Conditioning Options

[k9pack]

Conditioning

by Dale McCluskey

From Surrendering to Nature - A Definitive Dog Psychology Guide 2010


Conditioning is used to influence the direction and focus of a dog's mind. Nature however takes priority over any other influences. Attempts to influence the direction of a dog's mind without shifting power contaminates the conditioning process and overrides it. Nature has power and authority over the dog's mind within the context of nature, the pack role, unconditional power and authoritative thinking. The issue of conditioning itself becomes contaminated by the issues relating to power. Trainers introduce conditioning without understanding its relationship to nature, dominance and power and how it influences a dog's mind. Further trainers often give conditioning wide validation as a fix all without nderstanding its role as it links to nature. Its validation and influence is found in its role as a secondary reinforcer rather than the primary one. The primary influence is through creating a harmonious state through shifting of power. Once a level of harmony has been created conditioning can be introduced as a secondary reinforcement mechanism.
How a dog responds within a conditioning based model can mislead us into assuming response must be directly associated to overall good behavior, positive change and success. This however is not always the case with conditioning once you begin to apply context as it links to nature and behavior. The true litmus test of success can be found in whether power has been shifted and level of authoritative thinking diminished. A dog can continue to old onto power even while responding for an expectation of something in return. To understand the shortcoming of conditioning one must understand how a dog's mind is being influenced, pulled and directed within the context of nature. From the surface and within a controlled environment a dog holding power and another responding in a follower state will appear the same using conditioning. Once however a dominant dog becomes exposed to other dogs, people and situations the influence of nature begins to take hold and pull the dog's mind. The follower dog remains focused on the owner and within a conditional state. Further psychological alignment and power shifting does happen regardless of the type of training, interaction or intervention introduced. The troubling aspect is that the main issue is not fully understood, exposed and resolved. Success is left more to chance than design. Authoritative based interactions will have a higher percentage of success than conditioning based models linked to emotionally based interaction. This is based on the type of psychological path being followed. Both types however will have a fail rate based on lack of insight into the psychological links, influences and associations.