Product Description

This book is the secret for increasing the speed and efficiency of dog training. With the freedom of understanding "how your dog learns" comes the ability of making the process easy, efficient, and enjoyable for your dog. You'll be in a position to excel-erate your dog's learning! At long last we have someone who can explain all-important learning theory and make it intriguing and interesting. Agility enthusiast, obedience competitor and psychologist Dr. Pamela Reid introduces you to cutting-edge scientific techniques in dog training including, autoshaping retrieval (i.e., teaching your dog to train herself), and "errorless discrimination learning" for teaching retrieval and directed jumping. You'll love this book?it's so useful and utterly fascinating.

Table of Contents

• Forward
• Introduction
  • A Few Comments About The Book
  • What is Learning?
  • What is Learning Theory?
  • Knowing Versus Doing
  • Motivation
  • The Four Stages of Learning
• A Bit of History
  • Why Study Animals?
  • The Story of Clever Hans
  • The Principle of Parsimony
  • The Science of Behaviorism
• The Lingo
  • Psychological Jargon
• Classical Conditioning
  • What Goes With What?
• Operant Conditioning
  • Does What I Do Affect What Happens To Me?
  • The Four Possibilities
    • Positive Reinforcement
    • Negative Reinforcement
    • Positive Punishment
    • Negative Punishment
  • Classical or Operant Behavior?
• Single Event Learning
  • What's Important in my World?
  • Sensitization
  • Habituation or Sensitization?
  • Adaptation
  • Learned Irrelevance
• Factors that Effect Learning
  • Deprivation Level
  • The Reward
    • Contrast Effects, Jackpots, and Reinforcer Sampling
  • Novelty
  • Timing
    • Classical Conditioning
    • Operant Conditioning
    • Primary and Secondary Reinforcers
    • Establishing a Conditioned Reinforcer
  • Schedules of Reinforcement
    • The Different Types of Schedules
    • Ratio Schedules
    • Interval Schedules
    • Different Reinforcement Schedules
    • Duration Schedules
    • Which Reinforcement Schedule Should You Use?
    • What About Reinforcement Schedules in Classical Conditioning?
  • Premack's Theory of Reinforcement
• Stimulus (Signal) Control
  • Discrimination and Generalization
  • A Package of Stimuli
  • Which Stimuli will the Dog Learn About?
  • Salience and Overshadowing
  • Blocking
  • The Reliability of SD
  • Context Effects
  • What About Teaching A Discrimination?
    • Is There a More Efficient Way?
    • Errorless Discrimination Learning
    • Can Dogs Learn Scent Discrimination With an Errorless Procedure?
  • Preparedness
  • Discrimination or Reflexive Behavior?
  • Learning Sets
  • Experimental Neuroses
• Extinction
  • Is Extinction Unlearning?
  • The Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect
• Aversive Control of Behavior
  • NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
  • Electronic Collars and Avoidance Responding
  • Extinction of Avoidance Responding
  • Species-Specific Defense Reactions
  • POSITIVE PUNISHMENT
    • Considerations on the Use of Punishment
      • How Strong Should a Punisher Be?
      • How Important is the Immediacy of Punishment?
      • What is the Right Punishment Schedule?
      • Does it Matter What the Punisher is?
      • Does Punishment Teach the Animal What it Should do?
      • Is Punishment Subject to Stimulus Control?
      • Punishment is Rewarding to the User
      • Behavior that Persists Despite Punishment
      • What's the Scoop on Using Punishment?
  • NONCONTINGENT AVERSIVE STIMULI
• Negative Punishment
• The Application of Learning Principles to Changing Behavior (A.K.A. Behavior Modification Techniques)
  • Teaching New Behaviors
    • Shaping by Successive Approximations
    • Prompting
    • Chaining
    • Autoshaping
  • Modifying Existing Behaviors
    • Conditioned Emotional Responses
    • Counter-conditioning and Desensitization
    • Flooding/Response Prevention
    • Taste Aversion Learning
  • Some Common Behavior Problems
    • Phobias
    • Separation Anxiety
    • Interdog Aggression
    • Aggression Toward People
• Social Learning
  • Social Facilitation
  • Stimulus or Local Enhancement
  • Imitation
• Conclusion
• References and Recommended Readings

About the Author

Pam J. Reid earned her Ph. D. in Psychology from the University of Toronto, where she specialized in animal learning, behavior, and cognition. She is a certified applied animal behaviorist and operates a Toronto-based private practice for problem pets. She competes in agility, obedience, and flyball. She lives with Shaahin (the Saluki), Ciaran (the Border Collie), Eejit (the Border Collie/Border Terrier mix), and Carmen (the cat).