[kclinch]

Interesting topic. Once very dear to my heart.

Living in South Florida, and being a scuba diver, and totally in love with the water, I find myself visiting dolphin facilities occassionally, and doing their "TRAINER FOR THE DAY" routine.

You know what I find amazing: I have never seen or heard of a dolphin or whale or sea lion running out in the middle of the road and getting hit an killed by a car. Or biting the mail man. Or the meter reader. Or stealing 5 lbs of chicken off the kitchen counter.

And if they don't perform, no ones life will depend on it.

However, if my 85lb rottie doesn't heel, I could get seriously injured. Or if she jumps on someone, namely my 95 yr old grandmother, they could be seriously injured.

Now, what happens when you have trained your dog with all positives, and no negative punishment when the reward of chasing the squirrel down the street, where it gets hit and killed by a car, far outweighs the thought of any food you might have?

And what happens when you don't have a food motivated dog? None of my dogs are food motivated. I guess I could starve them for a week, but I think I would simply rather give them a leash correction and be done with it.

Now, there are people out there who say that they use operant conditioning, but did you know that Operant conditioning has 4 factors to it?
1) Positive Reinforcement(give the dog something that it wants for doing what you ask or want it to do)(IE, a pat on the head, a kind word, a treat, a play session, etc...)
2) Negative Reinforcement(doing something the dog doesn't like until it complies with what you want, such as stepping on the leash until the dog lies down, and then that pressure on the leash goes away the instant the dog compies)
3) Positive punishment(doing something the dog doesn't like when it does something you don't like, such as a leash correction for refusal to sit)
4) Negative punishment(Taking something away from the dog that he likes, such as food or toys or attention.

Now, let's say your dog is jumping on you. You have several solutions to that.

You can
a) Positively reward him for sitting --positive reinforcement
b) Stand on his leash, so that he can't jump--negative reinforcement
c) Give him a leash correction or use an air horn---positive punishment
d) ignore the behavior until it goes away(sometimes by pushing the dog off or acknowledging the behavior that in and of itself is rewarding to the dog)--negative punishment.


Just some thoughts.
Karla Clinch
Certified Dog Trainer