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From: jak@whuxlm.UUCP (Keegan Joan)
Newsgroups: net.pets
Subject: Re: Training dogs (food)
Message-ID: <811@whuxlm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Aug-85 08:33:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuxlm.811
Posted: Mon Aug 19 08:33:08 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 22:15:48 EDT
References: <192@drutx.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany
Lines: 28

> 
> I am a cat person myself, so I don't know much about obedience
> training (since cats don't obey by nature :-).  This interested
> me.
> 
> Why is using food controversial?
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
>                                      Sue Brezden
>                                      
One reason I remember hearing is that, if you use food to train your
dog, they will ONLY work if you use food.  I have not found this to be the case.
Even if I only reward my dog with food some of the time, he does the right thing
the rest of the time too.  (He always gets lots of praise whenever he does the
right thing).  I attended a seminar once on dog training by Charlotte Schwartz
(she does a lot of obedience training and tracking in NJ), and her theory is
that rewards for a dog are food and sex, and you can't give them the latter!?!
Anyway, I think the trainers who believe in using food tend to lean more
toward positive reinforcement than negative.  Those that don't use food
seem to go in for lots of jerking on training collars, ear pinching, prong
collars, etc.  I don't want to generalize too much, my experience is still
limited.

Joan Keegan
AT&T-Bell Labs
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