Abc's Of Positive Training. Miriam Fields-Babineau

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СКАЧАТЬ voice. The dog will learn to avoid the primary punisher, thus correcting himself upon hearing the secondary punisher.

       SECONDARY NEGATIVE PUNISHER

      Denying the dog any reaction or reward. This causes the dog to keep throwing out (performing) behaviors, as he hasn’t received a reward or punishment of any kind.

       SECONDARY REINFORCER

      These are actions that the receiver has to learn to like. Examples: The words “Good” or “Yes.”

       SELF-REWARDING BEHAVIOR

      Anything that gives the dog pleasure without your involvement. Examples: Counter surfing, garbage hunting, jumping up, racing through a door.

       SHAPING

      Building a desired behavior through breaking it down into smaller portions, accomplishing those portions and then bringing them together for the complete desired behavior.

       SKINNER BOX

      An operant conditioning tool that teaches a small animal (rat, pigeon, chicken) how to obtain a treat by eliciting a specific response. The box is usually made of metal with a food hopper, along with a lighted button or lever that will trigger the food to fall into the hopper when pressed.

       STIMULI

      Something that triggers a reaction. It can be a target, a lure, a toy or a verbal or visual cue.

       SUBMISSIVE

      Referring to a dog that wishes only to be part of the pack and not run the pack. He easily submits to a challenge. A submissive dog tries to make himself look small. He will crouch or lie down, show his tummy, tuck his tail between his legs and blink or look away. Some dogs will submissively urinate.

       SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION

      Gradual increase of criteria.

       TARGETING

      The dog’s constantly watching an object or going to it on command.

       TERRITORIAL

      In charge of a specific space or object.

       THROWING OUT A BEHAVIOR

      Performing a behavior. A dog that has learned how to elicit rewards will try doing different behaviors to obtain a reward. Example: He sits and doesn’t get a reward, he then lies down and doesn’t get a reward and he then rolls over and does get his reward. He threw out three behaviors before figuring out the one that was desired.

       TOUCHING

      A form of positive reinforcement, as dogs adore being scratched in certain places and caressed by their human companions.

       VALUE (OF REWARD)

      The importance or desirability of a reward to a dog. Each dog has different tastes. Some may think their kibble is the greatest treat in the world, while others will not put forth any effort for something they normally get for free. However, most dogs aren’t fed hotdogs, freeze-dried liver, cheese or steak as a normal meal, thus working harder to attain bits of these more sought-after delicacies. To some dogs, food doesn’t matter much at all, but touch has a very high value.

       VARIABLE INTERVAL

      A random amount of time or number of correct responses before a reward is given. The receiver of the reward has no control over when it will be given.

       VARIABLE RATIO

      Ratio in which the reward is given when the greater amount of correct responses occur within a specific set of stimuli.

       VARIABLE REWARD

      Changing the value of the reward according to the dog’s performance.

       VERBAL CUE

      The use of your voice to guide your dog and give commands.

       VISUAL CUE

      The use of body language and specific hand (or other body part) gestures to relay commands or guidance.

       Learn how to teach your dog the positive way so that he performs for you anywhere and in any situation.

      Positive dog training is based upon the studies of noted psychologist Edward Thorndike around the turn of the 20th century. He studied the ability to problem-solve in cats and dogs and was especially interested in the comparison of learned behavior occurring through imitation or observation as well as how quickly a mechanical response was repeated once successful. Do animals learn better through trying over and over and by chance getting the desired response? Or can they learn through watching other animals perform? His results formed a “law” of psychology—the law of effect—essentially stating that the closer the reward to the stimulus, the faster the behavior to obtain that reward will occur, whereas behaviors associated with discomfort will become less pronounced.

       A well-trained and well-behaved dog is a wonderful companion who brings so much joy to his owners.

      In 1914, John Broadhus Watson extrapolated that Thorndike’s law of effect was incorrect and that animals simply respond through instinct and reflex to stimuli, not using any reasoning or problem-solving behaviors. His experiments involved rats in mazes and conditioning them to learn various routes to their food rewards. Watson stated that the reinforcers or rewards might cause a specific behavior to occur more often but didn’t act directly on the learning curve. In essence, he rejected the notion of retained memory until a stimulus strengthened the association through repetition.

      By the 1920s, Watson’s theories were disproved by Edward Tolman, who demonstrated that rats could recognize (through memory) and learn regardless of unexpected changes in the environment, but that decreasing the quality of the reward would weaken the learning. In 1942, this effect was further studied by another behavioral scientist, Crespi, who showed that a decreased reward caused a slower response, while an increased reward elevated the response.

      All of this behavioral research was put into perspective when Burrhus Frederic Skinner published The Behavior of Organisms in 1938. He connected all of the previous works by stating that the animals were imprinted into responses through СКАЧАТЬ