The Education of Positive Dog Trainers (and Why Balanced Trainers Should Get On Board)
With ever more opportunities to learn about reward-based dog training, comments from so-called balanced dog trainers are still concerning. Photo: Kseniia De Netto/Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD This post contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. There have been huge strides in positive reinforcement training over the last decade. While celebrating those changes, it’s also frustrating that there are still dog trainers who take people’s money to use aversive methods to train their dog. This despite the fact that aversives aren’t necessary and have some rather serious downsides. We’ve known for a long time that the use of aversive methods, like shock and prong collars and leash “corrections”, has risks for dog’s welfare and can affect the dog’s relationship with their human. As well, punishing a behaviour out of a dog doesn’t teach them what to do instead or change their feelings about the situation that caused that behav...