Part 1 : Stimulus-Response theory
To really figure out what do the dogs know, we need to look closer at how their environment affects their decisions and ultimately, their behavior. Studying the psychology is one (and probably the best) way to attempt this intricate task. Scientific, is the way I find most effective and believable. Number of scientists with even bigger number of their experiments (both ethical and unethical) have provided us with so much information to fathom in one lifetime.
Psychology, is an extremely complicated topic. Hence we need to get a real good hang of it’s core basics. When we’re talking about ‘Canine Psychology’, its a microscopic study of psychology in general. Human brain and in turns the psychology is far more complicated and advanced compared to that of a dog’s. Dog’s brain only lingers in the basics of psychology and that’s why it comprises of fundamental theories of evolution of psychology. In simpler words, dog psychology is only so much evolved that we have to go deeper into the concepts which are insignificant otherwise.
For ex. the process of learning through trial and error carries so much more importance in the dog’s world. Dogs practically learn how to deal with day-to-day things by trying them out and eliminating the action that gives an error. This process takes considerably more time compared to humans. Trial and error, for the dogs, is the way of life.
After trial and error, comes the Stimulus-Response theory. The S-R theory is very similar but not the same as trial and error. As the name suggests, this theory studies the nature of stimulus (a trigger), natural or unnatural, and the response it gets from the animal, in this case, the dog. Stimulus-response is a very important theory to understand the dog behavior. Once you start focusing on figuring out the stimulus that caused a response from the dog, it becomes so much easier to understand ‘why the dog does what he does‘.
For ex. The dog knows that the sound of wrapper means treat. Now in this case, sound of the wrapper is a ‘Stimulus’ for the dog. And him running towards you and starting to dance is the ‘Response’. The ‘Stimulus’ triggers a response. The dog has long associated the sound of the wrapper with appearance of the treat and that’s why his mind automatically triggers a positive reaction without the dog actually having to think about it.
Stimulus – Response is the most basic of the components of psychology on which are based more complicated and advanced methods of dog training. Two of which are known as ‘Operant Conditioning‘ and ‘Classical Conditioning‘ which I’ll talk about in posts to follow.
Gozo (left) and Sinu (right) interacting for the first time…
Your dog knows you better than you know your dog. -Beauty in the Beast
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