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Old March 23rd, 2011, 03:15 PM
SamIam SamIam is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 447
What is "positive" training anyway?

Yes there are actual official definitions to training terms:

Using the 4 words "positive" (=add something) "negative" (=take something away) "reinforcement" (=encourage to repeat same or similar behaviour) and "punishment" (=discourage a certain behaviour) there are 4 ways to respond to your dog's behaviour.

Positive Reinforcement
Add something the dog likes, praise, treats, toy, attention, etc.

Positive Punishment
Add something the dog dislikes, harsh/growly speech, leash jerk, display of dominance anywhere from just direct eye contact to physical contact

Negative Reinforcement
Taking something away that your dog dislikes, for instance, on leash every time the dog moves closer to the handler the pressure from the leash is automatically released.

Negative Punishment
Oh, from the name this one sounds nasty! But what is it? Taking away something the dog likes in order to discourage a behaviour. So time outs, or when you jump up on me and I turn away and ignore you until you settle down, THAT is is negative punishment. Is it cruel? Maybe! In many situations it is extremely effective!

These are just examples, there are an endless selection of positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement and negative punishments that can be used, and certain ones will be most appropriate for certain situations, certain dogs, certain handlers, but I would consider a trainer more likely to be good if they use a combination of all 4 reactions.

Someone claiming to be a "positive" or "positive reinforcement" trainer? To me, they either don't know what positive means (and therefore have missed out on on the teachings of the very people who coined the term positive reinforcement in the first place) or are expressing a very narrow-minded approach that it is never appropriate to punish a dog, or to take anything away from them as a part of behaviour management.
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