The Dog Training Quadrants We Don’t Talk About: Are We Using Them More Than We Know? #298
Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett
DogsThat
4.8 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Visit us at shapedbydog.com
I sometimes receive comments that some dogs need all 4 quadrants of dog training. But what does that mean, why does it matter for your dog, and what does science tell us? We all need to be aware of the blurred lines between quadrants, so I'm discussing each. Plus, I'm sharing experiences and insights on what unintentional punishment can be for dogs and how to avoid it, what reinforcement really is, and how it's possible to reinforce a dog for behavior you don't want.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
• How the four quadrants of operant conditioning apply to everyday dog training.
• An explanation of Positive Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment and Negative Reinforcement - +R, +P, -P, -R
• How to recognize what quadrant you are training in and my experiences.
• The importance of reinforcers and using what’s reinforcing for your dog.
• How I built value for my dog Swagger to watch other dogs work.
• Control and lessons from B.F. Skinner.
• How negative reinforcement works.
• The blurred lines between the quadrants.
• Debunking the “we must be alpha” narrative in dog training.
Resources:
1. Podcast Episode 297: Why In 2025 We Still Have Dog Trainers Who Believe “Reinforcement Dog Training Doesn’t Work”- https://dogsthat.com/podcast/297/
2. Podcast Episode 146: Balanced Dog Training: Does It Really Exist? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/146/
3. Podcast Episode 95: How Playing with Your Dog Like a Puppy Can Reduce Fear - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/95/
4. Podcast Episode 107: Pedicure Please: 3 Steps To Dog Nail Trimming Or Grooming Success At Home! - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/107/
5. Podcast Episode 34: Time Outs for Dogs: Does Your Dog Need One? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/34/
6. Podcast Episode 251: Should We All Stop Using Non-Reward Markers In Dog Training? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/251/
7. Podcast Episode 181: Training Multiple Dogs To Wait Turns And Relax - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/181/
8. Paper: B.F. Skinner's Theory of Performance Excellence: A Radical Behavioral Perspective - https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=capstone_masters
9. YouTube Short: Do We Really Need All Of The Quadrants? - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MTwuelH2sX4
10. Podcast Episode 40: Using A Head Halter On A Dog, Why My Approach Is So Different - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/40/
11. Podcast Episode 153: Dog Muzzles: Everything You Need To Know And How To Muzzle Train Dogs - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/153/
12. Shaping Success Book by Susan Garrett - https://dogsthat.com/product/shaping-success-2/
13. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/k1wcwfeUBFc
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Our last shape by dog episode podcast number 297 created a lot of conversations over on YouTube. |
| 0:06.4 | And I thank each and every one of you for contributing to that conversation, regardless of what |
| 0:12.8 | your opinion was. There was a lot of respectful back and forth dialogue. The topic was, |
| 0:18.7 | does reinforcement based dog training really work? |
| 0:21.8 | And a lot of the commenters suggested that some dogs need training from all four quadrants. |
| 0:29.0 | And I decided, let's talk about how a reinforcement-based dog trainer intentionally and inadvertently might be using all four of those |
| 0:41.4 | quadrants. |
| 0:51.9 | Hi, I'm Susan Garrett. |
| 0:53.7 | Welcome to Shape by Dog. In Shape by Dog episode number 146, I'm Susan Garrett. Welcome to Shape by Dog. |
| 0:55.0 | In Shape by Dog episode number 146, I explained what the four quadrants of animal training |
| 1:02.5 | were and that they were negative or positive, but that didn't mean anything like good |
| 1:08.7 | or bad. Negative punishment, positive punishment. |
| 1:13.0 | Negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement. One doesn't designate good. All of them are |
| 1:19.6 | described by the behavior of the dog. So if the dog finds something reinforcing, then the behavior |
| 1:27.0 | increases in frequency. If the animal finds something reinforcing, then the behavior increases in frequency. If the animal finds |
| 1:29.8 | something punishing, then the behavior decreases in frequency. And you might say, well, |
| 1:35.8 | hey, reinforcement-based dog trainers, of course, they don't use all four quadrants. They just use |
| 1:40.8 | one. Well, that's not true. And there's a number of reasons why, because some of those quadrants are dipped into |
| 1:48.4 | unintentionally, but it's all in the definition. |
| 1:52.1 | And for me, the definition is really described by the dog. |
| 1:55.8 | What is the dog's behavior? |
| 1:57.9 | And I want to, before we get too deep in the weeds, to recognize those |
... |
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