{"id":1340,"date":"2012-05-07T09:11:32","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T22:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=1340"},"modified":"2021-08-02T17:36:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T07:06:38","slug":"dunbar-on-classical-conditioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dog-behaviour\/dog-training-dog-behaviour\/dunbar-on-classical-conditioning\/","title":{"rendered":"Dunbar on Classical Conditioning"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See\u00a0index<\/a>.<\/small><\/small><\/p>\n

Dunbar believes Classical Conditioning is a big deal in dog training.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t believe in separating Operant Conditioning from Classical Conditioning. To Dunbar, the dog learns the same thing: In case of x, good things happen, and in case of y, bad things happen.<\/p>\n

\"White<\/p>\n

For a basic overview of classical conditioning:\u00a0 Classical conditioning was named by Pavlov<\/a>, who learnt that if he rung a bell before feeding dogs, overtime, the dogs would start to saliva<\/p>\n

te at the sound of the bell alone.\u00a0 Basically, classical conditioning is associative learning.\u00a0 Dogs will associate things with certain stimuli.\u00a0 In Dunbar\u2019s view, however, he thinks that the brilliance of classical conditioning has been lost over time.\u00a0 In his opinion, just because Pavlov worked with a reflex (i.e. the dog couldn\u2019t choose to salivate, it happened itself), doesn\u2019t mean that classical conditioning is only used for reflexes. \u00a0(This is normally the distinctive difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning, but Dunbar ignores it and finds it irrelevant. Confusing!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Classical conditioning should happen all through a dog\u2019s life.\u00a0 Treats should never be phased out for classical conditioning.\u00a0 Dunbar said, \u201cDon\u2019t take you dog\u2019s temperament for granted\u201d and \u201cIf your dog is friendly, it can be friendlier\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dunbar particularly advocated Classical Conditioning for improving handling of dogs.\u00a0 Particularly, classically conditioning collar grabs and other contact the dog may find unpleasant.<\/p>\n

He talked about dog trainer Bill Campbell\u2019s \u2018jolly routine\u2019, which is an over-the-top play response an owner \u2018performs\u2019 when a stimulus is seen.\u00a0 The idea is the dog things, \u201cWhenever my owner sees x, they get so happy!\u201d \u2013 which in terms classically conditions the dog to like x.<\/p>\n

While he believes there is better ways of getting rid of problem behaviour, he did talk about using \u2018lightning strike\u2019 verbal feedback for poor behaviour.\u00a0 He described this as punishment in a praise sandwich.\u00a0 For example, the dialogue would go: \u201cgood dog, very well done, lovely dog, excellent, good, good, yes, ASSHOIFJIDSHKLJ!!!, yes, good dog, good, very good\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also liked the use of classical conditioning in shelters, particularly in the Open Paw program<\/a>, where dogs are rewarded for just being in the shelter and seeing people.<\/p>\n

Dunbar describes classical conditioning as a ‘winning strategy’.<\/p>\n

Further reading: my lecture notes from <\/em>Paul McGreevy on Classical Conditioning<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

External link:\u00a0\u00a0Roger Abrantes’ post on “Unveiling the myth of reinforcers and punishers<\/a>”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Updated with additional notes 13\/10\/12.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ian Dunbar doesn’t feel the need to separate classical conditioning from operant conditioning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[281,12,164,11,376,375,240],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog-training-dog-behaviour","tag-classical-conditioning","tag-dog","tag-dog-training","tag-dogs","tag-dunbar","tag-ian-dunbar","tag-operant-conditioning"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1591,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions\/1591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}