The Art & Science of Dog Training--My Training Approach(05)

iv) Emotional management-- Building an atmosphere of trust. Which means: Removal of force-based training tools and techniques.

In keeping with giving a dog a stable emotional environment and building an atmosphere of trust, it’s important to remove all forced-based training tools and techniques as a matter of course. In other words, these are tools that are to be used only when everything else (including management and prevention) fails. Further, if these tools are used at all, they must be used effectively no more than three times. In fact, if you’re using one of these tools for the fourth time, it’s not a punishment.

I’ll get into what makes a punishment later, but for now let me explain why these tools are methods of last resort and some should not be used at all. Ever.

The tools and methods I have in mind include the following:

§ Shock collars of every kind (including those for Electronic Containment Systems)
§ Alpha rolls (where the owner rolls a dog over on it’s back in order to stop a given behavior)
§ Using the hands to hold the dog’s mouth shut as a punishment for mouthing, biting, or snarking.
§ Prong collars—also known as “training” or “self-correcting” collars
§ Choke chains—also known as “training” collars or slip leads
§ Hitting, kicking, spanking, or “whupping” with a hand, newspaper, or anything else.
§ Shake cans—cans partially filled with coins meant to be thrown near the dog and thereby scare the dog away from something.
§ Spray bottles
§ Leash pops or corrections

This is not a complete list. All of these items in the world of Behavioral Science fall under the label of “Positive Punishment.” There’s nothing happy or emotionally positive about this list. The reason they’re labeled “positive” is because something is being “added to” the dog in order to stop a certain behavior. A collar is being jerked, a can is thrown, or the dog itself is rolled. Forcefully on its back.

Positive punishment is complicated. That’s the problem with it. It has unintended consequences that are not clear at first. Electronic, prong and choke collars can all lead to increased aggression. The Monks of New Skete introduced the alpha roll years ago and then retracted their support of it 20 years later because too many dog owners using the method were getting bit by their own dogs.

Positive punishment is a very powerful tool. . It’s a double-edged sword that can all too easily sever the bond of trust between you and your dog. To be done correctly, it cannot be done in the heat of the moment (when it is most likely to be done) and it must be given at just the right time in the behavioral sequence, in the right amount, and it must be clear to the dog exactly what behavior brought about the punishment. In other words, to use positive punishment well, you need to plan ahead and set up the situation perfectly. Who has time to do that when your 120 lb Great Dane is snarling at the kid in the park?

Honestly, if you can set up a situation in which to do Positive Punishment correctly, why bother? It’s much easier to manage the dog and prevent the unwanted behavior and reward an alternative behavior? To do Positive Punishment right is A LOT OF WORK!!!

The beauty of reward-based training is that you can be a little sloppy in your delivery and timing and your dog will be willing to experiment with different behaviors and see what gets the reward and what doesn’t. This gives you time to practice on your delivery and timing so that eventually both you and your dog get really good at figuring out how to work together.

Think about it. When someone in the past has been particularly rude or abusive to you, do you feel comfortable doing ANYTHING in that person’s presence other than walking away? Have you ever worked for a truly loathsome boss? I have. At first, it inspired me to get really creative about how to avoid criticism…this made me a very productive worker. But at the end of the day, I shopped around my resume’ and moved on. Positive Punishment does not make for a long lasting, healthy, productive relationship.

Very few of us, dogs and people, want to experiment and see exactly what behavior caused that electric shock. In an atmosphere of trust, where rewards are likely to come for appropriate behavior, your dog will be happy to experiment and try out behaviors that make you both happy. (Right now, Trooper is sleeping on the couch, this makes us both happy, and it is a reward for not whining/barking on the couch. I am very glad that he decided to experiment with this behavior.)

Reward-based training allows both you and your dog to be creative in figuring out new ways to solve old problems. The ill-advised use of Positive Punishment can completely undermine the atmosphere of trust and creativity that are the hallmarks of a great relationship.

Copyright (c) 2010 ~ Peg Dawson Harrington ~ All Rights Reserved