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

When Maggie, a young Australian Cattle Dog-mix, first walked into our agility training yard, she was obviously scared. As I crouched near her, hand outstretched with a treat, she slunk away. When another dog moved on the opposite side of the yard, she jumped. When her handler led her gently past a tunnel, she tried to escape and run away. When a truck drove by on the street nearby, she cowered.

Maggie was, quite literally, afraid of everyone and everything. I’m sure that if the sun had been out that day, she would have been afraid of her own shadow.

When using classical conditioning to change how a dog “feels” about certain stimuli, we simply pour on the treats, no matter what the dog is doing; his behavior doesn’t affect the flow of treats. Eventually, he will associate good things with formerly angst-producing stimuli.

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