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| Changing Moods - Using Reinforcement To Change Behaviour |
Disclaimer
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Dr Cam Day
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If you want to change your pet's behaviour, why use harsh techniques when gentle ones will work better?
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Training with positive reinforcement
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What do your electric can opener and your postie have in common? They are both expert pet trainers.
For instance, 'Rumbles' the Burmese quickly learnt that food was likely to materialise in her bowl when she heard the characteristic grinding of the electric can opener. The noise and food were regularly linked together so she quickly learnt that if she ran to the kitchen when she heard the noise, her behaviour was rewarded with food.
The postie, too, is a good dog trainer. Just ask 'Gizmo', the Bearded Collie. Gizmo knows that if he barks at the postie, the postie always 'runs away'. In reality, the postman is just continuing his normal route. By 'running away', the postie positively rewards Gizmo's barking. Gizmo thinks the bark-and-chase routine is a real hoot. To him, the whole scenario is joyful - so why not continue? His owners are not so sure.
For Rumbles and Gizmo, the can opener and the postie are agents of positive reinforcement. These 'agents' train each animal, progressively, to perform a particular behaviour.
You can use reinforcement in many practical ways to change your pet's behaviour for the better too.
When you reinforce a pet's behaviour, the behaviour becomes stronger and is more likely to occur again. Reinforcement is a very strong training and behaviour conditioning tool. There are two forms - positive and negative reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement is where the performance of a behaviour results in a pleasant outcome. Of course, Gizmo's owners would much prefer that Gizmo had positively reinforced a better behaviour than his annoying, frantic and incessant barking at the postman!
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Negative reinforcement
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Negative reinforcement is different. It is where your pet strengthens a behaviour by moving away from, or avoiding, an unpleasant stimulus.
'Roxy' presents an interesting case of negative reinforcement. She was a bright and active German Shepherd cross but when a thunder storm arrived, she was petrified and resembled a hairy blancmange more than a dog. It took Roxy no time at all to realise that running into the house and hiding under the table was the thing to do. There, she gained comfort from her owner’s company and she reduced her exposure to the noise, wind and lightning of the pounding storm thundering outside. The result of her behaviour was far more pleasurable than braving the thunder and lightening.
Roxy had experienced negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement occurs when an animal performs a behaviour to avoid or reduce something unpleasant. The comforting outcome of Roxy's actions meant that she reinforced her 'moving-away-from-the-storm' behaviour.
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What about punishment?
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Punishment is the opposite to reinforcement. When you punish a behaviour, it becomes weaker and is less likely to occur again but that topic is dealt with in another article (see related articles at the bottom of this page).
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Using reinforcement to change behaviour
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Let's look at a real example. Jessie the Terrier was a teeth-gnashing terror. She was aggressive when anyone tried to grasp her collar. Her aggression was immediate and intense. However, she tolerated handling around her face and head well and, if they avoided her collar, her owners could usually handle her easily. Could Jessie's owners use positive and negative reinforcement to control this problem?
Positive reinforcement for Jessie's behaviour involved stoking her on the nose and muzzle. If no aggression occurred, then her owners gave her a food reward. She tolerated this stroking well and it was a good starting point.
After stoking her on the muzzle a few times, Jessie started to look forward to the food reward. Now we had her on the go! The owners progressed by stroking her on the head and later by quickly hooking her collar with a finger. They released the collar after a second or two. Through this progression, if Jessie showed no snapping, they rewarded her.
They progressed by attempting to hook-the-collar for longer and longer periods. Jessie enjoyed the food rewards and the whole process was quite smooth.
Negative Reinforcement, the removal of an unpleasant stimulus if a desired behaviour occurs, could be attempted for 'Jessie'. Here it could involve the use of a loud aerosol personal alarm, an electric ultrasonic 'whistle' or even the owners continually growling at her. The alarm, whistle or growls are sounded continuously while movement towards 'Jessie's' collar is attempted. When the collar is touched or 'hooked' with a finger and no aggression occurs, the sound was stopped. 'Jessie' would usually not find the sound pleasant, but she would, by comparison, enjoy the cessation of the sound when her collar is touched. In reality, this technique is not very reliable and Jessie's owners where much happier with the positive reinforcement technique.
Could punishment be used for Jessie? Yes, but you have to be very careful using punishment for aggression.
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Dr Cam Day BVSc BSc MACVSc is a veterinary surgeon, an animal behaviour consultant and media presenter. In 1995 he qualified as a Member of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in the discipline of Animal Behaviour and is one of only 15 veterinarians with this qualification in Australia. He works full time in animal behaviour management in Queensland, consulting with dog, cat and bird owners on a daily basis as well as appearing on air as Brisbane’s radio Pet Vet, and writing for various magazines.
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