Category: Advanced Stuff ¤
  Author: Dani Weinberg ¤
   Title: Punishers vs. NRMs ¤

Sue's Bidurfee is very helpful.  Just one minor disagreement.  I find it 
useful to make a distinction between a Bidurfee that eliminates a 
behavior and one that changes a behavior.  Both contain useful 
information for the dog, but the second one also urges the dog to try 
something else with the implicit promise that there *is* some other 
behavior that I will R+ ("Goodurfee"?).  In my mind, that's what an NRM 
is, much more than it is a punisher.  It's a conditioned marker 
comparable to the CR that tells the dog something like:  yes, 
reinforcement is available but not for that particular thing you just 
did, so please try something else.

I'm thinking that this distinction is helpful for beginning students/pet 
owners, enabling them to see the difference between a "Bad dog" and a 
"Try again" signal - and, hopefully, to start transforming some of the 
"Bad Dogs" into "Try Agains" - IOW, reframing these into training 
opportunities (instead of simple scolding opps).

Dani


Dani Weinberg
Albuquerque, NM
71044.3715@compuserve.com