The role and possible uses of animal learning in canine behaviour rehabilitation

The first step to help rehabilitate canines from certain behaviours (i.e. ‘behavioural disorders’) is a good and accurate diagnosis. Analysis of the source of the problem behaviour, the dog’s driving force to behave as such and specific contextual signals in which the problematic behaviour occurs is the second stage of rehabilitating canines. The comprehension of two specific areas is especially essential in understanding the rehabilitation process. One area is “equine ethology”. This refers to the ‘innate’ behavioural repertoire of a dog, where the dog’s driving forces are determined by the evolutionary history of dogs. The second specific area is “learning theory” which refers to all the variety of learning occurrences which each individual dog has experienced that has moulded its behavioural response to the environment from the early stages of its life.
As each dog would invariably differ one from the other in learning opportunity and ability, “problem” behaviours have to usually be approached individually based on historical and observational analysis of a dog on a case-by-case basis. Examples of “problem” behaviours that usually need correcting can range from submissive urination to dangerous aggression, from destructiveness to disobedience, from too active and playful to ignoring the owner completely.
In general, certain behaviours may derive from associative learning, which occurs as a result of ‘normal’ equine driving forces. These behaviours are due to a dog’s ability to learn, through operant conditioning, to avoid situations that are averse and to move towards situations that are rewarding.
Operant conditioning refers to using consequences to change an occurrence and/or form of behaviour. There are four well-studied types of Operant Conditioning. They are Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment, and Extinction (http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/Part2.htm). Both Positive and Negative Reinforcement result in the strengthening of a particular behaviour while both Punishment and Extinction result in the weakening of a certain behaviour.
Various methods have been used and are still being practised in equine behavioural rehabilitation. Traditional methods of training and rehabilitation have predominantly relied on negative reinforcement and punishment, and many of those working with problem dogs still use such methods. In using these methods for canine rehabilitation, it is essential that the owner or trainer knows when to reward the dogs. This basic but critical skill is vital in the rehabilitation process as giving rewards too frequently may stop dogs from developing improved responses and being too stingy may cause them to lose interest and motivation. Furthermore, eliminating rewards is pivotal in the success rate of any extinction programme designed to get rid of unwanted responses.
One example of animal learning is Negative Reinforcement. This is where a particular behaviour is strengthened by the consequence of the stopping or avoiding of a negative condition. It involves using something that the animal does not like to obtain a response the owner wants and then removing the very thing that the animal does not like when the animal responses in the manner that the owner wants. For example, when a dog is asked to “sit” and upward pressure may be applied on the leash that makes the dog undergo some form of discomfort. As soon as the dog sits, the pressure is stopped. The release of the upward pressure reinforces the “sit.” This also increases the chances of the behaviour in the future.
A schedule of reinforcement may be used to determine how often a particular behaviour is going to result in a reward for the dog. There are five types of schedules in general. They are the fixed interval, variable interval, fixed ratio, variable ratio, and random. Briefly, a fixed interval is where a reward occurs after a fixed amount of time. For example, the reward may be given to the dog every ten minutes. A variable interval schedule is where reinforcers will be distributed after a varying amount of time. This is where the reward may be given out at times after five minutes, sometimes three, sometimes seven, sometimes one. A fixed ratio means that if a behaviour is performed X number of times, there will be one reinforcement on the Xth performance. A variable ratio schedule means that reinforcers are distributed based on the average number of correct behaviours. And finally a random schedule is where there is no correlation between the animal’s behaviour and the consequence. All of these schedules may be used in achieving Negative reinforcement can thus eliminate a “problem” behaviour from a rehabilitating dog.
In Extinction a particular behaviour is weakened by the result of either not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition. It refers to the lack of any result following a behaviour. Generally, when a behaviour is inconsequential, and produces neither a favourable nor an unfavourable consequence, it will gradually occur with less frequency. Extinction specifically occurs in a situation when a behaviour or response that had in the past been reinforced by the owner or trainer is no longer effective. In the Skinner box experiment, this is shown with a rat pushing a lever and being rewarded with a food pellet several times, and then pushing the lever again and never again receiving a food pellet. Eventually, the rat would stop pushing the lever (Pavlov, 1960). Extinction thus simply refers to the reducing of the probability of a particular response from a dog when a characteristic reinforcing stimulus is no longer presented to it.
Extinction in Classical conditioning refers to the reduction of a conditioned response when a conditioned stimulus repeatedly occurs without the existence of the unconditioned stimulus it used to be paired with. In Operant conditioning however, extinction refers to the actual decline of an operant response when it is no longer reinforced in the presence of its discriminative stimulus. In order for an extinction programme to effectively work, it must be done religiously. Extinction is considered successful when responding in the presence of an extinction stimulus is zero. When the particular behaviour reappears again after it has gone through extinction, it is considered spontaneous recovery. Extinction programmes are especially useful in getting rid of certain “problem” behaviours from canines.
Prescription of fixed rehabilitation methods for canines with behaviours that are undesirable is not possible. This is because each dog has different individual learning experiences which have to be further linked to the general behavioural responses that are expected to occur in response to a particular environmental change in order to understand what any why a response takes place. An accurate assessment of the factors contributing to each problem is necessary before an effective treatment plan can be developed.