Hiraeth
Well-Known Member
I can find multiple quotes from internationally renowned trainers who are also DVMs that say just the opposite. The thing is, I'm not super interested in getting into a quoting battle because with the internet at our disposal, we can literally find quotes that support whatever training methods we use. Heck, I could find a quote from Koehler that says you should elevate an aggressive dog by a choke chain and strangle it until it submits. I can also find a quote from some PETA member that says "saying 'no' to your dog is abusive".
Those are extremes and are both clearly wrong ways of approaching dog training. What I do produces results. It's also what Denise Fenzi and Susan Garrett, who have two of the top agility dogs in the world, do, and it also produces results with their dogs.
Guess what? I haven't always thought this way. Believe me, I tried corrective and force-based training on dogs when I was 18 and 19 years old. I saw the fallout it caused firsthand. I can say, from experience, that my relationship with the dogs who are trained without correction is much stronger, and their desire to engage in training is much stronger, than any dog I have interacted with in a correction-based training mindset.
Until someone can say "I've personally tried positive reinforcement, it didn't work, it created a screwed up dog", they don't have a mountain to stand on in this fight. You cannot trash a method that you haven't tried personally and seen the negative effects of firsthand. Especially a method that works well for many people out there in the dog training world today.
Those are extremes and are both clearly wrong ways of approaching dog training. What I do produces results. It's also what Denise Fenzi and Susan Garrett, who have two of the top agility dogs in the world, do, and it also produces results with their dogs.
Guess what? I haven't always thought this way. Believe me, I tried corrective and force-based training on dogs when I was 18 and 19 years old. I saw the fallout it caused firsthand. I can say, from experience, that my relationship with the dogs who are trained without correction is much stronger, and their desire to engage in training is much stronger, than any dog I have interacted with in a correction-based training mindset.
Until someone can say "I've personally tried positive reinforcement, it didn't work, it created a screwed up dog", they don't have a mountain to stand on in this fight. You cannot trash a method that you haven't tried personally and seen the negative effects of firsthand. Especially a method that works well for many people out there in the dog training world today.