How I Inadvertently Conditioned My Husband's Negative Emotional Response

The story of Ivan Pavlov and the salivating dogs is legendary, and a great example of classical conditioning.  While studying digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed an interesting occurrence – his canine subjects would begin to salivate whenever an assistant entered the room.  Why?  Because the dogs had come to associate the assistants with the presentation of food.  This is called a learned or conditioned response, whereas an unconditioned response or reflex would be a dog salivating to the actual presentation of food.

Classical conditioning is widely used in the realm of dog training and behavior modification.  For instance, if your dog has a fear of elevators, you might pair the elevator rides with your dog's favorite treats or toy.  Your dog would eventually begin to look forward to riding the elevator because Elevator Ride = Favorite Treat!

The use of clickers and verbal markers is another good example of classical conditioning.  The sound of the clicker doesn't inherently have any value to your dog, but if you regularly pair it with a follow-up treat, then your dog will learn that the sound of the clicker = reward, and therefore this would lead to reinforcement and increase of the behavior you're clicking.

Using classical conditioning can be a great way to train dogs if you use it deliberately.  Towards the beginning of my dog training apprenticeship, my mentor Marie Selarque gave me the assignment of conditioning an emotional response in my dog using a neutral object (i.e. something that didn't already have a good or bad association for my dog).  I chose a baseball cap.  Several times a day for about a week, I paired the sight of my baseball cap with everything that Luka loved, such as chicken treats and walks.  By the end of the week, Luka was wagging his tail and perking up his ears whenever I presented the baseball cap to him!  This was a fun exercise that showed me the power of classical conditioning - something that affects the learning process in all animals, including humans.

Since then I've learned that we can also inadvertently condition a negative emotional response.  I'll tell you something funny that happened to me recently (well, it's funny in retrospect).

Target Training With Luka

Over the last few weeks, I've been training my dog Luka to target (or touch) things with his nose.  I started by having him touch the palm of my hand, and then the end of a chopstick.  Currently he's learning to touch the kitchen cabinet door so that he can eventually close the door with his nose.

My dog Luka is almost 9 years old and is not the sharpest tool in the shed, so to speak.  In order to teach this "trick" it was essential for me to give him feedback when he did the correct thing.  Although I could have used a clicker to mark those moments, I decided to use the verbal reward marker of Good! because my hands were busy handling the cabinet door and feeding treats.

Twice a day for the last week, I have been working on this training with Luka.  A typical session went something like, (Touch) Good! (Pause) (Touch) Good! (Touch) Good! (Pause) (Touch) Good! (Pause) (Touch) Good! (Big Push) Very Good!!!

A few days ago, I had just finished a session with Luka, only to find that my husband was in a very cranky mood.  I couldn't think of anything I had done to upset him, and when I asked him what was wrong, he wasn't really sure.  So I decided to leave him alone in order to avoid his wrath.

Several minutes later, he came to me apologetically and said, "I realized why I was so upset.  The other day when you were training Luka, I was on the phone with a client, and I could hear you saying Good! Good! Good! in the background, and I was really annoyed because I had a hard time concentrating on the phone call.  So when I heard you training Luka today, I guess it evoked that same feeling of annoyance in me!"

Now, if that isn't a brilliant example of classical conditioning, I don't know what is!  Soon after this incident, I switched from using the Good! verbal marker to using a clicker.  I thought it would be easier than changing my husband's conditioned negative emotional response to a positive one.  In puppy classes, we sometimes encounter dogs that run away when the owner says "Come!" because the owner has inadvertently taught the dog that Come = End of Play, Time for Bath, and other unpleasant things.  In these cases, we might suggest that the owner use a whole new word, like Here instead of trying to re-condition the word Come.

I encourage you to use classical conditioning to your advantage and to your puppy's advantage.  It can play a key part in socializing your young puppy to everything in her environment, including riding cars, taking baths, clipping nails, walking past barking dogs, etc.  If you're a training geek like me, you might also enjoy analyzing your own emotional reactions to various people, objects and locations in your life.  You may be surprised what you discover.

Stress and How It Affects A Dog's Bite Threshold

This blog entry was written by my mentor Marie Selarque of Pro-Dog Hawaii.  She talks about stress in dogs, and how it can affect their bite threshold.  It's something every dog owner should understand, even if their dog is not aggressive.  It can help keep everyone safe and your dog happy!

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In my puppy class I take great care to tell people about bite inhibition. I show them how to teach the dog that when she bites, she should inhibit the strength with which she bites rather than [inhibiting] the action of biting. It is very important that dogs know that we have much more sensitive skin than they do, and that engaging in play is much more effective if they bring us a toy rather than nip at our toes.

   In puppy class we also do a lot of handling, introductions to strangers, kids (when we have some), noises, etc. It is called socialization. This is also a very important step in the development of the puppy. By doing so we offer a buffer of "good experiences" to counteract what may come later that is not so pleasant. Hopefully the puppy, having experienced a minor conflict with tons of great encounters in class, will be better equipped to deflect, avoid or recover from a more serious aggression.

   But will it prevent bites? To a certain degree, yes. But it does only because we have reduced the possible stress that the dog would feel. Stress in dogs, as in humans, will pile up, resulting in an explosion. It can be road rage or bad temper for us and a snap or bite for them.
            
   Let's take Rover for example. He is an Aussie mix and has has great owners. They have taken him to classes, play groups, hikes, etc. They have been very conscientious about exposing their puppy to everybody and everything. Yet Rover is funny about his personal space; he does not like people approaching too fast and hovering above him. He is also sound sensitive. And to top it off he is in love with his duck toy.

   Rover will feel cautious about overly enthusiastic people wanting to pet him, but he will offer head turns and lip licking as calming signals and all will be fine. Similarly, if a stranger approaches calmly but wants to engage in tug of war with him and goes to grab his favorite toy, Rover will simply grab the toy and walk away.

   You get the picture. Rover is really a good dog. Now put all of it together. The family takes Rover to the soccer game. The field is near a big street with lots of traffic noise with buses whizzing by. There are a lot of kids running around, with high pitch voices, whistles, cheering. For most of the game Rover has been chewing on his Duck toy, lying down between mom and dad.

   Arrives the end of the game, and 3 happy kids spot Rover and come running. They crowd him (break rule of personal space), they speak loudly (break rule of quietness) and they grab the Duck (break rule of possession). Rover snaps and bites one of the kids' finger.

   Is Rover at fault? No. His owner, then? No, Rover never exhibited aggression [before]. The kids? No, they were being kids. So what happened? The stressors stacked up, making it impossible for Rover to deal with the situation other than by biting and telling everyone loudly, "Back off please!!!!!!"
He had no other way to express himself.

   This bite may seem totally unprovoked, but from the dog's perspective it was provoked, and he tried to tell people but was not heard.

   Now let's look at the possible consequences. He is scolded by his owners. Rover will fear children, soccer fields, soccer balls maybe, and will have less tolerance, starting a downward spiral toward true aggression. Or he is pushed aside to [so the owners can] attend to the bitten child. He is left alone; his action worked. He is rewarded by having peace and quiet and space. His snapping may increase.

   Also he will feel the fear that his owners now have and he will get even more worried about kids, crowd, fields, etc.

   So what is there to do? First calm everybody. Chances are Rover who has a "soft mouth" (due to the good work done in puppy classes) just bruised the finger so it is not a life/death situation. Give everyone some space and look at the situation. Teach the children how to behave near dogs, all dogs. Take control of the situation and protect your dog by preventing kids from approaching too fast, being too loud, grabbing things from the dog. Perhaps allow the kids to give Rover some treats, making everybody feel more relaxed. The final outcome of this interaction has been positive. Everyone learned and not too much damage has been done.

   Now imagine Fido, just adopted from the shelter. Stressed beyond her limits, not well socialized, put in a situation where she cannot cope, and you have a tragedy.

   In our life we are stressed and often we have little mishaps. Now let's look at Arnold for our human example. He has problems at work, he woke up late, forgot important documents, etc. It piles up but he can still cope. Then comes the phone call telling him something happened to his kid at school. He explodes and he gets in a car accident. A shouting match follows and now he shoves the person in front of him. This person looses balance, falls and gets hit by a passing car. Tragedy.

   It is so important to know the triggers that will create stress in your dog (as well as in us) and not put him/her in those situations. The dog cannot help his emotional responses any more than we can when faced with something that scares us or hurts us. Training, such as desensitization and counter-conditioning work very well and can increase tolerance but will not take nature away. What you can avoid though, is increasing the undesirable behaviors of lunging, barking, biting by punishing the dog, or inadvertently reinforcing them.

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For more information about desensitization and counter-conditioning please contact Marie.  You can also subscribe to her newsletter at www.prodoghawaii.com.