Superstitious behavior: Animals have it, too
By Liz Palika
July 6, 2009
Most of us have some superstitions even if we don’t want to admit them. I won’t walk under a ladder; I know logically that there is no way that walking under a ladder can cause bad luck, but I just won’t do it. I justify it to myself by saying that, “Heck, the ladder might fall so don’t walk under it!”
Most shelters won’t adopt out black cats before Halloween, worrying that some people do horrible things to black cats related either to people being cruel or to cruel people having superstitions.
Animals can have superstitions, too, although it’s usually called superstitious behavior. I decided to write about it here because I noticed Bashir has developed a superstitious behavior and when I mentioned it to a friend, she couldn’t believe that animals develop such things. Or that such a thing existed. But they do and are probably more common than many people realize.
When doors or gates are opened, my husband and I require all three of our dogs to wait for permission to go through them. This helps prevent dogs from dashing out open gates or rushing through doors. Not only does this keep the dogs safe, but it also protects our knees!
For some reason Bashir has decided that his best chance of being given permission to go in the back door is by waiting around the corner of the house. When the other two dogs are crowding the door and being told to back up and wait, he is around the corner of the house waiting to hear the magic words, “Okay, come on in.”
Apparently at some point, he must have been close to the door and not allowed in and then later when he was away from the door – around the corner of the house - he was then given permission to come in. He put two and two together and decided that he would wait around the corner. Each time then that he waited in that magic spot and was allowed in, it was reinforced in his mind that this was the magic spot. This is a superstitious behavior.
Many dog owners who install invisible fences to contain their dogs have found that their dogs developed superstitious behavior regarding these fences. I talked to one woman who had an invisible fence system installed. Within two days of installation, her black Labrador Retriever decided that all lawn areas were dangerous. Because the invisible fence was buried in the lawn and that’s where the collar gave the correction when the dog went too close, the dog decided that safest thing to do was to remain on the concrete patio. This is superstitious behavior.
A friend of mine who has horses has found that her young, three year old gelding has developed a superstitious behavior – one that actually is very common in horses. Her horse paws when anticipating food. At feeding time he will bob his head, paw the ground, and food will appear. Now, this probably started when he heard her come out of the house and begin getting the food ready. In excitement, the horse probably began bobbing his head and pawing. But when food appeared, he – like Bashir – put his actions and the reaction together and assumed they were related. That’s a superstitious behavior.
B. F. Skinner wrote about superstitious behavior in 1948 when he studied pigeon behavior and since that time, many behaviorists and trainers have looked at these interesting behaviors and thought processes. Interesting because the animal has often made a leap to a conclusion that doesn’t make any sense – to us- but obviously does to the animal. Interesting also to those of us who deal with training and behavior because if we can figure out those thought processes, we can become better trainers.
Superstitious behavior is often defined as behavior that the animal offers that is unrelated to the behavior being performed or trained, or unrelated to another action. For example, Bashir hiding around the corner has nothing to do with permission to come into the house. And my friend’s horse’s actions of head bobbing and pawing have nothing to do with food arriving. But the two animals have made a connection.
Some people believe that superstitious behavior may have begun as a survival technique. A prey animal might hear a sound and even though that sound isn’t identifiable as that of a predator, the animal may run and hide anyway. By doing so, the animal survives and continues to run and hide when that sound is heard in the future. Now, the sound may be leaves blowing in the wind but because the animal continues to survive, it will continue that behavior. A predator may do the same thing. One day a specific action may result in a meal. The predator will continue that action even if the action really had no connection at all with catching the meal.
Superstitious behavior can also happen during training. Many times superstitious behavior occurs when the animal (dog, horse, dolphin, pigeion, rat any other animal being trained) misunderstands the lesson. Perhaps the training steps were rushed, the communication wasn’t clear, or the trainer’s timing was off.
A specific superstitious behavior will continue as long as it achieves the animal’s desired results. If a predator who has developed a superstitious action and catches a meal no longer catches anything, that superstitious behavior will quickly disappear. If I stop calling Bashir to come into the house when he hides around the corner, then that behavior will disappear because it’s no longer giving him the result he wants – permission to come inside. If my friend doesn’t feed her horse until he stops bobbing his head and pawing, that behavior will eventually disappear (or become extinguished).
If a superstitious behavior has been positively reinforced over a period of time, however, extinguishing the behavior can take quite a while. After all, animals will continue to do those behaviors that reward them. I know; I don’t walk under ladders and they don’t fall on me so I don’t walk under them. Knock on wood!
So, what superstitious behaviors do your pets (dogs, cats, horses, rats, or goldfish) have? What caused those behaviors to begin? Now that you’ve recognized them, are you going to change them? And how?
When meals are prepared and I’m getting ready to set them down, Bella stomps her feet and Harper twirls in a circle and barks (the ubiquitous dinner dance). They are then rewarded by having their bowls set down in front of them (after they sit). Jerry just made a comment the other day about Harper always being rewarded for twirling by being fed, but we hadn’t thought of it as a superstitious behavior. Makes sense, though.
Comment by Kim Thornton — July 6, 2009 @ 6:36 am
Seems to me that if a behavior really is consistently rewarded, then it’s not superstitious but rather more akin to a trick. Our dog capers madly while we fix his meals, for instance, but never does so when a meal isn’t actually imminent; there’s a direct link between action and reward.
Now, if he began to caper in an empty kitchen to *conjure* a meal, that’d be superstitious.
On the invisible fence, do they have a bleed-over effect? When it’s humid, say? Thing is, I’ve walked by electric fences and gotten a bit of a shock, so I’m wondering if the fearful dog was superstitious, or merely very cautious.
Comment by Eucritta — July 6, 2009 @ 6:53 am
This is a good one for pet owners to think about — especially how they’ve inadvertently allowed or caused a superstitious behavior, whether one that is innocuous or one that is troublesome.
All four of my dogs now avoid the pond area where I have my ducks.
I figured out that this is because they first encountered the poultry electro-net there. Each one of them got their first jolt from this stuff when I moved the ducks down there, and briefly had them protected by the netting. And they likely got really nasty shocks, too, standing on damp or wet ground and touching the netting with their noses. (I saw my male ES do just this, and felt really bad.)
The netting isn’t meant to exclude or control the dogs in any way, but I use it all over the farm to keep goats in their current paddock and to keep predators off the range broiler chickens at night, and they obviously had to learn that it has a nasty bite.
Now the three ES will not come down and help me with the ducks in the evening. No way, no how.
My German shepherd will come down and body dredge the pond, starting about a week ago, if I am down there. She’s decided that the bitey-stingy doesn’t work if I’m there. She is not a useful stock dog, though if the ducks are being jerks and won’t come out of the pond and go to bed, she crashes that party and evicts them.
I took up the netting from that location two months ago, and there’s nothing down there to even suggest it. It’s bright black and white netting, easy for any creature to see.
The same fencing is in use elsewhere on the property. The dogs avoid the actual fence, but are not afraid of those locations, and will come within a foot or so of the fences, come inside the paddocks if asked, work the animals inside if asked. I’ve even seen them take some shocks when they absently brush against the fence, and they just jump and move away, same as the goats.
I have started working on the location aversion by bringing the ES down as close as they will come and having them hold stays at a spot just over their comfort threshold while I take care of the ducks. In the past week they’ve come about 60’ closer, and I should have them underfoot in another few days. But I bet it will be a lot longer before they are relaxed enough to actually help with the #&%#! ducks at night.
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 6, 2009 @ 7:02 am
One night while we were sleeping our cat Mila thought it would be fun to open the on-suite bathroom cabinets , jump in the cabinet, exclaim “Mew Mew Mew!” excitedly, jump out, slam the cabinet and repeat. No idea why she started this game, but I gather that she thought it was super fun. My husband didn’t want to kick her out of the bedroom (she’s usually a very good cat) but couldnt’ stop her from playing this very loud game. So he gave her some cat treats. Now when she wants cat treats she opens the closest cabinet, drawer or closet (she’s very smart and has figured out door knobs), jumps in, exclaims “Mew Mew Mew!” jumps out and slams the drawer/cabinet/closet, then waits. If no treats appear she repeats. Its very annoying to hear ‘Mew Mew Mew!” *SLAM!*’ in the middle of the night. Its been over a month and my husband continues to say ‘aww! Isn’t she cute! I must give her a treat!’. I keep telling him that he’s just reinforcing bad behaviour, but he continues. If she starts putting on weight I’m going to have to hide the treats – luckily she’s still active enough to burn off the extra calories, and she does only do this once or twice a day (therefore she gets 2 treats a day max). If she only did this during the day I wouldn’t mind so much, but at 2am I’m not amused.
As an aside in case anyone is concerned: when Mila figured out how to open cabinets and drawers we immediately moved all hazardous materials out of the lower cabinets/drawers etc.
Comment by Shauna — July 6, 2009 @ 7:07 am
I’ve trained a lot of dogs who develop a false association of danger to things they think signal an invisible fence barrier, because it does at their house.
Including:
utility marker flags (obviously)
anything flapping in the wind
borders between driveway/street/sidewalk and lawn
hedges (approached from any angle)
rail fences
garden ponds
peonies
PVC pipe
And probably a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting.
Nothing like working a dog on a nice, brisk training progression — usually loose-lead walking or longe-lining — and everything is going great guns, and suddenly, as I march forward, the dog is OUTTA HERE and my shoulder is rotated backwards in a manner not intended by its designer.
Me: “Uh, do you use an invisible fence with this dog?”
Owner: “Why yes, why do you ask?”
Then I have to figure out what the trigger is, and get the dog over it in several locations.
This can be very bad in dogs who are never walked because “We have an invisible fence, he can run in the yard all he wants.” So the dog’s brain has atrophied and his superstitions have multiplied. Don’t get me started …
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 6, 2009 @ 7:11 am
Our Foxhound, Jake, has figured out that he can get our attention by “tap-dancing” on the hardwood floors. When he wants to go outside, or it’s close to dinner time, or he lost a toy under the couch, he prances around tick-tick-ticking his toenails (and sometimes adds a growly song along with his dance!). Then it’s just a matter of interpreting what he wants, but if you take too long the dance escalates into stomping/jumping/barking/temper tantrum. It’s kind of amusing though!
Comment by Jenny — July 6, 2009 @ 7:41 am
Jake and Mila aren’t displaying superstitious behavior.
They are simply training their owners.
Comment by H. Houlahan — July 6, 2009 @ 8:54 am
I knew a horse who always backed into his stall for meals.
His paddock was connected to his stall and he could come and go as he pleased. You could put a halter on him and lead him in his stall, but if he was loose and it was feeding time, he ALWAYS came into the stall in reverse. I worked at the barn for several years and had the chance to observe it hundreds of times.
My only guess is that it has something to do with some despooking training he received as a youngster. He was an abnormally spooky horse, so his owners put lots of bright and “looky” objects in the stall to desensitize him. Sadly, the objects did not help get over his spookiness.
Comment by Sarah K Andrew — July 6, 2009 @ 12:35 pm
Bashire’s behavior as you describe may be superstitious - but it would also make me wonder if he is afraid of one or both of the other two dogs. Entryways are places where violent territorial or dominance disputes can occur suddenly between dogs; their communication is very subtle beforehand. Could Bashire be staying back from the dogs in the doorway out of fear?
Comment by Mary — July 6, 2009 @ 1:06 pm
Shauna, install the child-proof safety latches on the cabinet doors and drawers also the door knobs that lead to outside if she has learned to open those. Cats learn quickly what gets them attention or treats thus stopping the behavior can be a difficult task.
Comment by Moira — July 6, 2009 @ 1:36 pm
….well, i’ll rather not term it as “superstition”……..instead, it’s a form of behavioral change known as “acquired instinct”..
..for example, in a Russian zoo, one half of deer enclosure was fenced away (visible fencing in this case)….and after some time, the deer, especially those who were brought up in the half enclosure, didn’t even try to get to the other side — even after the fence was removed……
….interesting reading though..
Comment by Avadhesh Malik — July 11, 2009 @ 4:21 am
From Liz’s article: “Superstitious behavior is often defined as behavior that the animal offers that is unrelated to the behavior being performed or trained, or unrelated to another action.” (emphasis mine)
This is the critical detail that a lot of the posters on this thread have overlooked. The lack of relationship - or “cause and effect” - between the behavior and some other event despite the fact that the animal subsequently appears to have ascribed a “cause and effect” relationship. Thus, Liz’s dog somehow coming to the conclusion that it was necessary for him to be around the corner if he wanted to be called back into the house even though there was no causal relationship between the two qualifies as “superstitious behavior”. While - as pointed out by H. Houlahan -the behavior of Foxhound Jake who has learned he can *cause* his owners to give him attention if he makes a lot of racket does not.
The deer who remained behind a fence which was no longer there were exhibiting a behavior which had a direct cause - the fence. It caused it to be impossible for them to cross to the other side of their enclosure and they retained this “learning” even after the fence was removed.
The fact that new deer also stayed to one side of the previously-fenced enclosure was simply an expression of herd behavior.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 11, 2009 @ 1:19 pm