Interesting article on training and learning!

[Adina P]

I saw a link to this article on a training forum and found it to be very interesting and wanted to share with everybody here:

smartdogs.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/great-expectations/

For me, this gives a little insight into why training methods that use both reward and punishment seem to be very effective (in my opinion). Dogs learn when they get things wrong, but if nothing much (that matters) happens when they get things wrong I don't think it sinks in as equally important. Now, for some dogs not getting their reward can be enough consequence. But this isn't enough for all dogs and I don't think it takes advantage of all the learning possibilities. Sometimes, I'm not consciously thinking of the reward I'm going to get at the end, but when I make a mistake with unpleasant consequences I still learn ( hopefully). If a dog is not consciously thinking of the potential reward because he is distracted, an unpleasant consequence (provided he has already learned quite a bit about what he's supposed to be doing) gets his attention far faster, I believe, and brings that attention back to the task at hand.

[Adina P]

By "punishment" I didn't mean "hitting" either =) But simply an unpleasant consequence to deter them from repeating the mistake. To give a contrast of experience when making choices.

[Tante & Jordan & now Annie!]

Great article, I have saved the Blog to my favs. I need to go back there!
Yesterday, I was talking to Mom about the guy in Wi who killed his Doodle.( she still lives there).I brought up how Jordan and Payton have never been hit.(My Mom raves about how good my dogs are) She was shocked. She said you never hit them with a newspaper?No,a shoe? No,what about when they went potty in the house? I was always on top of them and took them out and gave treats. She was amazed that my good dog were never hit.
I grew up with dogs,I remember watching my Parents "train".It would hurt me so much as a child.I could never hit an animal.
Back to my point ;) I am thankful that Science is being used to prove intelligence in all Animals. Animals as do Humans learn from making mistakes.It reminds of an article I read about Dolphins using tools to catch their food, what is even more fascingating is that the Dolphins are teaching this to their young.