The repeated stimulation of an animal can result in adaptive learning as the animal becomes very conscious of that particular stimulus and learns how to respond to it. This is what is referred to as Learning by Habituation. Dogs in particular learn by this means and have come to become one of the fastest learners in the animal world. These learning behaviors can be in the form of escape from predation, finding mate or finding food. You can see how all these are achieved from this post. http://gulpmatrix.com/habituation-behavioral-learning-by-habituation/