When it comes to dog training, the more that we understand about how dogs learn, the easier it will be to train them. Neuropsychology is the science of the relationship between the dog’s brain and the dog’s behavior. Now if you were a disciple of B. F. Skinner you would be thinking that animals are creatures of their environment and that brain activity has nothing to do with behavior. Actually, those who are strictly behaviorists commonly accept this erroneous theory. But as you will see as this article progresses that a dogs brain has a couple of things in common with our brain and that dogs are smarter than we give them credit for.

There are two sets of structures in the brain. One is the cerebral cortex and the other is the Limbic System and both these structures have an important relationship when it comes to behavior. The limbic system is the part of the brain that is involved in the expression and the experience of emotions. The cerebral cortex on the other hand is involved in the functions of learning, thinking and problem solving. These two brain structures, the cerebral cortex and the limbic system share an inverse relationship. When either the cerebral cortex or the limbic system is activated the other is inhibited. If the dog is mentally stimulated and encouraged to think, the cerebral cortex is activated. In this state, the dog is less likely to experience intense emotional responses. Likewise, if the limbic system is activated, the dog is in a highly emotional state, his ability to understand and learn is hindered. The more emotional the state, the less likely he will be able to learn.

This relationship between the cerebral cortex and the limbic system has obvious implications in relation to dog training. If our dog is in a highly emotional state such as anxiety or fear, his ability to learn a task may be impossible. There are situations during the training process that arise that could cause stress in a dog preventing it from learning as much as we would like. Let me give an example of how this works with people. It may make it easy to understand how it applies to dogs. Let’s say that you are a schoolteacher or a sales person who has to make a presentation to his peers and you have been working on it for weeks. Just before you are to make your presentation you receive a phone call that your child was in a serious car accident. How well would you be able to make your presentation if at all? You went from a mentally activated state to an emotionally activated state. Your ability to concentrate on your presentation is now serious inhibited at best.

To give an example of how this applies to a dog let’s examine this same concept as it applies to the electric fence containment system. Let’s say that you purchase an electric fence to contain your dog. You begin by putting the flags around the yard to establish the boundaries for your dog. If the stimulation level (shock) on the collar is too high, you could frighten your dog to the point where it is afraid to go into the yard (smart dog). The stimulation (shock) scared the dog. The dog’s brain has activated his limbic system, so his ability to understand and learn the boundaries is non-existent. The dog can’t think because it is too stressed out. Our goal is not to eliminate stress all together, but to find a level of stress necessary to contain the dog without hindering his ability to learn. There are those that would have you to believe that any stress at all should be avoided altogether. The other school of thought recognizes that stress is a fact of life and that it is better to learn how to manage that stress effectively. Which is more stressful, watching your dog run in front of a car and possibly get hit, or teaching the your dog to stay home?

When working with a dog, if we recognize that the dog is becoming stressed, we need to reduce the negative side effects by providing rich positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior. Look for an opportunity to reward your dog for something that he is doing right. One of the best ways to accomplish this when training a dog on the fence is to reward the dog with meat or some other special treat while showing the dog the safe area in the yard well within the boundaries. The second way of reducing the stress while working on the electric fence is to be certain that the dog’s collar has very low levels of stimulation. NOTE: Some of the store bought systems only have one level of correction or stimulation. (One size fits all). These type systems can create problems for the do it yourselfer. Either the collar stimulation is too high and frightens the dog or the stimulation is too low and will not contain the dog. Dogs are individuals with different temperaments and personalities. What may be effective with one dog may be inappropriate for another.

Dog’s are like people, they have different sensitivities to physical stimuli. One person can stub his foot on a coffee table and scream bloody murder, while another person doesn’t even say, ”ouch”! Tailoring the training tools and methods to the individual dog makes all the difference in the world. Any training tool used improperly could injury or frighten a dog. When it comes to using electronic training equipment, you should really consider obtaining professional advise from someone with successful experience. There are some trainers and behaviorists that recognize that the use of electronic training equipment such as shock collars is needed in some circumstances, but have little or no experience using them.

Understanding these basic principles and the inverse relationship of the cerebral cortex and limbic system should help you to communicate with your dog more effectively. It doesn’t matter what kind of training equipment is being used or what you are trying to teach your dog. Look to cultivate the methods of training that activate the cerebral cortex encouraging the thinking process and minimize those methods of training that cause excessive stress that inhibit your dogs ability to learn.

Contact Information

Tom Beitz is the owner of the Academy for Puppies and Dogs and is an authorized dealer for Pet STOP Hidden Dog Fences. Tom can be reached at (716) 628-0651 to answer your questions or he can be found on the web at www.smartdogtrainer.com . E-Mail: Tom@Smartdogtrainer.com

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