Dog behaviour doesn’t fit in perfect boxes

If you’ve spent any amount of time googling or facebooking about how to train your dog, chances are you’ve come across something along the lines of “you must only use reinforcement when training your dog, you must never punish your dog or you’re a terrible human who will be destined for hell.” Or a variation of that.

People wanting to do the “right” thing will try their very best to follow this advice, and years later their dog is struggling with something they just can’t fix and they & their dog are suffering for it. Or they’ll go the other way and claim that reinforcement doesn’t work (psst - if it didn’t make the behaviour more likely/stronger then it wasn’t reinforcement).

The funny thing is, I haven’t met a person yet who lives with their dog without some forms of both punishment and reinforcement being involved. That’s one aspect of how living beings learn. The only difference is whether they 1) are aware of what they’re doing or 2) whether they admit to it.

Prime example: whether your dog is walked on a front clip harness, a head collar, a slip lead or a prong collar - if it makes pulling less frequent then you are using punishment. The tool might look different, the marketing might be more rainbows and unicorns, but the what is the same.

So today I want you to forget about the labels you read. Forget about R+ this, science based force free that, or even the term balanced. It’s just noise.

Start with the basics.

👉🏻 Is it fair? Is your dog being set up for success in their environment, and is the communication clear for the dog to understand?

👉🏻 Is it effective? If you’re following the steps and putting in the work (not to be understated) and it’s not leading anywhere, it’s time to try something else. You and your dog deserve to make progress.

👉🏻 Is it kind to all parties involved? Kind to the dog, yes. But also kind to you and your family, and kind to others who share spaces with your dog.