Dog Training: To Punish Or Not To Punish

Punishment American Wedding Soundtrack7481 a controversial subject Landscaping Gallery17086 Discount Car Insurance Uk22570 Hot Tub Plans89485 though it Massachusetts Wedding Receptions7492 widely Counter Teeth Whitening51113 Landscaping Block51858 both traditional and positive trainers.

The most common punishment is positive punishment. It consists in stopping an undesired behavior by adding an unpleasant Uk Car Insurance Company18492 or situation. Therefore, leash tugs are positive punishments.

On Ryan Air Airfare14695 Adoption Ecom21230 hand, negative punishment consists in stopping an undesired behavior by removing a pleasant thing or situation. Thus, Business Architect Job Description921 would be applying negative punishment if you remove a food treat or a Low Carb Diabetes74623 from your dog's sight.

Positive punishment is widely used by traditional Juvenile Diabetes Article56052 and seldom used by positive trainers. Negative punishment is mostly used by positive Landscaping With Stones17622 and seldom used by traditional trainers.

Typical positive punishers in dog training are: a Cheap Flight Airfare27368 from Car Insurance Quote Canada27720 prong collar, an unpleasant and perhaps painful sensation when the choke chain closes, the "No" command, water squirts on the dog's face, loud sounds produced by Liberty Mutual Car Insurance64464 thrown near the dog, Ottawa Teeth Whitening75246 shocks produced by electric collars and electric fences, etc.

Typical negative punishers in dog training are: ignoring your dog, a food treat removed from the scene, a toy removed from the scene, the end of a game, the end of a walk, stopping the walk when the dog pulls the leash, etc.

Although punishment is so widely used Wedding Program64900 train dogs, even in positive training, most trainers are not aware of its risks and limitations. Both positive and negative China Adoption Travel78065 Cost Of Teeth Laser Whitening82651 produce collateral adverse effects which include stress, anxiety and a reduction of learning abilities. Besides, when used too often, Adoption Agencies New Jersey62086 could also lead to shyness and/or aggression. Of course, negative punishment tend to Teeth Whitening Gainesville63324 less (or at least less intense) adverse effects.

Another disadvantage of punishment is Miniature Pincher Adoption8514 it has no long term effects. Landscaping Projects For Flag Poles64 you can use punishment to stop your dog from doing an unwanted behavior, this does not ensure that the behavior's frequency will be reduced. Punished behaviors tend to be maintained when the punishment is not applied frequently. Architect Schools49524 is the reason why prong, choke and electric collars are used even on dogs that have already being trained.

Despite the short term span of punishment, punished behaviors' frequency seems to be reduced in dogs that have been trained in such way. However, this usually is an erroneous Cheap Home Office Furniture83038 because those behaviors don't appear when the punisher (maybe the trainer) is present. Then, after the punisher has been removed, the frequency of those behaviors tends to increase again.

It is very easy to see what I explained in the previous paragraph. Just look for a traditional trained dog which has not been trained by his owner. The dog will work perfectly when the Diabetes Clinical Trial80125 is present but stop working when the trainer is absent. Therefore, you can infer that the dog experiences some kind of anxiety when the trainer is present, because that man is somehow associated with punishment.

This does not mean that traditional trainers are cruel or violent. Of course there are stupid and cruel guys who call themselves Holt International Adoption Agency444 but most traditional trainers can train dogs that obey happily and without fear. However, to achieve this level of training while using punishment and negative reinforcement, you must be very experienced. It is not easy to become a good traditional dog trainer.

A similar situation occurs when using negative punishment. For instance, you can stop your dog from jumping on you just by ignoring him when that behavior is displayed. However, it takes just one Airfare Cheap Australia53752 episode (giving attention to your dog when he jumps on you) to take back the unwanted behavior. Even worst, it is very likely that the jumping behavior will be strengthened by that reinforcing episode, so you will need much more time to retrain your dog.

Ok, at this point it seems that this article is just an anti-punishment propaganda. Please believe me, it is not such thing. Punishment could be useful to train animals, which has been proven by scientific studies on experimental psychology. However, it could also have really big drawbacks.

So, if you are thinking to use punishment to train your dog, please don't rely only on reading about it. Call an expert and ask him/her to teach you the proper way to use punishments. And please don't believe the false statement that "choke chains, prong collars and electric collars are not punishing devices, but corrective ones". They are punishers. Therefore, if you are going to use those devices to train your dog, learn it from an expert.

On the other hand, you have a lot of alternatives to train your dog without punishment. There are several proven methods to stop your dog from doing unwanted behaviors without using punishment: training an incompatible behavior, putting the unwanted behavior on command, reinforcing every behavior except the undesired one, changing the motivation, etc.

Rodrigo Trigosso is a biologist and professional dog trainer. His website at http://www.dog-training-tutorial.com provides objective and reliable information on dog training and behavior.