Quote:
Originally Posted by starkind
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Negative reinforcement is super tricky to deal with in humans too.
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Yeah, it's tricky. With most animals I see it as them being locked in the present, mostly. They have memories, and they have the ability to anticipate actions, but anticipation is based on their prior experiences with a given action.
A lot of dogs get bitten by snakes, since venom can take time to take effect and become lethal. I was hired by a lot of people to instill fear of snakes in their dogs for this reason. I literally kept a bunch of them in my trunk, a few of which I had attached to fishing line. Fake ones, that is.
I'd hide behind a tree or something out back, they'd avoid letting the dog see me set up there. On a cellphone call, I'd tell them to let the dog out and begin investigating, then I'd yank the line and make the snake move. The moment, the very second the dog notices the snake, the client was supposed to correct the hell out of the dog, both verbally and with a non-harmful corrective device - but from somewhere out of sight so the dog doesn't even know who was doing the correction. Usually up in a bathroom window that was open. We'd previously have tricked the dog in to thinking that the whole family had gone out and left them behind. Timing was key. Usually the best corrective device for this might be a few bags of warm water, just cheap ziploc bags.
The idea was to create, from the dog's perspective, the moment the dog begins to investigate the snake, god screams at them and water falls out of the sky, splashing near them suddenly and startingly. They could also just be in the yard with the dog and actively correct it, but the problem was that a lot of dogs might run in to the snake without other 'pack members' around. Just chilling in the backyard by itself.
It was a bit stilted, but it usually at least created some doubt and maybe taught the dogs to avoid the snake. It worked best on dogs that responded well to water corrections, or dogs that were simply high-strung enough a loud can of pennies might also work. Slamming metal trash can lids together, stuff like that.
People with chickens in their backyard rarely have this problem.