Tuesday’s Pearl: Let Pavlov be your friend through thunderstorm season. Fear of thunderstorms is common: at its worst, storm fear can lead to extreme distress and even self-injury. More commonly, though, dogs tremble, pace, pant and are just miserable throughout the long season. Classical conditioning is important with thunderstorm fear. It can help to associate the ‘bad’ storm with a positive stimulus like food, especially if you do this predictably enough that the dog learns there is, in fact, a link between thunderclaps and something good. This is simply learning by association, and acts on involuntary ‘unconditioned responses’ such as salivation or anxiety. Watch your dog for early signs of nervousness, and start to ‘change the subject’ (say, from bad weather to bits of hot dog) early. Feed for no reason at all (counter-conditioning) or ask your dog to perform some easy, distracting cued behaviors and reinforce them. However, it’s important to remember that fear responses are not voluntary and therefore cannot be operantly ‘rewarded’. Therefore, it’s absolutely OK to reassure your dog by petting, massaging, or just sitting together – this will not reinforce the fear, which cannot be turned on and off. However, counter-conditioning fear with food, games, or new toys can be a great strategy during bad weather, so that the ‘conditioned response’ is decreased fear. Thank you, Dr. Pavlov. #vetbehaviordogs #dogs
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:31:51 +0000
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