Quite a few years ago, the concept of a “positive interrupter” gained considerable popularity in dog training circles. If you’re unfamiliar with the idea, I’ll start with a brief overview. Then, and more importantly, why they may be, if misused, rewarding your dog making your dog’s manners even worse.

There has always been a divide between those who use force and those who do not. This pre-dates most research into the science of animal training. The book, “Practical Dog Training”, published in the late 1800’s is subtitled, “Breaking versus Training.” Same old debate going on for far too long. This post isn’t about force, but it helps to understand where the idea of positive interrupters stems from. I’ll be using the example of a dog that steals food, but any manners related problem such as jumping up, nipping or pulling on leash are equally applicable.

Force trainers often focus on suppressing “bad” behaviour. Their motto is often, “Stop doing that”. When a dog tries to steal their roast chicken, the human might yell, “No! BAD dog!” The intent, presumably, is that the human’s displeasure tells the dog: BAD! The dog is interrupted from stealing the chicken using an ornery and cross voice.

Cue a different idea, that of the positive interrupter. Instead of yelling, what if we taught the dog a command that was happy, and positive? What if this behaviour, this positive version, could interrupt the dog from taking the chicken? We would no longer have to yell in cross or ornery voices. When the dog is approaching the chicken, to steal a bite, these people might say in a happy voice, ”Thank you!” The dog is interrupted, not with fear, but with the happy thought of running to their person for a cookie.

Both interrupt. Primarily, the main difference is that positive interrupters sound better in social situations. The angry, frustrated, irritated voices of a punitive interrupter sound nasty. Positive interrupters feel nicer. People sound less like intolerant and mean. That’s a plus in my book.

You can choose any word you like. There are NO MAGIC command words. Language is arbitrary. Someone, somewhere decided that IN ENGLISH, yes meant good stuff and no meant bad stuff. Different language, different word sounds! Still fine. Use those words. It’s not the word, it’s the meaning we give it. Meanings can change. Sick used to mean ill. Then it meant seriously cool. Does cool mean awesome anymore? Words. Just sounds. Meanings can change.

For example, in English, “No,” means something negative. If no was a universal sound, the Czechs are in a pickle. In Czech, the word for yes is, “ano”. It is pronounced “Ah…NO!” So Czech dogs, learning Czech, probably like hearing words that that sound like the English word no, simply because when they hear “ah…no” it means…YES!

THERE ARE NO MAGIC WORDS. Words do not come with universal meaning .Words only have meaning because we said so. We can choose any word and teach a dog that it is a good word (or conversely a bad word). We do it all the time in dog training.

  • Saying Yes! and then giving a treat teaches a dog that “yes” means “You would be correct!” and, “something good will follow).
  • Click – treat? Click means yes. Click is a sound. It will work.
  • You could use Czech and do “ano” and treat. It matters not if the word sounds like no. We have taught the dog that it means YES!.
  • This means, if you say, “Thank you” and treat, then “thank you” becomes “yes!”.

All of these, any words that have been given strong meaning, by pairing them to positive consequences, can interrupt a dog . They are, through teaching/training, positive. But they are also a firm, “Yes.” Just as click and treat tells the dog “great job!”, any positive cue will also scream “good job” to the dog. It does not make sense to yes or click a dog as they try to steal the chicken because you would be rewarding chicken stealing.

But wait Yvette, then wouldn’t “thank you” also reward grabbing the chicken?

You bet it can. Positive interrupters are more correctly called, “Secondary REINFORCERS.” They can interrupt but they also reward the behaviour that preceded it. If you say, “Thank you” to the dog as it is going to grab the chicken…and those words are positive, you are saying, “YES! Grab that chicken.” Oh damn it.

Any dog, with a functioning brain is going to quickly work it out: The more often they go for the chicken, the more often you say, “Thank you!” So, it makes sense to go for the chicken more often. They get more yeses. Unique versions they may be. Functionally, it is a yes. Humans then become “trained” to stand guard, at the ready, waiting to interrupt chicken stealing with more iterations and variations of … YES!

Where positive interrupters fail is that they do not teach a dog what they actually ought to be doing. Dogs that steal food need to learn to “step away from the chicken and stay away from the chicken (without trying to go for it!).” Backing away from the chicken is dramatically different from, “go for the chicken interrupted.”

What You Should Do Instead::

Step one, when facing manners issues is to stop and ask what you actually want the dog to do, but also what you do not want them to do. For most families, they do not want, “Drool on the chicken until or if I catch you.” If you want a dog to back away, that’s what you need to drill and pay.

Does this make positive interrupters bad? No, they are not bad. They are misused. Unfortunately, too many online resources wrongly infer that a positive interrupters “stop” bad behaviour. They do not. They are REWARDS. This critical piece of information, when omitted, leads to families working so damn hard to make problems worse than they ever were.

Correctly used, a secondary reinforcer (interrupter), is an emergency plan. No human is perfect. Dogs need time to learn various skills. In an emergency, do interrupt! It could save your dog’s life. But why repeat emergencies? Put the damn chicken away. Supervise the dog around the chicken. Train your dog to back away from the chicken.

If you have to interrupt for an emergency once, you have all the information you need. Your dog’s skills are not strong enough to withstand the temptation. Go back and beef up your dog’s skill of, “back away from the chicken.” Learn from that ONE mistake. Don’t repeat it. Working in emergency mode is high risk, exhausting, error prone and….rewards bad behaviour. The more you use an interrupter, the more it will reward “touch the chicken.” Bad human. Bad!” (Just kidding. Good human for reading and learning!)

If a punitive interrupter better? No. It has it’s own set of issues, and can also reward “bad” behaviour. The answer is not more force. The answer is:, “Teach your dog what you actually want.” Trust me, you do not want, “touch the chicken…interrupted!” You want, “back away from the chicken and stay away from it.” Big difference. Huge. Life changing. It creates a far superior and more enjoyable living experience with your dog.

Start looking at dogs in your community, and notice how often dogs are set up for “bad” followed by “interrupted.” As the days turn into weeks and months, notice that those dogs keep doing the same bad behaviours. Pull on leash…thank you! Jump on someone, “Thank you”. Nip…thank you. It’s all yes to the dog. The better you can spot it, the less likely you’ll make the same mistake. What other behaviours do you see being rewarded by accident? Post in the comments!

Yvette sees clients in London, Ontario, Canada. Visit her on social media as Awesome Dogs, or text 519-268-7886 for coaching in the area.