In 1970 American psychologist Dr. Albert Bandura developed the social learning theory. He said that learning has a social element to it and that new behaviors could be learned by modeling. Modeling is simply watching others do something and then imitate their behavior. Part of his theory was based upon his earlier study “the Bobo doll” what he did in 1961, a now very famous research.
The Bobo doll was a blow up doll that you could kick or punch. The early violent version of games of the now violent Computer games I guess. In short, the experiment had a group of children doing arts and crafts, games etc. Very enriching. In another class room he had a group of children that were watching a video of a woman kicking and punching the Bobo doll, while she was doing this she was yelling and screaming at it. She did this for about 10 to 15 minutes. She was yelling hit it, kick it and basically pummeled the poor clown.
The children that observed this behavior in the video eventually start imitating this behavior by being violent against the Bobo Doll. The children from the art and craft group did not pay attention to the Bobo Doll at all. So the children that watched the violent behavior on video imitated the aggression on the bobo dog without any reinforcement. So why did they copy this behavior. According to Dr. Bandura and the Social Learning Theory, the new behavior was learned out by observation and imitation.
Let’s now watch a short segment of his experiment and have Bandura himself explain it.
So know that we know the concepts of Social Learning and Modeling the question we need to ask ourselves is “can animals learn by modeling ?” The answers is a BIG YES!
Some examples:
In your house you have an older dog that you taught to use a doggie door to go outside to the yard and come back in the house after he went potty. You trained your old dog that by positive reinforcement. Now you bring in a new puppy and that puppy observes the older dog going trough the doggie door and after a few observations, the new puppy will model that behavior and is going trough the doggie door without any reinforcement.
Another example: Your dog is afraid to swim but loves my dog. They have played together many times. Now I take my dog swimming and he runs in and out of the river. After a couple of observations your dog will actually go into the water and soon your dog will be swimming as well.
Another example, you have a dog that is anxious, nervous and barks a lot. He is environmentally stressed in your house. You wanted to pursue a working dog sport but unfortunately your dog is not cut out for it. So you decide to buy a new dog to pursue your dog sport dream. You get a puppy from a very respectable breeder with strong nerves, great temperament and very confident. You bring the new pup into the house together with your other dog. After a few weeks you noticed that your new pup becomes a barker and starts to get skittish from things in his environment.
Another example, you take a younger, adolescent dog that is unsure and a bit fearful on walks together with my very confident Adult male. You walk them daily together. You will see that after a few days, the unsure adolescent dog is starting to exhibit confidence on the walks also. After a month or so you take the unsure adolescent dog on walks by himself and will see that he now is a confident dog on walks.
So observational learning and modeling is a very powerful way of learning that can be used in our advantages when we have multiple dogs. But it can also be our worst enemy if you don’t manage a multiple dog household well.
But is doesn’t stop here. Dogs also model the energy and body language of the human. Domestication is a good example of social learning. Dogs evolved in the human environment that is extremely complex, rich with stimuli and information and is variable.
So dogs can easily learn from humans because of their close bond with them that grew over the thousands of years due domestication.Modern science believes that the dogs social cognitive abilities increase due to social learning over the years. And that can be good thing but can also give us trouble.
For example. You had a previous dog that was dog reactive and you were nervous on your walks when you saw another dog because of the reactions your dog could give. Now you have a new dog and you take him on walks. Your new dog is actually dog neutral. However, every time you see a strange dog approaching, your energy changes and you start Tightening up the lead a bit. Your stress levels rise and your dog will pick those up. After a couple times your new dog starts barking at other dogs, because he senses that your mood changed because of the strange dog and he is going to do something about that. Now you created a dog sensitive dog, just by the way you acted and your energy and anxiety around strange dogs.
Another example: You have a new young dog that is pretty calm and behaved. You also have young children that run and scream in the house. A lot of high and wild energy. They wrestle with each other and so on. Suddenly now your young dog starts barking and chasing the kids, maybe even play bite them. Your young dog just learned that the inside of the house means high energy play, the vocalization of the kids made the dog bark and the wrestling made the dog wrestle, and dogs play by using their mouth and teeth.
So providing a model of good behavior is vital for a balanced household and relationship with our dogs. Dogs will mimic desired behaviors. Dogs simple stated, learn by example. And managing those examples is OUR responsibility not that of the dog. Unfortunately many dogs take the blame for improper household balance and bad managing of kids, friends and family and play sessions with dogs they shouldn’t be playing or interacting with.
So having a well trained behaved dog is not just about what you teach him in training class, it's about how you act as a teacher and leader at home. It's about how you manage his environment and set him up for success by NOT exposing him to unwanted examples and exposing him to great one.