September 17, 2007

Positive or Negative?

Interviewed for Bark magazine, Dr Nicholas Dodman said.

"I think that the direct punishment-based techniques are outmoded, a thing of the past, and should be avoided. Nobel Prize winners Lorenz, Tinbergen and Von Frisch might have disagreed on some points, but the three of them were all in agreement that punishment teaches a dog nothing except how to avoid the punishment."

"I work on the theory that if you can train a killer whale to launch itself out of a swimming pool, roll on its side and urinate into a small plastic cup, given only a whistle and a bucket of fish, without a choke chain, then you don’t need those confrontational techniques with dogs."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So true. Dogs, like children, learn better when they are happy and unafraid. As they say, you'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.