This page is a component of the Glossary of the Dog Science, CBC
Dog Training Workshop, and an element of the Dog Science Network
Go to the index of the Glossary of Terms
Continuous Punishment
The term continuous punishment does not refer to punishing your dog all the time, no matter what he does. Rather, punishing continuously means to punish every instance of the behavior or behaviors that you have targeted for change.
Research shows that when it comes to bringing problematic behavior to an end, continuous punishment will accomplish that purpose far faster than its intermittent counterpart.
Continuous punishment constitutes what they call a schedule of reinforcement. Although I suppose, they could have just as aptly called it a schedule of punishment.