Science of Dog Training
by Tricia Fagan
{puppy101}
a brief history of the
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he first big scientific breakthrough in the area of animal behavior was accidentally discovered by Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was a Nobel prize-winning physiologist. While attempting to study digestion, he discovered the phenomena now known as classical conditioning. Pavlov’s original experiment involved measuring the quantity of a dog’s saliva.
Much to Pavlov’s consternation, the dogs began to salivate before the food was actually given. The dogs had learned to predict when food would appear. Intrigued, Pavlov changed his experimental goal, and began to investigate a new idea. This new idea was that an external conditioned stimulus could be used to elicit an involuntary response. To validate his new idea, Pavlov began to use his now-famous bell as the conditioned stimulus. Pavlov would ring the bell, and then give the dogs food. The dogs quickly learned to salivate at the sound of the bell. While Pavlov’s classical conditioning is a powerful tool in the animal trainer’s toolkit, the most important discovery was yet to come. The “biggest hammer” in the animal trainer’s box is operant conditioning. B. F. Skinner did the pioneering research in operant conditioning. Skinner discovered that behavior was mostly a result of consequences. If you touch a hot stove and are burned, you are unlikely to touch a hot stove again. If you work hard at your job and are handsomely rewarded for it, you are likely to continue to work hard. If you sing in public and are praised for your singing, you are more
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likely to sing in public again. If a captive dolphin jumps high out of the water and then receives a piece of fish, the dolphin is likely to jump high again. If your dog sits, and is rewarded with a piece of meat, he is likely to sit in the future. During World War II, two of Skinner’s graduate students, Marion and Keller Breland, worked with Skinner on the Navy’s first guided smart bomb. The bomb was guided by pigeons! While the pigeon guided bomb worked as designed, the navy admirals were reluctant to place it into production. Instead, they preferred to wait for the Manhattan project. Marion and Keller were so impressed with the technology of operant conditioning, they formed a new company, “Animal Behavior Enterprises”. Animal Behavior Enterprises, or ABE, trained animals for entertainment shows and commercial applications. Keller unfortunately had a heart condition and passed away at a young age. Marion turned to the U.S. Navy’s first director on animal training, Bob Bailey, to assist her in running ABE. The U.S. Navy hired Bob Bailey to head a multi-
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