The (Dumb) Divide in Dog Training

I’ve touched on this before, and unfortunately I probably will need to again, but I’ve never talked about it head on like this. So buckle up.

In the dog training world, a lot has changed in the last 100 years. In the old days, dogs were trained almost exclusively through pain, fear, intimidation, etc. These ideas still persist today. As one client said, “I thought dogs only learn from pain?”

On the other end, is the “Purely Positive” crowd. In my opinion, this isn’t a real thing, more like a goal to shoot for. I fall closer to this end of the spectrum, but indulge me for a few moments and I’ll explain why that pisses me off.

Now, that leaves a lot of space in between. There are Force Free trainers like me, who understand what punishment is as opposed to something that is overtly aversive, but mostly focus on reinforcing our dogs best behaviors. And there are Balanced Trainers, who use both positive reinforcement as well as aversives to achieve some amazing results.

I have ZERO patience for squabbling among dog trainers about ethics. It’s important for us to discuss these things, but my mind was never changed by someone arguing me! This tendency to be tribal about our beliefs and views is so dumb.

Here’s what I want: to train dogs. That’s it. That’s all I want. I want to learn from everyone who has ever held a leash, or taught their dog to Sit. I’m not interested in fighting, I want to LEARN.

One thing we’ve lost (this is another opinion, so hold on tight) in everything from politics to spiritual views, how to raise our children, what to watch, and what to eat, is the ability to learn from one another, even if we disagree deeply.

It’s a fact that you know some things I don’t, and I know things you don’t. Maybe if we all talked more often, we could help each other fill in the gaps.

I am so deeply humbled by my friends who I can discuss things with when we don’t see eye to eye.

One day, I’m going to change the world of dog training. And it’s not going to happen because I shut others down.

It will happen because I shut up, listened, and more than anything, trained dogs!!

Thanks for reading!