Negative reinforcement also has its place in training your dog, albeit a much smaller place. If your dog exhibits an undesirable behavior such as chewing on your power cords for your laptop or soiling the floor, then action must be taken to correct this. Behaviors such as chewing power cords could be dangerous to the animal and allowing this to continue could be harmful to your pets’ health as well as costly for you, in both repair bills and veterinary visits. Just like a child, sometimes a pup needs correction or a time out. A little time in the kennel or a light but convincing tap on the nose will help your pet to understand that these behaviors are not going to continue. (A note from the author: While a light swat to correct a dangerous situation such as cord chewing is acceptable, beating or injuring your pet is not. Please be a responsible pet owner and if you have had a bad day, don’t take it out on the dog.)
Again it should be remembered that immediate and consistent action is the key in training using both methods of reinforcement. If you wait too long before correcting or rewarding a behavior, all impact of the message will be lost. Observing these basics, you can clearly see that both methods are useful to trainers and have their special niches.
« 1 2 3
