Classical Conditioning - How Your Dog Learns by Association

Simple “treat-slinging”? Look again; there’s a powerful force at work here.

Classical conditioning, quite simply, is learning by association. It is when a person or animal associates one stimulus with something that was not previously associated. For example, if you ran an electric can opener in front of a dog who had never eaten anything out of a can before, he may not respond to the sound in any way. But if you begin feeding the same dog canned food, he’ll soon learn to associate the sound of the electric opener with the advent of his dinner, and begin to display great excitement whenever the electric can opener runs. Classical conditioning happens everywhere, all the time, with or without our help or knowledge. Most of us have dogs that get excited when they hear the jingle of keys. A set of keys, by itself, has no special meaning for dogs. But when those keys are linked with walks or car rides, they can trigger as much excitement as the walks or car rides themselves.