Muzzle conditioning, or muzzle training, is a valuable lesson that all dogs should have. Muzzles have an unfortunate stigma among humans. Too many people are resistant to muzzling their dogs. This is a shame. The ability to muzzle your dog should be no more controversial than the ability to put on a pair of glasses when you need them. The biggest difference is we can’t tell our dogs what this device is or why they have to wear it. This video shows my process for acclimating dogs to muzzles easily. It also discusses why your dog should be muzzle trained, regardless of their demeanor.
Classical Conditioning
Also known as Pavlovian Conditioning, this is the oldest-known and most basic way for a dog to learn. If you have ever taken a psychology or biology course, you may be familiar with Ivan Pavlov and his dog-related experiments. In these tests, he gradually conditioned dogs to begin salivating at the sound of a bell - not really just a bell, but an arbitrary noise that had no prior meaning to the dogs. He did this using food, a stimulus that naturally makes dogs begin to salivate. By repeatedly giving food immediately following the sound of the bell, those dogs came to associate the sound with feeding time. As such, the dogs would begin to salivate even if the food did not come.
For our purposes, there are a few key points to consider. First, the dogs could not help but salivate at the sound, having been conditioned to expect food. Classical conditioning is an automatic physiological response and requires no effort from the dog. Second, it is possible to extinguish these associations over time. Pavlov went on to teach the dogs to forget the meaning of the bell, by separating its sound from feeding time. With some of his dogs, he rang that bell over and over, without the subsequent feeding. Eventually, those dogs stopped salivating at the sound. So dogs can become habituated to a stimulus and stop reacting to it. Third, this process works for both appetitive (pleasant) stimuli and aversive (unpleasant) stimuli.
For the purposes of dog training, we are less interested in classical conditioning, because it does not require the dog to do anything or refrain from doing anything. It does not matter what exactly Pavlov’s dogs were doing when the bell sounded. Whether they were sitting, standing, lying down, pacing around their kennels, barking, or quiet, the bell sounded and they either got food or they did not. Mostly, you will find that classical conditioning helps explain why our dogs do certain things, like barking at doorbells, and how we can use it to break that cycle.
What Is “Science-Based” Dog Training?
There’s a lot of confusion out there about how dogs learn, what we can do to help them, and what the science says about dog training. “Science” is a buzzword that’s often thrown around to add weight to a particular point of view. But real science is based on hypothesis and testing, and conclusions are drawn from the results of those tests. Starting with an end goal in mind and setting up a study to fit your desired conclusion is just propaganda. Or put more bluntly - it’s bullshit.
Anytime you see a trainer marketing their approach as “science-based,” you should consider their motivation for doing so. Animal behavior is indeed a science. But it’s not cutting-edge stuff. Our understanding of animal behavior has remained pretty solid for about a hundred years. Often, it’s a marketing term used to make the trainer appear progressive and evolved. As if they have some special knowledge others don’t. Yes, science is important, but no trainer has any unique claim to it.
In the next couple of posts, I want to cover the well-established and uncontroversial view of animal behavior science. This is the stuff that’s been agreed upon by biologists and psychologists everywhere. You’ll find it in textbooks for both subjects. Specifically, I’m referring to the topics of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. These govern the associations that animals make with their environment, as well as the behaviors they choose to engage in, respectively. Understand them, and your dog’s behavior becomes really easy to understand. Ignore them at your own peril.