01/27/2019
To The Rescue! K9 College/Home of Silent Training Beth Moody 2018
What is positive reinforcement training?
Well, first you need to understand that semantics play a part in how trainers identify themselves nowadays. Its relatively easy if they understand that there are four quadrants of operant conditioning. These are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement and negative punishment. In scientific terms, positive does not mean good and negative does not mean bad. Positive means to add something. Negative means to remove something.
Since the average dog owner does not know that, semantics can make you think a trainer is doing only force free type training on your dog when in reality they are not.
I will start by explaining the four quadrants to you:
Positive Reinforcement-this is adding a reward in order to increase a desired behavior. Example, ask the dog to sit, he does and he gets a cookie.
Positive Punishment-this is to add an aversive in order to reduce the undesirable behavior. Example of this is shock collar training. The dog exhibits an undesirable behavior and the trainer issues a shock.
Negative Reinforcement-You remove a negative stimulus to increase a desired behavior. For example, The dog has been pulling on the leash, with a pinch collar on. It is irritating and painful. He stops pulling and the pain stops. That is Negative Reinforcement.
Negative Punishment-this is removing a something desirable from the dog in order to reduce a behavior. Example, puppy is chewing on your hand so you move your hand out of reach. Removing the desired item (your hand) is negative punishment.
Force free trainers are just that. They use no force in training a dog. Scientifically speaking, this is the most sound method of training. The lessons stick better with the dog. It can take some time to teach the dog a behavior but they retain the lessons.
Some Shock collar trainers or *balanced trainers* use both shock and treats. This can be very confusing for the dog as well as violate their trust in the owner. Some of these trainers only use punishment. The dog is trained simply by avoiding the punishment.
Ian Dunbar said “To use a shock as an effective dog training method you will need: A thorough understanding of canine behavior. A thorough understanding of learning theory. Impeccable timing. And if you have all these three things you do not need a shock collar”
True force free training allows the dog to think and problem solve and then rewards for good decisions. When you allow a dog to think, and to make the right decision, you end up with a dog who is reliable either on or off leash and works WITH YOU, not for you. You have a partnership with a dog who will do what you ask as long as they understand the request. I much prefer that over a dog who does what I ask because they are terrified of what will happen if they don't.
Dogs trained harsly tend to not think for themselves. They have been taught that when they try new things they get a punishment. They also tend to only pay attention when a leash is on or the owner is there with a correction collar on them. When you do not have immediate, physical control over these dogs they do not know how to behave. They do not know how to make decisions for themselves. I am unsure how any owner would prefer that over a dog who works with you as a team member.
I realize it may seem I am on a mission when it comes to these, and that's because I am. I have seen nice dogs ruined by the use of them. I have seen owners, who have been told why they should not use one, do it anyway, because they wanted instant results rather than working for it.Please know that even though it may look like a shock trainer gets immediate results, they simply are making warnings and symptoms go away. They are not actually addressing the underlying issue.
I know of one owner who had a reactive dog that I started working with. She was lazy and wanted instant results. She did not have any interest in putting the time into training her dog. She ended up hiring a *Balanced Trainer* who took her dog to a dog park and tied him to the fence, with a shock collar on. The owner and trainer then went to the other side of the dog park and left her dog totally alone. The trainer proceeded to shock the dog every time he acted out or exhibited any behavior they felt was undesired. They did this over and over until he stopped raging. They did not fix the dog. They just took away warnings and ruined his relationship with his owner. That poor dog still haunts me to this day, I knew how badly the owner was training him and I could do nothing to stop it. So yes, I am on a mission.
In my opinion, every single dog rescue should have a clause in their contract that states you may not use shock, pinch or choke collars on the adopted dogs. And they need to enforce it. I have this clause in my adoption contract for the rescue I run and we back it up. If any rescues would like to see the contract so that they can implement that clause feel free to ask.
And as far as posts like this one, I will keep writing, keep sharing, until it sinks in to people that they are doing irreparable damage to the dogs they claim to love. Rescues save dogs from horrible situations and then allow the adopters or fosters to shock the dogs. This is SHAMEFUL to me. Why would you shock a dog if there are other options? Why?
To The Rescue! K9 College/Home of Silent Training Beth Moody 2018
