{"id":456,"date":"2016-01-30T21:24:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T20:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/?p=456"},"modified":"2024-12-30T20:51:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T19:51:22","slug":"the-golden-combination-sdcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/the-golden-combination-sdcc\/","title":{"rendered":"The golden combination to prevent and reduce fear: systematic desensitization \/ counterconditioning (SD\/CC)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In previous posts, I have described <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/systematic-desensitization-essential-to-reducing-fear\/\">systematic desensitization (SD \u2013 introducing scary things gradually)<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/one-of-the-5-most-important-words-in-animal-training-counterconditioning\/\">counterconditioning (CC), learning to associate potentially aversive stimuli with something nice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The combination procedure is called SD\/CC, DS\/CC or CC\/D depending on who you\u2019re talking to; some people skip the first word of SD and only talk about desensitization. The procedure looks the same, though: after each exposure to the stimulus, the animal gets something it really likes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The basic SD\/CC to teach a cat to accept an injection may&nbsp;look like this &#8211; note that there may be up to 20 intermediate steps between each of these (for instance, when introducing the needle):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Stroking the cat, then giving it some tuna.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stroking more firmly \u2013 more tuna.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lifting the skin \u2013 tuna again.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pinching \u2013 tuna.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Needle prick \u2013 tuna.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Injection \u2013 tuna\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But remember, do not move on to the next step until you see that the animal is <em>completely comfortable and at ease at the current step<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/systematic-desensitization-essential-to-reducing-fear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the relaxation part of SD<\/a>) and is <em>looking for the tuna<\/em> (showing signs of learning the association: CC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, this type of procedure is typically not done in one single session but over several training sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/SDCC.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-457\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1651\" height=\"598\" src=\"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/SDCC.png\" alt=\"SDCC\" class=\"wp-image-457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/SDCC.png 1651w, https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/SDCC-300x109.png 300w, https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/SDCC-768x278.png 768w, https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/SDCC-1024x371.png 1024w, https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/SDCC-1200x435.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1651px) 100vw, 1651px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Some trainers will let the animal have access to the food preceding and during all handling, rather than just after each handling bout is initiated. That works too and may be a good choice when there\u2019s little time and the process needs to be performed quickly. Beware that the <em>presence of food before handling starts<\/em> may be a distraction so the animal could potentially&nbsp;be unaware of the handling and may react violently if surprised. In the procedure I\u2019ve described above, the animal actually learns that the initiation of&nbsp;<em>handling happens before and therefore predicts treats.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The combination procedure SD\/CC is a very powerful tool in both preventing and reducing fear and <em>is more efficient than either procedure carried out alone. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/four-reasons-why-habituation-is-not-a-good-choice-of-technique-to-reduce-fear-at-the-vets\/\">Sensitization is a huge risk when exposing animals to a frightening stimulus<\/a><\/strong>, and the combined procedure reduces the risk of sensitization better than either SD or CC alone. Also, without SD it would be difficult to countercondition an animal to intensely frightening stimuli \u2013 when they\u2019re over threshold (too aroused) they\u2019re not that receptive to treats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gradually building up the exposure, and all the while repeating the association with treats \u2013 even in animals who are not fearful to begin with, builds up a <strong>Conditioned Emotional Response<\/strong> (sometimes referred to as a CER): the animal starts looking forward to the procedure. More importantly, establishing such a routine will to some extent <em>protect the animal from becoming afraid on future exposures,<\/em> through the process of <strong>Latent Inhibition<\/strong> (learning something isn\u2019t frightening inhibits fear learning regarding that particular something, later on).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, will this work every time, with every animal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case of cats and veterinary visits, only about half the cats actually accept food at the vet\u2019s. In such cases, other techniques can be used to reduce the risk of the animal becoming more fearful. <em>Preventing<\/em> fear is a lot easier than curing it \u2013 and the SD\/CC procedure should be ideally be used <em>before<\/em> the animal develops any fear-related behaviour in the vet clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the video below, Monique Feyrechilde (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachinganimals.com\">www.teachinganimals.com<\/a>) starts by explaining SD\/CC, and at 2.31 minutes into the video she explains the steps she will take to teach the 14-year old cat Ziggy to accept injections of <em>Adequan<\/em> for his arthritis, to be given twice a week initially. Monique takes advantage of the observation that cats easily associate noises to future events, so she uses the sound of the syringe wrapper to countercondition Ziggy as the first step before even touching him (low level systematic desensitization). Also, note how she verifies that the food she\u2019s intending to use to countercondition the handling actually has value to the cat. Notice how she starts each handling bout by initiating handling first and then presenting the food: handling <em>precedes<\/em> food (with overlap, so feeding continues as long as handling does).<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Teaching a Cat to Accept Injections\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ew6fbDi1Bmg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Modern animal trainers are starting to combine the SD\/CC procedure with <a href=\"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/does-your-animal-have-control\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Start Button Behaviours<\/a> &#8211; allowing the animal to initiate the exposure to the potentially scary thing herself. As far as I know, there&#8217;s no scientific data yet to demonstrate the added benefit of this twist in the procedure, but there&#8217;s no doubt in my mind that it gives<em> tremendous added value.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2026 What\u2019s your experience? Have you successfully used SD\/CC \u2013 or what types of problems have you had? Let us know in the comment section below!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to learn more? I teach about animal emotions, behaviour and training. Sign up to get notified of new blog posts, free webinars and masterclasses, silly experiments, scholarships and course availability!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poppen, R., 1970. Counterconditioning of conditioned suppression in rats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rather than becoming more fearful on every subsequent visit to the vet\u2019s, animals may become progressively easier to handle.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,6,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7728,"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions\/7728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}