Disclaimer: I did not get my Bachelor of Science in anything relating to behavior (I went to school for geology, oops!) This article reflects my understanding of behavior science as it is relevant to dog training, and I am constantly learning new things. If you’re studying for an exam in your Animal Behavior class, this is not the place to be. If you’re trying to understand how behavior works, this is the place to be!
As a society, we know a lot about canine behavior. Many of the behavioral science experiments that have been done on learning and cognition used canine test subjects, because using human test subjects would have been wildly unethical. To spare you from learning about the awful things that were done to dogs in the name of science, please don’t look up the details of any of the original experiments. There’s no erasing that knowledge.
Classical Conditioning
Many people are familiar with the conclusions from Pavlov’s experiments on dogs — the one where he paired the sound of a bell with the appearance of food, and elicited drooling when the bell was rung. This is the origin of the notion of “classical conditioning,” “Pavlovian conditioning,” or “respondent conditioning” wherein a potent stimulus (food) is paired with a neutral stimulus (bell). After a signal / neutral stimulus is successfully paired with the potent stimulus, the signal will trigger the same response as the potent stimulus.
We use classical conditioning to teach our dogs a reward marker, such as “Yes!” or a click from a clicker. When this is successfully done, your dog feels like they already got the treat as soon as they hear that marker. (Note: this doesn’t mean you don’t have to feed them! Consistently feeding them after marking ensures your marker retains its power. It only works if you feed them every time you mark.)
We also use classical conditioning when we are changing the emotions of our dog. This is especially important when working on behavior modification wherein our dogs are working through emotionally driven behaviors. If your dog is terrified of umbrellas, we use classical conditioning to desensitize and counter-condition those feelings. Rather than focusing on getting your dog to not bark at the umbrella, I want to focus on getting your dog feeling comfortable around the umbrella. If he is calm and comfortable, the barking will take care of itself.
Timing is essential in classical conditioning (as it is in all aspects of training!) When we are trying to assign new feelings to a previously or unconditioned stimulus, our new or target feelings should come after our old or unconditioned stimulus. In practice, this often means giving your dog a treat after he has seen a scary thing. We want scary things to lead to treats, not the other way around!
Operant Conditioning
Another type of conditioning we utilize on a daily basis is operant conditioning. This works hand in hand with classical conditioning, and was developed by psychologist and behaviorist B. F. Skinner. Operant conditioning is noticeably more complicated than classical conditioning, and some of the terms used tend to confuse people.
Operant conditioning is at play when behaviors are impacted by consequences. There are three types of consequences: neutral, reinforcing, and punishing.
- Reinforcing consequences strengthen behaviors. Reinforcement can be adding something pleasant or removing something unpleasant.
- Ex: You get a bonus for excellent performance at work.
- Ex: The annoying beeping from the seatbelt warning turns off when you buckle up.
- Punishing consequences weaken or reduce behaviors. Punishment can be adding something unpleasant or removing something pleasant.
- Ex: You get a ticket for speeding.
- Ex: Your license is revoked for speeding.
- Neutral consequences have no impact on behavior.
Where people start to get confused is usually when they start to think too hard about the additive or subtractive element.
| Positive (+) | Negative (-) | |
| Reinforcement (R) | Adding a good thing to strengthen the behavior. | Removing a bad thing to strengthen the behavior. |
| Punishment (P) | Adding a bad thing to weaken the behavior. | Removing a good thing to weaken the behavior. |
These two concepts are the main mechanisms of dog training, but they are not the end-all-be-all of dog training knowledge. They don’t take into account ethics, cognition, genetics, and many many other factors. Their usefulness lies in understanding why and how behaviors are built up or broken down.
