The concept of positive only dog training was first brought to the UK in the 1980’s by a world-renowned dolphin trainer from the United States.  She had devised a new method of training that marked wanted behaviour with a sound (click or whistle) and then rewarded it with food to reinforce it. In this way she was able to train dolphins and whales to do outrageous tricks and tasks that had previously never been dreamed of.

She experienced great success at this and became very famous in her field and then used her reputation to take her training method into other disciplines. In 1984 she released a book where she described in detail her work with various creatures, from dolphins to wolves to dogs, with good humor and honesty, as well as the methods she created. It seems at this point forwards the seed of positive only dog training had slowly begun to ripen as it slowly began to take hold, both in the US and the UK and beyond, initially highlighting the painful and abusive techniques that were in place at the time and eventually shifting to the opposite extreme of today – the thought that even uttering the word No to your dog will potentially break their spirit.

But what has dolphin training got to do with dogs and does it even apply? In my opinion I would suggest that dogs and dolphins are intelligent creatures that are trainable and both have an affinity to man but the similarities end there. Afterall, we did not domesticate dolphins and the species has not altered in the slightest because of us, right. Concerning their training though, we know that dolphins live in an utterly sterile and confined environment – small concrete swimming pools – imprisoned and enslaved by humans, and they know it too.

As an intelligent creature they are acutely aware of their situation – which is if they do not do what the trainers ask them to do, they will and they do, go hungry. Their primary motivation for performing each trick is to eat, it’s that simple. That’s why we see them get a fish once they perform correctly at shows. Those who have been seduced in to believing that captive dolphins actually like performing because they look as if they are enjoying themselves simply don’t understand the level of manipulation that is actually going on. It’s a bit like believing in a magician’s illusion. There is no doubt some skill in getting the dolphins to complete the jaw dropping tricks but the underlying incentive that controls their behaviour is their access to their food source behind the scenes, and that is the ‘key’ to positive only training, whether it be dolphins or dogs – the withholding food! How likely is it then for the average pet dog owner to treat their beloved dog that way, especially when they are not commercial enterprises like the captive dolphins are?

Now for the boring science bit, it won’t take long so please stay with me. The original idea of positive and negative reinforcement in animal behaviour came from a psychologist called Skinner who conducted tests on many unfortunate animals to see how they behaved and reacted to different stimuli in various awful situations. His most famous experiment was conducted in what became known as his Skinner box.

His experiments went a bit like this:

1. Rat gets dropped in to a box. Rat starts to explore box and eventually presses a lever where food appears. Rat eats the food, then fumbles around until it presses the lever again where yet more food appears. Rat eats again, and eventually gets the idea that by pressing the handle food appears, which reinforced the repetition of the behaviour of pressing the handle. This became known as positive reinforcement.
2. Rat goes in a box with an electrical current buzzing through the floor. Rat finds this very uncomfortable and tries all sorts of maneuvers to escape, eventually pulling a lever which ‘magically’ stops the terrible sensation. The rat feels relief. The current is then turned back on and the rat panics again and runs about trying to get away from the pain until it pulls the handle again, turning the current off and the feeling of relief occurs yet again. You get the picture don’t you. This became known as negative reinforcement – the act of doing something that causes something unwanted to end.

In fact, what skinner displayed with his questionable experiments was a universal truth. The way things are for all beings to one extent or another, and that is we are all caught up in the dance of always trying to create pleasant experiences for ourselves as well as avoiding things that cause us discomfort, whether they be physical, mental or emotional, or if we are dog, dolphin or a human being.

The concept of the positive only school of only rewarding wanted behaviour and not applying any type of negative to our pets, but simply ignoring anything unwanted that they do, is a very sellable idea,  especially when you love animals. But is this one-sided idea really possible and reliable enough to have our pet safely under our control, or just a sentimental ideology that is more detrimental in practice than anything else?

Let’s explore another way of looking at it by considering opposites, such as north and south, left and right, up and down, right and wrong, and yes and no. Each of these terms exists in relation to the other, right? North can only exist in relation to south, without left there can be no right. In the absence of up there can be no down! This can also be applied to dog training. When we reward our dogs for wanted behaviour we say ‘yes’ or something like that so they understand that they are on the right track; similarly when our dog does something unwanted we should say no or something to that effect, because by doing this, correcting the wrong behaviour, it actually strengthens the correct behaviour because yes and no work as a pair ‘when taught properly’, and so both should be acknowledged. If they are not both acknowledged then the training cannot not be as effective, so the process will be much more complex, take a lot longer and ultimately have less chance of success. That’s a fact!

There are some exceptions to the rule though. If you are involved in a dog sport, such as scent work, for example, then using positive only can work because we don’t want our dogs to hold back. In this instance it is a very powerful tool and a food reward on top of finding a scent really encourages drive and the skill will develop quickly. Another example is when we first train a new obedience exercise or trick with our dog. At this time there should be no negativity at all because we want our dog to enjoy what they are doing. For them it must be a game that they are getting better at all of the time and the rewards highlight that, otherwise they will become demotivated and not want to engage. So there is a time and place for positive only.

However, we must move on from this basis level of training for there to be any depth of obedience and impulse control and it seems that the positive only school do not do this.

To highlight what I mean let’s look at the example of taking a positive only trained dog out on a walk. Imagine the world from the dog’s point of view for a moment: First of all food is not the first thing on its mind as it is readily available at home. When it gets on the street its senses are a blaze, smells are its main focus and it cannot help but to get its head down and sniff or scan around for any movement. If you have treats at hand you can sometimes control their impulse to react to the environment and get your dog to heel or to recall if off lead, but the moment your goodies run out the control that you had diminishes instantly, especially when there are distractions around that are more interesting than you are. The commands and tricks that you have taught become useless at this time as they are based upon food and your dog knows there are none left because it can’t smell them anymore and you have no tools left in your bag to distract them. As a result the dog will become increasingly impulsive and it is at this point things can become dangerously out of control and anything can happen, from knocking people over to causing a road traffic accident, or worse.

This type of situation is rooted in two things: the relationship you have with your dog, and the style of training that you utilise, or lack of it.

What we don’t want to happen with our pet is that they become the leader in their own mind – which comes from a lack of understanding on how a dog sees the world and a lack of proper training;  secondly, the owner being perceived as a treat dispenser by their dog is the other cause of your dog not paying you attention, and this happens because of owner sentiment and not applying any discipline to the training process. In both of these situations the dog will not have developed any respect for the owner and will not listen to them without bribery.

When training is initially applied it should be highly positive but once the dog understands the training, after many repetitions, a relative amount of discipline must be added to sharpen the control and to reduce impulse reactivity progressively.

Let me give you a real-life example when positive only has no effect on every day behaviour problems. I was asked to look at a dog that was jumping up at the owners, their kids, their visitor and even people in the street. It was a young and big dog of 6 months of age, so it challenging phases, but the breed is known for that type of behaviour anyway. It also had a huge degree of positive training and could do many tricks and obedience with a sausage on offer, but lacked proper impulse control.

This dog had been taught from a very young age to keep its feet on the floor to prevent jumping up as a precaution to what might come, and it knew the command like it knew its own name. Yet at times it chose not to listen and leap around in excitement, even frightening the owner’s wife. Why did it do this then, because the act of jumping up was way more rewarding to it than the measly treat or praise that it would get for staying down, along with not having the ability to control its excitement levels as well.

Various techniques had been tried the positive way such as turning away, stepping in to the dog, holding a hand down, and the ultimate answer of the positive only school which is to train an alternative behaviour, which sounds ingenious but rarely works, and failed miserably not surprisingly because once the dog had sat and received rewards for doing so its inner excitement levels had peaked and had to be set free, causing it to leap higher than it had done previously!

These were practiced for a few months and it was at this point I was asked to step in. Within 30 minutes the dog had stopped jumping up by about 70%. The owners were overjoyed and the dog was no worse off but understood that there was a consequence for the act, which was previously not communicated effectively. It also got its rewards for staying down. Within 3 weeks the jumping had decreased by about 90%, with the odd paws going up when it was really excited, but the owners were happy enough with that.

If you watch programs of the animal world you will see how they reward and correct each other all of the time. People are no different either, it a natural thing to do. For it to be a positive experience however, for both owner and dog, there must be a clear understanding of the process and the dog must be trained in a calm controlled unemotional (angry or excited) manner.

For an example of an untrained correction we can say that shouting at your dog is not effective and will never be. The only thing it will teach is your dog to be fearful of you, and that is certainly not what correction means. A more effective correction is when they are taught in conjunction with their opposite. That is the secret. For example, to train your dog to be less impulsive you can train them to sit for longer periods. To do this we would say “No” when the dog stands from the position without being released and then they would be returned to the sit position. Once they had sat for a reasonable, but not too much time, they would be released, praised and rewarded. That way they will begin to understand the word No, and start to pay ‘the owner’, not the food, attention and will cultivate respect, whilst simultaneously reducing their emotional reactions to the environment. And the best thing is it does not bother them in the slightest!

If you would like to learn more about this topic, or have enquiries about your dog’s training needs, please get in touch on 07926 911825. Alternatively, complete my Online Contact Form and I will get back to you as soon as possible.