Jean Donaldson

Culture Clash

2 stars ("Positive Training" = A Negative Learning Experience?) - I admire Jean Donaldson and her ideas. And what a pleasure it was to read something by a trainer who has a "so what?" attitude toward the "rules" about showing your dog you're alpha. She really sticks it to trainers whose techniques rely too much on the old alpha myth* (which accounts for the two stars, above). But what Donaldson fails to realize is that operant conditioning is almost as big a myth as the alpha theory (which accounts for there only being two stars). One of her main points is that "traditional" training (meaning dominance) creates negative side-effects, which is the main reason I gave up using those techniques years ago (in 1992) and turned to operant conditioning as a possible alternative. What I found, though, is that not all behavior can be learned (or unlearned) through conditioning. I also found that instinctive behaviors tend to override conditioned ones, and that a training system based primarily on food rewards (and by extension, clickers, since their effectiveness is dependant on the association made between the click and being given a food treat) can also create a negative learning experience for a dog. The truth is, food makes for a great inducement for most behaviors, but it's a rather shaky reinforcement. Someone reading this might say: Wait, go back a second. Did you just say that food rewards create a negative learning experience? That's impossible to believe. I mean, after all, it's called positive reinforcement, right? Yes, but "operant conditioning" works best when you use INTRINSIC REINFORCERS, meaning they're directly related to the behavior being learned. And food is not directly related to any obedience behavior other than sitting on command, or to a lesser degree to coming when called. On the other hand, EXTRINSIC REINFORCERS, which is what food usually is, don't work as well. Not only that but, according to the behavioral textbooks, extrinsic reinf...
James - Kenneth Publishers :: Sociology :: Dogs - Training :: Animals & Pets :: Jean Donaldson :: :: Culture Clash