Pop’s Used To Teach “Leave It”?
Another time balanced dog trainers use a leash correction is when teaching a leave-it cue. Imagine your dog has a habit of hovering up any food refuse they find on a walk. Not only is that really unpleasant, but it might also result in your dog getting an upset stomach.
A balanced trainer may teach the leave it by using a leash ‘pop.’ As the dog goes towards something they shouldn’t have, the trainer gives the leash correction. Feeling the discomfort, the dog backs away and is then praised for leaving.
Balanced Dog Training: Disruptor Method
A balanced trainer who uses balanced dog training methods might recommend something that interrupts the barking. This might be a spray bottle, noisemakers such as a container filled with pebbles, or a collar that emits a high pitch frequency when your dog begins to bark.
The theory here is that the dog learns that barking causes those aversive things to happen, so there is a consequence to their behavior. Balanced dog training might call these things a disruptor. But, if they are being used to reduce the likelihood of barking happening in the future, they are a punishment.
When dogs bark, it’s because of an emotion they’re feeling, and one part of how they express that is to bark. So, when you just stop the barking, the dog is still feeling the emotion. Even though the barking might stop, your dog is still not coping with that situation. This is when you need to work out how to help your dog to cope by changing that emotional response.
Some balanced trainers use a leash correction to teach a dog how to walk on a loose leash. As the dog moves out of position and begins to pull, the trainer gives a short sharp pop on the leash. The theory is that the dog will connect the leash pop with being out of position and so pull less often. Once the dog is walking with a loose leash, then they’re rewarded.
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.