What is something that parrots and dogs have in common with a world class athlete – superstitious behaviors! Understanding this, can help you in solving some pet behavior problems.
I was reading online in the Men’s Journal about 10 of the most superstitious athletes. Serena 
Williams being among them. Serena, the article said, believes her winning ways are the result of some closely followed routines that include bringing her shower sandals with her to the court, tying her shoelaces a specific way, and bouncing the ball five times before her first serve – twice before her second. In fact, Men’s Journal shared, Serena is so set in her superstitions that she has chalked up major losses to her not following that routine correctly.
You may be asking yourself, “How could someone of Serena’s elite skill and endurance level really think her success on the court is so dependent on a shower sandal, particular way of tying her shoes, and particular number of times she bounces the ball before serving?
Are superstitious behaviors really just irrational behaviors or is there something more to it? Most of us have probably experienced this. Maybe we wear a lucky piece of clothing or jewelry on days when we have an important meeting or interview to ensure success.
Here is the thing to remember. There is ALWAYS a reason for behavior. If we dig deeper, we come to learn irrational behaviors are really not irrational at all. They stem from past experiences that have taught the learner an association with a stimulus. Consequences are the forces that strengthen or weaken behavior. If something of value (to the learner) happens immediately following a behavior, that behavior is very likely to be repeated. And with more repetitions, that behavior is likely to strengthen and be more frequent.
Paul Chance (Learning & Behavior, fifth edition) defines superstitious behavior as an increase in the strength of a behavior that is due to coincidental reinforcement.
In other words, you may have just happened to be wearing a piece of jewelry when you landed your dream job. And you happened to be wearing that piece of jewelry when something else exciting happened. Therefore, your wearing the jewelry has come to be associated with good things occurring. It is your good luck charm. The next time you have to do something which makes you nervous, you may put that ‘lucky’ piece of jewelry on again; and, if there is a positive outcome, well, you may very well come to see that bracelet as something you will never leave home without again – on those days when something important is going down.
This type of learning occurs with non-human animals as well.
B.F. Skinner first described superstitious behavior after a 1948 experiment with pigeons. When placed in a Skinner box with a feeding mechanism set to feed them every 15 seconds, eight of them developed clear-cut behavior. One turned in counterclockwise circles, another raised its head toward one of the corners of the cage, one bobbed its head, two birds swung their heads to and from, and one made brushing movements toward the floor. Skinner’s explanation? When the first reinforcer (grain) came out, the animal had to be doing something. If that something happened to be head bobbing, well then, head bobbing got reinforced – and therefore was more likely to be repeated.
In training (and just living with pets), this occurrence can happen rather easily. Maybe in training a dog to sit, just before sitting your dog barks, and you immediately click after it sits and then give your dog a treat, you may see more of that bark in the future. (You may have accidentally reinforced a behavior chain of bark, then sit.) Maybe your dog just happens to be shaking its toy when you take out its dog food. You may start seeing more of your dog shaking its toy. If your bird just happens to be screaming when you turn on the microwave (which has a history of being followed by you giving your bird dinner), then you may see an increase in screaming.
This video shows an example of a superstitious behavior in dog training.
Superstitious behavior can occur fairly easily, and, since it can often be on an intermittent reinforcement schedule (meaning it will only be followed by a reinforcer some of the time), it can be a very strong behavior to extinguish.
A behavior modification plan may involve antecedent arrangement (modifying the environment so as to make it less likely that the behavior will be set into motion) and/or changing the consequence.
For the dog who barks in training, there could be so many variables involved. Is your dog stressed/over aroused? Is its heart rate elevated? What is going on in the environment? Is your dog tired? Are you asking your dog to do too big of a step?
Depending on what you have observed, some modifications you may want to change include the location or time of day, training at a time when your dog has less energy, using less valued treats, breaking the behavior down into smaller steps. You may want to practice improving your timing to mark/reinforce your dog BEFORE it barks. You may want to teach your dog to hold a ball in its mouth during this training. You may want to practice starting training when your dog has relaxed body muscles.
The moral of the story is this – always know, if a behavior is being repeated, it is happening for a reason. The challenge for us is to learn what is setting that behavior into motion…and reinforcing it, and then changing the environment (including our own actions) to change the behavior.
