Punishment Is Not A Dirty Word!
The use of “Punishment” in dog training is an extremely controversial and misunderstood subject. In the past, punishment and praise were all that was used to train dogs. As a result, many dogs were labeled “untrainable” because they could not respond well to these force-based methods. Then, in the early 90s, came the revolution in dog training, and people moved towards better, reward based methods. However, for many trainers this meant eliminating ALL previous methods, the good and the bad alike. In reality, there is a place for the use of punishment in training, but it needs to be clearly understood and skillfully applied.
The confusion starts with the definition of “punishment”. Unfortunately, even dog trainers have trouble agreeing on our vocabulary and meanings, and this adds greatly to the pet owner’s confusion. In the Wikipedia dictionary of psychological terms, it states “In psychology, punishment is the reduction of a behavior via a stimulus which is applied (“positive punishment”) or removed (“negative punishment”).The definition requires that punishment is only determined after the fact by the reduction in behavior; if the offending behavior of the subject does not decrease then it is not considered punishment. …an aversive that does not decrease behavior is not a punishment.”
In simpler terms, this means that A PUNISHMENT IS ANYTHING YOUR DOG DISLIKES SO MUCH THAT SHE WILL CHANGE HER BEHAVIOR IN ORDER TO AVOID BEING PUNISHED AGAIN.
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