B.F. Skinner coined the term operant conditioning and used it to describe how consequences affect an organism’s behavior. Skinner believed that an organism operates his environment and figures out what works best for them. Dog trainers have used operant conditioning for years to change behavior in dogs. Operant conditioning is always working in the background with your dog whether you are actively training or not. A dog trainer or behavior consultant should have an excellent understanding of these concepts while the average dog owner needs only a basic understanding of these.
There are three main components of Operant Conditioning:
1. Reinforcement- Something that makes the behavior occur again.
2. Punishment- Something that causes a behavior to become less frequent.
3. Extinction- No consequence to behavior at which point the behavior becomes less frequent.
The first two components can either be positive (adding something) or negative (taking something away). The four quadrants of operant conditioning are as follows:
Positive Reinforcement is adding something the dog likes to increase the frequency of behavior. An example of positive reinforcement is giving a dog a treat for sitting.
Negative Punishment is taking something away that the dog likes in order to decrease the frequency of behavior. An example of negative punishment is not giving a dog a treat until he does sit.
Positive Punishment is adding an aversive (something the dog doesn’t like) to decrease the frequency of behavior. For instance, a dog is off leash and starts to chase a squirrel. A person applies a shock from an electronic collar to the dog. The dog stops chasing the squirrel.
Negative Reinforcement is taking away aversive stimuli (something the dog doesn’t like) to increase the frequency of behavior. You generally need to apply positive punishment to get the effect of negative reinforcement. In the above example a dog started to chase a squirrel and a shock was given. In order to use negative reinforcement, the shock would stop when the dog ran back to you.
It’s important to remember that using punishment in dog training can have behavioral fallout. If you are training positively and you withhold too many rewards too early, your dog can experience a high level of frustration which is not conducive to learning. If you are using positive punishment, your dog can associate the wrong thing with the aversive you applied. Classical Conditioning is at work along with operant conditioning.
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