My Balanced Approach to Dog Training
In dog training we can either use reward based training methods or punishment based training methods. If our training relies solely on punishment then we are likely to have a dog that is nervous and worried about when the next correction might happen and unsure of what to do. And if our training relies solely on reward then we run into dogs that have problem behaviors that we are unable to eliminate because that problem behavior is self rewarding to the dog. There just ins't a reward that can be given to make chasing a cat less fun, and most commonly with positive only training we get dogs that are "selective listeners". As a trainer I always use positive training as much as possible, and it is my go to when starting out a puppy and during my agility classes I will not hesitate to correct an owner for telling their dog "no" when their dog makes a mistake on a piece of agility equipment in a beginners level agility class. That being said, I also firmly believe that there is a time and a place to give a dog a correction. I think in order to truly be fair to our dogs we need to use a balance of both “yes” and “no”. "Yes" means something good will happen (either verbal praise, touch, or food/toy reward) and "No" means something that is intolerable to the dog will happen. What exactly that intolerable consequence is can vary depending on the dog, some dogs are very sensitive and the mere change in tone or posture of the person is intolerable to the dog and can be used to shape the dogs behavior. Typically however, low levels of consequence like changing ones tone of voice alone are not effective to change a dogs behavior. Most of the time dogs respond best when we communicate in a way that they would naturally communicate with other dogs. A mother dog or dominant dog would punish a younger/less dominate dog by biting or nipping them on the upper neck/cheek/ear area and dogs understand a bite/nip in that area as such. We can recreate this kind of a nip by using a prong collar. I know that they look mean and awful, but dogs truly understand them because they feel like teeth on their neck. Once you have a prong collar fitted properly up high on a dogs neck and a leash attached you have a direct line of communication to be able to tell your dog “no” and have it actually mean something. Now if I were to try and boil dog training down to the most simple core truth it would be you teach and reward good behaviors, and correct bad behaviors. This is the core of balanced dog training. There is a really big wave of influence right now of positive only dog trainers, and they will tell you to reward the good and ignore the bad and your dog will eventually stop bad behaviors and do only good things. This sounds so nice but it is quite flawed for two reasons. One, sometimes bad behaviors are self rewarding to dogs. So, even if we have a pocket full of the best treats and have done hours of games and interactions and built an amazing relationship with our dog, if they see a cat, there is nothing that we can do that is more rewarding than chasing the cat, so the dog of course chases the cat. (the cat in this example can be replaced by any distraction including other dogs, people, rushing the door when the doorbell rings etc.) And the second reason why positive only doesn't always work is our dogs need to know when they have done something wrong, it is only fair that we give them that information. Many positive only dog trainers will say if you want to stop a dog from jumping on people just ignore it until it stops jumping, and then pet it and reward it when it is keeping all four feet on the ground. Or they might say you should teach your dog to sit and then when it jumps you can get it to stop jumping by telling it sit. The problem with this method is the dog never understands that jumping was wrong. Imagine my two year old daughter is drawing on the wall with a crayon and I walk into the room and see her and I say “sweetie come help mommy unload the dishwasher” so she puts down her crayon and she puts all the silverware away, and I say “wow what a good girl, you're mommy's big helper, I'm so proud of you”. Did she stop drawing on the wall? Yes. But did she understand that drawing on the wall is wrong? No, so she will most likely continue to draw on the walls in the future. It's the same thing with our dogs. So communicating “no” to our dogs is extremely important. Since they don't intuitively speak English we need to teach them that “no” means the behavior was wrong by pairing it with pressure from a prong collar and they will intuitively understand that the feeling of a bite on the upper neck is a correction and learn that “no” means they made a wrong choice. How much pressure should you use? That is for the dog to decide, my motto is “Be as gentle as possible but as firm as necessary”. This also puts you directly into a leadership (or dominant/alpha) relationship with your dog because you are deciding what behaviors are acceptable and what behavior warrants a correction, which is exactly what an dominant or alpha dog does. Okay, if you are on board with my way of thinking and feel like this all makes sense, I'll move on to part two.
Part two is, now that we can communicate both yes and no to our dog we need to give our dog a job. Their brains thrive when they have to work, and if we don't give them jobs, they will get bored and find jobs for themselves (we as owners never like what they pick). They will also start to think that they are in charge of the house. Just like in the workplace if there is no appointed boss than why should I take orders from a random coworker, I'll do what I please... right? Same with your dog. So make sure you have a lot of structure and routine in place in your home that communicates to your dog their position in the hierarchy of your home. Examples of this structure are: utilizing a crate, feeding in set meals and making your dog perform a task to earn their food (like sit, down, or wait), don't let your dog rush through doors/thresholds, bark excessively, be up on furniture uninvited etc. In addition to having balanced routines and structure in the home, every dog needs to be able to work. Work isn't just for police dogs and guide dogs, all dogs need a job. What do jobs look like for the average pet dog? My top 5 most helpful things to teach pet dogs are :
1. A structured walk ( a structured walk means the dog is in a heel position and their job on the walk is to ignore everything else going on around them and just walk with you, no sniffing, pulling, gawking, barking, lunging etc.)
2. Place command and down stay
3. Recall
4. Kennel on command
5. Drop command (Drop command is used to get the dog to disengage from anything they feel possession over which could be a toy or a bowl of dog food. This command can be very helpful for dogs who are inclined to resource guarding.)
If your dog already thinks they are boss of the house they will probably have a hard time at first releasing that assumed authority, but in the end it will be so much less stressful for them to not be the boss anymore. If you are just starting out with a brand new puppy I hope you can use this information to set goals and achieve success with your dog. No matter where you are in your training journey if you feel like you need help along the way I'd love for you to reach out to me.
Part two is, now that we can communicate both yes and no to our dog we need to give our dog a job. Their brains thrive when they have to work, and if we don't give them jobs, they will get bored and find jobs for themselves (we as owners never like what they pick). They will also start to think that they are in charge of the house. Just like in the workplace if there is no appointed boss than why should I take orders from a random coworker, I'll do what I please... right? Same with your dog. So make sure you have a lot of structure and routine in place in your home that communicates to your dog their position in the hierarchy of your home. Examples of this structure are: utilizing a crate, feeding in set meals and making your dog perform a task to earn their food (like sit, down, or wait), don't let your dog rush through doors/thresholds, bark excessively, be up on furniture uninvited etc. In addition to having balanced routines and structure in the home, every dog needs to be able to work. Work isn't just for police dogs and guide dogs, all dogs need a job. What do jobs look like for the average pet dog? My top 5 most helpful things to teach pet dogs are :
1. A structured walk ( a structured walk means the dog is in a heel position and their job on the walk is to ignore everything else going on around them and just walk with you, no sniffing, pulling, gawking, barking, lunging etc.)
2. Place command and down stay
3. Recall
4. Kennel on command
5. Drop command (Drop command is used to get the dog to disengage from anything they feel possession over which could be a toy or a bowl of dog food. This command can be very helpful for dogs who are inclined to resource guarding.)
If your dog already thinks they are boss of the house they will probably have a hard time at first releasing that assumed authority, but in the end it will be so much less stressful for them to not be the boss anymore. If you are just starting out with a brand new puppy I hope you can use this information to set goals and achieve success with your dog. No matter where you are in your training journey if you feel like you need help along the way I'd love for you to reach out to me.