R) Training" and is an internationally acclaimed behaviorist, trainer, author, columnist and lecturer. A regular contributor to a variety of major publications, Wilkes' "On Good Behavior" column, written monthly for Dog Fancy magazine, was awarded the Dog Writer's Association of America "Maxwell Award" for best magazine column of 1994 and 1996. His collection of articles on Click & Treat training garnered the DWAA Maxwell for best magazine series of 1995. Wilkes' "Pet Project" weekly newspaper column is distributed internationally on the N.Y. Times and Cox wire services, and is a multiple winner of the Gaines/Cycle Pet Foods' Newspaper Column of the Year.

Educated at Oregon State and Arizona State Universities, Wilkes is a member of and has lectured to the Association for Behavior Analysis - an international professional organization of experimental psychologists.

Wilkes also gives training seminars and lectures internationally on behavior modification and training for obedience trainers, assistance dog handlers, Search and Rescue groups and pet owners. A former humane society shelter manager, Wilkes continues to work with animal welfare issues as a member of the board of directors of the Arizona Humane Society.

Wilkes' response:
As we get older, we tend to restrict our behaviors to those that are tried, true and most of all, easy to do. So, while there is a tendency for older dogs to resist new challenges, age is not an automatic impediment to learning. The oldest dog I have trained was an 18-year-old Schnauzer -- who was far brighter than the 2-year-old Basset Hound he lived with. One of the ways to transcend the age barrier is to teach your dog that there are two parts of learning -- repeating something he already know vs. offering new behaviors. Most people concentrate exclusively on repetitive "repeat" behaviors (commonly called "obedience") while ignoring the primary skill that makes an animal good at learning -- being able to change a behavior. So, for dogs who have lived their lives being "repeaters," it is sometimes a little tough when you first start training them to be "vary-ers". Once you start actively rewarding them for offering new behaviors, most dogs adapt readily and their rates of learning improve dramatically.

Wilkes' response:
Your question(s) point out an almost universal problem with discussions of behavior -- there are several types of learning and many types of behavior. No single set of rules facilitates all forms of learning and behavior. The first question we must answer before we can fully understand your question is whether are we talking about learning a new behavior, performing a never-changing behavior or interacting with the environment in real time, in a unique way. These three forms of behavior require different signals to help an animal at any given moment. So, when learning a new behavior, sticking to very simple "hot/cold" signals over a series of repetitions works best. If you are performing a repetitive behavior, such as performing a foxtrot in time to the music, you need a single cue to define the behavior, ("May I dance this Foxtrot with you?") and then complex continuous signals (the music) to continue to perform for several minutes. For situations where an animal has to perform a unique behavior, such as finding water by scent, then a continuous strong signal is generally the most effective.

Wilkes' response:
Yes, dogs really do experience emotions, but I am not sure they experience the particular ones mentioned in the commercial you described. Hungry and tired are descriptions of simple sensory states that probably don't qualify as emotions, even in humans. However, "feeling guilty" is probably an emotional state that a dog is not capable of experiences. One of the difficulties of thinking of human vs. animal emotions is that often emotions are directly connected to cognitive functions that are unique to one species or another. For instance, the emotion we think of as "feeling guilty" is like the tip of a cognitive iceberg. The simple emotion of guilt actually requires a number of fairly sophisticated mental functions.

Here's a real-life metaphor that takes a closer look at true guilt and dogs. Many years ago I had a client who owned two miniature Dachshund puppies. One day, my client placed his rent money on his coffee table and went to work. When he got home, the money had disappeared, except for two tiny pieces of one of the $100 dollar bills. For two weeks he diligently kept his puppies' stools and rinsed them with water to extract several hundred pieces of very valuable greenbacks. Once he put the puzzle together, he once again had $300 in not-so-crisp 100 dollar bills. To feel guilty about destroying the extrinsic value of the money, the mini-Dachshunds would have to understand that the paper they chewed to pieces was worth what it represented -- $300, rather than three momentarily pleasing pieces of roughage. I have never known a dog who was capable of handling that type of cognitive gymnastics. On the contrary, dogs routinely tip over their only source of water on a hot day, chew through the leash that allows them to go for a walk and run away from home to chase a cat. So, if a dog can't understand that the leather of a dress-shoe is extrinsically more valuable than a leather chew-toy, no guilt can exist because the dog can't actually understand that something of great value was destroyed. What commonly is confused with looking guilty is a far more simple reaction -- looking scared because the dog associates the owners' irate behavior with a likelihood of some unpleasant experience.

Wilkes' response:
I think the single most important trait that makes a good dog trainer is a sincere and deep respect for both humans and animals. Few people fully understand that dogs are not natural animals. Humans separated them from nature and removed many behaviors that would allow them to survive apart from mankind. So, dogs are stuck with learning to live with humans -- which is not such a bad life once the dog and its attendant human understand how to behave toward each other. Trainers who love dogs but do not like people rarely have the patience with both species to achieve great success. The very best trainers like dogs and humans equally.