When a dog presents less-than-ideal behavior, you have two paths of response. You can

1. Punish the behavior you do not want, or

2. Use reinforcement to strengthen the behavior you do want.

One of these things is better than the other.
You may be tempted by the question of how to stop the behavior, but “how do I get him to do the right thing and feel good about it?” is the question you should be asking yourself.
This is where positive and negative reinforcement come in.

Positive And Negative Reinforcement 101

It helps to strip away jargon and go back to the basics.

• Positive reinforcement means you add something the dog values after a behavior to make that behavior more likely to occur.
  • Example: Dog comes when called, so you toss a bumper or give a treat.
• Negative reinforcement means you turn on mild pressure and turn it off when the dog does the right thing. Turning the pressure off is what makes the desired behavior more likely in the future.
  • Example: You apply low e collar pressure on “Here,” the dog turns and comes, you stop the pressure. Turning and coming toward you is what turned the pressure off.

Both forms of reinforcement make a behavior more likely in the future.

Punishment is different. Punishment is about stopping behavior. You either add something the dog dislikes or take away something he wants, so he is less likely to do that behavior again.

Pat’s key point is this:
^{Whenever I have a choice, I would rather put reinforcement, positive or negative, or both, on the behavior I want.}
He would rather tell the dog, “Do this right thing and feel better,” than “Stop that wrong thing and feel worse,” whenever that choice is available.

Why Reinforcement Should Come First

If the dog is offering behavior you do not want, you can either:
1. Punish that behavior directly

2. Or redirect and reinforce the behavior you want instead

Pat’s preference is almost always option two.

• Punishment may stop a specific behavior in that moment, but it does not tell the dog what to do next. There are now many more wrong options left on the table.
• Reinforcement, especially negative followed by positive, points the dog to one clear right answer and makes that answer feel rewarding.

So his pattern is often:
1. Stop the wrong behavior or remove access to reward

2. Give the dog clear information about what to do

3. Use negative reinforcement to help the dog do it

4. Follow with positive reinforcement when he does

That is different from many programs that default to “press the button when you see something you do not like.”

Example 1: The Dog Blows Off A Known Recall

Picture a hunting Lab that knows “Here” very well. On a training day, you throw a bumper. The dog takes off, and when you say “Here,” he decides to keep running for the bumper anyway.

A direct punishment approach might look like this:

• You say “Here”
• The dog keeps driving toward the bumper
• You say “No” and press the collar button while he is still running away

You are punishing the wrong behavior directly. That can be effective, but there are other options.

Here is how to use negative reinforcement and indirect pressure instead:

1. The dog blows off “Here” and chases the bird or bumper.
2. You stop him with a whistle sit. If he does not stop, you may apply pressure on the sit command to make that happen. Either way, the chase ends and he does not get rewarded for the wrong choice.
3. Now you call him with “Here” and apply e collar pressure on the recall command, not on the act of chasing.
4. As soon as the dog turns and starts running to you, you stop the pressure. Coming to you turns the pressure off.
5. When he arrives, you give positive reinforcement. Praise, a new controlled retrieve later in the session, or both.

In that chain:

• The wrong behavior did not earn reward.
• You redirected and told him what to do.
• You used negative reinforcement to strengthen recall.
• You followed up with positive reinforcement to make the choice feel worthwhile.

The collar here reinforces “Do the right thing” instead of simply blasting “Do not chase.”

Example 2: Cast Refusal And Indirect Pressure

Negative reinforcement does not always sit on the same command you are trying to improve. Pat often uses indirect pressure in the field.

Take a dog that refuses a cast to water.

You say, “Get in the water,” with a clear hand signal.

• The dog decides to run the bank instead of entering the pond.

Pat reads that first miss as a mistake in many cases, and he handles it by:

1. Stopping the dog. The stop itself says, “That line was wrong.”
2. Giving the cast again. “Get in the water,” with the correct hand signal.

If the dog says “No” a second time in a clear, familiar picture, now you are dealing with disobedience. This is where he uses indirect pressure.

Here is how that might look:

• The dog runs the bank again instead of getting in.
• You stop him and blow a sit.
• He is sitting, but you apply e collar pressure on the sit command for a moment. You are reinforcing “Sit” even though he is already seated.
• Then you cast him again toward the water.
• He decides to get in.

What happened:

• The dog felt pressure on the sit, not on the water entry.
• That pressure turned off when he complied with the sit and then followed the next cue correctly.

You used negative reinforcement on “Sit” to improve his performance on a different behavior, the cast to water. That is indirect pressure.

The key is that you are still reinforcing doing the right thing, instead of blasting the refusal directly.

Why Punishment Alone Is Unreliable

It’s not that punishment never has a place. There are times when a behavior must stop and cannot be ignored.

If your default is to punish what you do not like, you can certainly stop unwanted behaviors. The problem is that the dog still has a long list of wrong options. Stopping the undesired one does not automatically lead him to the right one.

Think about what happens when you get a speeding ticket. The ticket was written because you were speeding, but what happens to your behavior later?

1. As you pull away from the officer, you check your mirrors, signal carefully, and merge with extra caution.
2. At the next stop sign, you come to a full stop and look both ways.

Pressure was put on you for an undesired behavior (speeding), and the negative reinforcement (the ticket) positively shaped your next behaviors. That is indirect pressure. But even in that example, the real improvement comes when you repeatedly practice and feel the benefit of doing the right thing (safe driving and no more tickets!)

Putting It All Together In Your Dog Training

For a hunting dog or competition retriever, positive and negative reinforcement are tools you’ll use in almost every training session.

A simple checklist you can use in the field:

1. Start by asking: What behavior do I actually want here?

2. Look for a way to reinforce that behavior first

• Can I remove pressure when he does it?
• Can I add reward when he does it?

3. Use punishment carefully and thoughtfully

• When you truly cannot allow a behavior
• When the picture is clear and the dog understands the standard

When a dog offers undesired behavior, use negative reinforcement followed by positive reinforcement on the desired behavior rather than resorting to punishment first.

This keeps the focus on doing the right thing. Over time, recall, casts, and steadiness become behaviors your dog chooses because they make life easier and more rewarding, even under real pressure in the field.