Humans and dogs learn similarly. Rewards for merit, we work harder. Consequence/punishment for doing wrong, we less frequently or stop that wrong action (hopefully). You can research the four quadrants of learning yourself, if you don’t know (I’m not going thru all the work it takes to attach links). What I will say though in dog training, is positive and negative does not mean good or bad – it means adding or removing something from the situation.
We are supposed to be intelligent. Being intelligent you wouldn’t ignore something that helps you teach what you want efficiently. The best results don’t always come from the fastest path to that result. I always encourage teaching what we expect/want first and foremost – and reward that!
“Positive Reinforcement Only” is a false ideal in a dog’s mind, but sounds great for us. At least, that’s my opinion when I remove myself from thinking like a human and put myself in the dog’s shoes. Everything you read is someone’s opinion. “Science” and “research” is actually a very small number compared to the number of dogs and pet families. It doesn’t take into account all the different variables in breeding, the way the dog is raised, the experiences of the dog … it’s impossible for it to be “scientific”. Scientific to me is black and white. There is no black and white when an animal is “in charge” of caring for another/different type of animal.
Dog’s are constantly learning. Which means, to me, in every moment they are awake they are finding what is allowed through reinforcement and consequence. Reinforcement & consequence nullifies the ability say anything is “positive only”.
So my point of “positive only” means nothing to a dog starts with – do you put a leash on your dog? That is a consequence to being free and doing whatever he wants. A slip-lead, martingale collar, any “no-pull” harness technically is negative reinforcement – in the moment that it is performing the “no pull” action.
When teaching a dog to walk with lose-leash, do redirect by changing direction? In that moment you change direction, you are technically using negative punishment – taking the reward of walking straight ahead (his desire) away.
If you use food to reward/motivate and your dog doesn’t perform up to par, you withhold the food – in that moment, you are using “negative reinforcement”. If you ever ask your dog to do something and don’t at least praise, also negative reinforcement.
Examples can go on – shaker cans, verbal reprimands, shunning to stop jumping, time outs/crating when rambunctious – but my point is there is no way dog-ly possible to be 100% positive reinforcement. For us humans, sure, because we look at the whole of the action, not every moment in the action.
I call myself “positive reinforcement focused“, because I try to think like the animal I am handling. I encourage teaching “what we want” first, and discourage punishments but know situations sometimes require them – but they must be fair and judicious. The more you reward, the more you will get. In every instant a dog is being rewarded or suffering a consequence.
Don’t think too hard on it, it’s just an opinion – like all “science”,”research”, blogs, vlogs, related to animals.
*edit in – my opinion isn’t meant to say “science” & “research” should be ignored, that would be rediculous to do. All information and knowledge prepares you for situations, but your dog, your instinct and y’alls situation is different than any research.
