06/02/2024
THE MYTH OF 'PURELY POSITIVE' TRAINING
Yeah, having a puppy has me feeling a bit ranty because I am acutely aware that I want her to be as happy as possible as she learns all the things she needs to learn to live, and work, in the human world.
And we do ask a lot of dogs! We expect them to suppress so many natural behaviours for very little reward. To us, the reward is good food, a rent free place to live, private schooling, and private healthcare... but dogs don't understand those things are the reward for fitting in with the hairless monkeys.
Over the years, my training has changed. I'm what people call a crossover trainer. I wasn't lucky enough to know what I know now when I started out. I'm still not perfect, but I strive to be better understood by my dogs and to avoid the use of force, fear, pain, and intimidation. And I'm a bit sick of the current backlash against methods of training that consider how a dog feels and try to keep a dog as happy as possible.
The attacks come under headlines about 'Purely Positive Trainers' who don't say 'no' and are the cause of all the ill trained dogs out there... but this is rubbish. For a start, the only people using the term 'Purely Positive' are not the gentle trainers. We know we can't only use positive reinforcement! We aim to set exercises up so the dog learns without making mistakes and we can reward their success. Rewards can be food, toy play, free time, and for the advanced dog a 'good dog' and a stroke might be enough. If our dog makes a mistake we don't give the reward, and we set the exercise up again with tweaks so the dog gets it right. We don't ask big questions until the dog really understands our cues (commands, I still use this word... first learning, and all that). We are not permissive! Our dogs learn to greet people with all paws on the floor, they learn auto-leaves, they learn boundaries. There are definitely rules! And most of us say 'No!'. We know dogs can't learn 'not do' things. Their brains can learn 'sit to greet people' but they can't learn 'don't jump up' but we are human and 'No!' is so easy to say. If we say 'No!'to interrupt a behaviour, we need to follow up quickly with 'please do this instead'... then train more of the 'do this instead'. The reward based trainer wouldn't allow their dog to jump at at the oven and burn themselves because to shout 'No!'is negative. They wouldn't allow the dog to learn by getting burned. They won't throw a saucepan at their dog to teach him a lesson either. They will probably shout No! The dog is interrupted and saved from a burn. They then ask the dog to go to bed and give him a treat there. The next days they work hard on a magic mat game so the dog automatically stays there happily while they cook... and if they haven't got time to train that they use a baby gate to prevent accidents.
I try to avoid labels... I don't want to call myself force free, or positive. Certainly not purely positive. I don't want people who have trained differently to stay away, I want them to come and try a different way. If you push me I'd say reward based...
Reward based may not be the fastest method, and it certainly isn't dramatic enough for TV. But it feels nicer to train your dog with success and rewards than to be the do******ix of old skool training!
Rant over...
