Download Excel-Erated Learning: Explaining in Plain English How Dogs by Pamela J. Reid, Tascha Parkinson PDF

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Some trainers use two different signals - one which "marks" behaviors but is not specifically associated with reward (it would have to be established as a conditioned reinforcer initially to have any lasting meaning to the dog) and one which serves to signal imminent reinforcement. Ramba recommends using two different words "good" and "out". "Good" is initially established as a conditioned reinforcer but then later is used in situations where the dog is expected to continue working. "Out" always signals the end of a sequence of behaviors and a primary reinforcer.

In order to classically condition a reliable eyeblink, you would have to go through the pairing as many as a few hundred times, and if you were to do that, your friend would involuntarily blink whenever she heard a pen click! Different behaviors condition at different rates. Eyeblink conditioning is an easy procedure to set up but it doesn't condition easily. Other behaviors, such as salivating, take relatively few pairings for reliable conditioning. I had the bizarre experience of developing a conditioned response in myself a while back.

I called, he came charging in, I told him to down, and he dropped like a Border Collie. ). Well, the excellent response to the extremely powerful motivation was due to me allowing him to sample the reinforcer first - the jumpstart. But the fact that he never again had any problems with the drop on the drop-on-recall exercise I can only assume was due to the jackpot. It was as though he didn't understand how the two component responses (recall and drop) went together. Once he was motivated enough to try it without getting his knickers all in a knot, the Iightbulb went on.