What is a correction?
In the dog world, the phrase "to correct" is controversial Many dog trainers argue that there's nothing wrong with 'correcting' a dog because you're simply showing him how to be correct. I've seen entire blogs written to justify the use of the word, and its application in dog training, by referring to the root of the word "correct" - to make right. I know that I appreciate it when someone corrects my work to help me improve.
If a correction is designed to make the dog correct, why does it often look like the dog is being made sorry rather than being made right?
This reminds me of a phase in my life where saying something was "bad" really meant that it was "good". Cool. The meaning of the word changed, and only a person in a closet would have failed to notice that change. As a result, we accepted the changed word and we used the original meaning with care to avoid a misunderstanding.
Is it possible that the current meaning of the word "correct" has changed from "being made right" to "applying unpleasant consequences?" I'm talking about the dog world; not the common usage of the word (we are talking about dogs here, aren't we?).
If you cannot decide for yourself if the meaning of the word has changed, then I'd like to suggest a fairly simple test to help you get calibrated.
You'll need three things. A dog making a mistake, a trainer applying a correction, and a five year old.
While the five year old is observing, "correct" the dog for making a mistake. Then ask the child, "is the dog happy now that I showed him how to be correct?"
If the five year old looks at you like you've grown a second head, then you may wish to acknowledge that the root meaning of the word and the common usage of the word are no longer the same.
Lets call a spade a spade. A correction means to make the dog sorry so that they will perform differently the next time. If you are showing a dog how to perform correctly, then don't call it a correction. You are "showing","teaching" or "training" the dog. And if you are really trying to help the dog, then whatever you are doing should look like help to the random five year old.
Regardless of how you feel about corrections in training, isn't it better to use language that is clear and descriptive of what is really happening?
I've seen people jerk their dogs all over the place in the name of dog training. I've seen dogs cowering away from their owners and other run away in fear. I've seen dogs pee and roll on their backs as their trainer approached. I'm sure each of those individuals would say they were 'correcting' the dog, and many of them would subscribe to the usage of the word that I began with - that they were making the dog right.
I've yet to hear someone say they were abusing their dog. So, in the interest of clarity, if we are truly showing our dogs how to perform and we care how they feel about their work, we should eliminate the use of the word "correction" from our vocabularies and substitute onother, less tainted word, in it's place.
41 comments
If corrections are not unpleasant they are certainly not effective. I wish there were no unpleasant things in life, but unfortunately there are many bad things that happen thru the course of a day. I am doing my best to take an active role in teaching all of my dogs how to react correctly to their environment. Part of that role is in gradually applying aversive (painful) stimuli and helping them to understand how to control it by responding in the correct way. My hope is that this will help them to become more confident and to have a wider range of experiences opened to them. I hope that people can understand why some people choose to use force in dog training. That it is not always meanness and impatience. Sometimes it is love and a desire for them to have a full life with many wonderful experiences.
For years I used the word balance and can’t anymore because it’s been tainted to mean a balance of rewards with punishments. I used it to mean if the reinforcement history is very strong on “this side” you need to balance the reinforcement history on the other side. For example, if the dog is so crazy to run out to get his dumbbell, you need to bump up the reinforcement on the staying side. To me the opposite of a reward/reinforcement is no reward, not a punishment. It’s getting really hard to talk about training period. Vocabulary is a very importable and tricky thing!
Brilliant and concise, but I’m left wondering what word to replace “correction” with.
For what it’s worth, I never said anything about whether corrections were right or wrong; Simply call them what they are – unpleasant events to cause a dog to change their behavior.
Kirstan, in reply to your “Why?”, I think it all comes down to the trainer’s ego.