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Originally Posted by lisaly  You are absolutely correct, Nancy. I am the one who wrote that, and I didn't think about this. I never did this myself, and I'm such a softy that I don't think I ever could. I always prefer using positive reinforcement to negative with animals and people. My father and his wife live in California, and I live in New York, so I haven't seen the trainer that they hired do this. I don't think they have had to do this themselves to their dogs; I think it was so effective with the trainer doing it, that they stopped the behaviors enough. My father loves his dogs, calls them his kids, but his wife is the one that is the huge animal lover. She helps out with dogs and wild animal rescue, and is such a loving, compassionate person. I don't believe in negative reinforcement, so I will ask her about this. I don't like putting coins in a can to stop them from doing something; it's scary for them, and I don't think it stops a behavior. I do know that fox terriers are very strong-willed and aren't for someone new to dog training. I am certain she would never do anything that would harm them or hurt their mental well-being, and I am going to ask her if this is having an effect on giving them medicine or the like. Thank you for pointing this out to me. |
I studied reinforcement and punishment theory (behaviorism); I really don't know that much about different applications, but I do know that you really have to be careful what behavior you're trying to promote, and which behavior you're trying to extinguish. I see nothing wrong with mildly aversive stimuli, its what occurring in life all the time, it just teaches that there are consequences to behavior. An aversive noise such as coins in the can to reduce another aversive noise such as barking seems to be a good match stimulus-wise, remember, the goal is not to eliminate the barking, but reduce the behavior. Same way with chewing on something that gives them a bitter taste in the mouth, instead of the chewing being pleasant for them, the bitter taste makes it unpleasant. Putting a bitter taste in the mouth to stop barking doesn't seem as useful, you would to put the substance in the mouth while barking is occurring, and this means you'd have to know what you are doing. Otherwise, they are going to think you are punishing some other behavior or them in general. It's so important for dogs not to be fearful of our hands, so any "punishment" that is applied with your hands should be used with caution. Once a dog is fearful of hands, biting is more likely to occur.