We examined the effects of chronic nicotine exposure and dietary salt on the arterial blood pressure (BP) changes learned in response to an acute behavioral stress in the Dahl salt-sensitive rat. Four groups were tested: low salt + vehicle; low salt + nicotine; high salt + vehicle; and high salt + nicotine. Rats were fed a low-salt (0.08% NaCl) or a high-salt (8% NaCl) diet for 4 wk; 2.4 mg · kg¹ · day¹ nicotine or vehicle was given via an implanted osmotic minipump for the last 2 wk. All rats were conditioned by following one tone (CS+) with a 0.5-s tail shock; another tone (CS) was never followed by shock. CS+ in low salt + vehicle and high salt + vehicle-treated rats evoked an initial arterial BP increase (C₁), a component of the startle response, and an ensuing, smaller, but more sustained, pressor response (C₂), which is acquired with training. In these rats, both C₁ and C₂ evoked by CS were significantly smaller than those to CS+, demonstrating that these groups discriminated between the two tests. Conversely, although the low salt + nicotine-treated rats had both the C₁ and C₂ components of the conditional arterial pressure response, they did not discriminate between CS+ and CS. Finally, the high salt + nicotine group failed to both discriminate between tones and acquire (i.e., learn) the C₂ response. The unconditional response to shock did not differ between groups. We conclude that combined exposure to high salt and to nicotine inhibits the salt-sensitive animal's acquisition of a learned conditional BP response, perhaps because nicotine acts preferentially on those central processes required for associative learning versus those involved in orientating to external stimuli.