What is balanced training?

Exactly what it sounds like – a balanced approach to training and modifying behavior in your dog. Basic learning theory involves four quadrants; positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. Simply put: when a dog does something good, it is rewarded by having something positive given or something negative removed, but when a dog does something undesirable, something negative is added or something positive removed. This does not mean pain, as most positive only based trainers like to say, but instead involves teaching a dog that actions have consequences and the right choices equal good things! The word “punishment” does not mean what most of us assume – pain, it means “something that decreases the likelihood of a behavior”, there is huge difference between “correcting” a dog and “punishing” a dog when it comes to dog training. In the same way you tell a child “don’t do that”, we have to communicate with a dog.  How? Through equipment such a training collar. How do dogs communicate? Usually in a way that us humans would think is fairly violent, just watch an episode of Animal Planet or Nat Geo. Dogs don’t hand another dog a cookie to ask another dog to stop a behavior, they usually bare teeth, growl, lunge and even put their mouths on each other. Balanced trainers succeed where other types of training fail because they speak dog the way dogs do; act appropriately and get rewards, act out and get consequences.

There are a few things that all balanced trainers have in common is that we understand that at some point, every dog will need a correction. We never deliver corrections unless we are sure the dog knows what we are asking and what the appropriate behavior is. We aren’t locked into one ideology of training and understand that every dog and owner relationship is different and should be treated as such. Any good balanced trainer is fluid, willing to open their mind to trying different tools and techniques to find that right combination to help both owner and canine companion that all parties are comfortable with.

The last thing I will say, is to do your homework. The pontification of positive only based training that is flooding the dog world right now is extremely biased and using words that make you hesitate to question them. “Science based” is one of the first terms they love to throw around, please take the time to read the articles they provide and you will see they are biased inherently. Rarely a true scientific experiment where there are control groups and totally controlled experimental groups, but they are never real world situations – i.e true aggression or deep behavioral issues, but instead involve harsh assertive based techniques for simple things like not eating food when put down.  Why would you punish a dog for trying to eat? Of course that would stress a dog out.  In the end, there is absolutely no scientific findings showing that BALANCED training causes any negative effects in dogs. Period. End of story.

We are happy to have conversations, open communication, answer questions, show results. Please reach out if you have any regarding our equipment or techniques in helping your dog.