Learning from Puppies

A little more than 5 years ago, I adopted a shihtzu-lhasa apso mix puppy that was living in really bad conditions. His owner had abandoned him when he became too rowdy around his daughters. When I took the puppy in, I was desperate for the puppy to learn how to behave the way I expected all my domesticated dogs to behave. 

Learning as a product of conscious effort

I was taking up my psychology degree then, and I would use the famous techniques in the study of learned behavior, such as Classical Conditioning, where I would intentionally fill a large basin of water and tap it three (3) times every single time before I gave him a bath. After a while, I just needed to tap the basin and my dog would come find me for his bath. Three years in and my dog learned to come find me after hearing the faucet filling up the basin with water.

But the puppy, whom we fondly named “Panget,” had learned behaviors from his previous owner which we struggled with, which was why I used Operant Conditioning to force him to unlearn these bad behaviors. I would scold him when he did his “business” inside the house, and also praise him when he did it outside the house.

Learning as a product of unconscious effort

Panget would learn on his own by observing my other domesticated dog, “Whitney”. Since Whitney lived with us right after she was born, we did not struggle with any bad behaviors that she needed to unlearn. Panget had also taken Whitney as a role-model, often mirroring the observed behavior which guaranteed praise, affection, and treats from us.

One particular memorable incident was when Panget had observed that Whitney would be patiently waiting beside my dad as we ate dinner at the table, and at the end of each meal, Whitney would be able to get scraps due to being patient. I believe that Panget was able to deduce that by doing so, he would be able to get treats as well. Panget would then patiently sit beside my dad to wait for the scraps.

You might think that this is just a dog’s plain instinct to wait for food; however, it is quite funny to note that both Whitney and Panget would never wait beside my mom. I believe that this is because that both of them never observed her to give any kind of reward for the waiting behavior!

Learning as a continuous process

Throughout the years, however, I found that it was actually observational learning that had stuck better. The two methods worked fine, but it had to be repeatedly done for Panget to remember what was expected behavior. There are days where he would revert to his old ways, and we would struggle to teach him again. There are also instances where Whitney would pick up Panget’s bad behaviors and we would have to force her to unlearn them. This is why learning is a never-ending process – as long as our brain receives data to process, we continue to adapt and learn.