Dogs Require Positive

Reinforcement, Not Punishment

To the Editor:

Mary Jane Anderson’s “Small Dogs–But Often Big Problems,” (The Newtown Bee, 9/21) suggests an outdated approach to dog training. Her comment, “A dog that doesn’t obey your commands usually has been taught without a collar and leash,” intimates that the only way to get a dog to obey is through the avoidance of being tugged about by artificial restraints. The operant conditioning method of training focuses upon positive reinforcement and the “shaping” of behavior by rewarding one’s animal companion rather than jerking it about with a variety of specially designed collars designed to bind, choke, and otherwise teach the animal that disobedience comes at a sometimes painful price. As a former marine mammal trainer, my colleagues and I used positive reinforcement exclusively to train, with consistently successful results. These techniques are now being used by more enlightened dog trainers to encourage animal companions to perform the desired behaviors for treats and affection exclusively, on or off leash.

While teaching one’s animal companion to accept the collar and leash is always a good idea, it is not a foregone conclusion that animals who do not behave as their owner’s wish indicate the absence of leashing. (I’ve yet to see dolphins or sea lions with collars and leashes.) It is more likely that the animal is merely confused about what its human really wants, how to go about doing it, and what’s in it for him to do so.

Kathryn A. Taubert

24 Greenleaf Farms Road, Newtown September 28, 2001