Treat Training Trinity – Why positive reinforcement did not work for my dog.

awesomedogs

About fifteen years ago, when I started apprenticing as a trainer, I used leash corrections and other forms of “discipline”.  I no longer leash correct, and have not for more than a decade.  This is not because I had a moral agenda.  I simply needed an effective training solution.

Kiki, my learning dog pulled like a tugboat.  We tried so many techniques we could have been the poster child for:

“But I tried positive reinforcement and it did not work.”

I chuckled and snickered with other trainers, “Ignore bad behaviour?  So you just LET the dog knock grandma to the ground?”  Teaching with food and then proofing with corrections seemed to make more sense.

We ran the gamut on protocols:

Food luringCollar corrections – flat collar
Collar corrections – nylon slipHead halter use
Head halter to reposition dogHead halter corrections
Chain choke collar correctionSpecial choke…

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The Pet Professional Guild is a membership business league for individuals and professional pet industry businesses having the common business interest and goal of furthering the public’s education and awareness of force-free dog training and pet care methods, techniques and state of research in dog training and pet care and to promote the common interest of spreading ‘force-free’ dog training and pet care methods to the pet industry. The PPG provides professional registry, representation and education to ‘force-free’ pet care providers and the public with an emphasis on building collaboration among ‘force-free’ pet trainers and professional pet care providers to improve the business conditions and promote the common interests of force-free.
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