We humans use social learning all the time. When we learn something new, we often learn by observing others do something and then try doing it ourselves. Social animals frequently use social learning—it's an effective way to learn, especially where language is lacking or it would take a long time to explain. You have probably seen monkeys using tools and aids. Younger monkeys will observe the older ones and learn by copying and trying the same thing themselves.
Dogs are also social animals and can learn in the same way. What is so fascinating is that dogs can understand and replicate human demonstrations of exercises/behaviors in relation to themselves. It says something about how strongly dogs have adapted to reading and communicating with us humans. We stand on two legs and use our hands to lift, pull, and push objects, but dogs can still understand our actions. We do need to adjust mimic dogs physique, but it's impressive nonetheless.
Social learning with a puppy
Puppies rely on social learning. Through the mother, the puppy learns basic social skills, such as understanding body language and bite inhibition during play, through interaction with the mother and littermates. Puppies are curious and inclined to test and explore. In the video with the puppy Myra, you can see how we tested social learning. She has never done this before, and Line Sandstedt, our head of education, had only had Myra for 4 days. Nevertheless, Myra manages to "translate" Line's actions and replicate them. This was our first attempt at social learning with a puppy, and it was exciting to see how adept and quick Myra was at copying behaviors.
The "Do As I Do" method used to train dogs through social learning is an exciting and effective way to teach dogs new advanced exercises. "Do As I Do" is a systematic method that teaches dogs when to observe us and when to copy a behavior. "Do As I Do" consists of:
Teaching the dog the "Do As I Do" system ➡️ Getting the dog to copy an unfamiliar behavior ➡️ Adding a command to the behavior.
"Do As I Do" is not a replacement for other training methods such as shaping, luring, clicker training, etc., but is an additional tool you can use alongside conventional training methods. Some behaviors are challenging to demonstrate, and it may be better to use regular methods in those cases. Some behaviors that would typically involve many steps and a long time to learn can be trained much faster with "Do As I Do," where it's possible to show the dog what to do. Dogs also remember these behaviors longer and better when learning them through social learning.
Read more about "Do As I Do"
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