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 is practiced, the better it becomes.
Is any of that seem new to you? Or is it obvious?
When an animal or person does something pleasurable, the brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine. When training dogs, the treat given is pleasurable, but the pleasure in doing that task can be more than the value of just the treat. That’s why conditioned reinforcers, and expectancies of future rewards, can work rather than just having to give a dog a treat every time. It is why people keep putting money into the slot machine, as well.
But pleasure is fleeting, and it goes away. If anything was unrelenting in providing pleasure, then we could not stop doing it, which is why the brain has mechanisms to bring pleasure down to a rest state after a pleasurable activity. The closest thing to unrelenting pleasure is addiction. However, even addictions eventually require more and more of that pleasure stimulation to work, in other words, over time, you build a tolerance for that level of stimulation and will need more and more of that addictive substance or activity for you to get the same effects because the after effect is a result of a neural mechanism to bring things back down.
When an activity is not pleasurable, the opposite happens. For example, in the case of failure, so-called “frustration neurons” can emit nociceptin which suppresses dopamine.
What that means is there is a regulatory mechanism that operates like of like a seesaw… get too high, the body will bring it back down. Get too low, the body will bring it back up.
If something is satisfying, it is more likely to be repeated. If it is unpleasant, it is less likely to be repeated, or the animal or person will quit. If and activity is easy and pleasurable, or at least there is an expectation that it will be attainable and pleasant, the animal will likely repeat that activity. On the other hand, if an activity is difficult and unpleasant, or at least there is an expectation that it will not be attainable and will be unpleasant, the animal will likely do less of that activity or give up doing it.
Now the weird stuff and the bad stuff. Behavioral disturbances to this system can be created, either accidentally or on purpose, which can alter the normal functioning of these systems. Addictions can be created. The accidental versions would be such as a dog that obsessively chases lights and shadows after someone gets them to chase a moving laser pointer dot. One of the side effects include anxiety. The purposeful use of these effects can cause dogs to desperately seek pleasure (comfort) when experiencing discomfort. The dogs then appear to have massive levels of drive, but since this is artificial, there will be similar side effects including anxiety. The light/ shadow chaser becomes obsessive: addicted. The dogs that are purposefully addicted to pleasure/ pain become obsessive, too, and give off a picture of drive and motivation that isn’t real and is beyond the natural talents of the dogs: addictive.
I see dog trainers using the term “dopamine” for this or that training tool or method or training activity. But is the release of dopamine a cause or an effect? It is not the cause; it is part of the effect. More than just the release of dopamine is involved in learning and motivation. Thus, the terminology is transferred into a gimmick.
The normal things we do with dogs, such as having them play fetch, do obedience training, hunt, guard the home, play with the kids, go for walks, eat out of a food bowl, and such are not addictive. The body can regulate those things as mentioned by Thorndike’s Laws. My recommendation is to stay in that realm and not play the role of Victor Frankenstein.
Plan accordingly.