Learning Theory 101: Extinction

In my post on operant conditioning, I mentioned that one of the possible (though rare) consequences for a behavior is that nothing happens. If nothing happens in response to a behavior during the learning phase, the behavior is typically unaffected one way or another.

However, if nothing happens in response to a behavior after the dog has learned it, extinction can occur. Extinction happens when a previously learned response is reduced or disappears, and understanding the process of extinction- and the accompanying concepts of extinction bursts and spontaneous recovery- can help you affect your dog’s behavior.

Two types of extinction
When a behavior has been learned through classical conditioning, extinction happens when the conditioned stimulus is no longer associated with the unconditioned stimulus. Let’s go back to Pavlov’s dogs, who learned that the sound of a bell (the conditioned stimulus) predicted the coming of food (the unconditioned stimulus), and began salivating when they heard the bell ring as a result. The salivation became an automatic response for them, but if the bell rang and then the food didn’t come enough times, they would stop salivating when they heard it. That would be extinction.

When a behavior has been learned through operant conditioning, extinction happens when the consequences no longer follow the behavior. Remember that behaviors only increase due to reinforcement, so what this means is that if a behavior is no longer reinforced, the concept of extinction tells us that the behavior will go away. Although extinction works for both classically learned behaviors and operantly learned ones, I’ll discuss them in the context of operant behaviors today for simplicity’s sake.

How long does it take?
Extinction can happen quickly, or it can take a very long time. There are three main factors affecting how quickly a behavior extinguishes.

The first is the reinforcement history. If a dog has been reinforced for doing something many times, it will be difficult to convince him that behavior is no longer going to pay off. The second is whether or not there has been a history of a delay between the behavior and the reinforcer. If the dog is used to waiting for his treat after doing something, when a reinforcer doesn’t come at all during extinction, he may assume he just needs to be more patient. The final factor has to do with the reinforcement schedule used. Using an intermittent schedule- that is, only giving a treat sometimes- makes the behavior harder to extinguish because the dog thinks that he might get the treat next time instead.

How do you do it?
If you’re trying to get rid of a behavior through extinction, the first step is to figure out what’s reinforcing it. Then, you need to remove that reinforcer. That’s it!

Sound simple? It really isn’t. We humans are notoriously inconsistent, which means that our dogs are often unintentionally and accidentally reinforced for things. Since intermittent reinforcement strengthens a behavior, making it resistant to extinction, this works against us. For extinction to work, you must be absolutely consistent in not reinforcing the undesirable behavior.

Complicating matters is the fact that some behaviors are self-reinforcing, meaning that the dog gets some kind of internal satisfaction from performing the behavior. Unfortunately, you can’t control that. And of course, the dog gets to define what’s reinforcing, so you may think you’ve figured out what’s driving the behavior, only to find that your efforts are having absolutely no effect on the behavior.

Is that why it’s getting worse?
Surprisingly enough, no. If you implement an extinction procedure and find that the behavior is getting worse, it actually means you’re on the right path. This is due to the absolutely maddening phenomenon known as the extinction burst, which is the sudden and temporary increase in the behavior’s frequency or intensity. It’s easy to understand why this happens when you think about it- imagine you have just put some money in a pop machine, pushed the button, and… nothing. No soda! So you push the button again, then harder, figuring that you must not have done it quite right. That is an extinction burst.

Extinction bursts typically happen almost immediately after you’ve quit reinforcing the behavior, and are usually short-lived. They do sometimes come back intermittently, but each time they do, they’re shorter in duration, have a lower intensity, and happen less frequently. Just ride them out, and eventually you’ll find that the behavior is gone entirely.

A word of caution
Even if you manage to successfully get rid of the behavior, it’s always subject to something called spontaneous recovery, in which the behavior comes back despite the lack of reinforcement. Generally, if you avoid reinforcing it, it will extinguish again rapidly. However, spontaneous recovery does remind us that it is best to prevent undesirable behaviors from starting in the first place.

The bottom line
Keep these things in mind as you train your dog. If you want him to continue to do a behavior reliably, you can create a resistance to extinction by having a long reinforcement history, by delaying the time between the behavior and the reinforcer, and by using an intermittent reinforcement schedule.

On the other hand, if your dog has a long history of jumping up or only sometimes gets food when he counter-surfs, these behaviors will be harder to get rid of, too. With undesirable behaviors, it is always best to manage the situation so that your dog can’t practice the behavior and thus be reinforced for it.


I hope this series on learning theory has helped you develop a decent understanding of how to condition responses in your dog, and how to uncondition them if need be. If not, I hope it's at least been enjoyable to read! I know I’ve really enjoyed writing them- it’s helped really cement some of the concepts in my brain. Although there is a ton more to learning theory, I think I've covered the major points. Please let me know if there are any other aspects that you’d like me to cover- I'd be glad to do it in the future.

It's working!

About six weeks ago, I posted about my rather unorthodox training plan to reduce Maisy’s reactivity. In that entry, I said that Maisy had learned that a bark-n-lunge would be rewarded if she turned back to me immediately. As a result, my trainers and I theorized that I had created a rather undesirable little behavior chain.

Since the easiest way to get rid of undesirable behaviors is through extinction, we created a two-pronged plan. First, I ignored the bark-n-lunge. I didn’t call her back to me, I didn’t reward her for returning to me voluntarily, and I didn’t even look at her when she did the whole I’m pretending to be reactive routine. Second, I very heavily reinforced appropriate behaviors, both proactively as a counter-conditioning measure and as a reward when she chose them instead of a bark-n-lunge.

Now, as a reminder, I know this isn’t the typical method of dealing with a reactive dog, and it isn’t the course of action I would normally recommend, or even follow. I did this under the guidance of two highly qualified and experienced trainers. If you’re dealing with a dog who barks, growls and/or lunges at people, dogs or things, I highly recommend that you seek help from a good positive reinforcement trainer.

Okay, with the disclaimer out of the way, I am so pleased to report that the preliminary results are in…

At first, Maisy seemed quite confused. A behavior which had reliably paid off for her in the past was no longer producing the results she was hoping for. As the first week wore on, she became increasingly frustrated, and on the fourth and fifth days she demonstrated an extinction burst.

On both days, we were at a local pet store that has a large training ring that you can rent by the hour, working on jumps and heeling past distractions. On both days, Maisy saw a trigger and had a huge reaction- no, it was an overreaction. Something that would normally get several barks was treated to an extended round of barking and growling. It was actually quite embarrassing, as I knew I had to ignore it, but the trigger- in both cases a person carrying a large bag of dog food- looked at Maisy with some reservation. More than that, since I had to completely and utterly ignore Maisy’s behavior, I continued my heeling pattern (sans dog), which probably made me look quite crazy! At the time, I was fairly certain that I was seeing an extinction burst, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to get worse or not.

Thankfully, it has not. As the weeks have gone on, she has continued to try the behavior out occasionally. However, both the frequency and intensity of her reactions have dramatically gone down. For example, she’s been to two trials during that period. In both cases, despite being stressed, she held herself together and only had one minor outburst at each trial. They each consisted of a brief bark, a small lunge, and then a self-interruption. And, even more exciting, this week she got through our entire reactive dog class without a single bark, lunge, growl, huff or wuff. She was truly amazing!!

I don't think Maisy will every be a completely normal dog. I know that she will have days where she regresses and falls back on her old behavior patterns, especially when stressed. I also know that there will be days that I have to manage her more than others. And, of course, I know that my first priority will always be to help her feel safe and secure, a task which will require eternal vigilance on my part.

We still have a lot of work left to do. As the reactive behavior has reduced, she has shown more behaviors that look like poor impulse control. She is doing a lot of “friendly lunging”-she’s pulling and straining towards things while on leash, but with huge, sweeping tail wags, and more importantly, quietly. She now looks ill-mannered rather than aggressive. The interesting thing is that what she’s doing now is very similar to how she behaved as a puppy.

At this point, we have been working Control Unleashed exercises for about a year, and realistically, I expect that we have at least another six to twelve months of hard work ahead of us. For example, I’m hoping to increase the duration of calm periods so that I'm not constantly shoveling treats in her mouth. I also need to help her learn to demonstrate calm behavior with increasing amounts of stress. Of course, each time the environment gets busier, I need to decrease my duration criteria, so I think we’re entering a period in which the level of reinforcement ebbs and flows based on the environmental distractions going on. This will take a level of training sophistication that I intellectually understand, but will need to practice to get it right... which, of course, will lead to the inevitable setback.

Even so, I am so thrilled with the progress Maisy has made, and can’t wait to continue to learn and grow with her. I am determined to put in the time and effort to help Maisy feel and act better. She is a truly amazing dog, and she deserves it.

A Little More Orthodox

Last week, I wrote an entry detailing my new approach to working with Maisy’s reactivity. Unsurprisingly, people have reacted with confusion, mostly because this is a rather unorthodox plan, and not at all what is normally recommended. Heck, if someone came to me and asked me how they should work with their reactive dog, I wouldn’t be pulling up that entry! Instead, I’d pull up this one, because today, I’d like to talk about the more usual methods.

Be aware that this entry is just an overview. If you have a reactive dog and you’re just starting out, you really want to find a good positive reinforcement trainer. There is so much at play with reactivity that it’s just easier and safer to have a second set of eyes looking at what’s going on.

Still, there are four main things that basically every good trainer will help you do:
1. Determine the dog’s triggers and thresholds
2. Counter-condition the emotional response
3. Help your dog develop impulse control
4. Teach alternate behaviors

I’ve written about thresholds before, but it needs to be repeated: it is absolutely critical that you do your best to stay under threshold when you’re working with a reactive dog. A dog that is in the throes of a full-out, overly-emotional response is not going to be in a place where he can really work through his issues.

So, the first step in working with a reactive dog is to figure out what causes the dog’s reactive response, and the proximity to the trigger in which the dog reacts. For example, one of the first triggers I identified for Maisy was bicycles going by, but only if they were closer than about 25 feet. Over time, I’ve decreased that threshold to about 6-8 feet, which is far more manageable.

In order to reduce the threshold, you need to start doing counter-conditioning. This addresses the emotional component to your dog’s reactivity. Counter-conditioning is pretty easy, but it takes patience. It does not happen overnight- I’ve spent over a year doing this with Maisy. Here’s how you do it: take your dog close enough to the trigger so that he notices it, but not so close that he loses it. Then feed a constant stream of treats until the trigger leaves. What this does is teach your dog that Big Black Dogs (another of Maisy’s triggers) aren’t scary. Instead, they are a reliable predictor that good things (treats) are going to happen! Therefore, Big Black Dogs become a Really Good Thing, not something to lunge and growl at.

Another component to reactivity is a lack of impulse control. I think this is the part that I’ve actually spent the most time working on with Maisy. Helping her learn that she can control her behavior has really helped boost her confidence and help her relax, which reduces the fear that drives her reactivity.

There are a lot of things you can do to develop impulse control, and again, a good trainer can help you figure out which ones will be best for you and your dog. One of my favorite impulse control games is doggie zen, which teaches the dog that the get what they want, they need to exercise self-control and look to you instead. Another impulse control activity that I really like is the Relaxation Protocol. As the name implies, it is more about relaxation than controlling impulses, but it does help.

Finally, you need to add in some alternate behaviors, something the dog can do instead of lunging and barking. Alternate behaviors (also called incompatible behaviors or default behaviors) should be heavily rewarded when offered. Maisy has a few things she does instead of behaving reactively. The two she does most are lying down (especially with her chin on the ground), and looking at the trigger and then immediately looking at me. Alternate behaviors are helpful because they teach the dog a better behavior, and it helps remind the handler to reinforce good behavior.

There’s a great program out there that combines all of these things: Control Unleashed. It is amazing! It has games for impulse control, for dealing with triggers, and for teaching alternate behaviors. It also helps build your relationship with your dog and creates focus in a distractible dog. All dogs can benefit from Control Unleashed, but anyone who owns a reactive dog absolutely must read this book and incorporate the techniques, and if possible, join a class based on the book.

So, given all of this, how did I arrive at my unorthodox training plan? Well, I’ve worked all of the steps above, and I’ve worked them hard, with regular classes, training plans, and many hours on my own. And it’s worked. My counter-conditioning has been very effective. Her “reactive behavior” isn’t really reactivity any more. Reactivity is primarily fueled by emotions and a lack of impulse control, but that’s not what’s going on with her anymore. Her body language is much more loose and relaxed. It’s not about impulse control either; when I give her a job to do (i.e., a chance to earn reinforcements), she very rarely displays reactive behavior.

It’s also important to note that I’m still following all of my advice. I’m still counter conditioning triggers, I’m still working on impulse control exercises, and I’m still rewarding alternate behaviors (in fact, I’m increasing the amount of treats she gets for alternate behaviors). The only thing that has changed is my response to her behaviors that look like reactivity (i.e., lunging and barking). Like I discussed in my last entry, she figured out that she can make me give her a treat by performing the behavior formerly known as reactivity. So, I’m not doing it anymore on the theory that she’ll quit doing the behavior if it doesn’t pay.

Instead, I’m completely ignoring the outburst. If I feel like she is truly over threshold, I will increase distance between her and the trigger, and then counter-condition by rewarding an appropriate behavior, but I’m not making a big deal about it like I used to. If she’s obviously relaxed- for example, if she has “helicopter tail” (my term for a big, loose tail wag that makes complete circles and engages her entire body), or if the bark is a “play bark” (identifiable by pitch), I am completely ignoring her for 15-30 seconds, and then asking her for something (usually asking her to get into heel position and do pivots, although I’m trying to randomize that as well so it doesn’t create another component to her behavior chain).

It’s definitely working, and I’m really excited to see some of the changes in her. It’s still exhausting at times- we were both worn out after class last night- but I’m seeing a huge difference in her. I can’t wait to share her progress with you.

My Dog is Smarter Than Me, or: Breaking the Reactive Behavior Chain

My dog is smarter than me.

It is often said that whenever you are with your dog, one of you is training the other. Every moment is a subtle yet complex set of interactions in which behaviors are being established, maintained or changed. Sometimes we train the dog, but sometimes the dog trains us. Maisy, in fact, is an excellent trainer, so skilled that I often don't realize that she is shaping my behavior in her favor. She not only has a very clear idea of the behaviors she wants from me, but she also is very good at eliciting the behaviors.

I want you to throw my ball. I want you to give me a treat. What do I have to do to get you to do that? Does this work? No? How about this? No? How about this? Ah-ha! That worked! I’ll do it again! And again! And again!

Of course, this is what good dog training is all about- the dog works for a reward. It’s a win/win situation, really. The handler gets what they want- a dog sitting or coming or whatever- and the dog gets what they want- a treat or a ball. The trick is that the handler has to time the reward to coincide with the behavior she wants; if the timing is off, the dog learns to do something else entirely.

And, I obviously made some mistakes in what I reinforced, because Maisy has figured out that if she displays a reactive behavior, there is a very good chance that I’ll give her a treat.

Here’s how she learned that: in the past, when Maisy would react to something scary by lunging and growling or barking, I would call her name to interrupt the behavior and direct her attention away from the trigger and back to me. I timed my click and treat so that I thought I was reinforcing her becoming silent and looking at me. And I guess I was, because she learned that if she lunged and barked or growled, and then returned to me quietly, she’d get a treat.

Like any dog who has been reinforced for doing something, she started offering that behavior, even if it was a behavior that I didn’t want. She didn't know that. After all, a dog can't know what we intend to train. A dog simply does what works. And acting reactive worked for Maisy.

It took me awhile to realize what was going on. I first noticed that she didn’t seem as scared of things, and that her focus and attention was improving. Then, my amazing trainers, Jane and Robin pointed out that Maisy seemed different in class. She was still displaying reactive behaviors, but her body language didn’t really match up with her actions; she looked loose and relaxed while lunging, and self-interrupt her behavior to turn back to me with this expectant look, as if to say, “Did you see that mom? I did good, huh? Do I get a treat?”

After several weeks of this, I decided that something needed to change. While it was clear that I’d been quite successful in counter conditioning her fear response, I also began to understand that in the process, I had inadvertently created a behavior chain in which she could earn treats by “acting reactive.” After some discussion with Jane and Robin, I decided to take away the rewards so that the behavior didn’t pay off any more (something that is technically called extinction).

So, two weeks ago, I started working with Maisy differently. I decided that I would ignore all future instances of reactive behavior. If she lunges and barks or growls at something, I don’t call her name, I don’t try to interrupt the behavior, I don’t ask her to do something else instead, and I don’t even look at her! The behavior gets absolutely no reward… or even a response, lest that is enough to encourage her.

However, I didn’t feel that it was fair to ignore undesirable behavior without rewarding her for desirable behavior, so I also drastically increased the amount of reinforcement that Maisy gets for appropriate behaviors (such as sitting quietly, lying down, looking at me, etc.), both in general and especially in the face of a trigger.

So far, it’s going fairly well. She’s confused, and doesn’t understand why she is no longer getting a reward for something that’s always paid off in the past. The frequency of the behavior hasn’t lessened at all, but I think maybe the intensity has. I think this will work, though I must confess that I'm worried about the likelihood of an extinction burst. With my luck, it will happen at one of the two trials I am planning to attend with her in the next month.

Still, it will be nice to be smarter than my dog, even if it is just for a fleeting moment.