09/26/2025
The High Price of Ideology: When Dogs Pay With Their Lives
Letâs be clear: there are two types of force-free trainers.
The first type understands the limits of their methods. When faced with a dog showing serious aggression, they acknowledge that food rewards and ignoring behavior will never resolve the problem. They refer the client to a balanced trainerâsomeone prepared to use every ethical tool available, including corrections, e-collars, and structure. That kind of honesty is professional. That kind of humility saves lives. Those trainers deserve respect.
But then there are others. The trainers who know force-free wonât work in cases of severe aggression, yet they take the clientâs money anyway. They sell endless private lessons, peddling the fantasy that âpositive onlyâ will fix what it cannot. They repeat the script: ignore the dog, keep feeding treats, just give it more time. All the while, they are collecting payment, knowing full well that the familyâs beloved pet is headed down a path that ends behind a shelterâs locked doorâor worse, a euthanasia needle.
That is not training. That is fraud.
Imagine a family with a powerful, reactive dog. They love him, but he lunges at other dogs, teeth bared, hackles raised. They seek help, desperate for answers. The trainer promises: âNo punishment, no correctionsâjust love and food.â Thousands of dollars later, nothing has changed. The dog is worse. He is confined behind fences, dragged on walks at midnight, hidden from the world. Eventually, he injures another animalâor a person. The authorities intervene. And then, with tears streaming down their faces, the family is forced to sign the paperwork. Their once-loved companion is gone.
Not because the dog was beyond help.
Not because there werenât solutions.
But because an ideologyâclung to for profit and politicsâdenied him the tools that could have saved him.
This isnât compassion. Itâs exploitation.
Every time a force-free trainer refuses to refer out, refuses to admit the limits of their methods, they are making a choice: their bank account over the life of the dog. Every time an organization like the RSPCA labels balanced methods âabuseâ while quietly euthanizing thousands of dogs that never got a fair chance, they too make that choice. Behind the veil of âkindnessâ lies cowardice, arrogance, and blood on their hands.
To those trainers and groups: you are not saviors. You are not progressive. You are liars, frauds, and profiteers, and the bodies of dead dogs testify against you. Families are left broken, children left crying, because you cared more about your image and your ideology than about truth and results.
Balanced training is not about crueltyâit is about fairness, clarity, and responsibility. A well-timed correction can save a dogâs life. An e-collar, used properly, can give freedom where a fence once imprisoned. A trainer humble enough to say, âThis is beyond me, let me refer you to someone who can help,â is a true professional.
But when trainers hide behind the banner of âforce-free,â pocketing money while dogs fail and families despairâthey deserve no respect. They deserve condemnation. Because in the end, it is the dogsâthe innocent, loyal, trusting dogsâwho pay the ultimate price for their deception.
On behalf of every dog lost to ideology, every family betrayed by lies: F**K YOU
