The early dog trainers played a critical role in developing the world of dog training as we know it today.Īfter the cavemen brought wolf cubs into their dens as companions, domesticated dogs were used for purposes such as hunting, herding, droving, pulling sleds, and killing vermin. The principles of operant conditioning are far from new and this discovery was actually a re-discovery of principles that dog trainers had been using nearly a century ago.īeginning in the 1800s, without using the technical terminology or being aware of the scientific theories related to training, dog trainers were using many operant conditioning procedures.
Starting in the 1980s, the dog training world seemed to ‘discover’ operant conditioning. By the 1980s positive behavioral procedures were commonplace in both dog training and human services settings. In the 1960s, humans were often treated with shock therapy and the use of aversive stimuli.
These changes in thinking matched what was happening in the treatment of people with disabilities and mental health problems. Only 20 years before, many trainers felt that dogs had to be “broken” in order to be trained. Today’s trainers owe much to their predecessorsīy the 1980s, there was a paradigm shift toward more positive methods in dog training. The Evolution of Modern-Day Dog Training & Obedience