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.

….interesting reading though..

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.

They are simply training their owners.

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 …

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.