Britta's Animal Training

04/03/2025

Dear public, if you reach out to a dog trainer and they proudly call themselves “balanced,” run the other way.

Why? These methods rely heavily on choking, shocking, and intimidating your dog into compliance.

“Balanced training” isn’t genuine balance, it’s harm masked in appealing language, fundamentally incompatible with modern behavioral science and humane ethical standards.

Unlike truly science-based methods, it relies on suppressing behavior through pain, fear, and intimidation, directly contradicting what we now know about canine psychology, learning theory, and animal welfare.

It’s not just another style; it’s outdated, unnecessary, and actively harmful.

Remember, dog training is entirely unregulated, anyone can slap on a label and start shocking, choking, or intimidating your dog without any accountability, leaving your dog’s emotional and physical health in the hands of novices with zero qualifications and zero oversight.

Research published in the journal Anthrozoös analyzed language from 100 popular dog training websites, revealing that trainers using aversive methods frequently employ specific euphemisms and jargon, such as calling shock collars “e-collars,” referring to painful electric shocks as “static corrections” or “stimulation,” and using terms like “pack leader” to justify outdated dominance-based methods.

These phrases are chosen PRECISELY to conceal the harsh reality of their practices.

Another common tactic employed by these folks is making bold guarantees and unrealistic promises, such as “guaranteed results in one session” or “instant off-leash freedom.”

Such claims exploit desperate guardians, promising quick fixes that rely on painful corrections and aversives to suppress, rather than genuinely resolve, behavioral issues, methods scientifically shown to worsen stress, fear, and aggression in dogs.

But their methods are not aligned with modern ethical standards upheld by any leading behavior science and animal welfare organizations.

Every credentialed veterinary behavior organization worldwide, including the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB), explicitly condemns their methods because overwhelming scientific evidence strongly supports they directly cause significant psychological harm, dramatically increasing stress, anxiety, fear, and aggression in dogs.

These harmful techniques can severely damage your relationship with your dog and lead to new, more complex behavioral problems over time.

In stark contrast, modern dog training and behavior methods embrace humane, neuro-affirming practices that prioritize your dog’s emotional health, cognitive development, and individual personality.

Neuro-affirming teaching isn’t just about rewards or reinforcement, it’s a commitment to understanding and nurturing your dog’s emotional health, cognitive abilities, and individual personality. It demands a profound respect for dogs as sentient beings whose well-being deserves absolute protection.

You deserve a trainer who doesn’t just claim results, but who is educated enough to foster genuine trust, resilience, and emotional safety, someone committed to transparency, compassion, and scientific rigor. Anything less is failing both you and your dog.

When searching for dog trainers, beware of euphemistic and ambiguous marketing language. Look critically at claims of instant fixes or guaranteed results and be cautious of websites using terms like “e-collar” without honestly explaining that they mean shock collars.

Instead, choose trainers who are transparent about their methods, clearly state their reliance on humane approaches, explicitly reject the use of aversive tools, and openly discuss the long-term, compassionate, and scientifically validated approaches they use.

I realize this post will ruffle the feathers of "balanced" trainers, and while our community warmly welcomes those ready to cross over to humane methods, the violence and denial in this profession must stop.

For those still digging in their heels, here are a few questions you owe it to the public, yourself, and to dogs, to honestly answer:

If your methods aren’t abusive, why do you need to use devices designed specifically to inflict pain, fear, or discomfort on dogs?

If causing pain or fear is truly unnecessary, how can you justify repeatedly choosing tools and methods proven to cause psychological trauma?

Why do you continue using methods explicitly condemned by credentialed animal behavior experts as unethical and harmful, if you’re genuinely interested in the well-being of dogs?

Learn more:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fellow-creatures/202304/you-have-to-read-dog-trainers-websites-closely-study-says

03/03/2025

Check out my newest 5 star review on Google!

★★★★★ "We recently had the pleasure of working with Britta for puppy training, and we couldn't be more pleased with the experience! We did the Puppy Right Start Preschool and we saw a huge difference with our puppy Nash after our first training session. Six weeks later, we had a puppy who ...

22/02/2025

Recent reports of the abrupt closure of pet microchip company Save This Life has prompted calls for pet owners to reregister their chipped pets.

20/02/2025

I have a client who’s helping her friend find a home for these beautiful Savannah cats. The cats are located in San Marcos, California. They are a bonded pair and need to be adopted together.

If you’re interested or have more questions, please let me know.

16/02/2025

In just a few seconds, your dog or cat could be stolen from your yard or dragged off of your front porch – used in a dog fighting ring, as bait, or a fighter, or flipped for profit. In fact, in the time it takes you to read this sentence, someone could have stolen your pet. Since many pet thefts go unreported, it’s impossible to know exactly how many animals are taken, but, historically, an estimated two million pets are stolen in the United States each year.

How You Can Protect Your Pets:

- Keep your pets indoors, especially when you are not at home. Do not leave your pets unsupervised in your yard; it only takes a minute for thieves to steal your beloved companion animals.

- Keep your pet on a leash and do not let your pet roam free in your neighborhood.

- Never leave your pet alone in a car.

- Properly identify your pets with a collar, tag, and microchip.

- Ensure your pets are spayed and neutered; fixed animals are less likely to wander away from home.

- Keep recent photos and written descriptions of your companion animals on hand at all times and maintain up-to-date records and licenses on all of your pets.

- Be aware of strangers in your area and report anything unusual, such as suspicious neighborhood activities or a surge in missing pets, to local police and animal control

13/02/2025

OK, so I’m going to have a brag moment 😅 I just received this photo from one of my clients. This is sweet Winston settling on a mat at the VET HOSPITAL! That’s right, the vet hospital!

I think teaching a dog calmness and how to settle is one of the most beneficial and important behaviors that I teach dogs, thanks to mentor who taught me during Karen Pryor Academy. The dog learns to relax on their own rather than being told to “lay down” and it allows them to self soothe. Sometimes we ask dogs to do things that are difficult for them when they are highly aroused and incapable of doing them. But this behavior teaches dogs how to settle on their OWN because it’s reinforcing and it feels good.

10/02/2025

Love ❤️

Let’s break down why this so-called ‘gotcha’ comeback, one that some trainers throw around like it’s the height of wit, is about as insightful as arguing that seatbelts are bad because some people survive car crashes without them.

Modern dog trainers (those who know how to address issues without pain and fear) are often accused of being ‘too harsh’ when challenging outdated methods, as if the real issue is our words rather than the suffering caused by problematic dog ‘training’.

But accountability isn’t cruelty, and refusing to stay silent in the face of harm isn’t a contradiction, it’s a responsibility.

Would it be harmful if an engineer refused to call out structural flaws in a bridge design because it might offend the original architect?

Would it be harmful if airline pilots stayed silent when a colleague dismissed safety protocols, insisting that being intoxicated while flying is perfectly fine?

Would it be harmful if trainers advocating for modern, ethical, and effective approaches refused to speak out against methods that create fear, anxiety, and aggression in public homes?

The issue isn’t that modern trainers are ‘mean’ to those perpetuating harm, it’s that outdated trainers are more upset about being criticized than about the active harm their methods cause.

The public doesn’t always see the consequences of aversive training, but we do. We see the increase in fear-based reactivity, the suppressed behaviors that inevitably break under stress, and the erosion of trust between dogs and their guardians.

If trainers using modern, ethical methods don’t stand up and say, ‘This is wrong,’, even if it comes off as ‘mean’, to those being criticized, then who will?

The idea that trainers should stay quiet to protect the feelings of those actively promoting harm is backwards.

‘Balanced trainers’ don’t know what they don’t know. To recognize the flaws in their methods, they would need to engage with modern research and challenge their own outdated beliefs, but most won’t, because they are convinced their way is already right.

And who pays the price? The unsuspecting public, trusting these trainers with their hard-earned money, only to be sold fear and force as remedies to their issues.

For most of the trainers telling you to shock your dog, it’s never been about understanding behavior science, it’s about control. Not guidance, not leadership, but the need to dominate, to force compliance, to suppress rather than teach.

That’s why their pushback isn’t against harm, it’s against the fact that we’re exposing it.

That’s exactly why this truth has to be stated directly. The harm caused by outdated methods isn’t a matter of opinion; it’s a reality that MUST be called out by all of us who want to modernize this industry.

So no, we’re not contradicting ourselves. We’re holding the industry accountable because if we don’t, no one else will.

And we’ll continue to do so until every pet guardian has access to training methods that create safer, more trusting relationships without fear and pain.

30/01/2025

So true. And great education.

In yesterday’s post, we examined the connection between balanced dog training and male violence. And, of course, the pearl-clutchers came running when I posed a simple question in the comments of that post:

Are those who advocate for force-based training more likely to have a history of domestic violence?

I stand by it.

Many of us can see right through these so-called “trainers” who proudly promote choke chains, prong collars, and shock collars under the guise of “discipline.”

We know the type. And while not all, a disturbingly common number are controlling, aggressive, and dismissive toward women and those they perceive as weaker.

Many “balanced” trainers on social media are best known for being dismissive or degrading toward women, a behavior that aligns with broader patterns of authoritarian control and dominance often linked to aggression and coercion.

And while I get that this makes people uncomfortable, let’s talk about what the evidence actually says.

Animal cruelty is recognized as one of the strongest predictors of future violent crime, including domestic abuse.

No matter how you frame it, shocking a dog’s neck, choking them with a prong, or using fear-based methods falls undeniably within the spectrum of violence, both in intent and effect. It’s just a socially accepted form of it.

Studies show a high overlap between homes where domestic abuse occurs and cases of animal cruelty.

Many survivors of domestic violence report that their abuser also harmed or threatened their pets as a form of coercion and control.

Research indicates that people with authoritarian mindsets, those who value power, dominance, and control, are significantly more likely to justify this kind of violence.

This same mindset fuels both coercive dog training and domestic abuse. It’s about power and submission, not education or ethics. We’ve all seen how quickly they dismiss decades of behavioral science, mocking evidence-based methods while clinging to outdated techniques, because for them, it was never about learning, only about control.

Police K9 training is still largely based on dominance-driven methods, which have been shown to cause stress, reactivity, and aggression in dogs.

The same police departments that endorse these methods also have higher rates of domestic violence among officers, exceeding that of the general population.

This isn’t a coincidence. This is a pattern.

So when people get defensive about this discussion, they should ask themselves why.

If force-based training wasn’t rooted in control, domination, and outdated power dynamics, why does it so often attract the same kind of people?

One only needs to scroll through the comments on posts like this to see the vitriol, name-calling, and chest-thumping.

What you won’t find is data-driven perspectives or credible counter-evidence, because they don’t have it.

The broader macro environment matters. We can’t pretend that a culture obsessed with ‘dominance’ in dogs has nothing to do with how those same people treat the vulnerable humans in their lives.

Here are a few sources to get you started - I always encourage you to find your own as well:

https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/the-link-between-animal-cruelty-and-human-violence

https://aldf.org/article/the-link-between-cruelty-to-animals-and-violence-toward-humans-2/

https://www.americanhumane.org/public-education/understanding-the-link-between-animal-abuse-and-family-violence/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9024712/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225023

https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/1862/

29/01/2025

Had a super fun puppy socialization outing at Marshall’s in Mission Valley with my wonderful clients, Ruben and Nancy, and their super sweet puppy, Nash 😎

28/01/2025

Cute Bunky and Clare at in Del Mar for puppy socialization and exploration.

25/01/2025

Some of the recent animals that I’ve worked with or I am working with. All beautiful and unique. 🥰

Helping people and their animals. 😍

17/01/2025

One of my kitties does this all the time! Does yours? 😁

Yes! It’s perfectly normal—and they’re doing this for a few possible reasons. Here's why cats put their butts in your face.

17/01/2025

Could you evacuate your home in 15 minutes, with you and your pets and everything you need for days, weeks, or months?

14/01/2025

Just received this wonderful and heartfelt review:

"Our dog, Loki, was having some behavioral problems and had become unpredictably aggressive. We were on the verge of getting rid of him but decided to reach out to an animal training organization, who put us in touch with Britta.

She worked with us and with Loki, helping us to understand his “calming signals” and understanding what triggers his aggression. In between sessions, she would follow up with us, checking on Loki’s progress, his behavior, and providing us with additional information to help us further understand what she had been teaching us. By the time we finished with the training sessions, Britta had become a part of our family. She truly cares for her clients, both animal and human, and has followed up a couple of times since that last session to check in with us and ensure we were still doing well.

It has been about four months since our last session. Loki has had three behavioral incidents, far fewer than previously. In each case, thanks to Britta’s training, we were able to identify the trigger and remove it. Our little four-year-old monster is back to being a loving, and occasionally annoying pet, but we have abandoned any plans of getting rid of him.

We recommend Britta to anyone looking for an animal trainer, whether it is behavioral issues or just trying to get started right with a new puppy. She knows what she’s doing, and she really cares about those she is helping." Jerry M.

05/01/2025

This morning I found out that one of my heroes and mentors, Karen Pryor, passed at 92 and I am deeply saddened.

When I was a hired as an animal trainer at the San Diego Zoo in 2001, my boss, the head of the Animal Behavior Management Department, Gary Priest, required that I read Karen Pryor‘s book, “Don’t Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training” and that was a life changer for me. It opened my eyes to working with animals based on science and how animals learn best, using positive reinforcement and marker training; not fear, force and intimidation which was, and is, traditionally used for training animals. It wasn’t unlike how I felt about training animals and what I knew all along, that you get the most from animals by building a relationship based on trust, cooperation and mutual respect and understanding the science behind learning. Karen inspired many, like me, and I continue to use and promote her practices in my work every single day. 

Rest in peace, Karen. You made a significant impact on people and animals and you will never be forgotten. I celebrate you. Karen Pryor Clicker Training

About Karen Pryor Karen Pryor, publicity photo for Oceanic Institute, about 1968. Karen Pryor had many interests. She was an observer of the smallest detail (as a child she studied butterfly anatomy) but what made her life’s work exceptional was that she also saw the big picture. It would have bee...

29/12/2024