Operant Conditioning and a funny story...

First, Operant conditioning is the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior. There are 4 contexts of operant conditioning, but the one I am going to address is positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by a favorable stimulus (commonly seen as pleasant) that increases the frequency of that behavior. In the Skinner box experiment, a stimulus such as food or sugar solution can be delivered when the rat engages in a target behavior, such as pressing a lever.

Do you get that? Ok, now here is my story...

Riley loves food. She loves food so much that I think she would literally die eating it. I wish I was kidding, but I am not. As I have stated before in a diary, she had to get an enema once due to her over eating. She will eat so much that she won't be able to move and will lick the air because she is so uncomfortable. She doesn't know when to stop. It doesn't appear she has that gene. We always say that we could get her to do nuclear physics for a treat.

Anyway, we don't free feed, we always have to make sure food is not available. We definitely have to work to keep the figs in our back yard out of her way. It's terrible. Now, the reason I am telling you this is for you to realize how much Riley loves food.

We have this dog shaped container for treats that when you open the head, it will either sing, "Who let the dogs out? woof! woof! woof! woof!" OR it will sing, "You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time". Now, Riley has caught on that when she hears these two songs, she knows a treat will be following them...so, when she hears it, she comes running...every single time.

We used to just make fun of it, but it has become a valuable tool. Because she is conditioned positively with these two songs, it has basically become the come command. One day, Riley, being the minpin that she is, decided to explore the outside world...meaning...she left our yard and started to run down the street. Gina was so worried that she would be hit by a car that she immediately went into survival mode and didn't think twice about running outside and frantically singing, "who let the dogs out? woof woof woof..."

She came back immediately.

Well...last night, a dog was barking and Riley slipped out of the gate while I was outside, I yelled Riley and one by one Calen came out singing, "Who let the dogs out", then Jamie, "who let the dogs out?", and finally Gina who came out with the real container and opened it to let it sing. There was a party acrossed the street and they saw the entire thing. It was the funniest thing I have witnessed in a long time.

Just imagine a little brown dog escaping the yard and then 3 adults running out one by one singing loudly, "Who let the dogs out? woof! woof! woof!..." and then seeing the dog come running back for her treat! We laughed for awhile after that.

Side note: Before you call me out...yes, that is right...I am a dog trainer and never taught my little Riley the "come" command. Like I said from the beginning...I never trained her except for dog and leash aggression and her other basic commands, plus playing dead (which is really cute when I say "bang!"). I had her before I had my extensive training and put all of my energy into Quinn. Riley is like a cat when she isn't running down the street. She is calm, lazy, and just likes to eat and cuddle.

Tags: Come, Operant Conditioning, Treat Training, Mininature Pinscher