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Secrets of Dog Training Professionals - Operant ConditioningPage 1 | Page 2
"Positive" means to add something. We add the reward, or add the punisher. By contrast, “Negative” means to take something away. We take away the reward, or take away the unpleasant stimulus.
"Reinforcement" is when we increase or maintain behaviour. The behaviour happens more often, more intensely, for longer periods, or it continues to happen without
reducing in frequency, intensity or duration. By contrast, “Punishment” is when we decrease or eliminate behaviour using consequence. We reduce the frequency, intensity or duration of the A common mistake is to assume that we have reinforced or punished behaviour when in fact in future we discover that the behaviour has not actually been changed! Many dog trainers believe that praise is an effective reinforcer. It may be, for some dogs in some circumstances. The truth is we don’t know unless we see the behaviour that earned the praise increase or keep occurring in the future. The same applies to punishment. Yelling at a dog might stop it from going through your rubbish bin while you are there, but does it stop your dog going through the rubbish bin while you’re not there? Probably not. A more effective approach is to use a more secure rubbish bin, or put the rubbish bin in a place which is inaccessible to the dog. For more information, please visit www.groups.yahoo.com/group/traininglevels/ for a Free program and e-book that shows you how to train your own dog, step-by-step, with the help of thousands of others using the very same program to train their own dogs. Page 1 | Page 2 Additional Reading:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Aidan Bindoff is Editor of http://www.PositivePetzine.com, a free ezine for people training their own dogs. Each edition has easy to use training advice based on positive reinforcement methods. Subscribers have access to a large archive of back-issues they can consult for just about any behavior or behavior problem. As Featured On Best Ezines
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Tidbits & Stuff was born on Thursday, March 9, 2006
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Let’s examine the terms more closely. Apart from extinction, you will notice four words that can be used in four different combinations. These are “positive”, “negative”, “reinforcement” and “punishment” and they are technical terms that scientists use when discussing Operant Conditioning.
behaviour.
