A Few Words on Balanced Training...

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    One of the biggest debates in the dog training world right now is this: Can dogs be fully and reliably trained using only purely positive dog training methods. These methods are also known as force free training. My answer to that is a resounding “No!” Purely positive dog training does not work for every dog.

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What is the Difference between Balanced Training, Purely Positive Training, and Coercive Training.

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     Imagine you are a child playing the "Hot and Cold" game. Remember that? Where you are trying to find something with someone only using the words Hot or Cold to direct you? This is a perfect example of Balanced Training. You get told Hot (Dog's behavior is Marked, gets rewarded) when you do something that works towards your goal and if you do something that isn't helpful towards your goal you are told Cold (given a correction or redirection). This clear communication helps guide you towards the right behavior rather quickly.

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     Now image you are playing that same game, but got told Hot when you worked towards your goal, but got absolutely no other clues or guidance. Think you can still find that end goal? Definitely probable, but it isn't going to be as quick, or effortless. You could be going the complete wrong direction, but in the right area and not know this because you were told what you were doing is correct. Or you could be in the right place but not the right position, etc. Make sense? This is how Purely Positive Training works.

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    Okay, last time. Picture again that you are playing this game but only got corrected for going the wrong way. Let's  pretend that every step you took in the wrong direction some yelled Cold at you and yanked on you. Eventually you would figure out where to go, due to process of elimination. "Okay, I can go this way and nothing bad happens, so I'm going to keep going this way." This is a great example of Coercive Training. Again, it's definitely possible that you will reach that goal, right? Just not exactly a pleasant experience and you probably aren't going to want to play that game when asked.

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This is how we teach you to train your dog. By guiding them in a way that there is absolutely no miscommunication or confusion. We are teaching you how to be timely with your reward (praise, play, toys, treats, etc) and with corrections (using a verbal correction like "No", Wrong", etc or using leash pressure to guide them) so that your dog is quickly and efficiently able to follow commands every single time they are asked.

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Our entire training philosophy is this: You can't get consistency without enforcement. We teach everything from Sit to Loose Leash walking in a way that we can help our dogs be 100% consistent with these behaviors until they are habit by being able to enforce them. If I want the dog to sit, I'm going to use a combination of luring and leash movement to help my dog to quickly plop that bum on the ground, so I'm able to mark and reward without causing a delay, or allowing my dog to ignore me. This enforcement allows me and my dog to be consistent in our training. If I'm asking for a stay, I'll help my dog be consistent with a little leash pressure and giving reinforcement markers as they work on their duration. If the dog breaks the stay, they are guided back to their original positioning and helped to stay, marked and rewarded for doing so. The key really is that communication.

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We really feel that clear communication is the key to success  in training and strive to help you learn to communicate better with your dog.