Post by sonnyt2 on Sept 22, 2017 20:59:54 GMT
I have a Pomeranian who is about 3 pounds overweight. It sounds like a small problem, but thats like being 30 pounds overweight (which is obviously not good). She has this issue because when she was a puppy, she was trained with food. For example when I trained her to give me her paw, I would kneel in front of her with a treat in my hand, and I would gently lift the back of one of her front paws with my free hand. This worked very well, and to put it in to terms of classical conditioning;
CS: Kneeling in front of my dog with a treat while moving her paw
UCS: Treat
CR: To sit and give a paw
UCR:The treat
In my story, we see that the conditioned response is to have the dog obey what is asked of her and give her paw.However, against my efforts this somehow backfired on my entire family because this became the unconditioned response (UCR) not only to dog treats but to any food items that met my dog's gaze. It came to the point where my dog would wave her front paw non-stop every time she thought there was a chance we'd give her food. She does this because I failed to disassociate the act of sitting and raising a paw, with the prospect of being rewarded with food.
CS: Kneeling in front of my dog with a treat while moving her paw
UCS: Treat
CR: To sit and give a paw
UCR:The treat
In my story, we see that the conditioned response is to have the dog obey what is asked of her and give her paw.However, against my efforts this somehow backfired on my entire family because this became the unconditioned response (UCR) not only to dog treats but to any food items that met my dog's gaze. It came to the point where my dog would wave her front paw non-stop every time she thought there was a chance we'd give her food. She does this because I failed to disassociate the act of sitting and raising a paw, with the prospect of being rewarded with food.