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Pavlov’s Dogs: The Untold Story & Lessons Learned

By Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR

We are all likely familiar with Pavlov, his dogs, and his experiments that proved the existence of conditioned reflexes. Basically he demonstrated that if you ring a bell each time prior to feeding a dog, the dog becomes trained that after the bell sound, comes a tasty bite of food. Soon the bell itself will initiate salivation in preparation for the treat. In the dog’s mind, bell equals food, so mouth … “get ready!”

What you may not know is that the drooling phenomenon actually started with something completely different than a bell. The breakthrough that led to even trying to condition a reflex to a bell had to do with a lab coat. Yes, that’s right. Pavlov was actually working to unravel the digestive system. He wanted to know what type of signals would trigger different aspects of digestion, such as salivation.

Here’s more…

Although Pavlov went on to win a Nobel Prize, it was not for discovering conditioned reflexes, or determining that lab coats should be the standard laboratory attire. Instead he is credited with performing the pioneer studies of the digestive tract. Yet we can learn much from his dogs.

1. If every time your dwarf hamster named Snowy gets a treat from you when he starts gnawing on the metal bars of his cage, he will continue to gnaw because he has you trained to deliver his treat.
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2. This theory also applies to guinea pigs named Sammy … just the teeth and the treat are a bit larger.
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3. When you’re interacting with your co-workers and you can spot patterns of behavior that are “rewarded” in either a positive or negative fashion, you may be able to change that pattern of behavior by merely recognizing that a conditioned reflex  has been established.
   Additionally, if an employee gets her way ever time she acts rude, she will continue to act rude.
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4. We can positively or negatively affect others around us by changing the way we react to the stimulus they are sending our way. Instead of giving in to the rude team member, we should change our reaction so that we only reward the best behavior. 
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5. If every time a client has a good experience with someone in a lab coat, they grow to trust anyone wearing a lab coat. That means that doctors and veterinarians wear lab coats for a reason.
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6. Even if your attire is simply scrubs and no coat, you may still be contributing to that client’s overall perception of the veterinary profession whether you realize it or not.
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7. Finally, if dogs always drool when you’re wearing that lab coat, you’d better still have a pocket full of treats to deliver!

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