Dog Training: Praise or Punishment!
Dog Training: Praise or Punishment! by Gareth Heath
Use of punishment has been traditionally the main method of changing an unwanted behavior or forcing a new behavior both in human and animal domains. The good news is day after day new studies prove that this once unquestioned method of training is less effective than what was thought.
I am often asked by animal owner why they should stop using punishment when it works for them. I would like to point out something before we continue; yes punishment is able to avert unwanted behaviors in several cases and at times faster than use of praise. That being said, negative side effects of using punishment especially in long term in forms of aggressive behaviors, psychological and emotional problems make punishment of lesser value even in cases that it works.
The best method for teaching your dog a new behavior is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the process of presenting a pleasant stimulus (i.e. treat or verbal praise) in order to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurrence in the future. To get a better idea about how use of positive reinforcer and traditional punishment differs in dog training, let's see how an owner can teach his or her dog the command "down" using each of these methods.
First, let's take a look at using punishment: In this method, the owner puts leash on the animal in sit position, stands in front of the animal and steps on the part of the leash that's lying on the ground. Then he or she says the word down and pulls on the leash which will result in shortening of distance between the dog's neck and the ground and forces the animal to do down. After a few times, he or she just says down and if the dog doesn't obey the command he just pull on the leash vigorously and forces the animal to go down again. Apart from the injuries this method may cause on the animal, the fear and shock resulting from such violent methods, reduces the dog's learning ability to a minimum and make these methods even less effective.
Now, let's take a look at using a positive reinforcer for the same purpose: Starting from sitting position, the owner sits in front of the dog and with a treat between his fingers. Then he simply puts the treat in front of the dog's nose and then lowers the treat down in between the dog's paws while saying "down". When the treat reaches the ground he simply pulls his hand away and voila, the dog is in down position.
He may also put his other hand on the animal's shoulders just to guide him in the right direction without pushing him down. It will usually take only two or three repetitions for a puppy to lean to respond to "down" command using this method.
In conclusion, use of praise instead of punishment has proven to be a more effective method for teaching new behaviors to pets and in case of unwanted behavior aversion, humane punishment methods (such as taking away dog's favorite toy, etc.) are far superior to violent traditional punishments.
About the Author
Gareth Heath writes about nonviolent, humane methods in dog training. Visit http://www.thehappydogsclub.com for more articles on positive dog training and other subjects such as dog's health, grooming, etc.
Use of punishment has been traditionally the main method of changing an unwanted behavior or forcing a new behavior both in human and animal domains. The good news is day after day new studies prove that this once unquestioned method of training is less effective than what was thought.
I am often asked by animal owner why they should stop using punishment when it works for them. I would like to point out something before we continue; yes punishment is able to avert unwanted behaviors in several cases and at times faster than use of praise. That being said, negative side effects of using punishment especially in long term in forms of aggressive behaviors, psychological and emotional problems make punishment of lesser value even in cases that it works.
The best method for teaching your dog a new behavior is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the process of presenting a pleasant stimulus (i.e. treat or verbal praise) in order to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurrence in the future. To get a better idea about how use of positive reinforcer and traditional punishment differs in dog training, let's see how an owner can teach his or her dog the command "down" using each of these methods.
First, let's take a look at using punishment: In this method, the owner puts leash on the animal in sit position, stands in front of the animal and steps on the part of the leash that's lying on the ground. Then he or she says the word down and pulls on the leash which will result in shortening of distance between the dog's neck and the ground and forces the animal to do down. After a few times, he or she just says down and if the dog doesn't obey the command he just pull on the leash vigorously and forces the animal to go down again. Apart from the injuries this method may cause on the animal, the fear and shock resulting from such violent methods, reduces the dog's learning ability to a minimum and make these methods even less effective.
Now, let's take a look at using a positive reinforcer for the same purpose: Starting from sitting position, the owner sits in front of the dog and with a treat between his fingers. Then he simply puts the treat in front of the dog's nose and then lowers the treat down in between the dog's paws while saying "down". When the treat reaches the ground he simply pulls his hand away and voila, the dog is in down position.
He may also put his other hand on the animal's shoulders just to guide him in the right direction without pushing him down. It will usually take only two or three repetitions for a puppy to lean to respond to "down" command using this method.
In conclusion, use of praise instead of punishment has proven to be a more effective method for teaching new behaviors to pets and in case of unwanted behavior aversion, humane punishment methods (such as taking away dog's favorite toy, etc.) are far superior to violent traditional punishments.
About the Author
Gareth Heath writes about nonviolent, humane methods in dog training. Visit http://www.thehappydogsclub.com for more articles on positive dog training and other subjects such as dog's health, grooming, etc.
posted by Michael K. at 11:28 AM
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