Reinforcement matrix

Today we met the trainer from another club (dogsports NZ) while we were on our way to Schutzhund training. He invited us to come over to his club on Wednesday to take a look at their training. He mentioned that the dogs in their clubs went though all four quadrants of the reinforcement matrix. What is the reinforcement matrix?

Basically, there are two kinds of events: pleasant and aversive. An example of a pleasant event is food and an example of an aversive event is electric shock. These events can be viewed as primary (related to a biological need) or secondary (previously paired with a primary). Furthermore, an event can be given (positive) or taken away (negative).








The goal of reinforcement is to increase the likelihood of the behavior in the future, while the goal of punishment is to decrease the likelihood of the behavior in the future. Positive refers to addition and negative to subtraction. In the case of the consequences of behavior, positive refers to the adding or giving of something and negative refers to subtraction or taking something away.

+ reinforcement

Definition: The giving of a pleasant event contingent on a behavior with the goal of increasing the likelihood of the behavior in the future.

Example: Dog sits (or does whatever else you might ask) and you give him/her food, play, and/or praise.

+ punishment

Definition: The giving of an aversive event contingent on a behavior with the goal of decreasing the likelihood of the behavior in the future.

Example: Dog sits up on the long down in the AKC obedience exercise and the owner becomes verbally and/or physically firm.

- reinforcement

Definition: The removal of an aversive event contingent on a behavior with the goal of increasing the likelihood of the behavior in the future.

Example: A technique for teaching the retrieve involves releasing an ear pinch or terminating a shock at the moment the dog clasps the dumbbell in its mouth.

- punishment

Definition: The removal of a pleasant event contingent on a behavior with the goal of decreasing the likelihood of the behavior in the future.

Example: Puppy learn bite inhibition during play when we recoil and cease playing for a moment or two when the dog is too rough. Also, consider the earliest stages of teaching a dog to heel. We may give constant praise and encouragement when the desired behavior occurs but we will withhold the praise when the behavior observed does not meet our criteria of "good heeling".

Jet 5.5 months

Jet is about 5.5 months old now. He is almost as tall as Kaly now. Again, we brought them to their favorite field to play. Enjoy.

Schutzhund training 07 Aug, 2010

Great training yesterday but the weather was horrible. It was raining the whole day, the ground was wet and muddy. We have new members as well - there is Kim and Mike with their GSD name Nala, and a Staffy name Chloe. And there is Susan with her 5 month old GSD (I forget his name!).

Jet did great on his 15-ft long arc track. I was a bit nervous in the beginning as Jet's foundation was on an uncontrolled, unleash circular track. I knew that Sean and Kasia do not like this method of training dogs in tracking and would like to have more control. I was worried that if Jet does not do well in this arc track, they would again point out how bad the circular track was... blah, blah, blah! Fortunately, Jet excelled, and even did really well when Kasia distracted him for a moment when she talked too loud during our tracking exercise. During the debrief, again, Kasia and Sean wanted me to have more control and tighten the leash. I, assertively, said that wasn't my goal now for Jet and would like him to have more confidence in the track. Next goal is to have a longer track, and then followed by lighter footsteps...control would come in last!.... My training method is slow, methodical and as little ambiguity as possible.. only changing one variable at a time.

Sean respect my wish, and he is happy to see that I have my goals, and I achieve it every session in my training. I think this is important as we have different training methods, but we respect each other, and offer our advises if we see issues arising. With different training methods and opinions, it also makes the club more interesting and diverse.

I got a video of Kasia working on with Anka. She is working on her obedience with distraction. The one distracting them is Theresa (she is the secretary of NZ Schutzhund), visitor from Hastings. A few personal questions I have (not answered, just questions in my head... as I may face the same issues in the future with Jet):

• why the need to move away to encourage the dog to come to you for reward (after the click)?
• why correct the dog without a verbal cue such as "no"?
• why there is no verbal cue to tell the dog what is not expected and what is expected? such as "no" (when dog looks away), "watch" (gets the dog to look at you) and "good" when dog looks at you)?