Quote: Bob Scott

So many!

I think my first dog books for reading were those by Albert Payson Terhune.

Of course Jack London's "CALL OF THE WILD" was right there also.

I don't know if LB still has them but the three volume set of

"APPLIED DOG BEHAVIOR AND TRAINING" are top shelf.

Expensive but they are more like college text then training books although they cover just about anything I've seen or read about dog behavior and training.

I got the set one at a time with Christmas/Bday/Father's day, etc LB gift certificates.

Ok, just bought myself the book "APPLIED DOG BEHAVIOR AND TRAINING Vol 3" by Steven R. Lindsay

So now how do I decipher it? some I get, but some I really don't know what he is trying to say....

Vol #3 is probably the best at explaining different methods but all three add a lot of understanding to different studies of behaviors.

It often refers to different studies such as Pavlov, Skinner, etc.

Like I said they are more like college text but, having no college myself it didn't seem to be over my head.........and it took me 5 yrs to get through high school.

Back then all the text books were written in stone and I just felt the books were to heavy to take home for home work.

Pavlov and Skinner didn't write any more in stone, unless you mean their own heads. They certainly did great scientific work, but yes scientific work often is a rather dry thing. And there creeped in some errors too, although accepted nowadays in all science about learning, not only animal learning, also human. Did you know that the in between the commonly accepted and used word "extinction" was a translation error? Extinction does in realitity not exist and Pavlov himself never used this word. He spoke about inhibition. Nevertheless the expression made its way and now is indelible.
One reason why I prefer doggish thinking.

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

Pavlov and Skinner didn't write any more in stone, unless you mean their own heads. They certainly did great scientific work, but yes scientific work often is a rather dry thing. And there creeped in some errors too, although accepted nowadays in all science about learning, not only animal learning, also human.

Did you know that the in between the commonly accepted and used word "extinction" was a translation error? Extinction does in realitity not exist and Pavlov himself never used this word. He spoke about inhibition.

Nevertheless the expression made its way and now is indelible.
One reason why I prefer doggish thinking.

A) I think Bob meant that "way back in his school days" paper had not even been invented yet (like me saying that "I road to school & back on my pet Dinosaur") LOL...

B) But I do LOVE your great point on "extinction" VERSUS "inhibition" vis-à-vis Pavlov's teaching, THANKS

Candi and Bob I almost laughed my head off. I am asking myself now if after all perhaps extinction does exist just yet in certain old heads.

My understanding

Extinction; To eliminate from existence.

Inhibition; To reduce a possibility of something happening.

Hard to really say if certain forms of training actually "extinguishes" or just "inhibits" the behavior.

Candi, training a dinosaur to ride can be a bear.

They REALLY are handler hard and putting a pinch collar on one is dern near impossible. I hadn't gotten into markers yet.

Research results about the cognitive functions of the brain (of humans and other mammals, also birds and reptiles) have proven, that extinction (which is understood like Bob defines) does not exist in the long term memory.

The brain has a protection mechanism,a kind of buffer, the ultra short-term memory, which retains only briefly ((1/5 - 1/2 second) the flood of stimulis which we perceive superficially.

The next filter is the short term memory. (1-2 hours). It decides what can enter the long term memory. If it excludes something we could speak from extinction.

Only what really matters for a being or/and has been learned/trained gets processed by the brain and finally enters the long-term memory, where it is stored for ever. It can not be forgotten any more (unless the brain is suffering from certain deseases) even though we often have the feeling to have forgotten something definitely we once had learned.

It is merely "pushed back", because of not having been used for a long time. Once we start to use or relearn it, the process of learning is much faster than if the same subject or behaviour has to be learned completely new.

If all that also applies for dinosaurs, I don't know for sure, but it was a reptile, so I guess it could be clicker trained too. Just try it, Bob and don't forget consistency, engagement and random rewards.I think you would have a well behaved, affectionate pet and powerful means of locomotion. How and where then your method of toilet training would take place is another question.

I guess that all makes sense but I suspect the term extinction will continue to serve the same as Inhibition in the dog training world.

I started out teaching dogs without all the descriptions. We just did it so I'm still trying to figure out the past 20-30 yrs of new fangled terms.

I live on a corner lot with a very small back yard and the two dog houses are in my wood working shop so I'd have to find one of those critters that doesn't get very big.

You' right Bob. The term extinction will remain now solidly as a rock. And it after all only matters in science, not in dog training. As long as training within this is correct, the rest we can forget. It was just that I once - "when they still wrote in stone" - I had studied this stuff and now it began to interest me again, although it's not easy to recover "
"extinct" things.

About the critters I do understand you and besides this is better for all of us if no genius turns up who'd wake up this huge monsters again.
They way you chose is for you certainly wonderful and captivating enough.