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Dog Training Workshop, and an element of the Dog Science Network


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Strategic Punishment, also called Tactical Punishment

The term strategic punishment refers to dispensing punishment judiciously during times of enormous sensitivity, that occur during your dog's critical stage of development and that also occur to a lesser extent when new responses are being emitted for the first time, especially in new physical and/or new social environments.

During these times of great sensitivity, just a small amount of punishment dispensed at precisely the right instant has the potential to deter the animal from ever again emitting the punished response or any approximation of that response. In fact, it is possible that even a mild aversive, delivered with moderate intensity, one single time with strategic timing at a moment of extreme sensitivity, may be enough to inhibit any future development in regard to that entire response class and, indeed, the larger domain of which it is a part.


Go to the index of the Glossary of Terms


This page is a component of the Glossary of the Dog Science, CBC
Dog Training Workshop, and an element of the Dog Science Network