How to Stop GOOD Behavior?

I recently read a fantastic explanation of a commonly recommended, but highly counter-intuitive approach to diminishing unwanted behavior at http://aspergersexpert.blogspot.com.

The approach is simple. There are three steps.

STEP 1: When your pupil (dog or child) engages in deliberate, undesirable, self-rewarding behavior -- reward it. Every time. Heavily.

WHAT?!? Reward BAD behavior???

Yes, reward a bad behavior that is BOTH deliberate and self-rewarding (this is where a professional diagnosis is highly recommended).

When this idea is applied to dog brains, you can put the behavior on command by giving a cue for it (such as JUMP or SPEAK).

STEP 2: Repeat. Establish the idea that this behavior will receive a reward 100% of the time, in addition to "just feeling so right."

The amount of time necessary for this approach to work is likely to vary by individual.

STEP 3: STOP all rewards. Cold turkey.

This works, if used on the right behaviors, and if the reward is given 100% of the time.

Dog trainers like to believe that by putting it on cue and never issuing the cue, that your compliant dog will never engage in the behavior. I do not agree with this explanation. The kind of dogs who engage in the behaviors to which this approach is best suited are generally not in a good, willing compliance relationship with their owners.

The explanation given by the author of the Asperger's Expert blog is that the accompanying frustration associated with unmet expectations functions as a punisher. That the behavior no longer feels as SUPER-right as it did when there was the added reward PLUS the initial self-rewarding nature of the behavior.

This is an explanation that makes sense to me.

Now, what's all this about stopping good behavior? One of the very real problems with "positive" training is the real-world application. Owners get gung-ho about the first few weeks of puppy training. Some behaviors are getting 100% rewards -- every sit, every down, every everything. And that is fantastic! Nothing wrong with that.

Then, the real world reality -- something interferes with this 100% schedule. They run out of treats. The dog gets sick. The vet puts the dog on a special diet.

So the dog is slammed from 100% reinforcement schedule to 0% reinforcement schedule. Which, as we see above, is a great way to STOP good behavior.