Bing Blog #18
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"Effective Punishment" --
March 22, 2006 Those of you who know me know that this is a contentious topic for me. But recently I saw a perfect example of how incredibly effective punishment can be, and how devastating that effectiveness can be. My training friend, Tammy, had been harassing me to buy a Treat-n-Train, a remote control treat-releasing device available through The Sharper Image (it uses kibble). I’d seen these at APDT conferences and discussed on dog email lists, but I couldn’t face learning a new gadget! Tammy made a good argument about being able to reward Bing for being quiet in the crate in the car. The next time we did some training together, she brought hers, and used it with some success with Bing for being quiet in the crate while I worked with Acacia. So I decided to oblige her and buy it. |
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Acacia and Bing waiting patiently for a treat. |
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| It’s necessary to teach your dog how to use it, so we all had a good time doing that. Bing was the most interested in it, followed somewhat reluctantly by Acacia; Montana, at age 15 ½, had a very difficult time understanding what she was supposed to do. At first, you teach the dog to take treats from the dispenser, then you teach the dog that a particular tone indicates the dispensing of a treat. Next, you deliver the tone when the dog looks at you. The product comes with a stick-and-ball target which you can teach the dog to target for the tone and treat. You can wait for the dog to sit or lay down for the tone, and eventually go to a mat or bed to make the tone occur. |
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Acacia and Bing in happy play. |
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We did that preliminary training, and then I decided to start using the Treat-n-Train in the crate in the car. One of the issues I discovered about this use is that the unit takes up a lot of space in the crate. It’d be impossible to use this with a small dog in a crate. But we managed ok, and he enjoyed waiting for the tone quietly, even when I reached for the latches and hatches on the crate and car. Eventually I loaded varying dogs and humans in there, and he was able to remain quiet and wait for that tone. So far so wonderful! I felt that I might see the end of the tunnel…. And that’s when it happened. Acacia decided (to use the wording of one of my reactive dog students regarding her dog) that she objected to him having access to food that she didn’t have. Normally silent through all of his tantrums, she turned once to him, let out a 1-2 second snarl/growl, and that was it. He sat up, shoved himself into the tiniest corner of the crate as far from her as he could be, and looked up and away from her and the device. Regardless of how many times I hit that ‘dispense’ button, he wouldn’t budge. He had been punished. Quickly, efficiently, and without question. Damn. |
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This is not the end of the Treat-n-Train, to be sure. But while I was immensely bummed about the situation, it occurred to me that this is a clear example of the use of positive punishment by one dog to another. Acacia is a very powerful dog in that respect. Just ask sheep! ;0) Acacia would never dream of guarding something from a human, but draws the line at other dogs. She apparently has about a 20 minute window of tolerance with Bing’s temper tantrums in the car, because that’s how long it took her to utter the tiniest of growls, barely audible, in the car the other day. Bing shut up immediately. First I praised Acacia; then I asked her what took her so long!!! The trouble with using positive punishment is that in order for it to be successful, you need to be sufficiently intense, immediate and definite. It MUST work the first time. If you have to do it a second time, it’s not nearly as effective, and then you suffer from the fallout of punishment. Once you begin to engage in repeated and increasingly intense positive punishment, you being the slippery downhill slope which almost inevitably results in abuse. When humans deliver positive punishment to dogs, we are communicating across species. I could NEVER have punished Bing as effectively as Acacia did. We don’t speak the same language, and my timing isn’t nearly as good as hers (although the importance of that variable is not so obvious here). My goal in writing this blog is to illustrate the effectiveness of positive punishment while warning against its fallout. I will probably be able to use the Treat-n-Train with Bing in the car, but not with Acacia present. That’s too bad, because I need the most help when he is in the car with more than just me. My plan is to reintroduce Bing to the device in the car (we’ve been working on it in the house), and then put up a solid visual barrier between their crates. I could also buy another device for Acacia, but I know that I won’t do that! In the meantime, we are keeping Bing’s mouth busy with bones and chewies while in the car! Ali |
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Bing standing against a big wind blowing off the lake (above). Montana enjoys standing in the freezing waters of Blue Marsh Lake in Reading PA (below). |
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Bing decided not to take a swim in the Tulpehocken Creek. Note the tuft of white undercoat sticking out of his pants.
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