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BEHAVIOR, PART 1
Alicea Schaeffer, RVT, VTS (Behavior), KPA CTP
BEHAVIOR
If you touched an animal today, you trained it. Keep this in mind. Training an animal happens every time you are
interacting with it. The way all animals learn is through trial and error. What behavior gets me what I want? This
lecture will go over how animals learn and how this impacts future behavior.
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In order to begin we must first define learning:
o Learning is the process by which a behavior is acquired, omitted, or changed as a result of experience
(Luescher 2010). Most of the behavioral problems we see in our patients are learned and therefore can
be unlearned. Keep in mind through the course of this class that the theories discussed rarely act
independently of each other. Many times when I work with an aggressive dog, I am using classical and
operant conditioning, desensitization, and counterconditioning.
Classical conditioning (also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) involves an automatic or involuntary
response to a stimulus. In classical conditioning, the animal has an emotional or physiological response. Simply
put, classical conditioning involves an animal learning an association between two stimuli (Hetts 1999).
o Example 1:
• Neutral stimulus (bell)→unconditioned stimulus (food)→salivation
• Conditioned stimulus (bell)→salivation
o Example 2:
• Neutral stimulus (leash)→unconditioned stimulus (walk)→walk
• Conditioned stimulus (leash)→conditioned response (arousal)
Classical conditioning is a powerful tool in any trainer’s toolbox, but it needs to be applied effectively. Try to
remember three helpful rules of using classical conditioning:
o Timing—the “thing” you want to condition needs to come first. It is human nature to want to offer the
treats and the stimulus at the same time or even to offer the food a split second before the stimulus.
o Consistency—the unconditioned reinforcer needs to be presented every time the unconditioned
stimulus is presented, especially at the beginning. Missed opportunities can cause confusion and the
process can break down.
o Focus—try to eliminate as much distraction as you can. This can keep you from accidentally
conditioning some other stimulus.
Let’s look at some uses for classical conditioning in the veterinary hospital:
o Dog uses in the veterinary hospital
• A dog can quickly be conditioned to be more comfortable with restraint if it is classically
conditioned with an unconditioned reinforcer (food).
 Restraint→Food
• Unfortunately, most dogs are conditioned to understand that restraint predicts needle or
toenail trim.
 Restraint→Needle
 Remember that in the “rules” of classical conditioning, number 2 was consistency.
That is how we can condition an animal to understand that restraint predicts food
even when there is a needle involved. The order of training would go:
• Restrain→Treat
• Restrain→Treat
• Restrain→Treat
• Restrain→Treat
• Restrain→Needle→Treat
• Restrain→Treat
• Restrain→Treat
• Restrain→Treat
 Because the needle only happens once but the food happens every time, the restraint
will predict only food, not needles.
o Cat uses in the veterinary hospital
• For cats, their classical conditioning for veterinary visits starts at home. Cats tend to only get
in a carrier to go to the doctor. Therefore, the carrier predicts veterinary visits. The intricacies
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of classical conditioning are obvious when you look at this situation. The carrier at home
predicts veterinary visits, so the cat fights going into the carrier. The carrier at the veterinary
office predicts going home, so the cat will not come out or will hurry back in. This is an
example of how specific classical conditioning can be. Even though it is the same carrier and
the same cat, in two different environments the carrier predicts two different consequences.
Generalization—a stimulus acquires control of a response due to reinforcement in the presence of a similar but
different stimulus (Ramirez 1999). In other words, a certain behavior results in different settings and different
conditions.
o Dogs and cats do not generalize as well as people, but it can happen in the event of something
traumatic or when trained.
• Example: “Sit” means put your rear on the ground no matter where you are or who is
asking—this concept needs to be trained.
• Unfortunately, sometimes traumatic events are generalized.
 A child with blonde hair pulled my tail; therefore, I do not like blonde-haired
children.
Taste Aversion—as a result of classical conditioning, the animal learns that a particular food makes him or her
feel bad.
o Example: People who drink too much of a certain type of alcohol and become sick on it will never
drink it again.
o Animals with liver shunts will eat and then feel sick. They soon only eat different foods once.
Extinction—presenting the conditioned stimulus repeatedly without pairing it with the unconditioned stimulus
will result in a weaning of the conditioned response.
o Example: If you present the sound of the bell enough times without following it with food, the dog will
soon stop salivating.
o In clicker training, if you stop giving food after the click, soon the animal will not respond to the
clicker.
Operant conditioning (Skinnerian or Instrumental)—learning occurs through the association of behavior and
consequence. This type of learning was first identified by B. F. Skinner in 1938. This is a trial-and-error type
learning based on the law of effect.
o Operant conditioning has to do with the actual behavior and the increase or decrease in the behavior
based on consequences.
o If the behavior has a pleasant consequence, then the behavior is likely to happen again.
o If the behavior has an unpleasant consequence, then the behavior is less likely to happen again.
Operant conditioning is used by all behaviorists, trainers, and even Mother Nature. In order to create, stop, or
change behavior, we need to understand how it is being reinforced or punished. Many times you hear operant
conditioning and positive reinforcement used synonymously. Positive reinforcement is only one of the four
quadrants of operant conditioning. Let’s pull them apart and take a closer look to understand it better.
Reinforcement—anything that increases the likelihood the behavior will happen again. There are two ways in
which to use reinforcement:
o Positive—addition of a consequence
o Negative—taking away a consequence
When talking about operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. Think of the terms
along the same lines as the mathematical signs for plus (+) and minus (–) for addition and subtraction.
o Positive reinforcement—addition of something the learner wants in order to increase the likelihood the
behavior the teacher wants will occur again.
• Type of training
 Clicker trainers
 Lure reward training
• Example: Let’s use teaching a loose leash walk to a dog.
 Positive—add treats/toy
 Reinforcement—when dog is walking with a loose leash
o Negative reinforcement—Subtraction of something the learner does not want in order to increase the
likelihood the behavior the teacher does want will happen again.
• Types of training
 Compulsion trainers
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 Choke trainers
 Traditional trainers
• Example: Let’s stick with teaching a loose leash walk to a dog
 Negative— remove pressure on the collar
 Reinforcement—when the dog is walking with a loose leash
o Reinforcer—is anything that, occurring in conjunction with an act, tends to increase the probability
that the act will occur again (Pryor 1999). Therefore, reinforcers are in the eye of the receiver, not
giver. What is reinforcing to some will not be reinforcing to others. My Jack Russell Terrier will
practice obedience cues for the opportunity to tug on a toy with me, my greyhound will not.
o There are two types of reinforcers:
• Primary (unconditioned) reinforcers—naturally reinforcing the first time.
 Example:
• Food
• Shelter
• Touch
• Sex
• Play
• Secondary (conditioned) reinforcer—must be “trained.” It is a neutral stimulus that precedes a
primary reinforcer, becoming reinforcing by itself. Secondary reinforcers will become
unconditioned if they are not periodically paired with primary reinforcement. Many
conditioned reinforcers, such as clickers and whistles, should always be paired with primary
reinforcement. To understand this concept let’s look at some examples:
 Money—the most powerful conditioned reinforcer for humans. If tomorrow the
government declared that bottlecaps were now the currency of the United States,
paper money would be worthless and we would no longer work for it.
 Clicker/whistle— the most widely used conditioned reinforcers in animal training to
mark behavior but is still followed by primary reinforcement.
 Praise—this is not a primary reinforcer, contrary to popular belief. It requires a
relationship between the animal and person.
 Cues—clearly understood cues are reinforcing to the animal because they have been
followed with primary reinforcement and therefore can be used as secondary
reinforcement.
Punishment—anything that decreases the likelihood the behavior will happen again.
o Two ways to apply:
• Positive—addition of a consequence
• Negative—taking away a consequence
o Positive punishment:
• The use of positive punishment is the biggest controversy in training these days. There is still
a large percentage of dog trainers using punishment and an even larger percentage of pet
owners who do, too. If you need proof that punishment is not necessary in training, watch
marine mammal trainers at work. Some of the best trainers in the country are dolphin trainers
(or at least started out that way), including Karen Pryor, Ken Ramirez, and Kathy Sdao. If you
are lucky enough to go to any of their lectures, you won’t hear anything about positive
punishment being used. The main reason punishment was never used by dolphin trainers is
that there is no way to apply it. How are you going to punish a dolphin? If you were to strike
him, he would simply swim away and have nothing to do with you.
• Unfortunately for dogs, they are very tolerant of our crazy training methods; however, just
because we can punish them does not mean we should.
• I suggest you read the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior’s position statement
on this topic at
avsabonline.org/uploads/position_statements/Combined_Punishment_Statements.pdf
• Another reason many trainers and behaviorists advise against punishment is simply that it is
too hard to implement. The rules for the effective use of punishment are as follows:
 Contingency—the punishment must be a consequence of the behavior and not related
to the trainer. In order for the punishment to be contingent on the behavior, it must
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be delivered every time the behavior occurs and never delivered in the absence of the
behavior.
 Intensity—the punishment must be strong enough to stop the behavior the first time.
If it is not harsh enough to interrupt the behavior, you run the risk of developing a
tolerance to the punishment, creating the need for harsher correction the next time.
 Timing—the punishment must be delivered within 0.5 seconds of the behavior. If
there is any delay in timing, the animal will either make no connection between the
behavior and the consequence or will “blame” something else.
 Alternative—the trainer must train an alternate behavior. Punishment does not tell
the animal what you do want. So in order to minimize the use of punishment, you
still have to train the behavior you want in a given situation.
 Motivation—innate behavior cannot be decreased by punishment.
o It is nearly impossible to follow all the rules of effectively using punishment, and even if you can, it
comes with messy side effects.
o Side effects of positive punishment:
• Destruction of the human-animal bond
• Increase in aggression (Herrnon et al. 2008)
• Increase in fear
• Increase in the behavior
• Inhibition of learning
• Inhibition of all behavior
• Failure to teach what to do
Extinction in operant conditioning— if a behavior that is normally reinforced is no longer reinforced, it will
extinguish; however, it will go through an extinction burst. An extinction burst is when the behavior happens
more frequently right before the animal stops doing it.
o Example: People who drive newer cars are accustomed to the car starting right away. If they get in the
car and turn the key and the car does not start, they most likely will only try a few times more. People
who drive older cars are used to having to turn the key multiple times and will try many, many times.
The more this is reinforced by the car eventually starting, the longer they will try the next time.
Behavior in an extinction burst will occur with more energy. Experienced trainers can use this to their
advantage to create and reinforce more forceful tries.
o Example: I train my dogs to close doors. The beginning of this behavior is a nose target to a Post-It
note. Once I have shaped this behavior and the dog is reliably touching the Post-It note, I will simply
not click and reward once or twice in a row. The dog becomes frustrated and hits the post-it note
harder, in return causing the door to move. Bingo! Now I and the dog have new criteria to reinforce.
• The likelihood that a behavior will extinguish is based on many factors:
 Reinforcement history
• Schedule of reinforcement
 Intermittent harder to extinguish
• Duration
 How well trained (over-learning)
Let’s look at the four quadrants of operant conditioning more closely. These terms are often misused and it is crucial
not only to use them correctly, but to understand the language of other behavior professionals.
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Positive punishment
o Addition of something the learner does not want in order to decrease a behavior the teacher does not
want.
• Types of training
 Compulsion trainers
 Choke trainers
 Traditional trainers
• Example: teaching a loose leash walk to a dog.
 Positive—adding a choke or pressure on collar
 Punishment—when the dog is walking with a taut leash
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Negative punishment
o Subtraction of something the learner wants in order to decrease a behavior the teacher does not want.
• Type of training
 Clicker trainers
 Lure reward trainers
• Example: teaching a loose leash walk
 Negative—take away the treat/toy
 Punishment—when the dog is walking with a taut leash
References
American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. AVSAB position statement on the use of dominance theory in
behavior modification of animals. 2008, AVSAB Online,
avsabonline.org/uploads/position_statements/dominance_statement.pdf.
Herrnon M, Shofer F, Reisner IR. Safety and efficacy of behavior modification techniques used by dog owners. In
ACVB/AVSAB Scientific Paper and Poster Session, New Orleans, July 18, 2008.
Hetts S. Classical and operant conditioning: two sides of the same coin or dollars vs cents? 1999, Animal Behavior
Associates, www.BehaviorEducationNetwork.com.
Luescher A. Dogs! Principles and techniques in behavior modification. 2010, Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana.
Pryor K. Don’t shoot the dog! The new art of teaching and training. New York: Bantam, 1999.
Ramirez K. Animal training: successful management through positive reinforcement. Chicago: Shedd Aquarium,
1999.