Radical Canines

**So I’ve been sitting on this post for a few weeks because I was hesitant to post it. Finally decided it was time to just rip off the bandaid and own it. I am R+ first, but at the end of the day, I am a balanced trainer. **

I might be putting a target on my back in finally doing so, but I truly believe balanced isn’t a bad word when it comes to dog training. There are multiple schools of thought when it comes to dog training and most people are very passionate about their chosen training methods. Ultimately, there are 4 basic quadrants in operant conditioning (what most of us use for training): Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, and Negative Punishment.

Positive and Negative don’t mean good or bad they simply mean adding (positive) or taking away (negative). Reinforcement is an attempt to have a behavior occur more often or more frequently and punishment is consequences to help decrease the likelihood of behaviors you don’t want.

Positive Reinforcement (or R+) is all about giving/adding (+) reinforcement (treats, praise, access to something desirable) to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring. When you give a treat for sitting or laying down, that is positive reinforcement. When you open the door for calm behavior, that is positive reinforcement. Most of my training happens here, but not all of it. Because I also train within the other quadrants, I am not an R+ trainer, I am a balanced trainer. R+ trainers/training lives exclusively in this quadrant. In theory it’s a great idea, but it’s not realistic for me and my household right now.

Negative Reinforcement (or R-) is about removing something (-) to reinforce a behavior and increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring. This one is the hardest for me to wrap my head around in terms of dog training. The easiest concept I have to visualize this is when you push on a dogs butt to get them to sit, when they sit you remove the pressure, and as you repeat this process they (ideally) sit faster when that pressure is applied until it becomes just a touch or a movement towards their butt. Negative reinforcement can be used when a dog is unsure of a situation, when they offer a desirable behavior (attention for example) the scary thing is removed or they move away from it, reinforcing the likelihood that the dog will offer attention when they are unsure or scared.

Positive Punishment (or P+) is adding something (+) to stop a behavior and decrease the likelihood of the behavior happening. This might be as simple as saying “No” when your dog is barking, lunging, or jumping. It might be pulling on the leash when your dog isn’t where you need or want them to be. In my house, it’s also a vibration when Rugby is inappropriately staring at Rumor. Positive punishment, when used appropriately, isn’t inherently a bad thing. Positive punishment has brought a level of peace to my house that I doubt I would have otherwise. Before adding the vibration collar, when I would attempt to redirect Rugby from his inappropriate staring, it would ignite the situation more often than not. Now I simply give a verbal “knock it off” and if that doesn’t redirect him, he gets a vibration. Rarely do we need a vibration at this point, so rarely do we use it.

Negative Punishment (or P-) is taking away something (-) to stop a behavior and decrease the likelihood of behaviors. Turning your back and ignoring a dog that is jumping and removing interaction is one way that you might use negative punishment to decrease jumping. You might also see this when you are out on a walk and you stop walking when your dog pulls. The removal of forward motion when they pull decreases the incidence of the pulling. When we’re running agility, if Rugby is inappropriate towards other people or other dogs (defined by leaving his task and charging/barking at them) his turn ends and he gets put away. I remove his access to agility to decrease the likelihood of him being a jerk (so far it’s working great). I also use this with Rumor during disc, if he leaves to potty before he’s dismissed, his turns ends and I removed (-) his access to playing with me. He is now much less likely to leave to potty during our rounds until I dismiss him to go do so.

Dog training is an art. Learning how to read your dog is infinitely important as you progress through your training journey. The tools/quadrants themselves aren’t inherently bad or good, but the wrong tools used at the wrong time or in the wrong way can definitely be bad or lead to terrible results. Being a balanced trainer simply means I have access to these tools and quadrants when I need them and I am ok with that. I honestly don’t believe I would be where I’m at today in terms of my house management (all 3 boys loose in the house while I write this), without access to these tools and training methods.