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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
Balanced dog training: The importance of corrections and communication
Ever wondered if force-free dog training methods might actually be contributing to your pet's anxiety? Today, we're peeling back the layers on this controversial topic and challenging popular narratives. We explore the necessity of both rewards and punishments in effective dog training. By focusing on the use of corrections, especially in social behaviors, we discuss how this balanced approach can create a more harmonious relationship with your dog.
Leadership isn't just about commands; it’s about communication and understanding natural canine behavior. Join us as we unravel the importance of morning routines and adequate exercise to maintain your dog's mental well-being. We delve into how a balanced training approach, which includes corrections, mirrors natural canine interactions and prevents reactivity. Through practical examples like leash pops and e-collar taps, we illustrate how physical consequences can teach dogs what not to do, while positive reinforcement encourages good behavior.
Lastly, we make a compelling case for the distinction between obedience training and social behavior correction. Obedience commands are helpful but not natural for dogs; they need social corrections to avoid undesirable behaviors. Learn how clear communication and appropriate corrections can help dogs make better decisions autonomously. We argue that avoiding corrections can lead to lifelong management issues and that a balanced approach is crucial for effective training. Tune in and discover how to foster a harmonious relationship with your canine companion through balanced training techniques. You know the drill, grab yourself a tasty drink and enjoy.
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Hello and welcome back to the Everyday Trainer podcast. My name is Meg and I am a dog trainer. Today's episode we're going to talk all about corrections, so I'm going to chat with you about when we would use them, why we would use them and the damaging narrative that the force-free community is pushing. We're getting into all the good stuff, so you know the drill. Grab yourself a tasty drink and meet me back here. Hello y'all and welcome back. Just a little disclaimer we are doing our morning routine, so you're probably gonna hear lots of dogs barking in the background, but honestly, I was like what's more realistic than a dog training podcast with dogs barking in the background? So we've got a room of shepherds and if you know shepherds, you know that they will bark and scream no matter what, no matter what you do. So today I really wanted to talk about the use of corrections in dog training. In my own little bubble it is not a taboo subject at all, because if you're in the training industry and you're actually running a dog training business, you're most likely using balanced methods, which essentially just means you're using both punishment and rewards in your training to shape the behaviors that we want to see more of and stop the behaviors that we want to stop. The reason why I decided to touch on this today, it was actually inspired by a post that I saw scrolling through Instagram that was from a force-free trainer, but at the I didn't really even know that it was a force-free trainer that was posting this, and so I'm like reading the post and it was like how you know, or what was it? It was why is it so difficult for balanced trainers to move towards force-free training? And it talked about negative reinforcement with the trainer. So, if you don't know, there are four quadrants of conditioning. I'm not going to get into all of that because at the end of the day, like it doesn't really matter, I'll just kind of speak on it in application. So negative reinforcement is taking away something uncomfortable to get a desired behavior. Going to sound stupid if I mess this up, but essentially the post was you know, punishment in training is reinforcing because it works. And I was like yes, yes. And so their argument was as a trainer, when you use punishment and it takes away the unwanted behavior, you are reinforced to do that behavior again because it worked. And I just like we've come so full circle and like yet, so you're. So you're saying it works. So you're saying corrections and punishment works to stop unwanted behaviors, like you've got it, like that's it. You know you, you figured it out, um, yeah. So I was like reading that post and I was like what have we come to that? Like we're talking about how it's bad that we use punishment to stop unwanted behaviors when it does in fact work. So, yeah, we're going to get into the nitty gritty of that.
Speaker 1:I also have a particular take on corrections. So I'm not one to constantly be like correcting dogs for not following through on obedience. I think that there's like a time and place for that. But most of the time I'm correcting dogs for social behaviors. So we'll get in to that a little bit as well. Just to give you guys some updates.
Speaker 1:So I am currently still in Orlando. We are at the dog house. That's why you hear all of these dogs barking in the background. I'm not going to lie, I cannot wait to have a break. When you do this for six years and you constantly have other people's dogs in your house, it really takes a toll on you. And if you're a dog trainer out there and you have a similar setup like you know what I'm talking about. Like, just to give you an example, last night I don't know why, but all of the dogs were just on one, like no one was sleeping, everybody had been fed and gone out and gone potty, but it's one of those things where if one dog starts getting whiny and barky, they all start getting whiny and barky, and we basically did not sleep last night because dogs were just keeping us up all night long. Yeah, so I'm very excited to not have other people's dogs living with me 24-7 and getting to enjoy, you know, own personal dogs. If you missed the last episode, I gave some updates on kind of like my life and what we're doing. So I'm actually, uh, you know, shutting down quote, like the everyday trainer Orlando through the end of the year. So we're in July.
Speaker 1:Right now, starting in September, I'm heading out to Joshua Tree for the retreat and I am so excited about that. Like that is that's the thing that I'm I'm definitely most excited of. That's kind of in my agenda. I love hosting, you know, like the shadow program. I'm super excited to get to meet everyone in person and it's just a totally different vibe than doing things online. I kind of thrive in like in-person situations. Like you know, I do the online stuff but I really love getting to people, getting to know people on like a different level. So I'm really excited about that and how I'm kind of structuring it is.
Speaker 1:I really wanted it to be an escape for people and kind of like a reset. So the last shadow program that I did was very much like a board and train. I was like running these trainers through essentially a board and train. I made them hike through the mud, we went all in. But this one I'm structuring it so it's more relaxed, it's more focused on the state of mind stuff that I preach so much, and I'm focusing it around fulfilling ourselves and resetting ourselves through nature. So we're staying at this gorgeous retreat, cactus Moon. It's actually owned by one of the girls who did my virtual shadow program and the universe has kind of like dropped this into my lap and she was like, oh yeah, I have like a retreat space in Joshua Tree and I was like no fucking way, like that's so wild that you know this happened at the same time.
Speaker 1:So how I'm structuring it is it's going to be very focused around the things that I preach a lot. You know, waking up with the sunrise, getting morning sun, eating nutritious foods, meditating. We're also going to get into, you know, leadership skills. So I think it's extremely important as you know a dog trainer or just somebody in your industry, as you know a dog trainer or just somebody in your industry, whatever industry that is that you're able to communicate, you're able to walk into I said what was the word that you're able to communicate, that you're able to walk into a room and capture people's attention and build trust with your community and the people around you. So I'm going to lead classes each day, kind of structured around different topics. Like I said, we're going to talk about meditation, mindfulness mindfulness in dog training, you know confidence how we can show up confidently physically and mentally and, of course, some group activities, so some hikes out in the desert. We've got a pool there. We'll hang out together around the pool and I really just wanted it to be a relaxing you know, reset for people with other people that are in the same position as them. So it's open to dog trainers and dog owners. I didn't want to limit it to people if you didn't have a dog training business or weren't planning on growing a dog training business. But yeah, I'm super excited about that one and if you're still interested in that and being part of our retreat in September, I'll include the link in show notes. So all you'll do is click on that. You'll get an email to schedule a phone call with your girl. So we do still have spots open. So I hope to see you there.
Speaker 1:All right, let's get into the nitty gritty of things, the talking about corrections. So in dog training, this is a taboo subject. If you're in the world of online dog training, you see trainers constantly battling each other over. You know, force free versus I cannot talk today Force-free versus balanced training. So, like I said, balanced training is using corrections and punishment plus food rewards, and then the force-free movement is essentially just, you know, positive reinforcement or food rewards. I don't even like to say positive reinforcement because the in the you know four quadrants of conditioning. Positive punishment is the addition of a punisher. So I'm kind of like positive reinforcement, but like whatever. We won't get into semantics here. So my take on corrections is I very much correct dogs and we need to get really clear on like what dogs actually are. Dogs are predators. They are not fluffy little snowflakes that live in the house with us. They are predators that we have bred over and over and over again to domesticate and live in our very human lives with us.
Speaker 1:A constant argument in the force free community is you know zoos, you know train force free with animals all the time. There's no reason that we can't do it with our dogs. We can't do it with our dogs. For me, I don't think that's even an argument, because animals in a zoo environment and enclosure are not living the same lives that our dogs are living at all. Like we are asking our dogs to do everything with us, and with a zoo animal, they're really not asked to do anything besides care. Right, that's what all of the training is really focused on.
Speaker 1:With animals at zoos is cooperative care. How can I train this animal so that, if I need to give them medical care or medical services, that I can do it in a safe way? So we teach them to, you know, go into crates with, using, you know, food rewards. We teach them to, you know, touch their nose to something or touch their paw to something, like there's all of these things that we can teach zoo animals to do so that we can safely, you know, administer medical care in the future, when the time comes. However, with dogs, it's completely different. We've essentially taken these predators and we've plucked them out of their natural environment and we've put them into homes. We've put them into apartment complexes and neighborhoods and we've asked them to behave in a way that is so incredibly unnatural. And if we choose to take the force-free route, we're communicating expectations in a way that is completely unnatural. Everything that I do in training is to try to get back to the most natural state possible.
Speaker 1:Think about yourself. When you are depressed or anxious or are not healthy in any sort of way, it's really because you are not living in alignment with how you're naturally supposed to be living. I think that there's a huge rise in mental health problems because we stay inside all day, we don't see the sun, we don't eat nutritious foods, we've gotten so far away from what our natural life is, you know, designed to be, and what we are like, designed to live in. We don't exercise, like, of course, you're going to get stressed out about you know little things because we're not stressing ourselves out in a natural way, like through exercise. Or, you know, not eating for two hours, like God forbid. So it's really the same thing for our dogs.
Speaker 1:You know I've traveled all over the world and I've been to a lot of other countries where dogs are treated very differently and they are, you know, living out on the street, but they're eating whole foods they're typically eating like scraps and they're getting exercise. They're allowed to, you know, walk around and free roam and people aren't walking up to them and baby talking them and treating them like little humans. And so they get to, you know, exist as dogs, should they get to chase prey, they get to be outside all day, they get to get their miles in, they're eating healthy food and they're a lot more stable than the dogs in the US and Canada and in the West. I think we've done our dogs such a disservice by not treating them like dogs and treating them so much like humans that we've gotten so far away from what their life is naturally supposed to be like. So everything that I do in my training is to get back to that. I want to get back to the most natural way of existing for dogs.
Speaker 1:Some examples of this is you know, my dogs get up first thing in the morning. We spend a ton of time outside. I think morning sunlight is incredibly important for dogs and for us. It allows our hormones to get on the functions in our body to be able to function properly. You know we were designed to wake up with the sun, so that's something that's really important to me. Another big thing is I'm real big on exercise. I walk my dogs very far. We walk at least three to four miles a day and that's like minimum. You know, I try to get as much exercise for my dogs as possible, whether that's through long walks or hikes or, if it's too hot, we do treadmill time or, you know, training exercises.
Speaker 1:Like a dog that doesn't get their exercise needs met is typically anxious, and you know we just got to give somewhere for that energy to go. And you know, the next thing that I do is I punish my dogs. Now, punishment is not a fun word. Nobody likes to say like, oh, yeah, I correct dogs, like, yeah, I punish dogs. But the reason why I am, you know, okay with correcting dogs is because that is how dogs naturally communicate.
Speaker 1:Dogs are not walking around giving each other little treats and pieces of food to. You know, communicate. They are communicating through growling and biting and snapping and, you know, rushing into another dog's space. They are very, very physical animals, and so when we completely take out that you know, physical communication, I think it leaves dogs confused and anxious. Not only that, but we don't really set them up to be able to understand what they need to do understand what they need to do. So a good example of this is if you watch videos of like mother dogs with puppies. When the puppies start being really annoying and like rushing the mom, the mom will, like, typically, stand up, growl, snap at the puppies, move into their space. And if you looked at that from a human perspective, you would be like, oh my God, that mom is abusive to her puppies, but what she's doing is she's simply teaching her puppies social manners. She's teaching them how she wants them to exist in the world, around each other, around her and around other dogs.
Speaker 1:What we typically do with our dogs is we pluck them away from their family at eight weeks old and we start treating them like a human. We baby them, we carry them around everywhere, we don't exercise them enough, we coddle them. They never go outside because our vets tell us that our puppies are going to get sick if we take them outside and they should never step in the grass, and that's where the damage starts to happen. Right, because we've taken this animal who communicates through body language and physical pressure and corrections, and we've taken that language completely away from them and we've said, all right, now I'm going to communicate with you on my terms. So we've essentially taken a puppy that grew up speaking Spanish and we're going to talk with them only using English, and that's like that's still on the same playing field of verbal communication. So that's not even like a good example to the full extent of what we're doing when we don't correct our dogs, but it creates a lot of anxiety and, in my eyes, I think the most loving, humane thing we can do is provide clear communication for our dogs. So I am very big on, you know, teaching our dogs what we want them to do, but on the other hand, it's just as important and just as fair to teach our dogs what we don't want them to do.
Speaker 1:A good example of this is reactivity. Reactivity is rampant. We are, as a society, struggling with our dogs and it's so obvious. Pretty much every single dog that I get is reactive. Now, why is that?
Speaker 1:Michael Ellis did a post recently about this and I think he, you know, hit the nail on the head. He was like well, let's see, you know, we're treating our dogs like humans. We're putting them in situations that they essentially shouldn't be. And this force free movement has been huge. They've essentially guilted pet owners into thinking that if you correct your dog that you're abusive and you're going to damage your dog. It's just not simply true. And if you speak to a trainer who is actually training dogs and actually helping people, it's, it's no question, right. You don't see fallout from correcting dogs. It's just a completely made up narrative that the force-free community has been pushing for a long time now and it's causing people to struggle and it's causing dogs to struggle.
Speaker 1:So in my eyes, with a reactive dog, it's unfair to essentially communicate to that dog that, like, that's correct behavior. So if I'm supposed to be my dog's leader and I'm allowing them to hit the end of a harness, which harnesses are designed for essentially reinforcing reactivity? If you watch people do sports with dogs, they have harnesses on their dogs to build up that drive and those reactive behaviors. So we slap a harness on them. Our dog hits the end of the leash, is being reactive. Not only is that can be a self-reinforcing behavior, some dogs get genuine pleasure out of being reactive, but in my eyes it's unfair that a dog exists in a way with me that they feel the need to get themselves that amped up whenever they see a trigger or another dog or a person or whatever it may be. Whatever your dog is reactive to, it's unfair for me to stand there and say, yeah, I approve of this behavior and with dogs, if you do not disrupt a behavior, you're approving of it. If I stand there and I let a dog be reactive with me, I'm saying, yeah, I'm going to allow this behavior. Now am I going to just throw dogs into situations where I know they're going to be reactive? If I don't have any training, no, no. Training, no, no. But if I have, you know, put some foundations of training on a dog and a dog goes to be reactive, I'm going to correct that behavior because it's not a socially acceptable behavior. And this kind of gets into how I correct dogs.
Speaker 1:I am not an obedience trainer. I'm very good at teaching obedience, but I don't think that that's what most people need or dogs. Most dogs need social corrections. So there's a big difference between the two. Human skill it's something that we have taught our dogs to be able to do so that we can exist with them in a more controlled manner in our very human lives. So it's kind of like teaching zoo animals skills that we can use later on to give them medical care. Same thing with obedience. Obedience are not natural skills for a dog. It's not natural for a dog to, you know, go into a down on command or a sit or a focused heel, like that is not natural. That's a skill that the humans have taught the dogs to do in order to, you know, coexist with them more peacefully. So I'm not big on correcting dogs for not following through on obedience.
Speaker 1:If and this is just for behavioral mod, if you're, if we're talking sports and you're shaping sport behavior like I can't really speak on that, I don't do too much of that, but just explicitly behavioral modification you have a reactive dog, you have an aggressive dog, a fearful dog, whatever it may be. We're trying to teach that dog that they don't have to be that way. We're changing their behavior, we're modifying their behavior. So I correct for inappropriate social behaviors. If I have a dog that jumps up on people, I'm going to correct it because that's not an okay social behavior that you need to be doing. Because what happens if an old lady walks into a house or you know a kid? You are going to hurt somebody. So if you do this behavior, it's going to be uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Now when I'm talking about punishment in dogs, I'm talking about something that I've taught the dog before. So I always teach leash pressure first. I teach the dog what the leash means. We can correct with the leash. Or if we've done e-collar conditioning, we can correct with the e-collar. But a correction for me is a uncomfortable sensation that stops the behavior. If your correction does not stop the behavior, it is not a correction, it is a reinforcer. So if you're not popping your leash hard enough and it's not stopping the dog, then you know we're just reinforcing it at that point. So I am really big on correcting dogs for inappropriate social behaviors.
Speaker 1:Things like jumping up on people, putting their paws on the back of other dogs A lot of dogs that I get do that. That is inappropriate social behavior. It is not. You shouldn't do that. Imagine if somebody just walked up and put their hand on top of your head and they're a stranger. You would be like what the fuck? So it's the same thing with dogs. When dogs like smack other dogs or put their paws on the back of their head, like that's rude in dog world.
Speaker 1:So I will correct for those things. I correct for things like shoving me out of the way to get through a door. That is not very appropriate of you to do. I'm teaching you how to live, you know, with me and part of that is respecting me and respecting my space. So if you, you know, rush me out of the door or push me around, like, I'm going to correct you for those behaviors. If I take you out and you're being all wild and you know, zigzagging at the end of the leash, I'm going to correct you for that behavior, depending on the situation that we're in. Obviously, I, you know, give dogs the space to run around and be dogs and be crazy. But you know, let's say we're in a restaurant and my dog's zigzagging everywhere, I'm going to correct that dog.
Speaker 1:That's something that a lot of people don't get is they think that obedience is going to solve those sort of social behaviors, right? Well, my dog jumps up on guests in the house, so I'm going to put them on place. Yes, that is one approach to limit the amount of times that your dogs practice the behavior that you don't want them to practice. However, it is not teaching them what you don't want them to do. I don't want you to jump up on people when they come into the house. So if you decide to go and do that, there's going to be a consequence for that, and that's clear communication with dogs.
Speaker 1:I think we tiptoe around corrections, I think we don't like to do it and so we slap on a bunch of obedience. We solve everything through the use of place, which, personally, that's not something that I do, because I want to teach the dogs how to make good decisions. I want to teach them how to avoid corrections, and part of that is allowing them to make that mistake and get the correction. Because, let's face it, I don't want to live a life where my dog is constantly on place, because you know people are coming in and out of our house. If I have to put my dog on place all day, like, I don't think that's any different than putting my dog in a crate when people come over. Like, yes, you're not allowing your dog to do the behavior, but have you taught them what you don't want them to do? Do the behavior, but have you taught them what you don't want them to do. It's just as important to teach our dogs what we don't want them to do as what we do want them to do.
Speaker 1:Dog training is more often focused, especially online, around teaching our dogs what we want them to do, and that's great, you know. I think that that's important. I think every dog deserves training. However, it's not going to solve your behavioral issues. The only way to stop unwanted behaviors especially when it's a self-reinforcing behavior or, you know, a biologically ingrained behavior like prey drive the only way that you're going to be able to stop that behavior is through a correction. It's just plain and simple. That's how it goes. If anybody tells you otherwise, I promise you they are not actually training dogs.
Speaker 1:Another big part of that is when you're looking for a dog trainer. Force-free trainers will typically hit a lot on your emotions. If you use these tools, you're going to ruin the relationship that you have with your dog. If you correct your dog, they're, you know, not going to look to you for guidance anymore. You're going to ruin your relationship. You're going to ruin your dog Like you're going to look to you for guidance anymore. You're going to ruin your relationship. You're going to ruin your dog Like you're going to break them is essentially the argument for it and it plays on our very human emotions. But I'm telling you dogs are not humans and we need to stop putting our human emotions on them. You know, I have a house full of dogs. I have five personal dogs. My partner has two dogs.
Speaker 1:We get to see these dogs interact with each other and corrections are a huge part of their communication and it allows them to safely coexist with each other. If the dogs never corrected each other, it would be chaos. None of them would know how to interact. They would be constantly, you know, pushing each other's boundaries. It's so natural to the way dogs communicate. It's not personal, they don't take it personally. They can, you know, correct each other and then go right back to playing Like. It's not this big emotional thing that we are made to believe it is.
Speaker 1:You are not going to have major fallout from fairly correcting your dogs. Just plain and simple. If you're working with an actual dog trainer, they're going to use corrections in their training. A good example of this is I have a client who got a adorable little lab puppy and it's a very drivey puppy. It's definitely a working line lab like, comes from a hunting sport background and she has got some spice to her. So she went with an older couple and she is very obedient, right, and the owner is doing all the things. He's watching the dog training videos, he's teaching place, he's teaching here, he's teaching all of the obedience.
Speaker 1:But the problems that they're having with that puppy is that the puppy is constantly biting them, constantly nipping them, pulling at their clothes, barking, growling at them. And you know I like this in a puppy, I like my puppies to be super confident and like a little feisty. I personally wouldn't, um, I would raise my puppy that was like that, a little bit differently than I would have my clients. But you know I have a different lifestyle and have different expectations for my dogs. But one thing that I've been working with them a lot on is you know we can do your obedience stuff as much as you want, but like that's just teaching the dog what you want and what you want her to do. It's not teaching her that you don't want her to bite you. It's not teaching her that you don't want her to pull on your clothes or growl and bark at you like.
Speaker 1:We have to set those rules with her now, because I mean, their arms are like bloody, like cut up bloody. The wife wants to get rid of the dogs. It's necessary for us to correct that puppy now, before things escalate. So if that puppy were in a litter, she would be corrected by the mom If she were biting the other puppies too much. If she were biting the mom, she would be corrected by the mom. Then she would learn oh, these behaviors aren't acceptable. But because we've taken her away from her litter and away from her mom, she's not learning those behaviors. And so we're accidentally reinforcing those behaviors, one because we're not correcting and two because we typically make it really fun.
Speaker 1:When the puppy does the behaviors that we don't like. They will, for example, you know, typically get very vocal. They'll be like no, no, stop, stop, stop. Well, you're essentially making yourself a squeaky toy for the puppy. They will pull their hands away really quick, all right. Well, you're initiating prey drive with that puppy.
Speaker 1:All the things that we would do to reinforce, you know, prey drive, barking, biting, we are accidentally doing with our puppies because we are trying to communicate with them in a human way. We communicate predominantly verbally. Our dogs do not. So we have to shift the way in which we view our dogs, and we need to view them as dogs. That is by far the best thing that we can do for them. A lot of people don't do this and we're viewing our dogs as babies, as children.
Speaker 1:And trust me, I love my dogs more than life itself. Like I sleep in bed with them. Do I baby them? No, I make them jump up into the van. I, you know, regularly crate them. I let them run around and get into the dirt and mud and be disgusting. I let them chase each other and wrestle each other. I let them be dogs and I respect them for being dogs. But I have trained my dogs in a way that I can take them anywhere. I can take them in a coffee shop, I can take them to the forest, like it doesn't matter where I take them.
Speaker 1:They know the proper social behaviors because I've clearly communicated what is acceptable and what is not in terms of you know their behavior in different environments. Their behavior outside, in the backyard, is different than their behavior on leash next to me walking through downtown. Right, they know what they need to do because I've effectively communicated. I've shaped our training with food, with leash pressure and I've also corrected them for doing things that are inappropriate in certain environments and because of that, I've taken this predator right, because that's what our dogs are. I've taken this predator and I've trained it in a way that it can go anywhere with me, and that is what most people want. However, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. So if you want a dog that can properly behave in any environment, you have to teach them what behaviors are not acceptable in certain environments. So that's my spiel on correcting dogs. I think it's, personally, the most fair thing that we can do.
Speaker 1:I think that when we don't communicate both sides of the coin, it leads to confusion, which leads to anxiety, which leads to a prong collar or e-collar because they're scared it's going to damage their relationship with their dog, but it actually does the opposite. That clear communication, that clear leadership, those clear boundaries will only improve your relationship. It's really wonderful to see like, genuinely it's wonderful to see dogs that come into training, that are anxious, that have no guidance, no leadership. They're just left to their own devices. They come into training, they're making decisions for themselves. It's not clear what they're expected to do and when you give them that clear communication. It just really changes them for the better communication. It just really changes them for the better.
Speaker 1:So if you've been on the fence of, you know, correcting your dog for unwanted behaviors or feel like you know you're going to ruin your relationship, I urge you to do a little bit more research into you know, the tools that are available to you, the different types of training that are available to you, the different types of training that are available to you, because I just hate to see so many owners and dogs suffer from behaviors that could be easily stopped through corrections. Another example that I have is I had a dog that I trained from puppyhood. She is a Frenchie mix and she unfortunately bit the children in the house multiple times. And you know I got a text from owners a couple nights ago asking if I could help them rehome the dog. It's unfortunate, I get it. You know, if a dog bit my children, I would have huge issues with that. However, I would not allow my dog to get to the point where they think that that sort of behavior is okay. I would correct for that and it would be a very firm correction, because that is not something that I'm willing to play around with. I'm not willing to put, you know, my children at risk of a dog. That's essentially just being a little controlling over space.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of things that we can do with balance training. There's a lot of behavioral issues that we can work through with balanced training, and avoiding corrections entirely is only going to lead to lifelong management. And you know, constantly having a treat pouch on you to lure a dog past a reactive dog, which in my eyes, I don't think that that is fair. I think what's fair is clear communication for the dog. So the dog doesn't have to exist in that state of mind.
Speaker 1:Personally, when it comes to things like, you know, teaching a dog heel or place, I, I don't do a lot of corrections with that sort of thing. And you know, obedience is something that a lot of people think is going to solve their issues. Well, what command can I give my dog instead of them? You know, jumping up on people Sit, sit, sit, sit, right. That's what they do when no, no bite, no bite, no bite, no bite.
Speaker 1:Whereas if we had clear communication with the dog, something like a leash pop or an e-collar tap, we can clearly mark the behavior that we don't want the dog to continue doing without the added fuss of us getting worked up in the process. So I am a firm believer that I leave it up to the dog to make the decision on what to do and if they make the wrong decision I will correct them. Wrong decision in this case is, you know, jumping up on guests or stealing food off of the counter. Those are socially unacceptable behaviors, whereas if a dog breaks place, I don't necessarily correct the dog for breaking place. But if they break place and, let's say, go to jump up on somebody coming into the house, I will correct them for the behavior. I do not correct them for breaking place because I want you to explore that I'm giving you the option to make the decision. So if you feel the need to get off of place, which is kind of, you know, a management tool, I've put my dog there as a way to manage their behavior. But if they decide to blow that off and go for the person coming in the house and jump up on them, there's going to be a consequence to that right. Whereas if the dog breaks place and I say, nope, go back to place, and they go back to place, I'm not going to correct them for that, right, whereas if the dog breaks place and I say, nope, go back to place. And they go back to place, I'm not going to correct them for that.
Speaker 1:The meaning behind this is I want the dog to learn how to make decisions for themselves, and part of decision making involves consequences. I always say this explanation, but I would love to you know go 95 down the highway, right, like I want to get there faster, right, so I want to drive faster, but I don't because I'm terrified of getting a ticket. I avoid consequences. How do we learn those right? We go 95 on the highway and then we get a fat ticket and we go oh shit, I'm not going to do that again. I don't want to pay a ticket. I had to pay a ticket recently of uh, I made a right turn on red and I didn't stop Right. Well, every single light that I came to after that I stopped. Why? Because there was a consequence when I made the incorrect decision. It's the same thing for our dogs. They just can't pay tickets, right, they're not humans, they're dogs. So when they make a mistake or they, you know, jump up on somebody or rush another dog, there are consequences to that and it's a way that our dogs learn and it's just fair communication.
Speaker 1:So while I do believe in corrections, I do not necessarily believe in corrections for obedience. I more so believe in corrections for the dog making the incorrect decision, because that teaches them exactly what I don't want them to do. Just as much as I can reinforce heal with food, I recently posted a video of working on um, you know, socialization with Rosie, one of my board and trains, and I'm, you know, reinforcing with food, but Rosie also has a prong collar on reinforcing with food, but Rosie also has a prong collar on. So if she walked up to a stranger and she jumped up on a stranger, I would give her a leash pop to show her, hey, that's not what you're allowed to do, and I would continue to reinforce her when she's doing the thing that I want her to do. Both sides of the coin are equally important in dog training. We can shape and reinforce the behaviors that we want to see more of, but we can also correct our dogs for doing things that we don't want them to do. So that's my spiel on corrections.
Speaker 1:I think you know I remain pretty neutral. I don't talk a lot about, you know, force free stuff too often because I don't like bashing groups of people or other trainers, but I think it's, you know, kind of my duty as a person with a podcast and an audience of people who are looking for help in training their dogs. This is the same spiel that I give to all of my clients when they pay me to do lessons with them, because that's typically the missing component in their training is they're not correcting their dogs and their dogs are just running through their lives like hooligans and they're wondering what do I do? How do I stop this? You know, is obedience training going to solve my issues? Obedience training is a great start. It's a great way to build that relationship with your dog. However, it is not going to teach them what you don't want them to do. So some food for thought for you All. Right, enough about corrections.
Speaker 1:Nobody likes to be the person that talks about punishing dogs. Right, it's not fun. You don't like to be the bad guy, but in my eyes, the more, the more knowledge I can share about, you know, balanced training, the more dogs I can help, the more people I can help and the more folks can live better lives with their dogs that have more freedom. Trained dogs have more freedom. My dogs can go anywhere with me. We're about to go on a road trip together for, you know, four months. So I wouldn't be able to do that without training, without balanced training, without being able to, you know, clearly communicate expectations to my dogs. Without being able to clearly communicate expectations to my dogs, it's just, it's what is most fair to them and it's what's most natural to them. So let's try to communicate with our dogs In a way that they naturally understand. So that will wrap things up for this week.
Speaker 1:As a reminder, we are starting our virtual shadow program. Next round is July 22nd. We are doing interviews this week and next. If you're still interested in joining our virtual shadow program, I will include the link in our show notes. You can click that to schedule a call with us. We'll chat about if the program is a good fit for you, so that one is designed for dog trainers who are new to the industry, are looking to grow their business or just want to gain more knowledge on the dog training and business side of things.
Speaker 1:Whether you're ready to make the leap or not, a lot of people in that group are in the position where they're, you know, fresh trainers just starting out, or they're making the decision to quit their full-time jobs and do training full-time. So I put together this program as a way to share all of the things that I've learned over the past six years of training dogs and running a dog training business. I have not reinvented the wheel as far as dog training goes. I'm very like middle of the road, balanced trainer. I'm not heavy in obedience, I'm very heavy in, you know, a lot of waiting for calm, teaching the dog, what gets you know, rewarded and what gets punished. So we go over our communication system.
Speaker 1:Week two, we go over structuring our training programs, whether you want to do lessons or board and trains. And then week three, we cover all the nitty gritty parts of the business. So email templates, how to set up an LLC, google my business, what needs to be on your website, the point of social media contracts, everything that I use in my business I'm giving to you all. So if that sounds right up your alley, you can click the link in the show notes to schedule a call with us and we'll chat with you about your goals and make sure that it's a good fit for you. All right, y'all. That's all I got for you today, as always. Thank you so so much for being here and listening to me ramble about dog training. You know I love it. Thank you all so much and we'll see you next week.