Positive Reinforcement Training
October 19th 2008 16:34
There are many ways that you can train your dog, and not all of them work for every dog. In a way, dogs are like people in that there are different ways that different people learn, and not all dogs learn the same way.
The historic way of training is punishment, but punishment just hasn't proven as the nicest or the best method to training your dog, much less any animal. Now, the more effective ways to train your dog is reinforcement training- more importantly positive reinforcement training.
If you want to opt for positive reinforcement training, you want to make sure that you know the different terms, although, for the most part you will perform the actions without knowing what you are doing.
The basic terms for reinforcement training include:
* Positive reinforcement: Dog does something right, you give something
* Negative reinforcement: Dog does something right, you give something
* Positve punishment: Dog does something wrong, you take something away
* Negative punishment: Dog does something wrong, you take something away
They soung pretty simple and pretty similar, right? Well, basicall negative is bad and positive is good. Reinforcement you give to make sure the behavior continues, and punishment is you take something to ensure the behavior doesn't continue.
Ok, here... You put a shock collar on your dog. The dog barks (behavior you want to stop), and the collar GIVES your dog a shock. This is negative reinforcement, as every time your dog barks, he gets a shock to reinforce the behavior to be quiet.
Or, You're trying to teach your dog to walk nicely on a leash. He's pulling and pulling and choking himself on the collar. Well, when he stops pulling, he stops choking. You are taking away the choking sensation when the dog does right. This is positive punishment. The word punishment isn't always a bad thing. You are just taking something away to enforce a behavior, and in this case you're taking away the choking feeling and your dog walks nicely to prevent choking.
That is really the simplified version of the words, but for the most part you will be doing this anyway subconsciously. So, you don't necessarily HAVE to worry about it.
Just remember that with positive reinforcement training, you want to make sure that you make the training as pleasurable and fun as you can. Use clicker training or just use treats to reinforce that your dog does a particular behavior with a particular command.
The historic way of training is punishment, but punishment just hasn't proven as the nicest or the best method to training your dog, much less any animal. Now, the more effective ways to train your dog is reinforcement training- more importantly positive reinforcement training.
If you want to opt for positive reinforcement training, you want to make sure that you know the different terms, although, for the most part you will perform the actions without knowing what you are doing.
The basic terms for reinforcement training include:
* Positive reinforcement: Dog does something right, you give something
* Negative reinforcement: Dog does something right, you give something
* Positve punishment: Dog does something wrong, you take something away
* Negative punishment: Dog does something wrong, you take something away
They soung pretty simple and pretty similar, right? Well, basicall negative is bad and positive is good. Reinforcement you give to make sure the behavior continues, and punishment is you take something to ensure the behavior doesn't continue.
Ok, here... You put a shock collar on your dog. The dog barks (behavior you want to stop), and the collar GIVES your dog a shock. This is negative reinforcement, as every time your dog barks, he gets a shock to reinforce the behavior to be quiet.
Or, You're trying to teach your dog to walk nicely on a leash. He's pulling and pulling and choking himself on the collar. Well, when he stops pulling, he stops choking. You are taking away the choking sensation when the dog does right. This is positive punishment. The word punishment isn't always a bad thing. You are just taking something away to enforce a behavior, and in this case you're taking away the choking feeling and your dog walks nicely to prevent choking.
That is really the simplified version of the words, but for the most part you will be doing this anyway subconsciously. So, you don't necessarily HAVE to worry about it.
Just remember that with positive reinforcement training, you want to make sure that you make the training as pleasurable and fun as you can. Use clicker training or just use treats to reinforce that your dog does a particular behavior with a particular command.
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