What Is Counterconditioning In Dogs?

When you think of the word “conditioning,” what comes to mind?

For anyone who has ever spent time involved in fitness or sports, “conditioning” refers to repeatedly training the body in a certain way to get better at a specific skill. The more that the motion is practiced, the easier it becomes. The American Psychological Association defines ‘conditioning’ as, “The process whereby certain kinds of experiences make particular actions more or less likely.” In other words, if an animal experiences something and responds to it in a certain way, it becomes more likely that the animal will continue responding in this way due to an established association between the stimulus and the behavioral response. Just like with physical conditioning, repeatedly practicing a behavior – or repeatedly associating a stimulus with something positive or negative – strengthens the connection until it is second nature.

In dog behavior, the term “counterconditioning” refers to the process of actively attempting to alter a pre-established association. Basically, ‘conditioning’ establishes the initial association and ‘counterconditioning’ is the act of working to change that association.

Why countercondition your dog?

In dog training, we typically like it when a dog is learning. Learning means that a dog is beginning to understand expectations, attain new skills and become better equipped to handle the world around them.

The problem is that dogs are always learning, and many times they are not learning the things that we want them to. For instance, if every time you leave the house your dog sits by a window barking at passing cars, they are learning to associate passing cars with increased arousal. The more that this behavior is practiced, the faster and more intense the response often becomes. Eventually, your dog will likely begin practicing the behavior when you are home. Then more frequently. Then the barking becomes more intense and lasts longer, until your dog is jumping up at the window or chasing back and forth attempting to get to the passing cars. By this point, your dog has been conditioned to respond to passing cars in this context through a drastic increase of arousal. Not only has a behavior been conditioned, but the underlying emotion – which in this case may be frustration, excitement or even fear – has been conditioned as well.

Another common example is the counterconditioning of a fear response. Say, for instance, every time your shy dog plays with other dogs, it becomes overwhelmed by the excitement of socially inappropriate dogs who repeatedly jump on them, chase them, and respond to their distance-increasing signals by mouthing or otherwise attempting to reinitiate play. Time after time, your dog becomes more stressed about these playdates and the negative experiences they have. Then one day you are out walking, when your dog is charged by an off-leash dog – resulting in a scuffle. Suddenly, your dog appears to hate other dogs. Perhaps they are now demonstrating intense signs of fear such as hiding, cowering, attempting to flee and possibly even urinating as soon as another dog gets close. Or, perhaps they are now responding to other dogs by barking, snarling, attempting to charge, or even bite other dogs. Either way, your dog has been conditioned to believe that the presence of other dogs equals a very undesirable experience.

In instances where a dog has developed a negative association with a particular stimulus, counterconditioning can be an incredibly valuable tool for helping to change that negative association to a positive one.

How does counterconditioning work?

A negative association can be developed through repeated exposure to a stimulus, or through an acute traumatic experience (meaning a single, impactful experience where a dog’s fight/flight/freeze response was activated). Either way, the dog now believes that:

X = bad things

In counterconditioning, our goal is to teach the dog that:

X = good things

This process can take a very long time, depending on the intensity of the emotion driving your dog’s response, and how long the association has been established for. The exact counterconditioning process will differ depending on the dog, but basically a few key things need to occur.

Nothing bad can happen to your dog during the counterconditioning process. This means that if your dog is scared of other dogs and you are attempting to expose them to novel dogs in a positive way, you absolutely MUST make sure that they are not bothered, charged, or otherwise injured or frightened by another dog. This might mean that you will only take your dog somewhere where other, calm dogs are on leash at a great distance away (such as the parking lot at a dog show, or a group obedience class), or perhaps have your dog on-leash at a distance where other, calm dogs are behind a barrier and your dog can safely observe them.
Your dog must be having positive experiences during these exposures. This does not mean what you feel is positive for them, it means what they feel is positive. In the case of a dog who is fearful of people, you may feel that novel people approaching them to interact is a positive experience which they should enjoy; meanwhile, your dog’s brain is just repeatedly confirming that humans are terrifying. You can gauge if your dog is having a positive experience by observing their body language. If they appear happy, relaxed, and willing to appropriately engage with you and their environment, then they are likely having a good time. If they appear uncontrollably excited, reactive, stressed, are not responding to known cues, or are actively demonstrating stress signals, they are likely not having a good time.
Counterconditioning must occur slowly. This process should only move as quickly as your dog will let you. Take it slowly, one step at a time, without pushing them over threshold. If you begin the counterconditioning process and notice that your dog is beginning to appear slightly more relaxed, that does not mean that it is time to make things more difficult. It means that things are moving in the right direction and that you should keep things where they are until your dog appears relaxed and happy. Once you reach this point, you only want to make things slightly harder – evaluate how your dog is handling things and then decide if you are asking for too much. Move at your dog’s pace, not at the pace you think they should be moving at.

How do you change an association?

When you are considering your strategy for counterconditioning, you will want to think about what your dog likes and enjoys most. This could be certain treats or foods, toys or games, types of affection, certain activities, or really anything. These are the tools which you will want to be tying to the triggering stimulus.

Disclaimer: Remember that in counterconditioning, the good must always outweigh the bad. If a dog is repeatedly pushed over threshold during this process, you risk poisoning your dog’s favorite things. In this instance, it is possible for your dog to begin associating the things that they like with the concerning stimulus, consequently causing them to begin disliking these things.

The objective is to use the things that your dog likes most to change their association of the triggering stimulus. For instance, if your dog is afraid of other dogs but loves a certain food, you can expose them to a non-threatening dog at under threshold while doing a treat scatter of their favorite treat in the grass. By repeatedly tying this food to the sight, smell and sound of other dogs, your dog is likely to begin associating other dogs with a positive outcome. Over time, they will likely seem much less stressed and perhaps even excited to see another dog.

Once you effectively countercondition a dog, it’s important to make their interactions with the stimulus increasingly more realistic. Never push them too far and make sure they they remain happy throughout the process for best results.

The counterconditioning process can be complicated, and unless you are very adept it reading your dog’s subtle body language signals, it is best to attempt it with professional help. This being said: when accomplished correctly, counterconditioning is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for longterm positive changes in behavior and improving a dog’s quality of life.