LIMA Dog Training and The Humane Hierarchy, Explained with Examples

There are two principles and concepts that completely changed my understanding of training and raising a well-mannered dog. LIMA dog training and The Humane Hierarchy.

The two are very interconnected and provide a framework for changing dog behavior in a thoughtful, humane, and effective manner.

While these principles stand as an ethos and methodology for professional trainers and behaviorists, familiarity with the concepts will help you, the pup parent, feel vastly more confident and comfortable training your puppy.

Plus, these principles can guide you in choosing the right trainer for your dog!

To understand LIMA, we need to first understand animal welfare.

Animal welfare is the physical and psychological state of nonhuman animals. The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights.

Basically, animal welfare means concern for the overall well-being of an animal, including our dogs.

LIMA was first introduced around 2005 by Steven R. Lindsay. 

So, what is LIMA? LIMA stands for Least Intrusive Minimally Aversive. It generally refers to a trainer or behavior consultant who sets out to change behaviors through the least intrusive minimally aversive methods possible.

Let’s define the two pieces.

#1- Least Intrusive. 

Intrusive, in a dog context, can be seen as something that limits a dog’s ability to choose and act freely or comfortably. Certain techniques can intrude on a dog’s safety, well-being, and freedom to choose.

And on that note, LIMA methodology lends itself to relying primarily on positive reinforcement techniques as the initial behavior-changing route.

Allowing a dog to make choices (non-intrusive) and then rewarding when the desired behavior is performed is about as “least intrusive” as it gets.

#2- Minimally Aversive.

It’s important to define the term aversive. The dictionary definition reads: “ending to avoid or causing avoidance of a noxious or punishing stimulus”.

In simple terms, a stimulus (could be a shock, harsh sound, bad-tasting anti-chew spray) that is provided to try and make your dog stop doing a certain behavior.

We’ll cover this more later, but aversives have been shown to cause more stress and anxiety often leading to more problem behaviors. 

Is the science 100% perfect? Nope. But the vast majority of research, studies, and evidence show that aversives negatively impact the welfare of animals (see the beginning of this section).

So bringing it back to LIMA, the methodology requires a trainer to implement the most minimally aversive methods possible.

To sum it all up… LIMA boils down to finding strategies and methods that put the learner (the dog) first. That means understanding the dog’s history, challenging behaviors, preferences, and learning styles. And then following a humane hierarchy approach to resolve problem behaviors in the least intrusive (think freedom) and minimally aversive (think harsh punishment) way as possible.

Be sure to read the full article on the Pupford blog! https://pfrd.site/readnow

And sign up for the 100% free online dog training class to train a well-mannered pup: https://pfrd.site/class-signup-noww

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pop furred hello.
Pub parents and welcome to today's episode of The Perfect
pop of podcast. My name is Devon.
We're going to dive into two terms and techniques and
principles that you've maybe heard before.
But are really valuable to understanding how we can more

(00:23):
humanely and effectively change our dogs behaviors.
We're going to talk about Lima dog training and we are also
going to talk about the Humane hierarchy.
This episode is a little bit more technical Well, it's
truthfully. These two kind of principles are
geared more towards the trainingprofessionals and behaviorist,

(00:44):
but I think as a parent it's really valuable to understand
how the professionals are approaching things and and in
turn, be more effective as trainers ourselves.
Because at the end of the day, you might learn from a trainer.
They might teach you how to teach your dog, but you are
becoming the dog trainer for your puppy or dog.
So, let's get right into it. I will say first, there will be

(01:07):
Some opinion that bleeds into this episode, there usually is.
But I know that when we talk about things like aversives and
Punishment based techniques, it can get heated and there's a lot
of people who have differing opinions so I want to try to
present it as methodically and as I guess level-headed as I can
while still giving you my own insights.

(01:27):
And what I think is beneficial so very first before we talk
about Lima and the Humane hierarchy we need to talk about
animal welfare and Animal Welfare.
Oof are essentially is the physical and psychological state
of our dogs in this case or any animal in general.
So when we think about training and raising our dogs, we need to

(01:49):
have their welfare as part of our thought process, are they
happy? Are they safe?
Are they feeling stressed? Do they have the freedom to
choose and that leads into Lima?So you may hear a dog trainer,
say that they follow the Lima protocol which stands for Least
intrusive minimally aversive. So, let's break down those two

(02:11):
pieces least intrusive. You can think of something that
is intrusive as it fringes on orinhibits the dog's ability to
make choices and have freedom. So for example, if you are using
a technique where you're, you know, pinning your dog into a
corner until they do something that you want them to.
Do they have Choice? Do they have freedom?

(02:33):
They are being intruded on theirspace.
Their ability to choose their freedom is being intruded upon
and then minimally aversive you can think of something that is
aversive as a stimulus like a shock or a spray or a harsh
punishment that is done to decrease the likelihood of a
behavior occurring. You may be familiar with things

(02:56):
like e-collars or choke chains but it can also be, you know,
spraying your dog with a Water bottle when they bark.
That is technically an aversive.And so with Lima it is finding
minimally aversive things and that the word minimal is key
because it means that there can be some of ourselves and we'll
get to that more really. When you boil down Lima dog

(03:19):
training you are looking at putting the learner first and in
this case the learner is our dog.
We know what we want them to do,we want them to not our core
walk. Our side, they are learning how
to do this and so we are trying to find ways with Lima to let
them learn and choose and decidefor themselves and to be

(03:41):
comfortable while doing it whichis putting the learner first.
When we talk about a versus and we're going to dive more into
this, we need to understand a really important principle.
I got Tracy, madsen's help with this episode and article.
She's a dog trainer with over 20years of experience.
She originally started, as someone who used aversive and

(04:02):
Now does not, and she really wanted me to kind of hammer
home. The point that the learner
chooses, what's aversive, as well as what is reinforcing,
just because we think so, Something isn't that bad?
Or isn't aversive the dog decides?
What is aversive to them. For example, one dog may not be

(04:24):
bothered At All by a gentle correction on the leash, but
another dog, it might be really bothersome to them and it might
cause them Stress and Anxiety, and fear and in turn, it would
make that aversive. You'll often hear people who use
e-collar saying, oh, I only use the vibration or the beep.
And while that's maybe better than the shock.

(04:45):
What if the vibration is aversive to your dog?
What if it scares them? What if it causes them fear?
That means it is an aversive andthe same thing goes for
reinforcers just because you think like oh my dogs are
retriever, they should love the ball, the ball playing fetch or
throwing a ball. Should be a reinforcer for them
but it might not be. And so we as the puck Perry and

(05:06):
as the teacher, we need to find out what is number one, aversive
for our dogs. And number two, what is
reinforcing the The big key for doing that is to learn about dog
body language, and stress signals.
I think if I could go back to when I first became a pup pair
and really focus in on one thing, it would be learning

(05:27):
about dog body language because as I have progressed in my
knowledge and experience with dogs learning about how they
speak to us, has been one of themost important ways that I've
learned how to interact and speak with them, and keep them
safe, and comfortable, and goingback to animal.
Fair in a positive psychologicalstate.

(05:50):
So learn about dog body language, read articles, we have
courses at pup food that covereddog.
Body language go to a dog park, maybe without your dog and just
watch dogs. I mean, don't be weird about it
but like Watch Dogs and how theyinteract and try to get as much
experience as you can when you're walking your dog in the
park or you know you're out withmultiple Dogs, Watch how they

(06:12):
interact, make notes of it, you know, Look at their tail, look
at their ears. Look at how they, you know, do
play boughs and those type of things really learning about
dog. Body language is how you're
going to be able to make informed decisions about this
Lima protocol. You will be able to understand
what is the least, intrusive, and the minimally aversive

(06:33):
techniques, because you will be able to read how your dog is
reacting and handling the situation.
So, Lima is more of like an ethos in a mindset, but it
doesn't necessarily say you should do.
X y&z technique. You should try lowering or
shaping or you should use positive reinforcement.
That's where the Humane hierarchy comes in and the

(06:53):
Humane hierarchy is more of an action plan.
If you think of your dog's behavior and there's a graphic
that's popular for the Humane hierarchy where it's a car
driving down the freeway and there's six different exits for
the card to get off of and you're starting at step one.
With the in theory most Basic orsimple exit and not until you

(07:18):
get to the very end. After you've tried all these
other exit points with your training, do you get to things
like punishment or aversive? So the very first step.
I'll go through these quickly and then we'll give some
examples. The first one is your dog is
Wellness. Their health their well-being,
their physical health. The second is antecedent
Arrangements. The third is positive

(07:39):
reinforcement, the fourth is differential reinforcement of
alternative behaviors the This is a clumping of multiple things
together and those are Extinction - punishment and
negative reinforcement. And then the very last stop on
this off-ramp choice of trainingis positive punishment.

(08:00):
So let's look at each of those in a little bit more detail.
I'm going to use a very common behavior that many of us have
probably dealt with and that is your in your house.
And your dog is barking at noises or things that it's he's
out. Outside and that is frustrating
and frankly, quite annoying sometimes.
So let's talk about how you can apply the Humane hierarchy, to

(08:23):
this reactive barking, to thingsthat are outside your home.
So going to step one. Looking at your dog's Wellness,
their physical well-being, theirhealth, ask yourself.
When's the last time you went toyour vet is your dog, having an
illness that could be making them more reactive or more
frustrated, or whatever. It might be our their dietary
needs being met, are they See and importantly as well in this

(08:47):
step one you would look at is your dog getting their physical
and mental exercise needs met inso many instances.
Our dogs are going to bark more if they're bored.
If they haven't been exercised, if they haven't had a chance to
use their brain. So that's step.
One is just looking at your dog's overall health and
well-being. Once you're clear there, you

(09:08):
take that first off ramp, you goto the second step and that is
antecedent Arrangements. Again, this is looking at your
dog's environment, the setting, the basically exposure to these
stimulus. That could be queuing them to do
a behavior. You don't want.
So, again, with that barking example, I remember in our

(09:31):
house, we used to live in. We had this affirm a window in
our bedroom that looked out the front of our house.
The way our house was set up andwe almost always had the blinds
closed and curtains over it because it was our bedroom.
We like to dark where we're sleeping.
And sometimes we would open thatwindow and without fail Scout,
our dog would discuss it in the window and just sit and stare

(09:53):
and people would walk by and we and she would bark.
And so how do you limit that? You know, looking at antecedent
Arrangements it's like how do you how do you not give your dog
access to certain things that are going to trigger or cause
these problem behaviors? And in this case of barking and
things that they can see outside, it can be as simple as
just having the blinds closed orhaving curtains.
If your dog can't see the The things that are causing them to

(10:17):
bark, they are much less likely to bark and additionally, with
this barking example, in particular, it is so Troublesome
because if your dog continues tosee someone outside, they bark,
they bark, they bark and then the person is gone, which
they're likely going to be going, right?
Like they're just passing by, ordelivering mail or picking up

(10:38):
trash, or whatever it is when your dog barks at that person
and then they leave, they were just reinforced because in their
mind, someone came onto their territory, they barked, they
believe in their dog, brain thatThe Barking, cause the person to
leave. And so they're going to think,
hey, next time I see a person, I'm gonna bark again because I
got the other person to leave. And so if you continue to give

(10:58):
them exposure to that, they're going to continue to bark.
So that would be step. Two is just how can you
rearrange the situation or, you know, your dog's access to their
triggers that are causing them to perform these problem
behaviors. After you've done that, you're
going to move on to step 3 and step three and four kind of done
in tandem. But they are step 3 is positive

(11:21):
reinforcement, which many of us are very familiar with its
adding a reinforcer, something enjoyable for your dog, that is
going to increase the likelihoodof a behavior occurring and then
that step 4 is differential reinforcement of alternative
behaviors. So for example, with the dog
barking at the window, what you can do is you can teach your dog

(11:41):
when they see something, you know, again the same take
practice, patience repetition, but if you set up a training
session and your dog sees something walking by and it
barks and you can teach them andtrain them to come to their
place. So an alternative Behavior,
right? If they are not looking out the
window, they're not going to seethe trigger and they're not
going to be able to bark in theory.

(12:01):
They're going to come to their place.
Again this takes time, I'm overly simplifying it but the
alternative behavior of going Totheir place.
And then once they're there in their place you give them a very
strong reinforcer. You give them some positive
reinforcement, like a treat or ideally, a long-lasting chew or
a frozen Kong. You know, something that is

(12:22):
retraining their brain to say, hey, I saw something instead of
barking. I'm you learn over time to go to
my place and I'm going to get things that are going to make me
want to stay in my place. I know I oversimplified that,
but you can see how over time you are.
Retraining the stimulus of someone walking by to be

(12:42):
associated with an alternate behavior and by positively, or
in reinforcing the alternate Behavior you increase the
likelihood of occurring. If that's still not working, you
can move into step 5. So step 5 is techniques that
truthfully are a bit more complicated.
And like I said, this Humane hierarchy is employed by

(13:02):
trainers and behaviors and professionals, but it's
beneficial to learn as everyday pup parents.
So Step five is going to be the grouping of Extinction -
punishment and negative reinforcement.
So, Extinction essentially is you are never giving that
reinforcer again. And this is a bit more
complicated than that. But you know, think if your dog
is begging every time you give them something when they beg

(13:25):
your reinforcing its own Extinction would be again, I'm
oversimplifying, but never giving any food from the table
again. And eventually over time.
Your dog might try harder and harder to get those table
scraps, but if you hold strong and never, Give them a
reinforcer. They eventually will stop -
punishment that is taking something away to decrease a

(13:47):
behavior. So, if your dog has a toy and
they do something that you don'twant, or they're outside, and
they behave in a certain way, like barking through the fence,
you bring them back, inside you,take away, access to said,
enjoyable thing - is taking awayand punishment is something that
is to decrease the likelihood. So you take away a Access to the

(14:09):
toy or to being outside and in and it's going to decrease the
likelihood of that reoccurring in the future.
The other one is negative punishment on the little bit
more complicated side, but one that is often used in.
As, as an example is, if a dog were pulling on the leash, you
pulled a choke chain, or a slip collar, tight until the dog

(14:30):
stops pulling. And then when they stop you
release and that would be negative reinforcement because
you are removing something. Thing that is aversive in this
case to reinforce and make it more likely that you know they
realize okay something bad was happening to me and then I
stopped pulling and then the badthing stopped again, it's a
little more complicated and it'snot something that you're going

(14:52):
to use very frequently. But it's good to learn to
understand what it is after all of that.
So after steps 1 through 5, you've tried all these things.
You've practiced you've put in the time and effort, I'm not
talking like one session, I'm saying, you are applying these
techniques on a frequent basis and really honing in and
practicing it with your dog. Still, then the last step again,

(15:16):
emphasis the very last step on the Humane hierarchy is then
positive punishment that would be, for example, your dog, barks
you Give them a shock on an e-collar to decrease the
likelihood of that behavior happening again.
Let's make a point here, right? I believe, and my how I

(15:38):
approach, raising my dog's is totry to stay as much as you can
and steps one through four. And with this example, you know
that I got from Tracy about The Barking, she emphasized that the
vast majority of cases that she deals with with her clients are
solved with steps one through four.
You're probably going to mix in some negative punishment again

(15:59):
where you're taking something away, you know, the - to
decrease the likelihood of something happening.
You know, your dog is outside, they bark at the neighbors.
They come inside - punishment todecrease the likelihood.
But again, her point was that the vast majority of cases can
be solved with one through four.So hopefully, you can see how
these kind of two points. These two principles of Lima

(16:23):
least intrusive minimally aversive and the Humane
hierarchy are very intertwined. And really, the important thing
to remember, is that again, we are trying to find techniques
and ways that Keep our animals welfare as a top priority while
also changing behaviors because at the end of the day, we have
to do that as parents. If we don't train our dogs, they

(16:43):
will do behaviors, that will cause massive problems in our
lives and the lives of people around us.
So we have to train them, we have to change behaviors but
it's approaching it in a methodical Humane and I'll still
effective way. I do want to make one other
point here. About aversive, the person who
kind of originally coined, Lima his name was Steve Our Lindsay

(17:05):
and I want to I'm going to look down and read a quote to what he
said because it may seem counterintuitive to look at you
know. Okay Lima it feels like not
doing any punishment with your dog and that's not necessarily
the point because again, in the Humane hierarchy, there is
opportunity where that may be necessary.
But I want to make a point here so he said, when properly,

(17:28):
understood and employed electrical stimulation, think
any color can be effectively used to Defy dog behavior.
Without eliciting significant stress, or fear the point that's
important. The key words there is when
properly understood and employedand this is where I'm going to
get into some opinion and littlebit of a rant here, just bear

(17:50):
with me. There are a lot of dog trainers
out there who employ a wide variety of methods.
The challenge that I see is a lot of proponents of e-collars
or choke chains or prong collars.
Well, they are experts and they likely have years of experience
and they've gone to trainings and seminars and they've worked

(18:13):
under other trainers who have more experience than them and
they put in hours and hours, hundreds of hours of training
with these tools. They may understand how to use
them. But what happens when a new
parent goes to one of these trainers and they say, hey I
want you to use any Colour you maybe are meeting once a week
for four to eight weeks for about an hour.

(18:34):
Our so you know even on the highend of that we're saying roughly
eight, maybe ten hours of training experience on how to
use an e-collar. Does that really make someone an
expert and even according to Stephen Lindsay's definition?
Does that mean that this pup parent properly understands and
can properly implement the use of an aversive?

(18:57):
Like an e-collar, I'd argue knowI look back at myself when I was
a brand new pup parent. My level of knowledge was like,
finite compared to what it is. Now, I'm not an expert.
I don't know everything, but I know a lot more now than I did
then, and I look back and I think, wow, someone had put an

(19:18):
e-collar in my hand, when I'm dealing with puppy behaviors,
that are oftentimes frustrating challenging.
What I've been able to think andact clearly and in a
quote-unquote effective way withthose tools, probably not.
So I think for people who want to be proponents of e-collars,
you may or may not even be listening to this.

(19:39):
If you are, thank you for listening.
And if you're thinking of putting any collar on your dog
or a choke chain or a prong collar, ask yourself, do you
have the level of expertise to employ that in a Humane and
effective way? That's the problem with
aversives. Is that more often than not they

(20:00):
are being used by people who frankly, don't Stand how to use
them and you might say well a lot of people don't understand
how to use positive reinforcement but they still do
it. And here's the thing using
positive reinforcement while there are levels of efficacy and
being better at it. Rewarding, your dog is likely
not going to cause them fear, anxiety and stress.

(20:24):
And that's the problem with the verses is that in the wrong
hands, they can cause those things, and they, there are
studies that have shown that aversive techniques, increase
the likelihood of stress, signals of anxiety, of fear, and
potentially create more problem,behaviors, in the long run.
So, my personal opinion, my feeling is that using aversive

(20:48):
Is well, it's the very last stepon the Humane hierarchy and it
should be done minimally as prescribed by Lima.
It's often not the best choice for our dogs and if you feel
like you really have tried, all these other steps, all the five
preceding steps on the Humane hierarchy and you're like, I

(21:09):
don't know what to do. At least, get a professional
involved who still follows Lima and he may die.
Our key and can safely and effectively.
Lovely Implement those tools. My goal as part of this podcast
in the topics that I choose is to help pop parents, raise
well-mannered, dogs that stay intheir home forever.

(21:31):
That's what I want. I know the joy, the dog's brain,
I know the bond that we could have with our dogs, and
unfortunately, sometimes when people use aversives to
frequently, it causes irreparable or very challenging
to repair damaged for Dogs and digitally, it is my opinion.
But it is rooted in a lot of research in many hours of

(21:58):
studying and learning my own first-hand experience, as well
as having many face-to-face conversations with multiple dog
trainers, many of whom used to use a versus and who now don't,
because they have learned the challenges and problems that can
come with them. So, I hope you learned something
in this episode again Lima, The least intrusive minimally

(22:20):
aversive it's kind of an ethos. It's a mindset.
It's how do we keep our dogs welfare at the top priority and
how do we put the learner first?And we often do that by
following the Humane hierarchy and looking at things like their
health, their Wellness, the environment in the things that
are happening to them and then working on alternative behaviors

(22:41):
and positive reinforcement before.
Moving on to other techniques. If you enjoy this episode,
please leave A review on Apple podcast, share it with a friend.
If you're on YouTube, subscribe,leave a comment and other than
that we will catch you on the next episode.