The Complete Dog Training Glossary: 100+ Essential Terms
Understanding your dog starts with learning the language behind their behavior. For this reason, we created this glossary as a key part of the Camp Ruff Ruff education system. It reflects over 16 years of professional behavior consulting and humane training.
Because we believe in modern science, we explain each term using force-free principles. Furthermore, we use this exact practical framework with our clients every day. Whether you are a new owner or an experienced handler, these definitions will help you. As a result, you will gain clear, accurate, and easy-to-apply insight into how dogs learn and communicate.
The Complete Dog Training Glossary: 100+ Essential Terms
There are currently 9 names in this directory beginning with the letter F.
Fear
An emotional response, including both operants and respondents, defined by signs of sympathetic nervous system arousal, stress, and escape or avoidance behaviors. A distressing emotion aroused by imminent danger, unpleasant, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.
Fixed Duration (fd)
A schedule of reinforcement, which sets the rule that the target behavior must be exhibited continuously for a specified period of time, at which point reinforcement is delivered.
Fixed Interval (fi)
A schedule of reinforcement, which sets the rule that reinforcement is delivered immediately following the first response exhibited after a specific interval of time has passed.
Fixed Ratio (fr)
A schedule of reinforcement, which sets the rule that reinforcement is delivered following the final response after a fixed number of responses have occurred.
Flooding
A form of behavior therapy, based on the principles of respondent extinction, in which a subject is exposed, usually at full intensity, to an aversive stimulus, where escape behavior is prevented, until escape responding ceases. Also called “exposure and response prevention.” It is sometimes referred to as exposure therapy or prolonged exposure therapy
Free Shaping
Shaping, or as it's regularly known, “shaping by successive approximations,” this simply means breaking down a behavior into tiny increments, and reinforcing the dog at each incremental step until you've achieved the full behavior (end goal). That is, the trainer does not prompt any responses, but rather waits patiently for the approximation and provides reinforcement whenever it occurs.
Frustration
Emotional behavior resulting from being prevented from fulfilling one's goals. Frustration can trigger aggressive responses. A feeling of dismay, often followed by anxiety or depression, resulting from unsatisfied needs or unresolved problems.
Functional Assessment
Is a way of looking at the OPERANT "causes or reasons of learned behaviors". VARIABLES that are related to behavior and environmental events. Knowing the function of a problem behavior can help determine an appropriate solution. "Is a procedure that determines under which conditions a behavior problem occurs". Functional analysis is the process of systematically testing the ABC hypothesis. Antecedent, behavior, Consequence.
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