Training with positive reinforcement
I believe in treating our animals with kindness and compassion when training them and addressing behavioral issues. This means that I will take the dog’s emotions into consideration when analyzing behavior, rather than just using punishment.
A dog that seems “disobedient” could have many reasons for doing so if you look at the whole picture. There is usually some outside factor affecting our dog’s ability to listen to us. For example, there could be distractions they have never trained around before, there could be something scary that they are too focused on, or maybe they just need to rest. It is easy to become frustrated with our dogs and think they are giving us a hard time, but if we take a look at things from their perspective it can help us show them kindness and find things we need to train for instead of giving corrections.
This means that I will never recommend the use of an aversive tool (prong collar or e-collar) to one of my clients. I will follow the humane hierarchy meaning I will first make sure the dog is physically and mentally healthy, then look to changes that could be made to the environment to prevent the problem behavior, and finally I will use positive reinforcement and reinforce incompatible behaviors.
My goal is to help you learn more about your dog and their behavior, strengthen your bond with your dog, and help you be a more comfortable and confident dog owner!
FAQs
what kind of trainer are you?
I train dogs without the use of pain, fear, or intimidation, therefore the force-free label is probably the most fitting for me. I believe in training using positive reinforcement, and avoiding the need for physical corrections of any kind as part of my training plan by setting dogs up for success in each training scenario. I will always use the most humane methods for the dog I am working with. I will take into account that something that is a reinforcer for one dog is not necessarily a reinforcer for another. When changing behavior I will follow the humane hierarchy and find ways to increase reinforcement available to each dog by finding an alternate behavior to reinforce instead of using punishment.
what do you do when the dog makes a mistake?
When teaching something new, nothing. I will simply move on and ask for something a little easier to reinforce instead. When the behavior has been taught and the dog makes a mistake, I will take that as information for training going forward. This likely means that what was being asked of the dog was not in their skillset, or there was something in the environment making it too difficult.
how do you get rid of problem behaviors without punishment?
Whether a behavior happens more or less is all determined by whether the consequence (what happens immediately after) is reinforcing or punishing to the dog. However, you don’t need to punish a behavior to stop it from happening in the future. You can simply find an incompatible behavior to give more reinforcement to instead. You also need to change the environment in whatever ways possible to make sure you are setting your dog up for success, preventing rehearsal of the problem behaviors, and only asking your dog to do things that are within their skillset.
science supports not using aversives
As someone who studied biology, I follow peer-reviewed research, and that tells us that the use of aversives (something unpleasant like physical corrections, a prong collar, or an e-collar stim) has harmful effects on our dog’s welfare.
The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior has released a position statement that only rewards based methods should be used during training and behavior modification. They state that aversives should never be needed, and they go on to discuss the detrimental effects of using them. This article does a good job answering questions and explaining why using aversives when training can be harmful.
https://avsab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AVSAB-Humane-Dog-Training-Position-Statement-2021.pdf
This article shows the results of a study that when aversives are used in training, dogs show more stress and fear related behaviors and had higher cortisol levels. This has an effect on the well-being of the dog both during the training session and after.