Negative reinforcement is a technique used to increase the future likelihood of a wanted behavior. It differs from positive reinforcement because rather than giving the dog a pleasant event for good behavior, it is the removal of a negative event on the arrival of the wanted behavior.
For example, pushing down upon your dogs back whilst trying to get your dog to perform the action 'sit' is a negative event for your dog. Immediately after your dog has began to sit down you remove your hand and stop pushing down. That is negative reinforcement, basically the removal a negative stimulus when your dog performs an action correctly.
Another excellent example where negative reinforcement should be used is as follows. When walking your dog on a leash, she pulls and lunges all over the place. You correct her by pulling on the leash in a sideways motion and then releasing the tension on the leash. Two training techniques are in play here, firstly, positive punishment - a technique we'll discuss in a later article, and secondly, negative reinforcement. In this case negative reinforcement commences immediately upon releasing of the tension on the leash, the tension is the negative event which is removed from the situation.
Negative reinforcement happens on a daily basis, whether you knew about this technique before reading this article or not, you have probably performed it with your dog. The exact opposite of negative reinforcement is negative punishment, which is the removal of a positive stimulus to decrease the likelihood of an unwanted behavior. A good example of this is turning your back or removing your attention from your puppy whilst playing and he has bitten too hard. This is a large topic an we'll definitely get back to it in a later article.
Happy Training.
