For the experiments relating to conditioning, Pavlov had the dogs implanted saliva collection containers in an operation. An excruciating procedure for the four-legged friends who died after a short time. For his digestive experiments, he surgically removed parts of the digestive organs from test dogs and observed how this worked. Like most animals used for animal experiments, they suffered from the experiments. Pavlov’s dogs may have been famous – it didn’t help them. This observation based on the stimulus-response scheme is summarized in behavioral research today as “classic conditioning”. The bell tone was no longer neutral but triggered a conditioned reflex. The dog’s brain had linked the two stimuli “bell” and “food” with one another. Then he let the bell ring for a few days in parallel with the feeding.Īfter a short time, the sound of the bell was enough to stimulate the flow of saliva. The unknown noise did not trigger salivation – it had no meaning for the four-legged friends. The Pavlovian Reflex in the Experimentįirst Pavlov rang a bell in front of the dogs. This gave him the idea for his world-famous experiment. The dogs combined the approaching footsteps with feeding. But Pavlov noticed that the dogs developed a greater flow of saliva when his employees approached their cages. It was known that dogs develop a greater flow of saliva when they eat – they start to drool. By chance, the physiologist noticed something about the dog kennels that inspired him to conduct another experiment. Dogs were used as laboratory animals for his research. Pavlov won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his findings on digestive processes. In fact, there was no “one”, but dozens of “Pavlovian dogs”. The experiment around the Pavlovian dog was devised and carried out by the namesake Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). 6 Conditioning in Dog Training Pavlov Dogs: Test