Positive Punishment: Add something to decrease behavior
Next in this series of “learning training terms”: positive punishment. As we review, please recall that there are four parts to Operant Conditioning: Positive Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, Negative Reinforcement, and Negative Punishment. Remember – don’t get caught up on the words themselves, because they might not mean exactly what you first think 😉
Training Terms:
Another quick recap on the definition of “stimulus”:
According to Wikipedia:
A stimulus is something that causes a physiological or psychological response:
- Stimulation
- Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity
- Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception
And don’t forget: “positive” and “negative” do NOT mean “good” or “bad”. You have to think in more mathematical terms, here: POSITIVE = ADDITION, NEGATIVE = SUBTRACTION. Operant conditioning is all about the addition or removal of a stimulus into the environment and how that effects the frequency of the behavior. Now, reinforcement and punishment refer to a consequence that cause a behavior to occur more or less frequently: REINFORCEMENT = CONSEQUENCE CAUSES GREATER FREQUENCY; PUNISHMENT = CONSEQUENCE CAUSES LESS FREQUENCY.
So, moving forward again with these definitions, Positive Punishment occurs when the addition of a stimulus (usually seen as unpleasant) decreases the occurrence of a behavior.
Using Positive Punishment in Dog Training:
Back in our training scenario example, we use this when a dog does something we as humans don’t like and we are trying to stop. The unpleasant stimulus could be a lot of things: taking away your attention, a loud noise, a leash correction, or the vibrate/shock function on an e-collar.
As trainers, we often don’t use the term positive punishment because of the negative connotation that comes along with it. Let’s be honest – it just sounds harsh, doesn’t it? We never intend to hurt, harm, or injure any of the dogs we train; but the word “punishment” can sound like we are trying to. With our company, we often pair positive punishment techniques with positive reinforcement to speed up the learning process. For example, we might use a loud noise to stop jumping, then verbally praise the dog when they greet us nicely at the door.
Using e-collars in training:
While we’re on the subject, I know there may be questions about a shock collar (or e-collar, as they are sometimes called). Yes, we have used them in our training – but our trainers don’t immediately bring them out for every dog. Often, we have already introduced the obedience command and we are trying to reinforce it off-leash. Or, the client can’t physically do the same things we can so the collar becomes “the great equalizer”. When we do introduce an e-collar, we always start at a lowest level first, then gradually increase it. This way, we find the least amount of shock needed to stop the behavior, then we can reward the good behavior. In most of our cases, the vibrate function is all we need to stop the behavior because it gets the dog’s attention just as much (remember those pagers we all used to have in the 80’s? Yeah, that kind of vibrate).
Using an e-collar with a deaf dog:
One of the few times we will use the e-collar immediately with training a dog is with a deaf dog. Why? Because that vibrate function can be trained as a “come command”. Think about it: your dog is in the yard and you instinctively try to call it. If it is behind a tree or not looking at you, hand signals won’t do you much good. However, if you train the dog to come when the collar vibrates, you can get your dog to come wherever they are in the yard, even if they can’t see you.
I hope that helped you learn this term a little better, and not have a bad reflex reaction to it anymore ;-P Next week, we’ll look at Negative Reinforcement (if “negative” isn’t “bad” – can you guess what this one is?)
Remember, our trainers are trained with our Multi-method Training System, so we can find the best way your dog learns 🙂 We always have you and your dog’s best interest at heart, because we want your dog to become a valued member of the family!
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