Behavior conditioning has been around since Pavlov's dog. The behavior modification concept has been used successfully with children, developmentally disabled, inmates, and animals. Under this concept, there are four options to mold behavior: positive reward, positive punishment, negative reward, and negative punishment. To help with the understanding, when thinking of "positive" this simply means to add (positive number and adding) and "negative" means to take way (negative number or subtracting) - not positive equals good and negative equals bad as some people might think. Let me give some examples of each:
Positive reward: giving the dog a treat for obeying your command to sit.
Positive punishment: giving the dog a grab of his collar or sharp hold of his scruff of his neck when he bites your hand for attention as you say "No bite!".
Negative reward: taking away pressure on the leash when my dog quits jumping up.
Negative punishment: taking away my dog's freedom (put him in the crate) when he plays too roughly.
I lean heavily on giving positive reward, but depending on the dog and his behavior, I may use negative punishment. Dogs really want human attention and companionship. And they will act like a bratty kid to try to get it. For many of these behaviors, I choose to ignore the dog and not engage with them, but as I see them sitting nicely and waiting for attention, I mark the good behavior the dog does on his own, with "Yes! Good boy" followed by a pat or treat. In time, the dog will automatically repeat those behaviors that resulted in your attention and treats. Telling a dog "No!" does not show your dog what you want him to do, so them he tries something else which may be equally as naughty or worse. I teach my dogs the command "Off", so if it appears they are getting ready to jump up, I can say "Off" followed by the praise and attention they seek. One of my dogs really loves to be on my lap on the sofa. Normally, dogs are not allowed in the formal living room, much less on the sofa, but after he has been a really good boy for grooming, ear cleaning or nail trims, he gets to be on my lap for about 10 minutes or so (positive reward), but if he is not on his best behavior- no treat or belly rubs just right back out to the yard (negative punishment since I took away his lap time). Dogs seem to learn better with rewards rather than punishment. Pictured below are first positive reward and then positive punishment.
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