Today was my first lesson on my Dog Behaviour, Psychology and Training diploma course and it was really great!
Today's lesson was an introduction to the basic, fundamentals of dog behaviour. The learning objective was stated as 'Identify how dogs learn and understand the principles of behaviour'.
I learnt about how dogs are motivated by biological drives, for example energy, they need to reserve their energy because they need to find food. Also, motivators like a new environment are powerful because dogs like to search new places and it could increase their chances of survival in the wild.
Another takeaway point that I found interesting was the two main methods of training dogs. The first one, and the old one was MAKE a dog do as we wish, this is also called the boss and slave method. The second method is get the dog to WANT to do as we wish. This is the more modern way of doing thing and the way most trainers encourage people to use with their dogs.
Within my first lesson I learnt about the different theorists that are used within dog training. First of all there is Ivan Pavlov who came up with the idea of 'Conditioned Response' or 'Classical Conditioning'. Secondly, there was Edward Lee Thorndike who discovered the 'law of effect' which states that responses that produce rewards are more likely to increase ni frequency than those that do not produce rewards. Finally, there was BF Skinner who came was inspired by the workings of these other theorists and came up with the idea of 'Operant Conditioning', when studying on Rats.
