Questions About All Positive Reinforcement Training

All Positive Reinforcement Training

I want to address a very common misunderstanding about dog training. I have written about the subject of all positive reinforcement training and using aversives in training quite a bit. I always think I have nothing more to say about it, then some time passes and I read an article that gets the old wheels moving again.

Training Clickers Are Often Used By Positive Reinforcement Dog Trainers.

Usually it is an article by a dog trainer. I generally don’t pay much attention to what other dog blogs are saying about this. Now that I have dog blogging friends on Google Plus I read a lot more general dog blogs. I find it interesting that the all positive reinforcement doctrine has moved to become such a pervasive dogma. It does sound warm and fuzzy, but is it really best for our pets? I also have to ask are the promises of all positive reinforcement really true?

There are also other questions that need to be asked about the promises of all positive reinforcement. There is the moral question, when is it okay to cause discomfort? Another question that I toil with and one where I usually differ from most is, what are my client’s personal rules? My strategy for helping people is different than many trainers I know of.

If this wasn’t enough I have even more questions. Are all aversives bad? Is there ever a time when an aversive is not aversive? Is it possible that what is aversive to an individual now could actually become something positive in the future?

There is also the fact that our society is based in punishing others and getting revenge more than loving our enemies. While people may want to be positive reinforcement oriented our society insists on a punishment based orientation.

To me all of these are interesting questions.

I plan on exploring these issues in a series of future posts

Wishing you the best in dogs and the best in life,
Andrew Ledford
Southern California Dog training
714-827-4058