Dogs And Dopamine
There is a lot of talk about dopamine. Let’s break it down a bit. Edward L. Thorndike (1874 – 1949), proposed the Law of Effect: satisfying outcomes are more likely to be repeated, and unpleasant outcomes are more likely to be lessened or stopped. He also proposed the Law Of Exercise: the more a skill […]
Dogs And Thorndike
Edward L. Thorndike (1874 – 1949), a member of the philosophy department at Harvard, made his mark by doing experiments with animals. His most famous experiments were those involving cats and dogs in trapped in puzzle boxes. Out of these experiments, he proposed his Law of Effect: satisfying outcomes are more likely to be repeated, […]
Dogs And Resource Guarding
When a dog guards a resource, animate or inanimate, they are responding to a perceived existential threat. We get offended when a dog guards a food bowl, toy, location, person or other animal and we make the situation worse, escalating the threat. Adding any kind of pain stimulation, or threat of pain or injury, can […]
Dogs And Whining
I was at a student’s house the other day. As we were wrapping up the lesson, her dog came running into the room, came to her, and started whining. It then ran back towards the hallway, and then came back to her, whining again. We immediately got up and encouraged the dog to “tell” us […]
Dogs And Associative Learning
What is the main difference between how I view puppy lessons and adult dog lessons? Here is my condensed version. The younger the dog, the earliest experiences and learning start with stimulating and guiding unconditioned behaviors and stimulating basic innate neural mechanisms. With older dogs, the training becomes more perceptual, drawing upon that foundation to […]
Dog Training Theory vs Real World
There are some big leaps that must be accomplished to take a concept and turn it into a real-world application for your dog. Here are the basic steps. First Leap: it helps to have a dog to work with. In fact, it helps that you have worked with a lot of dogs first. I get […]
Dogs And Type C Drive
In this third article on Drive Types, I will begin the discussion of what I call Type C Drives. In previous articles, I have been explaining how I have decided to define Drive: “I’ve had to choose to organize the different definitions of drive into 3 categories: a motivation like hunger as Type A Drive, […]
Dogs And Type B Drive
In previous articles, I have been explaining how I have decided to define Drive: “I’ve had to choose to organize the different definitions of drive into 3 categories: a motivation like hunger as Type A Drive, play as Type B Drive, and the classical set of these behaviors (Sex; Prey; Defensive; and Pack) as Class […]
Dogs And Type A Drive
In a previous article, I described how I have decided to define Drive: “I’ve had to choose to organize the different definitions of drive into 3 categories: a motivation like hunger as Type A Drive, play as Type B Drive, and the classical set of these behaviors (Sex; Prey; Defensive; and Pack) as Class C […]
Dogs And Drives
In the classical sense of the use of the word, “drive”, hunger is not a drive. It is a motivation. However, since many scientific studies by scientists and dog trainers equate hunger with drive, I’ve had to choose to organize the different definitions of drive into 3 categories: a motivation like hunger as Type A […]