UNDERSTANDING TRAINING METHODS

WHAT IS OPERANT CONDITIONING?

Basically, operant conditioning defines how consequences influence behavior. Once you understand how operant conditioning works, you may be in a better position to decide for yourself which training methods are most likely to work for you and your dog.

Reinforcement and Punishment

When you reinforce a behavior, you increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring.

When you punish a behavior, you decrease the likelihood of the behavior occurring.

Positive and Negative

We tend to think of “positive” as good and “negative” as bad. In the context of operant conditioning, however, positive means applying or giving something and negative means withdrawing or withholding something. This is an important point to keep in mind in trying to understand what these types of conditioning are and how they work.

P+ Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement rewards a behavior by giving something pleasant. For example, you ask the dog to sit, the dog sits, you give him something he likes or enjoys. What you give him is not set in stone; it could be a treat, a pet, a “good boy,” or a game of fetch. If you give a dog a reward for sitting when told to, it becomes more likely he will repeat the behavior, or, sit again. If, your wife tells you how good you smell wearing that cologne, you are more likely to wear that cologne again.

The point of positive reinforcement is that you increase the likelihood a desired behavior will occur again, because the consequence of that behavior was enjoyable. Importantly, positive reinforcement is not bribery. It’s simply a term used to define a particular component of operant conditioning. Unfortunately, people who do not understand what positive reinforcement is deride it as bribery. Bribery is when a trainer or dog owner must present the enticement (food, toy, etc) before the dog offers the behavior. A reward is what follows the dog performing or offering the behavior. It does not have to be presented beforehand.

Other aspects of reinforcement, such as types of reinforcers and schedules, are not discussed in this article. If you are interested in more information on positive reinforcement, please contact us.

R- Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement is sometimes referred to as “harassment training.” Negative reinforcement also increases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated, because when the correct behavior was performed, something unpleasant was removed. One way to think of this is engaging in the correct behavior as an effort to escape or avoid the unpleasant consequence.

For example, imagine you are training your dog on a choke chain, and you put pressure on the choke and ask the dog to sit. The dog sits and you release the pressure on the choke chain. By removing the unpleasant consequence when the dog performs the desired behavior, you are increasing the likelihood the behavior will be repeated. (Another example of this in our own lives, the seat belt buzzer buzzes annoyingly until you put your seat belt on. When you put your seat belt on, it stops. You have just been negatively reinforced.)

P+ Positive Punishment

Positive punishment decreases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated. Again, in this context “positive” does not mean something pleasant or nice, it means that you are applying a punishment. Here, an “incorrect” response produces an unpleasant or aversive consequence.

A jerk on the collar to stop a dog from pulling is positive punishment. The dog is less likely to continue pulling, because something unpleasant happens when she pulls. If a dog is barking and gets squirted with a water bottle, the dog is less likely to bark again. If a dog tries to jump over a fence and gets zapped by a shock collar, the dog is less likely to jump over the fence again. If a leash is soaked in Tabasco sauce when the dog chews on the leash and gets a mouthful of Tabasco, it is less likely that the dog will chew the leash again. Or, if a child touches a hot stove and gets burned, the child is less likely to touch the hot stove again.

P- Negative Punishment

With negative punishment, a reward is removed or withheld.

One of the most common uses of negative punishment, with both dogs and children, is the “time-out”. The child or dog misbehaves, and attention is withdrawn. Something good, attention, has been removed as a consequence of the bad behavior. Thus, the bad behavior is less likely to occur. If you ask the dog to sit and the dog lays down, you withhold the reward.

One example of how this is effective in dog training is for puppies and adolescent dogs that bite and nip at family members to get them to play. If the owner turns and yells at the dog, pushes them away, or even makes eye contact, they have rewarded the dog with attention, exactly what the dog was looking for. However, if the family member gets up and walks out of the room, away from the dog, they are removing their attention, thereby punishing the biting.

In order for any of these approaches to be effective, the consequence must be delivered immediately (no more than 2 seconds), and consistently. Where most dog owners go wrong is delivering the reward or the punishment too late or inconsistently (ie, letting the dog pull on leash into the dog park, but punishing the dog for pulling on walks). This is why it is beneficial to work with a professional trainer, who will work on improving your training skills and timing so you can avoid common mistakes.

4PAWS UNIVERSITY'S METHODS

Our training methods focus on positive reinforcement and negative punishment. We teach new behaviors through luring, capturing and shaping, rather than using force or fear. This is paired with careful management of the dog's environment to prevent unwanted behaviors from developing during the training process.

For dogs that are already exhibiting problem behaviors, such as aggression, punishment-based methods are only temporarily effective, as they do not improve the dog's association to the people or dogs that trigger the aggressive behavior. Positive reinforcement, when part of a behavior modification plan, does change the dog's association.

Here's a great video that shows the incredible changes positive reinforcement methods produces in a dog that had previously been very aggressive when the owner attempted to trim his nails:

CONCLUSION

If you are not comfortable with the methods and equipment used by the trainer, and are not willing to use them yourself, you will not follow through with your dog’s training and will not be successful. For you to train your dog successfully, you must implement the training yourself and be consistent.

The laws of learning, like the laws of gravity, are always in effect. We as trainers just have to learn to use them effectively.

Additional Reading

Traditional Training Methods

Dog Boot Camps

Why Punishment Can Make Aggression Worse

The Dominance Myth