Lee Charles Kelley
05-18-2005, 10:00 PM
It's a strange reality. This is supposedly a group forum yet someone who simply starts a thread seems to think that that thread belongs to her alone and not to the group in common. (Sorry, Stefi, but you said that I "hijacked your thread."
Meanwhile, the thread in question concerns a query about books available on the subject of positive dog training, and I am the author of three books (and another coming out in November) that disseminate just such information, yet I am supposedly "breaking the rules" to talk about a positive approach to training on this particular thread? Sorry. That doesn't make sense to me.
At the same time, a thread that has nearly 1000 views in the space of just a few days is deemed as being "finished" before anyone can answer one of the most powerful and pertinent (IMO) questions ever asked on this or any other forum about dog training: why is it that praise can be used to stop a dog from doing an unwanted behavior while the dog is actually producing that behavior? And I don't mean Freddie and the chicken breast, that's been dealt with, thanks to Ms. Lee. I mean Fluffy the shi-tzu.
Why did my praise, as she was approaching the island in the center of the kitchen/dining room, actually stop her from going past the island and into the food preparation area? Remember: I first praised her when she picked up the toy in the dining area. I did that to put her in the mood to bring the toy back to me, which she did. But then, when I threw the toy past the "forbidden" island, and praised her just as she came to the far edge of the island, it caused her to stop chasing the toy, and in just a few tries made her refuse to ever go past the island again. Praising her made that line of demarcation real for her and made her reluctant to go past it. Why?
Given our current understanding of praise, and the rules of operant conditioning, how can a dog be stopped from doing something while she's doing it and also permanently extinguish the behavior she's being praised for producing? Is praise a "punisher" in this instance? An aversive stimulus? How and why did this work? Is this another instance where the rules of operant conditioning break down? Why has no one addressed this?
Looking forward to your answers,
LCK
Meanwhile, the thread in question concerns a query about books available on the subject of positive dog training, and I am the author of three books (and another coming out in November) that disseminate just such information, yet I am supposedly "breaking the rules" to talk about a positive approach to training on this particular thread? Sorry. That doesn't make sense to me.
At the same time, a thread that has nearly 1000 views in the space of just a few days is deemed as being "finished" before anyone can answer one of the most powerful and pertinent (IMO) questions ever asked on this or any other forum about dog training: why is it that praise can be used to stop a dog from doing an unwanted behavior while the dog is actually producing that behavior? And I don't mean Freddie and the chicken breast, that's been dealt with, thanks to Ms. Lee. I mean Fluffy the shi-tzu.
Why did my praise, as she was approaching the island in the center of the kitchen/dining room, actually stop her from going past the island and into the food preparation area? Remember: I first praised her when she picked up the toy in the dining area. I did that to put her in the mood to bring the toy back to me, which she did. But then, when I threw the toy past the "forbidden" island, and praised her just as she came to the far edge of the island, it caused her to stop chasing the toy, and in just a few tries made her refuse to ever go past the island again. Praising her made that line of demarcation real for her and made her reluctant to go past it. Why?
Given our current understanding of praise, and the rules of operant conditioning, how can a dog be stopped from doing something while she's doing it and also permanently extinguish the behavior she's being praised for producing? Is praise a "punisher" in this instance? An aversive stimulus? How and why did this work? Is this another instance where the rules of operant conditioning break down? Why has no one addressed this?
Looking forward to your answers,
LCK