Punishment should rarely, if ever, be a
trainer’s first choice. But Suzanne argues that it’s something we
shouldn’t completely dismiss, either. By applying critical thinking
skills instead of emotions, we can make better training decisions.
And, though it makes me a tad uncomfortable to say it, sometimes
those decisions will include punishment.
So how do we decide if punishment
should be used? This flow chart, included in our handouts, and
available online at this link (on page 19) is very helpful.
Punishment can only be used to
eliminate a behavior you don’t like. That said, it’s best to
create a reinforcement-based program to create a behavior you do like
instead. However, when behaviors are dangerous, they need to be
addressed immediately, and the benefits outweigh the risks of
using punishment (and make no mistake- there are risks), a
punishment-based program may be needed.
If you’ve found yourself in such a
situation, Suzanne provided some criteria to ensure that the
punishment is effective. The more of these conditions you meet, the
more humane the punishment will be. It will still be punishment, of
course, but it will reduce the risks of fallout.
Start with Response Prevention
“Response prevention” is where you
prevent the unwanted behavior from happening. This is an excellent
first step: if you can completely prevent a behavior by changing
something, you may not even need a punishment-based solution.
However, if you do need to use punishment, response prevention is
equally important because…
Punishment Must Be Consistent
When it’s not, the dog may decide
that the behavior is worth the risk. For example, if I got a ticket
every time I was speeding, I probably would stay within the speed
limit. As it stands, though, I’ve had one speeding ticket in the
past ten years. Considering the frequency of speeding to being
ticketed ratio, it seems worth it. To be effective, the dog must
believe that the behavior will automatically trigger the punishment.
This is why Suzanne says that…
Remote Punishment is Better Than
Interactive Punishment
Dogs are excellent at picking up on
discriminative cues that predict events. If you are always the one
that delivers punishment, the dog will begin to associate you with
the feeling of being punished. For this reason, “booby traps”
that appear unrelated to your proximity or presence are preferable to
punishments that involve you directly.
It Must Be Immediate
Punishment also must be immediate, and
definitely no more than three seconds after the behavior happens. If
it’s not, punishment simply becomes aversive: an unpleasant thing
that happens randomly with no effect on the behavior.
Dogs Must be Able to “Turn Off”
the Punishment
If the punishment must start
immediately upon the behavior happening, it must also cease as soon
as the behavior stops happening. If the punisher continues to happen
after the behavior stops, it will be affecting all those subsequent
behaviors. This unnecessarily muddies the waters, making it much
harder for the dog to understand what he should and shouldn’t do.
Choose the Correct Intensity
Finally, punishment must be severe
enough that it will stop the behavior within 3 to 5 applications, but
not so strong that it creates unwanted side effects of fear or
aggression. This is probably the hardest criteria to implement, since
it requires some guesswork.
If it’s not clear by now, using
punishment effectively and humanely requires quite a bit of
knowledge, skill, and prior planning. It’s not something to be
undertaken in the heat of the moment. The vast majority of the time,
there are solutions other than punishment that will be equally
effective if you take the time to figure it out.
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