Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning Analysis: The Use of Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning in Training Dogs

It has been an ongoing debate whether classical conditioning is more appropriate than operant conditioning in training animals. Several researchers deem operant conditioning as more apt and diversified in handling the training of animals (Stacy Braslau-Schneck, 2003), whereas we personally hold on to the simple belief that classical conditioning is more sufficient and bettersuited to train our human's best friend, dogs, to be well-behaved and obedient at all times and functions without disregarding their natural abilities.

To start with, let us compare the definition of both conditionings, the classical conditioning (CC) and operant conditioning (OC).

Classical conditioning (or Pavlovian conditioning) is a form of learning in which one stimulus, the conditioned stimulus, comes to signal the occurrence of a second stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus (Bouton, M. E. (2007). Basically, classical conditioning is when a dog learns to associate things in its environment, or discovers some things just go together. A dog may become afraid of rain through an association with thunder and lightning, or it may respond to the owner putting on a particular pair of shoes by fetching its leash (Burch, 1999). Classical conditioning is used in dog training to help a dog make specific associations with a particular stimulus, particularly in overcoming fear of people and situations (Dunbar, Ian, 2007)

Operant conditioning (or instrumental conditioning) is a form of learning in which an individual's behavior is modified by its consequences. Two complementary motivations drive instrumental learning: the maximization of positive outcomes and minimization of aversive ones

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Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning (Lindsay, 2000). There are two ways in which behavior is reinforced or strengthened: Positive Reinforcement occurs when a behavior is strengthened by producing some desirable consequence; negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior is strengthened by avoiding some undesirable consequence. There are two ways in which behavior is decreased or weakened: negative punishment occurs when a behavior is weakened by not producing a reinforcing consequence; and positive punishment occurs when a behavior is weakened by producing a consequence that is a disincentive. In combination, these basic reinforcing and punishing contingencies provide four ways for modifying behavior (Lindsay, 2000). Reinforcement increases the relative probability or frequency of the behavior it follows, while Punishment decreases the relative probability or frequency of the behaviour it follows.

From the definitions, OC can be viewed as more proactive (more human role or intrusion), whereas CC is more passive and allows more natural elements to be incorporated in its training process. It is because OC involves and harps on positive punishment as one of its major advantages or strength, whereas CC allows a more moderate, steady process of association and understanding to take place in the mind of the targeted animals, in this case, dogs. This proves that CC is more protective of its conditioned target rather than the harsh or unpleasant criteria listed by the OC. CC is also better as it permits the dogs to respond naturally by forming an association between the conditioned stimulus (CS) with the unconditioned stimulus (US) which is usually something like their natural needs such as food, water, and shelter. Therefore, after associating the CS with the US, the dogs would react by giving a conditioned response (CS) which is unlike is unconditioned response (UR). That is, the same desirable response they give to the US would be given to the CS as they actually perceive them to be similiar or the same things in nature. However, the OC tends to take things superior, meaning dogs are treated as objects of

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Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning inferiority rather than an object of love or real companions of human beings, where they are subjected to specific tailor-made commands for the sake of mankind, thus or over-riding any intrinsic needs of the dogs. The dogs are considered to be objects, subjected to human labour and slavery, to carry out productive human activities effectively and safely. Dogs are not given much autonomy or voices in their lives and activities. All behaviour has been severely weighed and calculated beforehand for human beings to gain an upper hand in controlling and leading the dogs' lives and actions. So that none of what the dogs do after OC are subjected to their own free will but instead subjected to inhuman, unfeeling trained actions and behaviour. This is done under attempts to elicit best and standard behaviour from dogs to meet the needs of us more intelligent and highclass human species. This raises the question that whether we homo sapiens are actually that loving and caring or are just plain exploitative and master-slaves towards animals which together forms a complete ecosystem for an inhabitable living place.

According to Classical Conditioning and Dogs: Classical conditioning (respondent conditioning) deals primarily with smooth muscles and is associated with reflexes and instincts. Classical conditioning is a very important element of any training program. Its through classical conditioning that we can use and/or understand conditioned reinforcement. Understanding classical conditioning is especially helpful in dealing with problems relating to fear.

Classical conditioning involves respondent behavior such as the greeting smile of a dog meeting its owner. Respondent behavior is part of an animals inherited biological structure. It is something the animal was born with and for the most part is not something the animal had to learn. 10

Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning Respondent behaviors are elicited by stimuli that come before and causes the behavior. The stimuli that originally causes or elicits a respondent is called an eliciting stimulus. One gets respondent behavior by presenting an eliciting stimulus before the behavior, and not by controlling the consequences of what happens after the behavior occurs.

An example of an eliciting stimulus is a bright light that is shined into an animals eye. An example of the corresponding respondent behavior is the animals pupils constricting. From this example we can see that the animal did not need to learn to constrict its pupils in the presence of a bright light. Pupil constriction is part of the animals biological structure or function.

The frequency at which respondents occur are fairly predictable, in that they regularly occur when their eliciting stimuli are presented.

Respondent conditioning takes place when stimulus that does not elicit a response (neutral stimuli) is presented at the same time or slightly before an eliciting stimulus. When the new stimulus is able to elicit the respondent, the new stimulus is called a conditioned stimulus. Respondent conditioning has occurred when a neutral stimulus becomes able to elicit the respondent.

Respondent conditioning does not deal with increasing the number of responses or the frequency of responses, or teaching new behaviors. Respondent conditioning is concerned with turning neutral stimuli into conditioned stimuli that can elicit respondent behavior 10

Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning (WordPress 2012).

Therefore we can safely say that classical conditioning is the fundamental and foundational cornerstone which has operant conditioning building itself on it. Thus, proving that classical conditioning being the root of operant conditiong can safely condition the dogs successfully even without the use of operant conditioning. Operant conditioining is just an extra and over-hyped up method of dog-training which should be used with care as it tend to produce a lot of negative effects and trauma on the poor dogs if used without discretion or with poor judgment. Thus, resulting in numerous and multiple scars and issues requiring intense attention and resources to handle or overcome regarding the seriousness of the matter. Over-emphasis of OC will cause the trainer to forget that actually dogs are just living organism which need love, care and patience as much as humans do, especially when they are discovered to be sensitive and human-bonding species of a faithful and loyal breed.

Another limitation of the OC is that the dogs might be trainer-selective in displaying the trained skills. When the punisher or the trainer is not around, the dogs might completely ignore the other people desiring to check out their trained skills, thus rendering OC ineffective, limiting the effectiveness of OC considerably to within the presence of the trainer only. Reinforcements can become associated with the person giving them. If the animal realizes that he can't get any rewards without you present, he will not be motivated to act. This unwittingly means that the dogs only display their trained skills with their specific trainer whom they have an exclusive relationship, some might extend to be close, intimate and inseparable relationships. On the other hand, CC can continue unharmed or unaffected even when the experimenter is absent. This leads to a cut in costspending to maintain or support the exclusive trainer's fees and expenditure.

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Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning

A cause for concern in applying OC is the occurence of abuse when dogs frequently misunderstand or pick up their training skills too slow or with difficulty. Physical punishments can cause physical damage, and mental punishments can cause mental damage. One should only apply as much of an aversive as it takes to stop the behavior. If we have to apply a punishment more than three times for one behavior, without any decrease in the behavior, we are not "reducing the behavior", but is harassing (or abusing) the trainee (Stacy Braslau-Schneck,2003). When punishment is meted out continuously yet failing to help the dogs in recognizing their faults and mistakes involved, this will lead to physical abuse as well as dejected morale and demotivation to sink in for the dogs. Their potential ability of defending, guarding their territory is decreased as they are physically hurt and emotionally down or discouraged due to incessant beatings received from failure of understanding the relevant or new training concept practised. This might be harmful or dangerous for the dogs as well as their trainers in the long run for dogs which are inflicted with heavy punishment are more aggresively inclined and react violently to threats and brutal treatment, injuring themselves and the trainers alike in the process.

One notable drawback of CC and OC is the Extinction process. If reinforcement fails to occur after a behavior that has been reinforced in the past, the behavior might extinguish. This process is called extinction. A variable ratio schedule of reinforcement makes the behavior less vulnerable to extinction. If you're not expecting to gain a reward every time you accomplish a behavior, you are not likely to stop the first few times your action fails to generate the desired consequence. This is the principle that slot machines are based on. "OK, I didn't win this time, but next time I'm almost sure to win!" When a behavior that has been strongly reinforced in the past no longer gains a reinforcement, you might experience what's call an extinction burst. This is when the

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Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning animal performs the behavior over and over again, in a burst of activity. Extinction bursts are something for trainers to watch out for (Stacy Braslau-Schneck, 2003)!

Furthermore, there are some precautions in using positive reinforcement which exists in OC: If the animal is acting out of fear, you may be rewarding the fear response. This can happen when you coddle a shy dog. The timing must be good. If the animal did a great "stay" and you reward after the release, you are rewarding getting up. In addition, the reward has to be sufficient to motivate a repetition. Mild praise won't be enough for some animals. Others require the richest of food rewards, etc. Animals can get sated with the reward you're offering when they've had enough, and it will no longer be motivating. Reinforcers increase behavior. If you don't want your animal actively trying out new behaviors ("throwing behaviors at the trainer"), don't use positive reinforcement. Use a positive reinforcement to train an animal to do something (Stacy BraslauSchneck, 2003).

So, basically OC has more drawbacks and limitations compared to CC even though OC is considered as more versatile and straightforward in reaching certain targeted goals in the training skills aimed at improving and better-conditioning the dogs. These limitations are lethal if went unnoticed or neglected for an incubatory period, where the gnawing factors will germinate and silently corroding the internal self of the dog, gradually and horrifically distorting the positive development of a natural personality of our friendly furry companion. As they could be silent detonator factors, deadly once erupted or ignited accidentally by the trainer himself, or triggered by the circumstances involved.

Therefore, CC is greatly recommended to replace OC wherever applicable to avoid such 10

Animal Training Using Classical Conditioning lesser-reported but gaining higher recognition cases of abuse or backfiring plus side-effects compounded by OC nowadays. OC is highly publicised and garnered huge attention due to the glorification and glamourization of the trainers' role in the OC method. Therefore, the shortcomings are usually neglected or purposely overlooked to further expound the effectiveness and relevance of OC so as to increase the popularity of the profit-generating conditioning method. This can be seen through the heavy advertisements and lofty fees charged for lessons in dogtraining skills where owners actually pay through their nose to better develop the sense of overall and general well-being of their beloved or pets which can bring glory and satisfaction and honour and pride to the owners themselves. So, to overcome this problem and difficulty, especially in dealing with such like-minded ideas and personality, CC can be brought into the picture to entirely replace the systematic and dogmatic role of the OC in dealing with living animate subjects like dogs. It has always been strongly adverted that what goes around comes around. If you treat your pets with love and care, they too will treat you likewise; however, if you treat them otherwise and with much cruelty and inhumane ways, they too will in turn treat you with no mercy, loveless. As the saying goes: what goes around comes around. Finally it is love which makes the world goes round.

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