Training Your Dog? Why Rewards Work Better Than Punishment-
Provided by VetStreet.com Reward-based training has been
demonstrated to be effective both in the trenches with trainers
and — more important — in the realm of science. Scientists Ivan
Pavlov and B. F. Skinner made famous the benefit of using
rewards and positive associations to change both behavior and
emotion in an animal. Pavlov found that, over time, animals make
associations with certain stimuli that did not elicit a response
originally. In Pavlov's famous dog experiment, the sound of a
dinner bell could start a dog’s salivation response, because the
dog had learned through previous experience to associate this
cue with food. This approach is called classical conditioning.
Marrying Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning
Skinner's experiments explored ways to get animals to repeat or
avoid behaviors depending on the consequence of that behavior;
for example, he taught lab rats that pulling a lever resulted in
a treat appearing in front o