DogSpeak: Whale eye, translated

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• Positive Punishment

  Punishment Being Positive Let’s start with a simple question – What is the opposite of reward? Punishment? Discipline? No Reward? The correct answer here is, No Reward. Punishment is not payback; punishment is something like - re-conditioning. Positive punishment can best be defined as something that you add to your present environment that is distasteful and is triggered of every time you do something you should not be doing. For instance if you were to wire your car in such a way that every time you crossed a certain speed limit, you got a small electric shock, that would amount to positive punishment for you. In a dog’s world, it means every time the dog exhibits behavior that in unacceptable, something unpleasant gets added to his environment. More often than not punishment translates into some sort physical discomfort if not pain, dog leashes, shock collars; are common means to reprimand the dog. But physical pain does not usually come under the umbrella of positive punishment. An unpleasant, external stimulus can alternatively be used for positive punishment. During the process of dog training two methods are recommended: 1. Spraying with a Squirt Gun Only squirt the dog when it is doing something it should not be doing. If you squirt the dog after the action is over, you have effectively punished the dog for stopping the behavior. Also try and use the gun, while the dog is not looking at you. The unpleasant sensation should be linked to the action and not to you. And lastly, while spraying utter some sound as well like “No” or “Ah Ah”. Eventually the dog will learn to correlate the two and not indulge in any unwanted behavior when it hears the sound. Once the dog has ceased doing whatever it was doing, offer it some form of praise or engage it in some form of acceptable activity. For example, take the dog for a walk. 2. Shaking a Penny Can If the dog is involved in some form of undesirable activity and you want it to stop, shake the penny can, until it finally does stop. The unpleasant sound serves as an irritant. When the behavior ceases, the sound goes away. Here again, reward the dog for understanding. The whole idea here is to promote desirable behavior and curb undesirable instincts. Will positive punishment serve as a successful dog training tool? The jury is out on that one. It works for some and doesn’t for others. Particularly physical punishment merely suppresses behavior, doesn’t really correct it. Practitioners of positive punishment will narrate the instances where they succeeded; you are unlikely to hear of the failed attempts. Nor will you be told of the possible damage that dog training can entail. Dogs can sometimes become more aggressive, averse to the owner, start biting, more defensive and so on and so forth. More often than not, when the punishment factor is done away with, the instinctive behavior recurs. So is positive punishment is virtue or a curse? We don’t have the answers. Suffice is to say, it should be the last resort in dog training or according to Dedicated Dog Training, a Long Island, NYC dog training school, positive punishment should be used in conjunction with a plethora of other methods. We reward our children for bringing home good grades, where may deny or take away (negative reinforcement) that reward for not bringing home good grades, but most certainly, we would not let (2) or (3) bad reports card unpunished, would we?