{"id":424,"date":"2016-01-23T00:55:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T23:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/?p=424"},"modified":"2020-03-17T20:26:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:26:02","slug":"dog-owners-to-pet-or-not-to-pet-during-thunderstorms-or-fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.illis.se\/en\/dog-owners-to-pet-or-not-to-pet-during-thunderstorms-or-fireworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog owners: to pet or not to pet during thunderstorms or fireworks."},"content":{"rendered":"

Revised August 2019.<\/p>\n

Depending on who you ask, you get a vastly different answer to the question of whether it\u2019s a good idea to pet a frightened dog (or other animal with whom you have an established relationship and that enjoys your touch) during noisy (scary) events.<\/p>\n

In the scientific literature, the overwhelming majority of articles (if not all\u2026?) recommend not petting,<\/em> meaning that petting fearful dogs inadvertently reinforces the anxious behaviour.<\/em><\/p>\n

Still, in the dog training community, many professional dog trainers do recommend petting an anxious animal, and it has been argued that \u201cpetting doesn\u2019t reinforce fear, it reduces it\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Does petting reduce fear – or reinforce it?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So which is it? Could both sides have a point?<\/p>\n

Let’s start with terminology.<\/p>\n

Reinforcement.<\/p>\n

Does petting reinforce<\/strong> fear?<\/p>\n

Well, the process of reinforcement occurs during operant learning. In positive reinforcement learning, animals learn that certain behaviours have desired outcomes, as they result in getting access to something the animal wants.<\/p>\n

The animal performs a behaviour, receives reinforcement, and repeats the behaviour in order to get some more goodies.<\/p>\n

So, what about emotions and reinforcement, then?<\/p>\n

I sometimes hear people say “emotions can’t be reinforced – only behaviours can be reinforced”. That sweeping statement suggests that emotions have nothing to do with the process of reinforcement.<\/p>\n

I disagree.<\/p>\n

I think emotions have everything<\/em> to do with reinforcement.<\/p>\n

After all, without emotional responses to stimuli, those stimuli wouldn’t be reinforcing – or punishing.<\/em><\/p>\n

Without emotional responses to incoming stimuli, those stimuli would remain neutral.<\/p>\n

It’s because<\/em> they elicit emotional reactions that they’re reinforcers or punishers.<\/p>\n

Emotions involved in positive reinforcement are in a positive feedback loop.<\/h5>\n
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Emotions involved in positive reinforcement are in a positive feedback loop: behaviour serves to get access to MORE of the resource, and the animal strives to remain in or increase that pleasant emotional state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, the dog sits, gets petted, sits some more.<\/p>\n

Petting feels good<\/em> (assuming it’s a reinforcer in the first place when delivered from one particular person to a particular animal, but let’s make that assumption, for now. People often overestimate how much their animals enjoy being petted, but that’s a topic for another blog post, perhaps…)<\/p>\n

For a cuddle-seeking animal, petting is a positive reinforcer that leads to more behaviour (in this case, sitting) and a corresponding feel-good emotion<\/em>: a positive feedback loop.<\/p>\n

The animal continues offering sits to get more attention and body contact and remain in that happy mood, at least until something more interesting happens – or until they satiate.<\/p>\n

What about fear, then?<\/p>\n

We know animals don\u2019t like being fearful, but even behaviours that animals don\u2019t appreciate may be reinforced if the reinforcer is valuable enough.<\/p>\n

So, the fear-is-reinforced-by-petting argument goes: “the animal acts fearful, gets petted and then acts even more fearful <\/strong>in order to get petted some more.”<\/p>\n

It is assumed that through positive reinforcement (adding something the animal enjoys), fearful behaviour will increase<\/em>. And presumably, the accompanying emotion too. No distinction is usually made between observable behaviour and the corresponding emotional state.<\/p>\n

However, fear is not comparable to operant behaviour such as sitting, coming when called or giving a high five.<\/p>\n

Fear is an emotional state,<\/em> and one that has immense survival value.<\/p>\n

Fear leads to predictable observable behavioural reactions such as freezing, fleeing or (if cornered), fighting.<\/p>\n

In other words, many behaviours associated with the emotion fear serve to reduce<\/strong> that emotional state, by removing or increasing the distance to the frightening stimulus.<\/p>\n

This involves, by the way, the process of negative reinforcement (removing something the animal dislikes when the animal performs the correct behaviour).<\/p>\n

For a frightened animal, hiding reduces the impact of the negative reinforcer.<\/p>\n

In other words, it’s a negative feedback loop that reduces fear.<\/em> So even though the observable behaviour (hiding) may be reinforced and showed again when the fearful stimulus is presented, the corresponding emotion is not.<\/em><\/p>\n

Successful negative reinforcement leads to relief. A reduction of fear.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Emotions involved in negative reinforcement are in a negative feedback loop.<\/h5>\n
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Emotions involved in negative reinforcement are in a negative feedback loop: behaviour serves to DIMINISH the aversive stimulation, and the animal strives to reduce or terminate that unpleasant emotional state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, it\u2019s hard to even imagine that you could positively reinforce the emotion of fear and<\/strong> the associated observable behaviours, such as hiding, since they work in a negative feedback loop.<\/p>\n

Sitting produces treats when you\u2019re hungry through positive reinforcement, and excitement increases. <\/em><\/p>\n

In contrast, hiding eliminates aversive stimuli when you\u2019re fearful through negative reinforcement, and fear is reduced.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many fearful overt behaviours serve to decrease fear through negative reinforcement: an outcome the animal enjoys. Assuming petting is something else that the animal enjoys, it should have the same effect as hiding: to reduce fear.<\/p>\n

So, the argument that petting-reinforces-fear is just plain incorrect since fear-related behaviours are governed by negative reinforcement that serves to remove the aversive stimulus, reducing the underlying emotional state through a negative feedback loop. <\/strong>Once fear has diminished beyond a certain level, the animal will stop hiding.<\/p>\n

Hiding during a thunderstorm is negatively reinforced since it reduces fear. Likewise, soliciting petting from the owner is negatively reinforced since it reduces fear. Yes, your dog will seek you out to ask for comfort when frightened, just as he will attempt to hide, since both behaviours work to reduce fear!<\/p>\n

So, many dog trainers will pet their frightened dog to good effect. However, they may be hesitant to recommend this procedure to someone who\u2019s not so used to reading their dog and changing their own behaviour.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, the people that warn that petting-could-make-fear-worse are not wrong, they just use the wrong terminology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Petting may, unfortunately, lead to increased fear or more suffering; just not through the process of reinforcement.<\/em><\/p>\n

I see no less than three potential mechanisms why this might occur.<\/p>\n

Three ways that petting a frightened animal could make things worse: extinction bursts, sensitization and respondent conditioning.<\/h5>\n