How Animals Learn

All animals—whether dogs, cats, ducks, or even people—learn by the same basic principles. When we understand these laws of learning, we can apply them thoughtfully and effectively to any species.

At Bright Pet Behavior and Training, we believe in using training techniques that are based in science and designed to help dogs succeed. Two of the most important learning theories we use in dog training are classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is learning by association. It’s happening all the time, whether we intend it or not.

You may have heard of Ivan Pavlov, a scientist who was originally studying digestion in dogs. He noticed that the dogs in his study began to salivate before they were even given food. Over time, they had learned to associate the sound of a bell (which preceded the food) with eating. Eventually, the bell alone made them salivate. The bell had become a conditioned stimulus, triggering the same response as food.

Here’s a real-life example:
I once visited a park in Alabama with a duck pond. Near the pond was a duck pellet dispenser that worked like a gumball machine. As soon as I turned the lever, the sound of pellets falling into the chute caused a group of ducklings to come running. The sound itself originally meant nothing—but through repetition, they had learned it meant food was coming. That’s classical conditioning in action.

It’s not just pleasant experiences that create associations. Imagine you're walking your dog past a child, and your dog pulls toward them out of curiosity. You respond with a leash correction. Over time, your dog might start associating children with uncomfortable leash pressure, potentially leading to nervousness or fear around kids.

This is one of the risks of using aversive methods in training: you can’t control what the dog is associating with the unpleasant experience. It might not be the pulling behavior—it could be the environment, a person, or another dog.

Operant Conditioning

While classical conditioning is about associations, operant conditioning is about consequences. It teaches the dog that their actions affect what happens next.

There are four quadrants of operant conditioning. To understand them, you need to know two key things:

• Reinforcement increases the likelihood a behavior will happen again.

• Punishment decreases the likelihood a behavior will happen again.

In this context, positive means adding something, and negative means removing something—it doesn’t mean good or bad.

Positive Reinforcement (R+): adding something the dog wants in order to increase the likelihood that a behavior will occur again.

Example: Giving the dog a treat when they sit in order to increase the likelihood that they will sit in that situation in the future.

Negative Reinforcement (R-): taking away something aversive in order to increase the likelihood that a behavior will occur again.

Example: Holding continuous pressure on the leash, then removing the pressure as soon as the dog sits in order to increase the likelihood that they will sit in that situation in the future.

Positive Punishment (P+): adding something aversive in order to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur again.

Example: Smacking the dog on the head when the dog jumps on you in order to decrease the likelihood that the dog will jump in the future.

Negative Punishment (P-): taking away something the dog wants in order to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur again.

Example: Removing your attention when the dog jumps on you in order to decrease the likelihood that the dog will jump in the future.

At Bright Pet Behavior and Training, we use positive reinforcement and negative punishment—the two most humane and effective quadrants—for the majority of our training. Our goal is to help dogs learn in a way that builds trust, confidence, and cooperation.

In every training and behavior modification plan, we use both classical and operant conditioning together. By carefully managing the environment and your dog’s experience, we can guide learning in a way that is clear, consistent, and positive.

Can you think of examples of classical and operant conditioning from your own dog’s life?

• What association does your dog make when they see a leash?

• Have you accidentally rewarded behavior without realizing it?

• What’s something your dog learned through experience—good or bad?

Understanding how your dog learns is the first step to becoming a more effective, compassionate trainer.