I bought a Sweedish Nina Ottosson game for dogs called Dog Magic. We call it the pizza game because it is round, flat, red and about the size of a small pizza. The dogs have to remove the 9 bone shaped cups under which are hidden treats or nothing. I put one treat under each cup and the dogs spent less than 10 minutes getting the treats out.
The second time we played, we only put treats under one bone. I did some experiments. As soon as Tempe put her foot on the wrong bone I removed the game for about 10 seconds. The third time she went right to the correct one and got the treats out. With Pilot I said "Oops!" everytime she got the wrong bone and pulled the game away for 5 seconds. In both Tempe and Pilot their intensity went up (hard fast gulping of the treats), their tails went down and ears back slightly. Then I allowed them to get the treats without moving the game away. They picked the right bone the first time with tails up with a softer, slower mouthing to get the treats.
Do negative punishment (taking the game and the opportunity for reinforcement away) and positive punishment ("Oops!") cause stress in the learning animal? My small experiment convinces me that they do. Can I train in a stressless environment? I can minimize the use of the negative marker to almost nothing, but the delivery of reward neccesitates times when there is no reward earned. Not delivering a reward differs slightly from delivering and then taking it away. It gives one great pause to think the subtle use punitive tools in training and how they can be minimized. My goal is a confident, happy dog who excels in training.
The second time we played, we only put treats under one bone. I did some experiments. As soon as Tempe put her foot on the wrong bone I removed the game for about 10 seconds. The third time she went right to the correct one and got the treats out. With Pilot I said "Oops!" everytime she got the wrong bone and pulled the game away for 5 seconds. In both Tempe and Pilot their intensity went up (hard fast gulping of the treats), their tails went down and ears back slightly. Then I allowed them to get the treats without moving the game away. They picked the right bone the first time with tails up with a softer, slower mouthing to get the treats.
Do negative punishment (taking the game and the opportunity for reinforcement away) and positive punishment ("Oops!") cause stress in the learning animal? My small experiment convinces me that they do. Can I train in a stressless environment? I can minimize the use of the negative marker to almost nothing, but the delivery of reward neccesitates times when there is no reward earned. Not delivering a reward differs slightly from delivering and then taking it away. It gives one great pause to think the subtle use punitive tools in training and how they can be minimized. My goal is a confident, happy dog who excels in training.
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