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Classical conditioning
Reflexes: Involuntary responses that deal primarily with smooth muscles.
Operant Behavior
The controlling stimuli never guarantee that an operant behavior will occur.
With respondent behavior, presenting the eliciting stimuli almost always gets a
response.
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Dog Behavior Training Begins with Understanding http://101-dog-training-tips.com/Behavior/index.shtml
Dog behavior can be thought of as responses that are specific to the species
canis familiaris. These responses are controlled and directed by manipulating
the social and the environmental variables. We call this training. Training can
increase responses that are desirable, just as those that are undesirable can be
decreased.
Your pet's problems are often a direct result of the animal's inability to cope
with the stress of everyday life. The purpose of training is to raise the pet's
stress threshold so your pet can tolerate higher levels of stress.
The response patterns and intellect of a canine is very different from that of
humans, although we do share some common traits. One of these traits is the
drive to form close social groups with strong bonds to significant others. This
bonding can be thought of as a kind of love. Even though this type of bonding
is a natural trait in both canines and humans, we must avoid endearing our
pets with human emotions.
1 of 1 7/20/2010 2:03 PM
Dog Behavior - Reinforcement training - Rewards, Behavior Modification... http://101-dog-training-tips.com/Behavior/Reinforcement.shtml
Reinforcement
One thing that can happen after a behavior occurs is that it can be rewarded or
reinforced. Reinforcement, either positive or negative, makes a behavior
stronger or more likely to occur again. A reinforcer is always determined by its
effect on the behavior that preceded it.
Positive Reinforcement
Some reinforcements make behavior increase when they add something to the
environment. If a behavior increases when followed by the addition of something
to the environment - food, water, walks, or toys - we call this positive
reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement for dogs can take many forms. Interaction with the family
(pack) members can be very reinforcing, as can providing for the dog's other
basic needs. One type of social interaction a dog can find reinforcing is getting a
family member's attention
You can also reinforce your dog's behavior by LOOKING at the dog or by
TOUCHING or TALKING to the dog.
Some dogs find activities involving fixed action patterns, or drives the dog has
been selectively bred for, inherently reinforcing. An example is playing retrieve
for a dog with a high retrieve drive.
Negative Reinforcement
Some reinforcement makes behavior increase by removing something from the
environment. If a behavior increases when followed by the removal of something
- threatening objects, loud noises, or extreme heat - we call this negative
reinforcement.
Like positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement for a dog can take many
forms. Aggression is a behavior that is often successful at driving away or
removing a part of the environment the dog is threatened by. Moving away or
fleeing from a threat can also work at removing the threat. Moving away and
avoiding the owner is often a dog's reaction to a perceived threat. Reaching and
grabbing at a dog can be perceived by the dog as a threat.
Here are some social events the dog may try to remove from its environment:
People LOOKING at the dog; TOUCHING the dog; or vocalizations (TALKING) to
the dog. Do any of these sound familiar?
An observation I've made over the years is that this type of dichotomy is quite
prevalent in the behavior of dogs. Therefore it is very important for us to be
aware of the context of our own behavior and the behavior of our dogs. In this
scenario know why you are looking at, touching, or talking to the dog.
1 of 1 7/20/2010 2:04 PM
Dominance - Subordination - Trust and Behavior Training http://101-dog-training-tips.com/Behavior/Social_Reinforcement.shtml
In general a dog will feel more secure if there is a well defined leader/follower
hierarchy in the family pack. To avoid dog behavior problems, people in the
family should be the leaders and the dog(s) should be the followers. In a
dominance subordination hierarchy there will be high ranking members, middle
ranking and low ranking members. The dog must perceive a large ranking gap
between the people in the family pack and the dog. Otherwise there can be
middle ranking conflict between the higher and lower ranking members
Social reinforcement training involves making the dog feel more secure by being
definite and committed, confident, fair, firm, and consistent.
1 of 2 7/20/2010 2:05 PM
Dominance - Subordination - Trust and Behavior Training http://101-dog-training-tips.com/Behavior/Social_Reinforcement.shtml
the capacity for high levels of abstract thought, it is our job to learn to
control our own behavior and to learn to understand our dogs.
To be in harmony with the dog we must blend in with the dog's genetically
programmed behavior. We can call these behaviors fixed action patterns or
species specific behaviors.
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Dog communication - verbal - body laguage - touch, humans, and behavior http://101-dog-training-tips.com/Behavior/Communication.shtml
Use the dog's preprogrammed behavior to tell the dog of your pack status in a
way that the dog was genetically created to understand. One way not to convey
this message is with a constant barrage of verbal chatter.
Many people feel their dogs can understand English (language) and that they
can explain to the dog like it was a young child. I would disagree and encourage
people not to use the explain and coax model of pedagogy with their pets.
It is accepted that dogs do not posses the ability of abstract thought that is
necessary to understand language.
While studying Chinese I think I may have gotten a glimpse of how a dog might
interpret words. In the beginning if I really listened to a conversation, I could
understand a very few words. As I became more conditioned, I could pick out
more words and understand some even if I was not paying attention. However,
I did not really know what was being said. I only knew what some of the sounds
represented or stood for. I only knew sounds that I was conditioned (trained) to
respond to. I did not know the context of how the words where used.
Professional Dog Training Secret: Ignore your dog most of the time and give attention (social reinforcement) to your pet when
it's doing what you want.
The first step to good communication with your dog is: don't talk too much.
Your canine friends do not spend hours in long verbal conversations with each
other.
Tone inflection can influence how a dog responds to its owners. It may appear
to us that our pets do not have many different verbal patterns (howling,
whining, barking, growling, snorting, crying). However, when we closely listen
to many different canine vocalizations, we discover a wide variety of meanings
communicated verbally. These meanings are usually indicated by intensity,
duration, tempo, and notably, tone inflection.
When communicating with our pets we should use the tone inflection that is
appropriate to the message we are trying to convey to the pet.
Avoid excessive verbalization with your dog, otherwise your best friend may
think that its humans have a whining problem, or maybe it's a growling problem,
and in trying to adapt to their human's problems, your pet may develop some
problems of its own. To ignore the dog is better than excessive verbalization.
1 of 2 7/20/2010 2:05 PM
Dog communication - verbal - body laguage - touch, humans, and behavior http://101-dog-training-tips.com/Behavior/Communication.shtml
Dogs are almost always communicating with each other and with their humans.
The majority of this communication is through body language. Our problem is
that we only understand some of the vocabulary.
If you pay close attention to your pet, you will begin to understand more of what
it is trying to tell you.
This is particularly evident when you and your dog are stressing each other
socially. When you train your pooch, you are teaching the pet how to respond to
social stress in an acceptable manner.
It's dog training that gives most people an opportunity to begin the process of
decoding canine body language.
Once you understand your canine companions body language you can start to
communicate with your best friend in a language they can understand.
We can supplement the dog's natural language with conditioning (training), that
includes verbal and body cues.
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