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How To Debate For Operant Conditioning

Why This Section is here

Team, we are in an interesting time. Currently there is a movement that is becoming more and more popular by the month. That movement is called the “Positive Only Movement”. This movement is designed to get dog owners to ditch collars and trainers to stop using collars. It is also designed to get rid and ban the use of training tool all together. Positive Only trainers are also referred to as +R trainers.

This section is here to do a few things…

1) Teach you how to have a conversation in a civil manner against a trainer who believes in positive only

2) Teach you how to talk to other industry professionals who are on the fence about their beliefs

3) To teach you how to talk to a dog owner who has read a few articles and decided they only want to use positive only

Types of dog training

There are lots of types of dog training. But, there are three main kinds of dog training and we want to go over them with you here so that you understand why we do what we do.

There are pros and cons to each and every kind of training. Some training works for some, and some works for others. All work in their own way and the trainers that adopt these methods all serve people and dogs in their own ways.

Positive Only — Positive only trainers only use positive stimuli (+R). They use treats, praise, love, etc. and only that to get the job done. Or so they say. They also use quite a bit of (-P) in order to get rid of bad behavior too.

Pros — Dogs love it, it’s fun, seems like the way to go, makes people feel good, etc.

Cons — Doesn’t work consistently or reliably, it has lots of false promises, doesn’t get at the root cause of behavior problems, is a band-aid fix, takes forever to train dogs all the way, etc.

Balanced Trainers — Balanced trainers combine all four quadrants of operant conditioning to get consistent and quick results for people and their dogs. By doing this, we can get consistency by showing the dog their is a consequence for bad behavior as well as consistency by showing the dog their is good stuff for obeying.

Pros — Cost effective, reliable, consistent, honest,

Cons — Sometimes you have to correct dogs for bad behaviors which is no fun.

Aversive Only — By far the worst type of training and way out dated. This style of training uses only negative stimuli. Lots of (-R) and (+P). The type of reinforcement that is given during this training is usually lots of verbal praise and it is normally followed after a hard correction.

Pros — It does work

Cons — Dog learns and works out of fear, there are better ways to train a dog, not fun for the dog, borderline cruel,

Overview of Operant Conditioning

What is operant conditioning and why is it important? Operant conditioning is how dogs and humans (and anything else that is alive) learn things.

Operant Conditioning are a handful of ways that you can learn things. In operant conditioning they use reinforcers (something good) and punishers (something bad) to teach animals what to do and not to do. As you can see in the image below, there are 4 quadrants to this. Under the image we will briefly go over each quadrant, why they are important and an example of each.

Positive Reinforcement

This is when you add something good to get more of a behavior.

Ex. You tell the dog to sit and he does, you give him a treat. Next time the likelihood of him sitting is greater because you gave the dog a kibble for sitting. In this example the positive reinforcement is the kibble.

Real Life Ex. At Seaworld when they get the animals to perform tricks, they give the animals lots of fish. The handler has the dolphin jump through a hoop and when it does, it gets a fresh fish as a treat. This behavior was reinforced by the fish being given to the dolphin.

Parenting Example. You want your kid to get an A on a test and tell him that if he does, you’ll take him to the store to get a new toy. He gets an A (behavior) on the test and you take him to the store to get the toy he has been wanting (positive stimulus added).

Negative Reinforcemnt

This is when you take away something the dog dislikes to get more of a behavior.

Ex. You tell the dog to sit and he doesn't, so you add tension on the prong collar until the dog drops his butt. Once on the ground, you take away the pressure of the collar. This increases the likelihood the next time you say sit that the dog will sit. The negative stimulus here is the tension on the prong collar. Once you take that away you are reinforcing the behavior by removing something unpleasant.

Real Life Ex. You get into the car and sit down and start driving off. However, you didn't put on your seatbelt so the beeper keeps beeping at you over and over until you finally click your seat belt. Then the beeper goes away.

Parenting Example. Your daughter keeps being the class clown and getting in trouble with the teacher. She gets written up and you ground her. She gets grounded in her room with no phone. After a few days she has a change of heart and you un-ground her (negative stimulus removed). She goes back to school and is good in class.

positive punishment

This is when you add something the dog dislikes to get less of a behavior.

EX. You tell the dog to sit and the dog doesn't sit. You give the dog a quick pop on the prong collar and the dog sits. That pop on the prong collar is the negative stimulus and next time you say sit, it decreases the likelihood the dog won't sit next time.

Real Life Ex. You know the speed limit is 40mph but you go 45mph and get pulled over and the officer gives you a ticket (negative stimulus added). You drive the speed limit after you get the ticket.

Parenting Example. You tell your son to not touch the stove because it is hot. He touches a hot stove anyways (Behavior) and gets burned (Negative stimulus added.) This likelihood of the child ever touching the stove again is much less likely because the burn is the punishment.

negative punishemnt

This is when you take away something good to get less of a behavior.

EX. You have a treat and show the dog the treat. You tell the dog to sit and the dog doesn't sit. You eat the treat rather than giving it to the dog. You just took away the POSITIVE STIMULUS in order to decrease the likelihood that the next time you say sit that the dog won't sit.

Real Life Ex. Your about to get a bonus at work and are so close to hitting it. You call into work for 3 days in a row and miss your bonus (positive stimulus removed). This decreases the likelihood of you missing work in the future.

Parenting Example. Your son keeps hitting daughter (behavior) and you take his toys away (positive stimulus removed). Since his toys are taken, the likelihood of your son continuing to hit your daughter decrease.

The Inconsistencies of +R

After explaining to you the most basic version of operant conditioning we want to move towards now explaining the inconsistencies of Positive Only. Later we will de-bunk the arguments of Positive Only, but for now lets start by going over what doesn’t add up.

Using the examples above, most Positive Only trainers claim they use “Positive Only” in their training, right? It is in the name after all. But +R trainers use more than just positive only. They may not be using -R or +P but they definitely use -P (negative punishment) as a way to teach dogs. Using the example above, if they tell a dog to sit, they don’t give the dog the treat, they put the snack up. The removal of a treat is a punishment according to science. This is the biggest inconsistency of them all.

The next major inconsistency is that if you look at what reinforcers do and what punishers do, positive only can not get rid of bad behaviors. Its science. By definition, a reinforcer increases the likelihood a behavior will happen again. A punisher decreases the likelihood a behavior will happen again. So if a dog is jumping, what can a positive only trainer do? Well they can train the dog to sit when people come in, they can re-direct the dogs attention using snacks, they can turn their back and let the dog jump anyways and ignore it, but they can’t get the behavior to go away because they don’t address the actual behavior which is the jumping. Using the science above, +R trainers can not get bad behavior to truly go away. They can only train alternatives.

Other

What are +R trainers good at? They are amazing at teaching dogs what to do. If you were going to train a human or a dog on anything, what is the best way to teach a new skill? To coach them and show them what to do, then reinforce them along the way to encourage them. This is where +R overall and +R trainers shine. They do really good at teaching what to do. Like we stated above, they are not good at teaching what NOT to do. This is where -R and +P come into place. These are used to teach the dog what not to do once they have learned the right way to do something.

The main thing +R trainers use for training is treats. We use a lot of treats, but they use a TON of treats. They use treats for everything and end up as more of a treat dispenser than anything. But ask yourself this, what happens when the dog wants what they want more than they want what you have as a reward? Here is a scenario for you and one that most +R trainers are not willing to address. Let’s say you let your Golden Retriever outside for a potty break and the dog is not on a leash. The dog sees a squirrel and takes off towards the squirrel and you re yelling “Come Come COME! Do you want a treat? COME!” What happens when the dog doesn’t listen because. the dog wants the squirrel more than he wants your snacks you have. This is where +R fails. This is where balanced training shines. We teach the dog in this scenario, listen and you get a reward, chase the squirrel and there is some sort of negative consequence for not responding.

If positive reinforcement only doesn’t work for humans why would it work on dogs? Think about it, as a species, we are ENTIRELY more complex than a dog. Why are their jails? Why do you get a ticket if you speed? Why do you get arrested for bad behavior? Because all these things teach a lesson. They teach us what not to do. Think about it in the context of work. If you go to work, what happens? You get paid! If you don’t go to work, what happens? You get fired! If you work extra hard, what normally happens? The boss sees it and you get bonuses! Positive is there to teach us what TO do. Negative is there to teach us what NOT to do. Positive is almost always fun. Negative is almost always not fun, but that is the point. No one likes getting in trouble. No one likes getting punished. Neither do dogs. But by nature, it is not meant to be fun! It is meant to teach you so you don’t do the same bad thing over and over. As you can see, it is this way for dogs and humans.

Arguments for positive only

-Nice, fun, safe, stress free

-Doesn’t cause discomfort for the dog

+P,-R causes stress and creates long term lasting damage

Prong & Remote Explanation & Warning

To start this, using anything too much can be a bad thing. Using treats too much can be bad and leaves dogs at risk for health issues. Using training collars CAN hurt the dog if used poorly.

Prong Collar

Explanation: A prong collar is a communication device we use to teach dogs what not to do. It is mostly used for walking dogs. A prong collar when pulled on either by the dog or by the trainer gives the dog a pinch, instead of poking the dog like you may think by looking at it. The cool thing about prong collars is that it communicates with the dog in a very natural way. See when a dog is a puppy, if the pup does something the momma dog doesn’t like, the mom bites the dog, pinching the dog. That pinch teaches the dog what not to do. We take this same method and apply it to bad behaviors like pulling and jumping mainly.

Remote Collar

Explanation: A remote collar is a communication device we use to communicate with the dog at a distance. A remote collar is very similar to a TENs unit which is a muscle stimulation device. When we use the collar we want to use the collar on the lowest level to get a result. When using the collar we want the dog to barely react to the collar. If the dog is responding too much, we are doing something wrong.

For the in-depth operant conditioning training, click here.