FRED the Irish Setter used to get yelled at frequently. The most common word that he heard was 'No'! Whenever he heard it he cringed in terror. His owners, the Lamberts, had difficulty training Fred because they had no way to tell him that he made a mistake. When an animal is learning something new, it will understandably make errors. In Fred's case, errors were met with serious disapproval. If the Lamberts ignored the errors, however, Fred learned the behaviour incorrectly. The Lamberts finally solved their problem at a carnival when one of the barkers cajoled Mr Lambert into tossing a softball at a stack of metal milk bottles. Mr Lambert threw the first ball - and missed. Instead of yelling at him, the barker said: 'Ah, gee, mister, that was sooo close. You almost did it. You ought to try it again!' Mr Lambert suddenly realised what Fred's problem was. He realised that he needed a gentle way to tell Fred that he had made a mistake. He decided to use the word 'wrong'. Every time Fred made a minor error, Mr Lambert would say 'wrong' in a normal tone of voice and ignore Fred for a minute. Soon, Fred made an association between the word and its consequence. He found out that if he heard the word 'wrong' he could expect to be ignored for at least 30 seconds. The affection and attention that he wanted was removed when he made an error. Instead of cringing in terror, Fred would get excited and try the behaviour again. After a few sessions, Mr Lambert was convinced that his tool was a good one for simple obedience behaviours. But what about more complex behaviours? He decided to try it on an especially irritating problem. Fred always jumped on guests who entered the Lambert home. First, the Lamberts invited a friend to come to the house and ring the doorbell. The friend was instructed that if he heard the word 'wrong', he was to immediately leave the house. As the friend rang the bell, Fred leaped to his feet and raced to the door. He pranced and jumped against the door as he waited for Mr Lambert to let in the guest. This time, as Fred was in for a big surprise - Mr Lambert did not open the door, he just said 'wrong' and went back to the living room. Fred watched as the guest walked around the garage and disappeared from sight. Fred was stumped. After a few attempts, Fred changed his plan. He remembered that he had heard that awful word just as he started to jump up. He decided to fool his owner this time - by not jumping up! This time, the guest actually entered the house before Fred attempted to jump. Several more attempts and Mr Lambert was able to switch from 'wrong' to 'good boy' and give Fred a treat for sitting, instead of jumping. Most animals are willing to work for their owner's attention. Withholding praise can be a powerful and humane tool for teaching your pet. Before you assume that punishment is the only means of correcting mistakes, make sure your pet knows right from 'wrong'.