spiritdogs
Posted : 1/10/2010 9:48:23 AM
willowchow
espencer
tenna
Learning slows down and deteriorates when animals are punished - so it makes training even harder.
I'm truly curious. How can this be true if dogs live in the here and now???
I think the statement that they live in the here and now can be somewhat misleading, because it implies that dogs have no memory, but we know that isn't true at all. They don't probably spend much time sitting around contemplating the future, or their navels for that matter, but they make associations, and the association between actions and punishments is strong, and does factor sometimes into slower learning. The most tentative dogs are sometimes the ones that have made an association with moving in a certain way and receiving a punishment. And, I'm not implying that the punishment always comes at the hands of a human, either. It can be that they got poked in the foot when trying to cross a stream. So, some learn that they shouldn't cross the stream, therefore it might be harder for a trainer, for example, to teach them how to cross in a different spot to avoid being stuck again.