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Recently, I was scanning a Facebook group for trainers on addressing aggressive behavior in dogs. Someone was asking what to do with a “non-food motivated dog”. I scrolled through the comments curious what people had to say when I landed on a comment mentioning CDD Method.
I have never heard of this “method” so naturally I dove head first into the rabbit hole! I found it was a method started by Bethany Bell. Lovely young gal with a nice training website, a newly started YouTube, and a few books. I read through her website but it didn’t really provide me with the steps or clear understanding of this ‘method’ she is founding. I loved everything I was reading but the big question was HOW?
Next, I watched video after video on her YouTube channel and still felt a bit confused. I couldn’t find any method just descriptions about her ethical standard and that she talks to dogs in a natural language. She mentions a process of word association to teach dogs more language but this wasn’t new… nor was it packaged with steps as a method.
So of course I had to buy 3 of her books:
Barking up a new Tree
Redefining Reactivity
Puppy Raising
My hope is that somewhere in these books she might finally explain this method as a clear process or step by step approach.
I started my reading with her thinnest book Barking up a New Tree. This book covered her dog training journey and her personal experience with her own dogs. While I didn’t expect it to go into specific details about the process I was expecting it to give an overview of the CDD method while also explaining how she has been personally using it.
The story was good, she has had a unique experience in the world of animal behavior and her perspective was really refreshing and easy to relate to. Still at the end of the book while I was starting to piece together what this Canine Dialog Dynamics (CDD) method entails, many questions remained unanswered. Time to dive into her other two books, which based on the titles I would assume offer a more step by step approach.
I skimmed through the puppy raising book but I really didn’t like how it was written with lots of bold words and a font and character spacing that made it hard to read. I grasped a couple things from my skimming, mainly the language and concept of narration.
All of Bethany’s books felt very AI assisted writing. While I’m sure the ideas are uniquely her, the writing was filled with fluff, bolds, and circular and repetitive descriptions. It was a lot of words for very little take away. Not a bad thing if I was reading it from the perspective of a clueless pet parent that had no real concept of dog behavior. That same pet parent would also likely miss some of her contradicting language around the use of other training methods like Positive Reinforcement, systematic desensitization, and even the word “training”.
In the beginning of the book Barking Up a New Tree she talks in length about the difference between training and educating a dog. I couldn’t agree more with her about her philosophy. However, at some point midway through the book the language changed and started mentioning this method as a training method, something she clearly addressed in the beginning that it wasn’t a “training” method but rather a method of communication between humans and dogs.
Frustrated with all the time I had spent reading and watching videos to still find no answer to ‘what is the method?’ A method is usually a systematic way of doing something and most of her approach was more of a lifestyle/reframing of how we view and live with our dog companions.
I walked away from the CDD method for a few days until I was able to find a few spare minutes to pick up the Redefining Reactivity book. There has to be a chapter with more defined steps in this book.
I noticed she mentioned her work with reactivity being the primary driving force behind Canine Dialogue Dynamics. So my answer must be hidden in this book. I skimmed it and did land on a chapter ‘the Five Phases of Dialogue’ that seemed promising.
I want to mention that none of her books have a table of contents to help you navigate the book, making it a bit challenging to follow the steps and get to the information I was looking for.
Let’s look at her phases of dialogue first and then I am going to break down her method in terms of behavior modification methods.
Phase One: Word Association. In this phase you are essentially narrating your dog's life and emphasizing words about their experience and environment as they are occurring.
This is a beautiful use of and natural way of applying an old concept of ‘capturing’ behavior. It makes sense that this is so effective at teaching dogs a larger vocabulary. I appreciate how Bethany’s approach to capturing is simply about teaching the dog words and phrases that associate with current behaviors and experiences the dog is having.
Phase Two: Shifting to dialogue, is where you are supposed to start using more natural dialogue and complete sentences with emotional tone.
In each of these phases her examples are exactly the same and don’t really get more complex so It’s a little confusing as to what is actually changing or how the dog is actually learning to “understand” these phrases and dialogue. Additionally, it seems that this phase is about creating compound sentences where you might say “we can go to the park later, do you want to play with your toy now?”
Either way we will pretend that somehow the dog is able to learn genuine meaning from these more complex sentences. I think that this is for the most part the same as proofing a behavior. You are providing more words and context around the core words and signals the dog has associated.
Phase Three: Questions and Choices. Ahhh.. This is the meat of her success and what many other ethical and fear free trainers are doing. This phase is about starting to ask questions and give the dog genuine options. The key here is to observe, ‘listen’ to, and respect what those choices are.
Phase Four: Your Dog’s Responses. This seems pretty self explanatory. It's about honing your skill at reading your dog, understanding your dog’s unique personality, and knowing what they are “saying” without words. This is kind of a continuation of phase three in my opinion but it’s about the human skills and understanding instead of the lessons we need to teach the dog.
Phase Five: Contextual Application In Dialogue. This phase is just a repeat of everything that was already mentioned. Essentially, go out and combine all that you have learned and pay attention to your dog’s responses.
Now the book goes on to talk about specifically applying this new found communication technique or dialogue to reactive dog behavior. However, the rest of the book is just another iteration of the normal process of management, enrichment (meeting a dog’s needs), diet, breed and age factors, and yep positive reinforcement training although it seems she is careful to only talk about praise, play, and natural life factors as reinforcement. Only suggesting that people avoid luring.
At one point I’m pretty sure I noticed she mentioned avoiding distracting the dog but then I read something about how if your dog is too close to a trigger you might need to utilize a distraction to move them further away before they blow up… That sounds like the advice I give clients all the time.
Let me be clear, I absolutely love Bethany’s approach to training. She talks about some real problems in our industry, like even food can be coercive and that force free training might not always be the most ethical approach especially if you are operating from a place of doing what you have been told.
I agree with and have walked the same path of reasoning. I have questioned and still ask why we need to have our dogs sit, sleep in a crate, or walk at our sides. That every case is different and there are times where a crate might be the only resource we have available to keep people or another dog in the home safe. We may need the dog to sit for eye drops because it’s a position that helps them hold their head still and nose pointed up. However, sitting on cue is not related to helping a dog build confidence, learn how to problem solve, or how to socialize appropriately. For most life skills I think dogs should learn sit isn’t going to make the difference.
The CDD method is pretty much the method that I have been teaching for years. A holistic approach that prioritizes the dogs well being, fosters trust and communication between dog and human, teaches dogs vital skills like: conflict resolution (socialization), stress resilience (emotional regulation), problem solving/thinking for themselves (choices), and polite communication (socialization and relationship). Kind Animal Services teaches dogs through environmental management and imminent safety; skills training, and the process of traditional positive reinforcement training; offering choices and control while understanding and respecting what dogs have to say back to us; enrichment, the essence of meeting a dogs needs; and finally physical health and diet.
I whole heartedly back all that Bethany is doing and love her approach, but the lesson is it’s not new. The only thing that is enhanced so in a way a bit different is her dialogue and approach to talking to the dogs. It’s an old system of learning dressed up in more elaborate clothes, and I love the new look.
Capturing has always been my least favorite mode of training. In the traditional way of capturing behavior you say a simple but often military-like word or phrase every time the learner performs the behavior. Then you follow it with a reinforcement to encourage the behavior to happen again.
In Bethany’s version of capturing you still offer a verbal (physical/environmental) contextual signal while the behavior/experience is happening. There is still reinforcement but it is more natural and involves getting to do an activity.
The example is you might ask “do you want to play now?” and if your dog picks up the toy a way of saying ‘yes please’ and then the question and behavior of picking up the toy are reinforced by the play to follow.
The other important element that is critical for behavior modification is this concept of choice and control. This is the understanding that as an individual sentient being dogs like people find it reinforcing to be able to make decisions for themselves and to have some level of control over their own lives. This concept is more recent to animal behavior and behavior modification/training world. It’s a total game changer!
This idea that behavior problems are most often caused by humans enforcing so much control over their dogs that the dogs are going crazy. From intense small confinement and isolation when the humans in the home leave the dog to go to work. Organized and structured walks and exercise time playing repetitive intense games like fetch. Then the humans determine when, how, and what the dogs will eat. If the dog picks something up, digs, or even sneezes without the owner's direct approval it is considered “bad” behavior and needs to be corrected. (I’m joking about the last example but truly the situation of controlling our dogs has gotten out of hand.)
We know that dogs want to be with us, they want to please us, they are very willing participants in life if we would only let them choose.
There are lots of training methods and professional trainers who are implementing Choice and Control into their training approaches. This is all about allowing a dog to say no or opt in or out of doing something. To choose the route for the dog walk or choose the activity. Offering safe options and respecting the dog’s choices is pivotal in addressing extreme behavior problems.
In conclusion of my study on Bethany Bell’s CDD method it’s not a new method but it definitely is a great reminder that ethical trainers need to continue to question the status quo and always question the ethics of what they are teaching to clients.
In every case when I recommend a protocol or make a suggestion I ask the following questions:
Who does this procedure impact and in what way will it impact them? What impact on the direct recipients but also future dogs this person might have or interact with will this protocol have. Sometimes I recommend something that I always preface with this is only for this very specific situation and not a blanket fix for all dogs in this situation or doing this behavior.
Why do I feel this protocol is important or needed? What does this procedure actually teach and how does it work and does that align with the needs of the dog and client?
What alternatives do we have? I try to always come up with multiple training plans and choose the one that I feel is going to meet the needs of the dog and humans.
Every dog is an individual being with their own unique life experience and expression. They should be honored and respected. We as humans should tailor our expectations to the dog we have and enjoy them for who they are and not who we want them to be. It’s true that formal traditional training is such a tiny piece of the puzzle when it comes to helping dogs express healthy behaviors and you can go through an entire dog's life never doing any training. Our mindset around dog training should be less about controlling and shaping our dogs to fit us and more about educating our dogs so they can be the best version of themselves.
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