Example: A puppy runs up to me on the first night of puppy class. She is very excited to say hello! She jumps all over me for a few seconds. I completely ignore her until she is sitting. Then I lavish her with attention. Hello cute puppy! By the second night of class, the puppy greets me by sitting politely at my feet.
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| Polite, sitting puppy |
What just happened here? I obviously rewarded the sitting behavior and was rewarded myself with a polite puppy greeting a week later. But what about the jumping behavior? Did you notice that I punished that behavior?
In terms of animal behavior, negative means to remove and positive means to add. Positive reinforcement (again, reinforcement increases a behavior) adds something that the dog wants. Attention, verbal praise, food, toys, etc. I positively reinforced the sitting behavior with attention and verbal praise. Negative reinforcement removes something that the dog doesn't want. An example of negative reinforcement would be forced fetching, where a trainer pinches a dog's ear until they open their mouth. When the dog opens their mouth, the trainer lets go. This reinforces the mouth opening behavior by removing something that the dog doesn't want (pain!).
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| Rana's sitting behavior is positively reinforced with a doggy doughnut |
Punishment follows the same rules. Negative means to remove, positive means to add. But in this case, the "evils" are flipped. Positive punishment adds something that the dog doesn't want. Pain, verbal or physical corrections, loud noises (like a can of pennies), spray bottles, etc. Negative punishment removes something that the dog wants. Withholding attention, treats, etc. are examples of negative punishment. Time-outs (which were discussed in another blog post) are another example of a negative punishment. The dog is removed from the situation (time-out) and then attention is withheld until the dog is released from the time-out. Most positive dog trainers use negative punishment, because it doesn't require the use of force, pain, or intimidation. A "positive dog trainer" is simply someone who refuses to use pain, force, or intimidation to train dogs. In this way, negative punishment is actually "positive!"
So look back at the puppy example. I applied a negative punishment (withholding attention AKA ignoring) to the jumping behavior. And I applied positive reinforcement (attention) to the sitting behavior. And absolutely no force, pain, or intimidation was used on the puppy! This is the art of ignoring, folks. In later blog posts I will address how to successfully ignore your dog in specific situations. We will also talk about extinction bursts (tantrums!) and cases of natural negative punishment in dog-to-dog interactions (hint: go look at the bite inhibition blog post. Do you see a negative punishment?). Have a great Memorial Day weekend and as always, thanks for reading!
