Dogs drool when you sound a tone. Does that ring a bell?
The concept of classical conditioning has broad applications to everything a dog learns. From adding a simple cue and capturing a response, interrupting unwanted behaviors to changing how a dog feels about a trigger, “Pavlov is always on your shoulder.” It even plays a role in operant conditioning!
Are you surprised to learn that we can use it to influence how our dog feels about an experience (such as being at the vet office, being handed by strangers to wearing a harness or service dog vest? Learn how to control behaviors with cues and create behavior chains to reduce the number of reinforcements needed to keep behaviors strong.
Discover how to condition your dog to respond calmly to common situations that your dog will experience as a service dog.
- interrupting behaviors
- handling (massage)
- wearing a harness
- bending over your dog
- legs paws handling
- other person handling leash
- other people handling leash
- weight scale at vet
- handling on table
- train with other dog nearby
- on/off switch
- stimulus control with objects
- stimulus control without objects
- behavior chains