02/09/2025
Food has a very important role to play in training your dog.
For evidence of this one needs only to consider the experiment conducted by Ivan Pavlov, the Russian psychologist.
As it happens, Pavlov set out to investigate one thing – canine digestion – and ended up discovering something completely different.
During his work with dogs he noticed that they began to drool not just at food, but at signals that suggested food was on the way.
So, he tried pairing a neutral stimulus – a bell – with food until the bell alone made the dogs salivate.
The result? Essentially, the concept of classical conditioning, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to trigger a conditioned response.
Pavlov’s work is the foundation of modern behavioural psychology and animal training.
More importantly, the same principles are used to counter-condition fears and phobias.
Zazie Todd explains this very well in her book ‘Wag’:
“Classical conditioning is most often used as counter-conditioning in conjunction with desensitization as a way of helping dogs to overcome fears. Desensitization means presenting the stimulus at a very low level that the dog is happy with, and gradually increasing it so the dog becomes used to it, the opposite of sensitization. In counter-conditioning every single presentation of the stimulus is followed by something the dog likes, such as chicken or cheese, so the dog learns the stimulus predicts good stuff happening. Note that no behaviour is required from the dog in desensitization and counter-conditioning other than to be aware of the stimulus, as the aim is to change the dog's emotions, not behaviour.”
Although our main focus is on health and diet, the Honey’s Healthcare Team has a great deal of collective experience when it comes to training and behaviour. Our services are free and there is no need to even pretend you are interested in becoming a customer.
