by Am.

Created on: January 08, 2009

With training, it is important to understand that four types of consequences can happen: positive punishment (add bad thing), positive reinforcement (add good), negative punishment (stop good), and negative reinforcement (stop bad). Dogs, like all animals, are concentrating on survival. Considering that, our pets realize that we have control of the access to important resources like food, toys, walks, etc. The goal of positive reinforcement is to let the animal know that it performed the correct behavior, earning it brief access to a resource.

According to Jean Donaldson's book, "The Culture Clash," there are five important rules to understanding behavior. First, dogs do whatever works. The second rule is presented above, the four kinds of consequences. Third, all of those consequences must be immediate. The good and bad consequences will be associated with the animal's surroundings. Finally, dogs are experts at reading the environment to know which consequences are likely for which behaviors in any given situation. The bottom line is that behavior that is reinforced should increase in frequency.

Therefore, it would be wise to assume that ignoring a problem/undesired behavior while rewarding goal behavior would be the most effective method to training. In human society, we tend to use punishment a lot, though. For example, criminals are sent to prison for their problem behaviors. However, a large number of those punished re-offend. Simply put, this type of "training" does not seem to work well (Donaldson). Examples of punishment in dog training are verbal reprimands, spanking, hitting, spraying with water, leash jerks, etc. Typically, these actions have to be used over and over, and generally, the intensity of the action has to increase. Punishment does NOT stop behavior. It stuns, or interrupts, it. The animal will figure out ways to do the behavior without receiving a punishment. For example, a dog that is punished for urinating in the living room will learn that it is unsafe to urinate in the living room while it's owner is present. Or, if it is punished for urinating while it's owner was at work (the owner did not witness the "crime"), it will learn that the return of it's owner from work is dangerous, which creates fear. This is the potential hazard of punishment-based training. If used inappropriately and ineffectively, it can cause your animal to actively fear YOU. Most of the time, the animal associates the punishment with you and/or the specific occurrences

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