While it may be painful for pet owners to hear, dogs do not really think. Sure, it appears as though they are lost in thought, pondering the world and all its delicious glory, but most (if not all) dog behavior is nothing more than a response to various stimuli. Dogs see, dogs do. While dog owners like to pretend that the process is more complicated, the truth is that as smart as dogs are, they are still very simple animals, and these simple animals operate almost solely under common behavioral psychology principles.

Introducing – State Dependent Learning

One behavioral theory that affects dogs is known as "State Dependent Learning." State dependent learning is defined as "Learning where the ability to recall the memory is based on the state of the organism."

The basic idea is that animals, including humans, have an easier time recalling memories when they are in a similar "state" as they were when they learned the item. States include such things as:

• Emotions

• Environment

• Senses (certain smells, sounds, etc.)

• Location

To use a more human example, imagine you only studied for tests in a field of roses. Around you is nothing but the smell of roses. When it is finally time to take your test in the classroom, you will do better if you can smell a scent of roses throughout the test than when you cannot. Similarly, if you always study at night in the dark, and take the test during the day in the sun, you are likely to do worse than if you were also able to take the test at night in the dark.

As humans, these conditions only slightly affect us. Chances are if we studied well for a test, it does not matter where we studied – chances are we will do well regardless. Dogs, on the other hand, are wildly affected by state dependent learning.

How it Affects Dogs

Imagine you train your dog inside of your house to turn in a circle. You spend hours and hours training this dog to turn in a circle, and every time it does so effectively, as though the command is permanently engrained in its memory.

Then you go outside and take your dog for a walk. You run into an old friend and they ask if your dog knows any tricks. You say "Sure!" and ask your dog to do the same trick. Chances are your dog will not follow your command, or if they do it will take multiple tries and the behavior will be awkward and uncomfortable.

That is because dogs are extremely prone to state dependent learning, and you only trained your dog inside of your home. The outdoors is vastly different than the indoors. Think of all of the things that are different:

• Different smells.

• Different colors.

• Different space.

• Different distractions.

• Different sounds.

No matter how well your dog learned the trick in doors, its "state" has changed dramatically when you take it outside, and it is likely to lose some of the knowledge it had inside of your apartment. Take your dog back inside and chances are it does the trick right away as though it never forgot it in the first place.

If you want your dog to truly "learn" a trick, you need to train your dog in many different environments. Inside, outside, in other homes – everywhere you can think of. The more places the dog learns the trick, the more states it experiences while it learns, and the more likely your dog is going to perform the behavior regardless of the situation.