Pavlov is at work with your puppy

Classical conditioning is defined as conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus is paired with and precedes the unconditioned stimulus until the conditioned stimulus alone is sufficient to elicit the response.  This phrase was coined by Ivan Pavlov and is always at work in dog training. 

It is incredibly important to realize that while dogs do learn by operant conditioning, classical conditioning is working too.  Dogs can associate objects or people as good or bad.  For instance, if everytime your dog is around children your dog gets kicked in the face the dog learns to associate children (neutral stimulus)= kick in the face (bad thing).  Eventually, this dog may see the situation like this: children are a bad thing.  The children are no longer a neutral stimulus and worse they are a predictor of bad things.

If everytime your dog is around children and they drop food on the floor (as children often do) then dog learns that children=yummy food on the floor (good thing).  Overtime dogs learn that children are a good thing.

Let’s look at another example.  When Rufus the terrier was a puppy, he saw a man a couple times with a beard that harassed him.  This bearded man poked him, made him bark and laughed when he tried to run away.  Now when Rufus sees a bearded man- he thinks that they are going to harass him.  The bearded man (which was a neutral stimulus) has become a predictor of bad things to come (a conditioned stimulus)

If Rufus’s experience were different where everytime he met bearded man he got a really yummy cookie, the bearded man (which was a neutral stimulus) would be a predictor of good things (a conditioned stimulus).

For some dogs it takes many bad experiences to react to a situation and for others it only takes one.  When you are socializing a puppy, you are working to make positive associations with new and novel people, objects, etc. 

Classical conditioning does not work alone.  Operant conditioning is always at working the background too which makes it sometimes confusing as what to reward and what not to reward.

Socialize Your Puppy

You have a new puppy.  Now what?  Do the best thing you can for your puppy to prevent him from exhibiting aggressive behaviors later on- socialize your puppy!

There are critical periods in the development of a dog that occur during puppyhood.  It is critical to the well being of your puppy to take advantage of this time period to prevent issues later on in the dog’s life.  Although debated, most experts agree that the window for most dogs closes at about 12-14 weeks of age. This does not mean that if your dog is older, he cannot be socialized but depending on how much older and what his previous experiences are, it may be more difficult.

Hopefully your breeder has already begun the process.  If your breeder was not responsible enough to do this, you need to work overtime.  Even if your breeder did start the process, socializing your puppy should be a major priority right now.

During this critical time, you should work on exposing your dog to following situations and make sure that your dog has a positive experience.  In what Margret Hughes from Positive Paw Dog Training coined the Puppy Rule of 12, your puppy should experience twelve of the following things before your dog is twelve weeks of age.

12 New People (Outside of the Family)

12 New Objects

12 New Sounds

12 New Surfaces

12 Fast Moving Objects (not allowed to chase)

12 New Locations

To ensure your puppy is starting out right, it would be wise to take it a little farther and do the following also.

Handled by owner and family twelve times a week

Eat in twelve different locations

Played with twelve different safe, healthy puppies or adult dogs

Safely left alone from family or other animals twelve times a week for a minimum of five minutes.

Every exposure should be positive.  You can keep it positive by not pushing your dog, feeding yummy treats or playing with your pup during the exposure.  You are working on making positive associations with these things.  Your dog doesn’t have to do anything.  Allow your pup to investigate the object on his own time.  Be patient.  He will change his mind when he realizing that the object means him no harm.