When the handler walks away whenever the puppy jumps during training, this is an example of what principle?

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The action of the handler walking away whenever the puppy jumps is an example of negative punishment. In this context, negative punishment involves the removal of something desirable—in this case, the handler's attention and presence—when the unwanted behavior (jumping) occurs. By withdrawing attention, the handler is decreasing the likelihood of the jumping behavior in the future.

This principle operates on the concept that behaviors that lead to the removal of a positive outcome (like attention or interaction from the handler) will become less frequent over time. The puppy learns to associate jumping with the loss of attention, prompting it to modify its behavior to maintain that interaction.

This differs from positive reinforcement, which would involve introducing a rewarding stimulus to encourage a desired behavior, and positive punishment, which would involve adding an unpleasant consequence in response to an undesired behavior. Extinction, on the other hand, typically refers to the gradual decrease in behavior when reinforcement is no longer provided, but in this scenario, actively walking away is a clear example of negative punishment.

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