Counterconditioning

Counterconditioning (also called stimulus substitution) is a form of respondent conditioning that involves the conditioning of an unwanted behavior or response to a stimulus into a wanted behavior or response by the association of positive actions with the stimulus. For example, when training a dog, a person would create a positive response by petting or calming the dog, when the dog reacts anxiously or nervously to a stimulus. Therefore this will associate the positive response with the stimulus.