Conditioning Attention as a Potential Reinforcer in Shelter Dogs

There are currently millions of dogs residing in animal shelters. One issue contributing to dogs not being adopted is poor interactions with potential adopters. Research suggests that for some dogs, human attention may not be a reinforcer for behavior. This study evaluated and attempted to condition attention as a potential reinforcer for shelter dog behavior. Five shelter dogs were assessed as subjects within this study. This study consisted of two phases: identifying the reinforcing efficacy of human attention as a potential reinforcer, and assessing a conditioning technique to condition human attention as a reinforcer. For each appropriate response of nose-to-wand touching, reinforcement was delivered in the form of attention, food, or simultaneous presentation of both attention and food dependent upon the condition assessed. Results of this study demonstrated that human attention was not a strong reinforcer for most of the dogs studied. Furthermore, results demonstrated that human attention could be conditioned to be a reinforcer when paired with a primary reinforcer such as food. Limitations and future areas of research are discussed.