054 types of reinforcement
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[00:00:00] If you train, compete, or teach dog agility, you're in the right place. Hey there, I'm Megan Foster, creator of Fostering Excellence and Agility. Join me as I share key insights on all things related to dog agility and help find your team's path to excellence and unlock your best year yet. Let's get started.
Hey there. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I want to talk to you about reinforcement in the four quadrants of operant learning defined by BF Skinner, there are two types of reinforcement. One is positive reinforcement and one is negative reinforcement. We're going to knock [00:01:00] out the nerdy definitions right off the bat, and then we're gonna talk about this in plain language so that we can better understand how reinforcement can be used in our agility training.
So first, in order to say that a behavior is being reinforced. We must see an increase in the strength of that behavior. In the previous episode, I talked about seven ways to measure learning, and learning is defined as change in behavior. So therefore, we have those seven different ways to observe changes in behavior to determine if it's getting stronger or weaker.
So if we see the behavior getting stronger in any way, we can assume [00:02:00] that the behavior is being reinforced. Now, back to those two different types of reinforcement, it is really easy to get hung up in the words positive and negative, but these words do not mean anything other than adding and subtracting.
So in positive reinforcement, the trainer is adding something that the learner ordinarily likes and would seek out in order to increase the strength of a behavior. So when we see our plus, we can see that something was added in order to reinforce the behavior. And in the case of positive reinforcement, it is something that the learner likes.
Treats, toys, pets, praise, all of those things. Access to agility, access to outside, right? [00:03:00] Anything that is increasing the strength , of a behavior and that the learner ordinarily likes is going to be a positive reinforcer.
The second is negative reinforcement. In negative reinforcement, the trainer is removing something that the learner ordinarily tries to escape or avoid in order to increase the strength of behavior. So again, removing is negative. And because the behavior is strengthening, it's called reinforcement.
But remember, we're removing something that the learner ordinarily tries to escape or avoid.
We really just need to be great at observing our dog's behavior so that we know how to set up the training session appropriately.
So what the heck [00:04:00] does all of all this mean for us? It means we need to constantly observe our dog's behavior and critically evaluate the consequences we add to any situation. Remember, a consequence is a neutral word. There are plenty of things that naturally occur. In your dog's life or even in dog sports that they may want to avoid.
So because these aversives already exist in their lives, I personally choose to avoid adding more negative reinforcers into my training toolbox. I have to be aware that Aversives exist in order to set up my training sessions appropriately. And I do not need to purposefully add things my dog would like to escape from in order to strengthen my agility behaviors.
I want to talk a little bit about I. The definition of an aversive, [00:05:00] meaning something my dog would ordinarily want to avoid or escape from, that gives me a pretty big spectrum of reactions to observe. So something that my dog would ordinarily avoid but is generally okay with and can tolerate is incredibly different.
Then something my dog is actively trying to escape from and potentially panicking because of its presence. If I observe either of these reactions in, in my dog's behavior when I am just observing them in life and during socialization, and when we're just out and about experiencing things together, that is going to inform how I approach all of their training.
So something that my dog would just rather avoid, I can probably take a pretty clear route [00:06:00] of desensitization and add this in slowly over time and change my dog's emotional response. To that situation. But if my dog is actively panicking and seeking escape from something, that is definitely going to require a more thorough behavior modification plan.
If this is something that your dog is regularly going to need to see as part of their life with you or within dog sports.
I want to share the example of training a dog to be measured to discuss how positive and negative reinforcement might be at play here. Many dogs find just the process of being measured, something that they would rather not do. So how do we go about using positive reinforcement rather than negative reinforcement in that situation?[00:07:00]
Well, the spoiler alert is we might not be able to split things apart in a way that we can even tell the difference, how we can split apart the process. Right. Ticket measured the dog has to hold a stand, stay with their handler. Usually three to five feet away, the dog has to do this while a stranger touches them, picks up a metal object that may or may not make noise, swing it up and behind their head, place it on their withers, and hold it there for several moments while the judge reads the measurement.
Then the wicket has to be moved away from the dog's shoulders, and then they can be released. So if any of that would be something that your dog is going to avoid or even want to escape from, you have to put in the time to make a training plan that [00:08:00] uses positive reinforcement to change the dog's behavior and initial reaction to those specific things.
So for instance, you would train the stand stay and the duration of the stands stay with positive reinforcement. There's not a negative reinforcement contingency at play here when you're just teaching your dog to stand. Your dog is probably not averse to you touching them, you touching their withers and placing your hands on them.
So again, you can train that piece using positive reinforcement. You can also train being around the wicket and choosing to come near the wicket and walking around the wicket with positive reinforcement so you can split all of these pieces apart and build the behavior of measuring with positive [00:09:00] reinforcement.
However, when we put it all together and you and the dog can stand there. And be touched by someone and be measured by someone, and then it is released away from all of that. Is there a negative reinforcement component at play? Possibly. Is it important for me to focus on it? Probably not.
I believe that by understanding how both positive and negative reinforcement works and its impact on behavior, we can better understand our dog's behavior as we are training them in life and in dog sports. I believe that by focusing on positive reinforcement in my training, I will produce [00:10:00] the type of performance that I want to see from my dogs, and I will produce the type of conditional emotional response that I want to see in my dogs.
Positive and negative reinforcement are sometimes very closely connected, and sometimes we can't avoid the use of negative reinforcement because it is not us, the trainer who decides if something was reinforcing or not. It is defined by its impact on behavior. So negative reinforcement may be in play during your training.
Even without you specifically knowing my training plan does not purposefully include the use of these aversives. My training plan does not depend on the use of these. I'm not trying to teach anything [00:11:00] with the use of negative reinforcement. However, when it does happen during my training.
I will likely see some benefit of it because by its definition it is making my behavior stronger. This might be confusing, and if your head is spinning, you are in good company. Researchers and experts also struggle to split the difference between negative and positive reinforcement in certain situations.
The easiest example is you're cold and you put a jacket on. Were you positively reinforced by the addition of your jacket? Or were you negatively reinforced by the removal of being cold? In the end, it might not matter as long as you are [00:12:00] safe. So I hope this is helpful and not too confusing, but as always, I want to have these conversations because I think it is important that we continue to educate ourselves about the training words and sciencey type things that we hear about and talk about and read about all the time and agility.
That may or may not be being used accurately. I purposefully do not use this type of language when I'm teaching because it is sometimes confusing. It is sometimes very difficult to split hairs, I try not to think about it when I'm training.
I love to think about it when I am reviewing my videos and talking with people when the dog is not currently present or they're at least not being asked to do anything. So I love [00:13:00] having these conversations and I do have a safe space for you in my free community fans of FX agility. I would love to have you join the community and join the discussion all about reinforcement because I will be expanding on more ways that we can creatively use positive reinforcement in our training and how we can look for the evidence of negative reinforcement.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, I really appreciate some feedback. You can leave me a review, engage on social media or share this with a friend. I hope you'll be back to listen to my next episode. In the meantime, you can find all of my offers on my website, fx agility.com. Happy [00:14:00] training.
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