r/BalancedDogTraining

Content creator: sets up camera, puts legos on the floor. Stomps on them barefoot. “Oh look guys isn’t that terrible my foot hurts so much how sad for me aren’t I relatable”

Commenters: “we saw you put the legos on the floor though. You shouldn’t do that if you don’t want to step on them and hurt your foot”

Content creator: “you guys suck you have no empathy. You don’t know me or my legos you only see a tiny fraction of my life. Just give me sympathy because it’s not my fault and there’s nothing I could have done better to avoid stomping on these Legos and getting hurt.”

Commenters: “we literally saw you put the Legos on the floor and stomp on them in the video though. Even if you wanted to leave the Legos on the floor, you could have stepped over them. You didn’t have to get hurt”

Content creator: “you don’t know my Legos history or my history. You don’t know why I put them on the floor and stomped on them. If you did you would know I’m perfect and did everything perfectly so shut up and just feel bad for me because I’m being relatable”

Commenters: “yeah we’re going to not do that”

Content creator: “omg the internet is so mean to me there’s so many unempathetic trolls. My life is so hard because now I have to deal with a butthurt and a sore foot from the Legos. 😫”

I feel like the only things i can find online about modern dog training is positive reinforcement, and that everything else is bad.

My question is: if i want to do balanced dog training, how do i use the consequences to decrease behaviour correctly?

As I have understood there are 4 types of operant conditioning:

R+ you add something the dog likes. Behavior increases.

P- you remove something the dog likes. Behavior decreases.

P+ you add something the dog does not like. Behavior decreases.

R- you remove something the dog does not like. Behavior increases.

I live in Denmark where ecollars, prongcollars and so on are illegal, and people really think its weird that we crate our 4 month old golden.

Its hard to really find a nuanced answer on this.

My moms dad was a police-dog trainer in the 60/70s so if she wants to correct my dog she grabs her by the neck-skin and makes her lie down. But i dont feel like that method works for me, i guess its more efficient for her because she is a 'stranger'.

- AND im unsure about the consequences of this method.

I’ve been noticing a big uptick in FF people bashing balanced trainers lately. Lots of people getting big mad seeing prongs and e collars etc. Is this just a me thing or are others noticing the same thing? I haven’t seen this much fighting since about 2021 ish.

Hi, I’m an aspiring dog trainer with many years of kennel experience. I’ve gotten to work directly with very experienced dog trainers. I’ve handled puppies, potty training, basic commands, reactive dogs, human aggressive dogs, selective dogs. I’m looking to take the leap and finally get my CPDT - KA. I’ve looked into a few programs, including, but not limited to ABC, ABI, Karen Pryor and Penn Foster. In one ear my sister is telling me she went to ABC and took an advanced training course. However, the counselor I have been assigned too is telling me there is no such thing and the only courses they have are the dog obedience course and the service dog course. In the other ear, my boss is telling me no one really asks for your CPDTKA and it’s a waste of time and money. “Just go to lectures”. I don’t see any reason to spend upwards of four grand on a course full of curriculum I already know. I currently work for someone who has an overwhelming amount of training dogs and will offer in the next few months for me to take one or two as my own project and get 50% of the income. I don’t think I’m ready for a full boarding train hence the course selection. If anyone can help me find the advanced course or knows a course that allows a payment plan and gets me my CPDT-KA I’m all ears thank you.

I’m working on my 3rd certification and going through some of the text and it says that withholding food is considered aversive, inhumane, and abusive. Yet, I know many FF trainers (I am Force Free certified) that withhold food to increase engagement and prey drive during training sessions. WTF?!?

Now it doesn’t define out what “withholding” means, but taken at face value it means not feeding the dog. Many people don’t withhold food completely and decrease the amount at mealtime. But that’s still withholding in a sense. And yes, the dog is fed through training and earning it. Some people feed an entire days worth of meals through a training pouch. Again, in the strictest sense you’re withholding food until the dog earns it.

I find it ludicrous that all these new age “Force Free” training methods will find nearly anything to be aversive. No wonder why there is so much confusion. Aversive by definition is “something that causes strong dislike and avoidance”. In the strictest terms a leash and collar can be considered aversive. Everything is aversive now. Including food.

Rant over. Good day

Asking for evidence is apparently "character assassination".

"IPG" is also hilariously bad.

Aside BE and medications, how do you train a dog that is actively aggressive?

I recently ran into a dog trainer who said they are certified force free and don’t use any corrections. I think force free training is great for a lot of training! But do you think there are situations where force free is not adequate? If not, how do you handle situations like this

I have an ongoing issue with my dog, a one and half year old Golden Retriever.
The situation at home has become very frustrating for everyone, and this is honestly my last attempt to find a solution before we probably have to rehome her because my parents can’t handle it anymore.

Most of her bathroom walks are done by our maid, but I personally work with the dog at least once or twice a day, whether it’s practicing leash walking, playing fetch, or working on commands and obedience exercises.

The main issues are that she cannot be left loose around the house outside of her crate without constant supervision. Even with supervision, she touches and destroys everything possible even, beds we bought for her, our personal belongings, jumps on the dining table and counters, steals socks and random objects she sees, and chews on them.

The only thing that keeps her occupied for a while is a bone or chew toy, but eventually she gets bored and goes back to looking for other things to mess with.

Another major issue is that with everyone except me — like my mother or our maid — she constantly jumps on them during walks and bites the leash nonstop. Sometimes this causes scratches or accidental bites because she is trying to bite the leash and catches a hand by mistake.
She also pulls extremely hard on walks with them.

With me, she behaves much better. She usually walks nicely and doesn’t really cause problems.
In general, she is very gentle with people, extremely friendly, and has good intentions, but she is completely lacking direction and is very rough and overexcited in the way she plays and moves around.
I don’t mean aggressive in a dangerous or reactive way — more physically intense and out of control.

We contacted a local training business and she stayed with them for a month and a half in a boarding-and-training program.
It helped with some basic things, but not with the issues I mentioned above.
I understand that training at a facility alone is not enough and that the owners need to continue the work at home, which I do, but things still are not improving and everyone at home is losing patience.

She has already been with us for about a year and two months, and we still haven’t managed to make things work.