Dogs can be classically conditioned to associate objects with food. An experiment was designed using Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning to determine if a hungry dog can be trained to associate a neutral stimulus (sound of a can opening) with food. To test this theory, a can opener machine was activated for 15 seconds during feeding times, twice a day, for three total days. Following the trial period, meal times were delayed by 90 minutes Firstly, my dogs are mainly fed dry food, therefore I bought can food to last for 3 days. The can opener was used as a stimulus to capture my dogs attention once their attention was piqued by the can opener, they associated the sound of a metal tin opening with dinner time. Even on occasions when it was not feeding time. …show more content…
Ever since Pavlov(1902) accidental discovery of classical conditioning many studies have been done to test this theory. There are many ways to learning, using the three basic principles of learning association, reinforcement and motivation. . For this experiment the aim is to classically condition dogs to associate a can opener with food by systemically pairing it with food over a period of 48 hours. This will be achieved by applying the associative learning technique when is feeding time by presented, an unconditioned stimulus i.e. the can opener, to the dogs and slowly repeating the word “food”. The proceeded to the open a can of dog food;Roll the can opener around the rim 8 times before placing the food in their bowls. Repeat this at a minimum of three times a day. If it is a dry snack roll the can opener over an empty tin. On the third day, without making an announcement, proceeded to open a can opener whilst my dogs were in the other room. The goal is to monitor if the dogs will appear, upon hearing the sound of the tin opening without a formal announcement being