Why is balanced training superior to pure positive training? Because dogs are more like people than we want to admit.
Pure positive training says “Train the dog how to do the right behaviors and they won't do the bad behaviors.” Most people who use strictly pure positive training do have some success with their dog, but many find themselves with a dog that is a selective listener. Why is this? Why will the dog sometimes respond immediately to a command and other times behave as if it had never heard the command before?
The problem is not that the dog is stupid, forgetful, or even poorly trained but that the dog lacks accountability. Let's humanize it for a moment.
What if we said “Teach the people how to read speed limit signs and then they won't speed anymore. We will even give people incentives to not speed, like good driver discounts on their insurance that save them money! Money is after all a valuable reward for humans”. For some people these incentives are enough to keep their behavior in check, but for others it is only enough until... until they are running late, or in a hurry, or goofing off with their friends. Then all of the sudden what was a valuable reward is not enough, it's not enough because speeding can be self-rewarding. We all know that speeding happens not from a place of ignorance, but out of disregard for a known rule. That is why we have traffic officers. They are not there to tell us or teach us the correct speed to drive, but rather to hold us accountable to do what we already know is right. We need traffic officers not because we can't read the signs, but because the signs can't give us tickets.
So yes, use pure positive training to teach your dogs what they are supposed to do, but don't be surprised if they blow you off to do a self-rewarding behavior. If you want to take training to the next level you must bring accountability into the picture as well. This is balanced training.
Pure positive training says “Train the dog how to do the right behaviors and they won't do the bad behaviors.” Most people who use strictly pure positive training do have some success with their dog, but many find themselves with a dog that is a selective listener. Why is this? Why will the dog sometimes respond immediately to a command and other times behave as if it had never heard the command before?
The problem is not that the dog is stupid, forgetful, or even poorly trained but that the dog lacks accountability. Let's humanize it for a moment.
What if we said “Teach the people how to read speed limit signs and then they won't speed anymore. We will even give people incentives to not speed, like good driver discounts on their insurance that save them money! Money is after all a valuable reward for humans”. For some people these incentives are enough to keep their behavior in check, but for others it is only enough until... until they are running late, or in a hurry, or goofing off with their friends. Then all of the sudden what was a valuable reward is not enough, it's not enough because speeding can be self-rewarding. We all know that speeding happens not from a place of ignorance, but out of disregard for a known rule. That is why we have traffic officers. They are not there to tell us or teach us the correct speed to drive, but rather to hold us accountable to do what we already know is right. We need traffic officers not because we can't read the signs, but because the signs can't give us tickets.
So yes, use pure positive training to teach your dogs what they are supposed to do, but don't be surprised if they blow you off to do a self-rewarding behavior. If you want to take training to the next level you must bring accountability into the picture as well. This is balanced training.