#Positive Reinforcement

[beardedmrbean]

[anstarwar]

Thinking of making this a “to-do list” accomplishment sticker. Once you’ve completed a task, let Obi-Wan provide you with some positive reinforcement

[amburuthings]

Illustrating this conversation with @fantasy-frog while chanelling the Solas Story Abridged and the batshit lavellan posts

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Boomers sure are offended when they think you’re rewarding your dog for “doing nothing”

“Your rewarding for nothing?! You’re just giving treats and hoping for the best!”

If you think my Malinois is doing “nothing” by volunteering a chin rest with her back turned to multiple dogs barking & lunging at her that’s a you problem. My girl gets as many treats as she wants and in return I get a calm dog who volunteers for multiple injections & blood draws in a row with a happy tail and no restraints. If being calm under stress isn’t reward worthy, I’d hate to see how you with your little Yorkie would react to the alternative. Ugh

[existennialmemes]

Our carceral society isn't ready to hear this, but punishment doesn't really work, especially not on it's own. Really, empirically speaking, punishment is a profoundly ineffective means of modifying someone's behavior long term.

Whether we're talking about children or prisoners or whoever, punishment rarely achieves the desired goal, and frequently causes a host of other negative consequences instead.

You know what works? Positive reinforcement. But that's less satisfying to the egos of authority (whether it's parents or the state apparatus) so this method is typically reserved for dogs.

[positivelypositive]

🌈

this is the sign...

...that you've been hoping for.

it's time to do what you've been procrastinating about for so long. it needs to be done anyway. why put it off any longer?

you're capable and you're ready! you can do it. it's time ✨

[writethestory365]

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[riley-coyotl]

Juni got her nasal bordetella vaccine the other day (yay cooperative care!!) so she finally got to go to the pool for the first time.

She did AMAZING!! Not only did she totally rock the new environment (with strange people and another dog in the other pool right next to ours!), but she went straight into the pool and off the end of the ramp to swim out for a toy right away with no hesitation!!

She had so much fun swimming. This was such a great experience for her and I'm SO proud of her!! My scaredy-est doggie was the most confident in the pool, who would've thought??

[andalon-historian]

The best part of Azula's character is that she seems to actually care about converting Zuko back to her side-- not that she cares about him, but that when she decides to try to keep him evil she actually tries. At all.

So many evil overlords berate their rebellious underlings and insult them and punish them. Only Azula is out here with a "stop doubting yourself king we love you for this."

[eaton-courtney]

courtney in positive reinforcement

[logan-maya]

Crossy paws with Maya and stays with good dogs

[missjamiekaye]

If you dig my art, a kind comment/complement/ask would help me out like a whole lot right now if you have a second to spare.

[mandana-the-service-pup]

🦬🌳🐕

[positivelypositive]

🌼

take a deep breath...

...before you scroll any further.

if it's been a stretch of rough times for you lately, then please know that the good things may take time but they're definitely coming to you.

the wait might be a little longer this time around but the sine wave of good times and bad never flatlines. it'll keep going up and down.

keep holding on. you're here and for now, that's all that matters. you've got this ✨

[woodsfae]

How do I describe the awe and joy of exercise not hurting after a lifetime of chronic pain? And not even painless exercise, really, but only reduced pain, and still the relief itself is euphoric.

My partner and I were out at the ranch where his rescue horse is boarded, and we arrived right before they were about to drive the entire herd across state land to a field which they were leasing for the summer. Horses generally do not like to be separated from the herd, so working with Partner's rescue horse wouldn't work if they took the herd away: he would be too agitated and eager to go join them to concentrate on training time. So we volunteered to move the herd ourselves, after we were done with our training time.

The ranch hands usually had one person ride a lead horse, another followed the herd on foot with a whip, using the punishment that fear of a waving whip is to keep them moving along when they tried to stop to graze.

My partner and I are positive reinforcement trainers, ideologically opposed to punishment in animal training, so I carried a bucket of grain and ran.

The horses followed me: why would they not? They recognize buckets of grain, and since most of them don't get a daily grain feed, it's a high-value treat for them.

Since I was a child, running triggered my asthma, and my primary asthma symptom is severe pain, wrapping around my chest and back and squeezing me like a vice. And as it turns out, after the years of physical therapy I did to rebuild my muscles after my macromastia and old back injury caused them to become unbalanced, a hit on my inhaler before exercise is enough to stave off asthma in temperate conditions.

The rumble of more than twenty horses running suffused me. The ground trembled. Some, excited, overshot me, running ahead. The ranch has Tennessee Walkers, a tall breed. Most of the horses are sixteen or more hands, which means the top of their shoulders are higher than my head. I ran, and trusted that if I was consistent in my movement and pace, they wouldn't knock into me. My partner followed more slowly, using positive reinforcement methods to encourage the stragglers to keep moving, instead of stopping to graze along the way, his own pockets full of treats.

After an entire lifetime of pain, I ran, nearly entirely pain-free, thundering along with two dozen cantering horses, each hundreds and hundreds of pounds to my slight, human frame. I ran, and it did not hurt. I ran, and the herd ran with me.

What a gift life can be.