Used to teach a dog to do something; the use of unpleasant stimuli like collar corrections to discourage or weaken behavior.

• A. Negative Punishment
• B. Negative Reinforcement
• C. Positive Punishment
• D. Positive Reinforcement

Answer: (C)

Positive punishment means adding something aversive after an undesired behavior to reduce the likelihood that the behavior will happen again. The “positive” part means something is added, and the “punishment” part means the response weakens the behavior. In dog training, a collar correction is an aversive stimulus added when the dog performs a behavior you want to discourage (for example, pulling on the leash). This pairing is intended to make the behavior less likely in the future.

This is different from negative punishment (removing something the dog values to reduce a behavior), negative reinforcement (removing an aversive stimulus to increase a behavior), or positive reinforcement (adding something pleasant to increase a desired behavior). Remember, to teach a dog to perform a desired action, positive reinforcement is typically used, while positive punishment is used to decrease undesired behaviors.