Animal Behavior Forensic Sciences Research
Laboratory

                 "Accentuate The Positive" - captain arthur haggerty
JERRYIZED

                                "Accentuate The Positive"

HOWEDY People,

"Accentuate The Positive." That's the title of our friend captain
haggerty's column in the recent a.k.c. gazette. "When positive
reinforcement is all that is necessary, training is pleasurable to
both of you," says the good cap'n.  At least we can agree on that.
Maybe the good capt'n has been reading my posts here and is
feeling a lot self-conscious about our recent progress teaching
dog owners to understand what's gone wrong.

Well, its about time. Too bad the good cap'n (teacher to uncle
matty [see L.A.Weekly article] and our own boob maida and
???possibly our own anonymous dogman???) is on the wrong side the
fear, force, confrontation, and pain issue. Our traditional
trainers led by the likes of our good cap'n and our Descartean
professors of behavior are the root of the problem, rather than a
source of information and inspiration that we desperately need and
want...

Too bad our good cap'n is hiding behind the cover of the akc and
their publication The A.K.C. Gazzette, where he can't be forced to
respond to this criticism and indictment of his methods,
methodology, and madness, and engage in discussion or debate or at
least try to defend his unconscionalble point of view, that
hurting dogs to train them is appropriate, intellignent, and
justifiable based on his thirty sumthin years of hurting dogs to
train them and killing dogs he can't abuse into subordination...
or TRAIN, if you will.

You think he knows enough about dog training and conditioning
behavior to teach you HOWE to use only positive reinforcement? He
can't do it himself, so HOWE do you expect him to teach you?

The good cap'n mumbles on about his perception of clicker training
and calls it LUCK. He then goes on to say: "if you have to let a
dog know when it is doing something right, then you must also let
it know when it is doing something wrong." (Don't you just love it
when dog lovers refer to your dog as IT?) HOWE does the good cap'n
extrapolate the need to let the dog know he's doing something we
want, to being obligated to tell the dog he's doing something we
don't want? That's the point to positive only methods. WE do not
NEED to tell the dog NO if we are smart enough to OUTWIT the PUPPY
DOG.

It's EZ if you know HOWE. The good cap'n doesn't.

The good cap'n further shoves his foot deep into his mouth with:
"the latter requires some sort of negative reinforcement, which,
of course, is something of an oxymoron,"  Too bad he doesn't
understand the scientific meaning of the terms positive and
negative reinforcent.

Yes I know exactly what the cap'n means.  He means that he does
not have the intellect to be able to train a dog without hurting
and confronting him.

First he start off talking purely positive and then he says that
because we tell the dog when he's doing something right, that
we're obligated to tell the dog when he's doing something wrong.
That's what the cap'n does. Competent dog trainers don't do that
because it's confrontational and causes aversions to commands and
handler.

"It can be as uncomplicated as saying a firm NO." EXACTLY MY
POINT. Competent trainers don't be telling dogs firmly NO on
account of that's what provokes dogs to do more of the same
behavior to make  us stop in our tracks to tell them NO and spend
time distracted with them, when all we would have needed is to
allow the dog to attempt the behavior and make a brief distraction
and praise.

Do that a few times in a row and the dog will be broken of that
behavior. But our heavy handed thick headed weak minded cap'n
can't figure that out because he doesn't have the brains to outwit
the cunning of the
domestic puppy dog or he wouldn't NEED to hurt and
intimidate them, would he???

Or, is it because he enjoys jerking and choking and confronting
dogs to make them do what he wants? I think our friend the good
cap'n might have some CONTROL issues to deal with in his own
personality complex.

"One good thing about negative reinforcement is that when
appropriately delivered, it can immediately stop an unwanted
behavior." O.K. cap'n. You can repress a behavior but there is
often a replacement behavior that may be worse than the behavior
you are trying to repress. I can give dozens of examples so don't
even start with that.

"Now I know there are people who claim that they use only positive
reinforcement and no negatives." But the good cap'n isn't familar
enough with dog training and behavior to do that. "I'm a bit
skeptical when when I hear this claim." And that's all the proof I
need to prove our good cap'n to be an incompetent dog trainer.

"You CAN train a dog using all positives. Generally speaking,
though, it is not as efficacious." Now ain't that an oxymoron?
Either that or it's an outright lie. What's the story? If you hurt
a dog he's going to want to work more willingly and more
creatively than if you are only using positive motivation and
conditioning techniques which will make the dog think he's working
instinctively through his natural pack cooperative teamwork effort
as NATURE PROGRAMMED HIM?

Come off it cap'n. Get the heel outta this business and stop
misleading people because you ain't bright enough to train a dog
without hurting them.

Then the good cap'n continues on talking about corrections and
punishiment and says "punishment free training is a wonderful
sounding concept, a great sales pitch." The cap'n is fighting for
his career and reputation. His ship is sinking fast.

Then our good cap'n, the expert who isn't bright enough to train a
puppy dog without hurting him, has the nerve to say "They are
making some great adjustments and sacrifices for what they feel to
be the sake of their dog." Does the cap'n think that training dogs
quickly and without fear, force, confrontation, punishment, or
negative side effects is not as sensible as training a dog by
locking IT inside of a crate and a chin cuffing and scruff shaking
and jerking and choking IT on a pronged choke or shock collar and
time outs and punishments?

Something is very wrong here. We've got an expert who can't train
a dog without hurting him telling YOU that WE can't train dogs as
quickly and effectively using proven scientific and psychological
behavior conditoning and modification techniques. That's
outrageous, isn't it folks?

Our simple minded cap'n continues to discredit himself saying:
"Some even feel that corrections would shatter their relationship
with their dog. I'm sure that they do not have that tenuous a
relationship with their dogs, but if they feel they do, that is
their perorgative." What's tenuous about a good relationship?
Suppose it only deteriorates your relationship A LITTLE. That's
GOOD? There's no need to force and hurt dogs to train them IF our
cap'n's got enough intelligence, he's only using it to fabricate
arguments to defend his thirty sumthin year history of abusing
dogs and calling it training.

He then goes on the rationalize HOWE non force training takes
longer. He don't get it. He don't understand getting a dog to want
to do everything you ask because YOU know HOWE to make Natural Law
work for you to compel your dog to want to do anything you ask
without force, fear, or punishment.

The cap'n goes off rambling about the combination approach of
sometimes being positive and sometimes being corrective forgetting
about such things as allelomimetic behavior and consistancy and
slobbers all over himself saying "it reduces stress by letting the
dog realize what's wanted and you can tell by the expression on
it's face IT appreciates the guidance." "Why limit yourself?"

The good cap'n don't get it because he's not intellectually
capable of understanding. He goes on to say: "Punishment free
trainers deserve credit for taking a road less traveled. It's not
a road that I choose to take. I want to get the job done
expeditiously." So he confronts and punishes a dog because he
doen't think making a dog want to do everything you ask using
purely positive proven scientific and psychological techniques is
possible.

Your positive pal, Jerry "Mr NICE Guy," Howe,
The Simply Amazing Puppy Wizard. <{} ; ~  }   >