A Practical Dictionary for Pet Trainers & Behavior Consultants!

The language You Need to Know

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A Practical Dictionary for Pet Trainers & Behavior Consultants! The language You Need to Know.

This book was published by DogNostics Career Center. This dictionary lists ethological, behavior analytic, pet cognition, neuroaffective, neurobiological, psychological and common terms, in an attempt to provide a complete understanding of pet behavior terminology to assist professionals and students of behavior. There are more than 90 pages of definitions ranging from: Antecedent - A stimulus that precedes in order the behavior that directly follows it. The antecedent happens immediately before the behavior and in Operant Conditioning it is responsible for evoking the behavior whereas in Respondent Conditioning we say the antecedent elicits the behavior. The antecedent package includes the distance antecedents (setting events & motivating operations) as well as the direct antecedent, the discriminative stimulus or conditioned stimulus.

Just a few more examples are:

Consent Test - By evaluating a pet’s emotions via their social communication system, we enable and empower them to walk away or stay and engage in an activity we are performing.

Functional Analysis -The functional analysis is a third method and often the last method of choice for functionally assessing behavior. This is where we test the relationship between the behavior and its environment; we conduct an experimental study.

The functional analysis is a single subject experiment that tests the consultant’s hypothesis, the contingency statement. The functional analysis should only be carried out if the initial interview and direct observation did not reveal trends in the problem behavior and or components of the contingency statement are still unclear. A functional analysis should be performed by a trained professional with a minimally invasive approach, a clearly defined plan to test only what is necessary and with careful consideration to the safety and security of all involved. There must also be consent from the pet’s guardian and the pet’s behavior must be measured, pre, during and post any intervention.
The functional analysis is designed to test the relationship between the hypothesized controlling antecedents and the behavior and/or the hypothesized maintaining relationship between the behavior and its consequence.
The functional analysis sets up different independent variables and confirms or refutes their effect on the dependent variable. The goal is to analysis what is and what is not evoking and or maintaining the behavior so that an effective behavior change program can be designed. The experiment should only cover areas of the contingency statement that are unclear and not everything. The consultant must also take into consideration, during the experiment, that setting events and motivating operations should not be overlooked as they can contribute indirectly to the contingencies.
Determining the Antecedent and Consequence of a specific behavior which a specific individual is emitting. Ex. A pet is barking at a garbage truck: Antecedent is the arrival of the garbage truck; the behavior is the barking, and the consequence is that the truck moves away! Antecedent Control protocols can be a great way to modify the problem of barking at garbage trucks. A way to double check your work of functionally analyzing a behavior is to be sure that you have an environment, followed by behavior, followed by environment.

Simultaneous Conditioning - One of the four ways conditioning takes place in Respondent Conditioning. With simultaneous conditioning the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are presented at exactly the same time, as there is no interval between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus it makes conditioning very ineffective. In respondent conditioning the amount of learning depends on the degree to which the conditioned stimulus predicts the unconditioned stimulus.



Your Instructor


Tudge & Stapleton-Frappell
Tudge & Stapleton-Frappell
The Contributors
Niki Tudge - M.B.A, PCBC-A, CABC, CDBC SSA-CFT, Six Sigma Black Belt, HCITB TS1, TS2 & TS3 Certified People Trainer, Certified Facilitator and Business Project Manager.

As the founder and President of The Pet Professional Guild, DogNostics Career Center and The DogSmith, Niki has substantial leadership experience in the pet industry. Niki has published numerous articles on dog training and dog behavior and her pet dog training businesses have been featured in many publications including The New York Times. Niki’s professional credentials include; AABP-Professional Dog Trainer, AABP-Professional Dog Behavior Consultant, PCBC-A and PCT-A through the Pet Professional Accrediting Board and she has earned diplomas in Animal Behavior Technology and Canine Behavior Science & Technology through the Companion Animal Science Institute. Along with Niki’s business degree and MBA from Oxford Brookes University she is also a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, a HCITB TS1, TS2 & TS3 certified people trainer and a certified Facilitator and Project Manager.


Louise Stapleton-Frappell - B.A. Hons, PCT- A, PCBC-A, CAP3, CTDI, DN-FSG, DN-CPCT, CWRI

Louise is a Partner and Faculty Member of DogNostics Career Center and Board Member of The Pet Professional Guild. Louise has constantly built on her knowledge and furthered her education in the field of force-free, rewards based, science-based pet training. The creator of the DogNostics’ Dog Trainer Certification Program, Louise has presented at conferences internationally and has gained a reputation for expertly teaching and training humans and canines at her own establishment, The DogSmith of Estepona, in Southern Spain, where she offers a wide range of both group and private classes and pet dog services.


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