subsequent to the Loveland, Colorado, trainer charged with abuse of his own dog:

LINK: It - PetPro News, "It's Time For An Adult Conversation About Punishment"

distinguishing between punishment - as defined in behavior science, any consequence which reduces
the performance of the prior behavior; VS cruelty or abuse - causing physical or emotional pain, fear,
or other injury, physical or not, to another person of any species.

negative-punishment, which takes away something the learner would gladly work to earn, still punishes;
it is not however abusive or cruel, & certainly it does not physically injure the learner. If a dog jumps on me
seeking attention, & i turn away and stare up at the sky until the frustrated dog SITS to think about this, i've just
effectively punished jumping-up, but i never touched the dog; AND if i turn with good timing to praise warmly
while the dog is still on their butt, i have just rewarded an incompatible alternative behavior: sitting.

a sitting dog cannot simultaneously jump-up; if any dog learns a solid well-rewarded SIT TO GREET,
jumping-up need never even occur to them - they've never 'needed' to do that, they get all the attention
they could ever want by sitting.

claiming that any form of punishment is cruel is hyperbole; but shaping lessons so that rewards
vastly outnumber any punishment is the mark of good, humane training.
if negative-punishments are as frequent as rewards, U are a very sloppy trainer, IMO - & need to do
better planning, control the environment better, improve Ur management, change tools, or otherwise
fix the inadequacies that are allowing the learner to make so many mistakes.


training in a nutshell:
make desired behavior easy; make undesired behavior impossible or very unlikely.
reward desired behaviors; eliminate rewards for undesired behaviors as much as possible.

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007