Should You Use Punishment

Negative reinforcement can be used to teach behavior. The main disadvantage of using negative reinforcement is that you must precede the reinforcement with either a punishment, or the threat of punishment. This can cause fear and anxiety in animals.

A punishment, as we all know, is an unwelcoming event which an animal or human, for that matter, obviously wishes to avoid because of the fearful consequences. As Webster puts it a punishment is:

• To impose a penalty on for a fault, offense, or violation.

To inflict a penalty for the commission of (an offense) in retribution or retaliation. To deal with roughly or harshly.

A punishment is designed to make a behavior less likely to occur in the future. As children I am sure we were all punished. At least I was. That is for sure. I thought twice about doing that same naughty act again. An example of a negative reinforcement with a dog is a choker chain. If you are trying to teach your dog to walk beside you and to heel on command when you stop, you could use a choker collar. If he surges at another animal or human and he is wearing a choker chain you may pull on his choker chain. If your dog then stops, and heels the stopping of the pain and pressure on the dog's neck stops because the choker chain goes slack.

So, the stopping of the pain and pressure on the dog's neck is a "negative reinforcement" to the dog. It is reinforcing because it removes something that is not of benefit to the dog.

A lot of people seem to think using positive reinforcement doubled with negative reinforcement would make for a better behaving dog. There is no doubt that using negative reinforcement will make your dog do what you want. However punishment and negative reinforcement produce involuntary behaviors, as the dog doesn't willingly do what you want. Just imagine how you would feel if a powerful person punished you for a particular action and you didn't understand why. You would probably run away from that situation and avoid contact with that person at all costs in the future. A lot of dogs who are trained using punishment become very fearful which in turn causes anxiety.

4 Big Disadvantages For Using Negative Reinforcement To Train Your Dog.

1. The dog does NOT willingly do what you want.

2. The punishments must become more severe for the dog to continue to obey you.

3. The dog will link you, the owner with punishment therefore destroying your relationship with your dog.

4. Because the dog is fear driven it may become unwilling or unable to learn.

Examples of a dog feeling fearful.

A. The dog heeling with tail held low and ears laid back.

B. Dog returns slowly to you in an arc, rather than quickly in a straight line.

C. Cringing behavior when the dog is close to you.

At this point it should be very clear that positive reinforcement is the best choice for training your dog. Your dog will have a much better temperament and ability and willingness to learn.

If you missed the article on positive reinforcement drop me an email and I'll send it to you. BettyBulldog@ForTheLoveOfDogZ.com

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