Operant Conditioning Pt. 2
Once you learn what Operant Conditioning is you need to learn how to explain it and talk with others about it.
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 training collars and to get trainers to stop using training collars. This movement aims to get rid of AND ban the use of training tools all together. Positive Only trainers are also referred to as +R trainers, Force Free trainers, Science based trainers, etc.
This section is here to do a few things…
1) 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
2) Teach you how to have a conversation in a civil manner against a trainer who believes in positive only
3) Teach you how to talk to other industry professionals who are on the fence about balanced trainers and their beliefs
TYPES OF DOG TRAINING
There are lots of types of dog training. In this section, we’ll be going over the three main kinds of dog training so that you understand why we do & believe what we do.
There are pros and cons to each and every kind of training. Some training methods work for some people and some dogs and other methods work best for others.
1) Positive Only
Positive only trainers mainly use positive stimuli (+R). They use treats, praise, love, etc. and only that, to get the job done. They also use negative punishment (-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.
2) Balanced Trainers (that’s us!)
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 there 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, and honest.
Cons: Sometimes you have to correct dogs for bad behaviors which is no fun.
3) Aversive Only
This is 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.
THE INCONSISTENCIES OF positive only +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 mentioned in Operant Conditioning Pt. 1, 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.
How do positive only trainers use negative punishment (-P)? Here is an example: The trainer asks the dog to sit and the dog doesn’t sit, they put the treat back in the bag and don’t give it to the dog. 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 actual behavior of jumping to go away. This is because they don’t address the actual behavior which is the jumping. They can train alternate behaviors or wait until the dog does the desired behavior and then reward them. While training an alternate behavior may work and while rewarding the dog for doing the right thing may work, it doesn’t get to the root of the problem behavior. This is another major inconsistency with Positive Only training.
A deeper look into +R
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. -R and +P 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. Like them, we use a lot of treats! But +R trainers use a TON of treats. They use treats for everything and end up as more of a treat dispenser than anything.
Ask yourself this… What happens when the dog wants what they want more than they want what you have to offer 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. You start yelling “Come Come COME! Do you want a treat? COME!” What happens when the dog doesn’t listen because the dog wants to chase the squirrel more than he wants the treat 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 or not listening to instruction.
If only using rewards doesn’t work on humans, why would it work on dogs? Think about it, as a species, we are ENTIRELY more complex than a dog, but we learn the same way that any other animal does.
If you go to work, what happens? You get paid!
If you work extra hard, what normally happens? The boss sees it and you get bonuses!
If you don’t go to work, or you don’t do work at work, what happens? You get in trouble or get fired.
If you buy someone a gift, they will most likely smile and give you a hug
If you see that a workout plan is working for you and you’re toning up, you’ll most likely continue doing it, right?
Why are there jails?
Why do you get a ticket if you speed?
Why do you get arrested for bad behavior?
If you don’t go to work, what happens? You get fired!
Positive is there to teach us what TO do and which behaviors to repeat! But on the flip side…
Negative is there to teach us what NOT to do & what NOT to repeat! Negative is almost always not fun, but that is the point. No one likes getting in trouble. No one likes getting punished. Dogs don’t either, naturally. But, it isn’t meant to be fun! It is meant to teach you so you don’t do the same bad thing over and over. And then… once you’re doing the right thing you get rewarded to keep you on track.
ARGUMENTS from POSITIVE ONLY trainers
+R is nice, fun, safe, stress free
+R is nice. It is fun. It is safe (for the most part). And it is typically stress free… for the dog. So all of these things that they argue, for the most part, are true.
BUT, when a balanced trainer, armed properly with training knowledge and know how trains a dog, it is also nice for the dog, fun, safe and primarily stress free. Seriously, watch our training videos of Corey training dogs and using the collars. You can tell from the dogs body language that the dog is having fun and isn’t stressed.
When a +R trainer says that a balanced trainer isn’t fun, safe, etc. they always take things to the worst extremes. And they have the right to do so because there are some really bad dog trainers out there who are too heavy handed, don’t care about the dog, etc. But that isn’t us and that isn’t the majority of people in the industry. Just like +R dog trainers, we LOVE dogs, we want them trained, we want to do right by the people who hire us, etc.
They do have a point that training +R is safer, more fun and stress free. But, let’s debunk that.
Is +R safer? Maybe using collars isn’t the safest way to train dogs? We at Wonder Dog do think that the safest way to train dogs is using balanced methods. Why is that? Because if you don’t teach your dog to not jump and it knocks over your grandma, the dog is safer, but grandma isn’t. If you have your dog off-leash, your dog needs a strong recall. You can recall your dog using just treats, but if the dog bolts off and chases a squirrel or the neighbor across the road because a trainer doesn’t want to use a remote collar, is that safer? Is the owner who doesn’t trust their dogs off-leash recall and keeps their dog on-leash forever more fun? We’d say no.
Is +R completely stress free? Maybe for the dog. But what about for the humans who own the dog? Is it stress free for them? We’d say no. If a trainer teaches an owner only using one way of training and they only have one thing in their toolbox and they can’t get their dog to stop doing the bad behaviors that frustrate them, is that stress free? We’d say no. If the owner is stressed and then gets frustrated, then that’ll pass to the dog. The owner may not get so angry that they hit the dog, but if they are just frustrated and put the dog up or don’t want to interact with their dog because they are angry with their dog, is that stress free for the dog? We’d say it isn’t.
On the inverse, we actually want to cause the dog stress. We want to cause acute stress during training so that way when we’re in real life, things will be easy breezy. If the dog jumps in training, we give the dog a correction. This gives the dog a quick stressor that communicates to NOT jump. Then once the dog does the right thing, and puts all four paws on the floor, we reward the dog. So we aren’t seeking a “stress free” training environment. We want to use some stress in training to teach the dog.
Clearly, there is an overdoing of stress in training. This is NOT the goal. We want to balance positive and negative in an environment that is ultimately productive for the dog and their owners.
+R doesn’t cause discomfort for the dog
On the surface, +R trainers are right when they say this. +R doesn’t intentionally cause the dog discomfort. Because the trainers aren’t using corrections, so there is no discomfort.
We’d use the same argument as the one above that when the dogs owners are stressed and frustrated and not enjoying the dog, this can cause discomfort indirectly. There’s also the risk of the dog getting actually hurt as a result of not listening to their owners who are using treats only.
But in direct terms, once again, we do use slight discomfort in training. We use the training collars to communicate with the dogs to teach them what not to do. This does cause the dog discomfort. There’s no way around that explanation. Now, when a dog trainer uses the collars properly, the discomfort (correction) should be timely, appropriate, and not excessive.
But when done properly, this should be balanced with positive reinforcement when the dog is doing what we’d like the dog to do.
+P,-R causes stress and creates long term lasting damage
This is one of the man things you’ll hear from +R trainers. They will yell from the rooftops that negative methods (corrections) used in training cause long term and lasting damage.
Once again, there is some truth to this. Because -R and +P CAN actually cause long term and lasting damage WHEN DONE INCORRECTLY. Once again, if you hire a BAD trainer who sucks and isn’t great to dogs, doesn’t care about the dogs/clients and uses the collars in an inhumane way, this CAN cause damage.
Clearly, if you’re here, you love dogs. No one who actually loves dogs wants to intentionally cause harm or lasting damage. So, when we’re training dogs, we use the collars in a correct and humane way to simply teach the dog what NOT to do. The dogs in our program aren’t wearing the collars for days at a time. We’re using them properly and in a way that is beneficial for training but doesn’t cause “long term and lasting damage”.
Most of the dogs in our program, and most of our personal dogs (as dog trainers) LOVE the collars. The original Wonder Dog Mia gets so excited when Corey pulls out the collar. She comes running and sits and waits patiently to get her collar put on.
PRONG & REMOTE EXPLANATION & WARNING
Using too much of anything can be a bad thing. Using treats too much can be bad and leaves dogs at risk for health issues. Relying on the collars too much can also be a negative AND if you use the collars incorrectly, they can hurt the dogs (this is why using them PROPERLY and teaching clients to use them properly is of the utmost importance!)
You will get a lot more information about Prong Collars and Remote Collars throughout this training, but for now, here is a brief explanation.
PRONG COLLAR
A prong collar is a communication device we use to teach dogs what not to do. It is mostly used for walking dogs. Typically, we refer to them as “walking dog collars”.
A prong collar, when pulled on either by the dog or by the trainer, gives the dog a pinch. It does not poke the dog like you may think by looking at it. The ends of the prongs are really well rounded and NOT sharp like you may think at first glance.
The cool thing about prong collars is that it communicates with the dog in a very natural way. When a dog is a puppy, if the pup does something the momma dog doesn’t like, the mom bites the dog, giving the pup a quick pinch. That pinch teaches the dog what not to do. We take this same method and apply it to bad behaviors like pulling and jumping.
The dogs pick up on this very quickly because it’s a very natural thing for them.
REMOTE COLLAR
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. It has two primary functions: vibration and tingle.
When we use the collar, we want to use the collar on the lowest level to get a result. That varies dog by dog, but the goal is to use the smallest stimulus to get the dog to respond. When using the collar we want the dog to barely react to the collar. What do typical, and appropriate reactions look like? The dog starts looking over the shoulder to the side that the collar is on, the neck muscles contract, the dog starts blinking when you tap, the dog is panting and momentarily stops, they are moving and they freeze or pause momentarily, biting at where the receiver is located, scratching their neck where the receiver is located.
We use the collar for three main things. We want to teach the dog to move towards us, to stay where they are told and to stop doing bad behaviors.