October 6, 2025 • 38 mins
We break down the “balanced training” myth and explain why corrections suppress behavior without teaching, while force-free methods build reliable habits by changing a dog’s emotional state. We share science, real-world steps, and how to find a qualified pro.
• positive reinforcement as a full behavioral system
• why aversives suppress rather than teach
• fear and perceived threat as roots of reactivity and aggression
• counterconditioning and desensitization under threshold
• extinction and differential reinforcement for durable change
• signs of shutdown vs true calm
• how to vet trainers and certifications
• ethics, welfare, and the bond with your dog
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
There's a balanced training myth in the dog
training community that saysthat positive reinforcement is
great for teaching newbehaviors.
It's great for teaching tricks.
But if you want a reallyreliable dog, you have to use
corrections.
That when there are bigdistractions, there's always
going to be some kind ofdistraction that's more
(00:22):
important to the dog, morevaluable to the dog than
whatever positive reinforcerthat you have.
So distractions, dogs that liketo chase after squirrels or
rabbits.
And then there's the myth aboutyou've got to give a dog a
correction.
You've got to teach boundaries.
You've got to teach them no ifthey're an aggressive dog.
(00:47):
None of that could be fartherfrom the truth.
Let's unpack the reality ofbalanced training myths and
positive reinforcement.
All that and more in 60 seconds.
SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Raised by wolves with canine DNA in his blood,
having trained more than 24,000pets, helping you and your fur
babies thrive.
Live in studio with WillMangura, answering your pet
behavior and training questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome your host and favorite
pet behavior expert, WillMangura.
SPEAKER_02 (01:48):
Peel back the myths, and focus on what actually works
for our dogs.
I'm Will Bangora, certifiedcanine behaviorist, and today
we're tackling one of the moststubborn myths in dog training.
The claim that positivereinforcement doesn't work
unless you also add corrections.
(02:10):
You've probably heard it.
You need balance.
Or purely positive training isfine for tricks, but not for
aggression.
That statement gets thrownaround a lot, especially on
social media by so-calledbalanced trainers.
Today we're going to pull thatidea apart piece by piece and
(02:35):
look at what the scienceactually says, what positive
reinforcement really means, andwhy the idea of balance isn't
balanced at all.
All right.
So let's get into the firstsegment, and that's the mythical
(02:56):
narrative.
All right.
Let's start with what thesetrainers are really saying.
They'll tell you corrections arenecessary.
Dogs need to know what's wrong,not just what's right.
Or you can train, you can'ttrain aggression.
You can't train high-drivebehaviors with just treats.
(03:20):
Now, it sounds reasonable,right?
The word balance sounds mature,responsible, even scientific.
But it's not balance.
It's a misunderstanding ofbehavioral science.
When a balanced trainer sayspositive reinforcement doesn't
(03:42):
work, what they're reallysaying, what they really mean,
is that their understanding ofpositive reinforcement doesn't
work because they've reduced itto cookie training.
And that's not what the sciencesays at all.
Positive reinforcement isn'tabout bribing.
(04:05):
It's not about being permissive.
It's a complete behavioralsystem that includes structure,
consequences, andaccountability.
Just without the fear, the pain,and the intimidation that
oftentimes comes with balancetraining, which uses
corrections.
Corrections are just apolitically correct, nicer way
(04:28):
of saying punishment, anythingthat causes the dog to be
uncomfortable.
All right.
Let's talk about the sciencebehind it.
Let's break it down.
In behavioral terms, positivereinforcement is adding
something desirable to increasethe likelihood of a behavior.
(04:49):
But it doesn't stop there.
It's part of an entire systemthat includes things like
extinction, removingreinforcement for unwanted
behaviors, negative punishment,which really is very simple.
(05:09):
Doesn't involve any fear, pain,or intimidation.
Negative punishment is justremoving something that the dog
wants when they make undesirablechoices.
Okay, so let's talk aboutperhaps you could quietly turn
your back when a dog is jumpingup, or you stop moving when the
(05:34):
leash tightens.
The behavior gets a consequence,but it's an informational
consequence, not a painful one.
A well-designed reinforcementsystem is built on
predictability, clarity, andemotional safety.
And that's what createsreliability, not shock, not
(05:57):
jerking on a prong collar, notpulling on a dog's neck with a
choke collar or a martingale,not intimidation, not scolding.
Let's talk about what correct,let's talk about what
corrections actually do.
What, and and the technical termfor a correction is positive
punishment, adding somethinguncomfortable to try to get a
(06:21):
different result.
Now, let's talk about thesecorrections.
Let's talk about prong collars.
Let's talk about choke chains,let's talk about e-collars.
First of all, corrections do notteach.
Punishment, positive punishment,does not teach.
(06:44):
They suppress, and there's a bigdifference.
They can temporarily stopbehavior, but at the cost,
oftentimes, of emotionalfallout.
You know, fear, pain,intimidation causes stress,
avoidance, anxiety.
It can even cause aggression orexacerbate already existing
(07:10):
aggression.
There was a 2020 study by VieraDeCastro, and Castro and the
colleagues that did the studyfound that dogs trained with
aversive methods had highercortisol levels, the stress
hormone.
Yeah, they showed more stressbehaviors and they learned
(07:32):
tasks, here you go, more slowly.
And then Shackley did someresearch back in 2007 that
showed that even low-levelelectronic collar training done
by industry professionals,industry experts in electronic
(07:55):
collar training, well, even atlow levels, it created
measurable stress responses.
So when balanced trainers saycorrections create clarity, what
they're really creating isfear-based inhibition, not
understanding.
(08:17):
Not understanding.
And that's really important.
But let's talk about what realbalance is.
True balance isn't about mixingcookies and corrections.
It's about balancing motivation,clarity, and safety.
(08:40):
A dog that feels safe learnsfaster, retains better, and
shows more stable emotionalregulation.
Force-free as far as forceretraining, total positive
reinforcement, doesn't mean norules.
It means teaching boundariesthrough structure and controlled
reinforcement, not pain, notintimidation.
(09:03):
It means creating behaviors thatlast because the dog wants to
perform them, not because it'safraid not to.
And too oftentimes, becausebalanced trainers love to do the
before and after social mediavideos, for example, they may
take a dog that is highlyreactive, aggressive, on the
(09:27):
leash when it encounters anotherdog on the walk, and they give
it a correction with the prongcollar, or they give it a
correction with the shockcollar.
And all of a sudden, you see adog that goes from being
extremely reactive to veryquickly not being reactive at
all.
(09:49):
But what you don't understand,what you don't see, what appears
to be a calm dog is a dog thathas shut down.
The dog has not learned a thingother than how to avoid pain.
How to avoid pain.
Now think about this.
(10:09):
And this is where some of thebiggest issues are.
(10:51):
Trainers, behavior consultants,and behaviorists utilize every
single day.
When it comes to aggression,very, very, very few dogs have
dominance-based aggression.
That is rare.
Despite what you might hear,think, or read on the internet,
(11:12):
it is extremely rare.
Almost all aggression, almostall reactivity is based in fear,
stress, anxiety.
Look, no animal for the mostpart ever goes into fight or
flight unless they perceive athreat.
(11:34):
Now, that word perceive isreally important because
oftentimes there is no realthreat.
But if they're perceiving athreat, if they feel they've got
to be defensive, they feel thatthey're threatened.
They've got anxiety, they gotfear, they have stress.
(11:58):
So that outward display, thatbehavior could be barking, it
could be lunging, it could besnarling, showing the teeth, it
could be uh biting, thoseoutward displays of behavior are
really a symptom of the realproblem.
What's the real problem?
(12:19):
Perceiving something as athreat, having anxiety, fear,
stress that drives the outwardbehavior.
If the dog didn't have thatunderlying emotional state of
anxiety, fear, and stress, itwould not feel the need to
engage in that unwantedbehavior.
Now, if we just use corrections,if we just use punishment, if
(12:41):
we're just using prawn collarsand shock collars to suppress
outward behavior, don't confusecompliance by the dog with a dog
that is calm and a dog that hasbeen cured.
First of all, you don't changepowerful underlying emotional
(13:04):
states in one lesson, twolessons, three lessons.
You don't change that by sendingyour dog away to a board and
train for one week, two weeks,four weeks.
You don't change that by doing aseries of private lessons, maybe
six or so with a trainer.
This doesn't happen in sixweeks, eight weeks.
A dog that truly has realreactivity, a dog that truly has
(13:27):
real aggression, it can takemonths of counterconditioning,
desensitization, stoppingreinforcement.
A lot of these dogs have astrong reinforcement history
when it comes to thesebehaviors.
The behaviors have become veryfunctional.
You know, if you're walking downthe street and your dog feels
(13:49):
that there's a threat and itstarts lunging, growling,
snapping, and you turn aroundand walk away, what does that
teach the dog?
Now, I realize you may not havea choice initially, but what
does that teach the dog?
It teaches the dog, hey, thatbehavior is functional.
That behavior works.
They're not gonna give that up.
They wanted distance in space,they weren't feeling
(14:11):
comfortable.
And if whatever happens rightafter behavior, whatever the
consequence is, that's gonnareinforce the behavior.
And in this case, it's therelieving of that emotional
pressure through distance bygetting away, turning around,
(14:32):
getting the dog out of there,that strengthens that behavior
over time.
So if we're not just correcting,if we're not just punishing
behaviors, if we're not justsuppressing outward displays,
which, by the way, if I haven'tsaid it already, does nothing to
change the dog's underlyingemotional state that is the
(14:54):
cause, or at least one of thebig causes of most reactivity
and aggression.
And just like weeds, if youdon't get at the root of the
problem, they're gonna keepgrowing back.
So if you're not dealing withthe root of the problem when it
comes to reactivity andaggression, if you're just
punishing, if you're justcorrecting, if you're just
suppressing that outwardbehavior temporarily, it's going
(15:18):
to come back.
And it's gonna come back usuallymuch worse because you've put
the dog in what I call thepressure cooker effect.
The dog already is feelingpressure emotionally, feeling
that there is a possible threat,perceived threat, having
anxiety, stress, fear aboutanother dog or another person
that it might be reactive oraggressive to, that it becomes
(15:41):
defensive.
So we got that level of anxietyand stress and fear.
And the dog's trying to, throughits behavior that we don't like,
but for the dog, it's the dog'sway of responding to fear.
The dog's trying to communicatehey, I want distance.
And we make some huge mistakeswhen we're correcting and
(16:04):
punishing.
Number one, we start punishingfear rather than correcting
aggression.
And when you start punishingthose behaviors with shock
collars, prong collars, chokechains, yelling at the dog, and
other types of punishment, akacorrections, you are adding
(16:26):
another layer of stress to thedog.
You are exacerbating because nowthe dog's already anxious and
fearful about the trigger.
Now the dog has to be afraidthat my gosh, if I try to do
something about my fear andanxiety, my pet parent or the
trainer is gonna causediscomfort, fear, pain,
(16:50):
intimidation, stress, anxiety.
And yeah, the dog will shutdown, and you may think
compliance is calm, but it'snot.
It's smoke and mirrors.
You've really done nothing.
And let's face it, how difficultis it to punish a dog?
(17:11):
How difficult, what kind ofskill?
Really, what kind of skill doesit take to punish a dog with an
electronic collar, a prongcollar?
It doesn't take much skill atall to cause pain.
The other problem with this,besides it really not working in
the long run, it's a temporaryquick fix, it adds more stress
(17:33):
to the dog and it starts toerode at and destroy that bond,
that relationship that is soimportant with you and your dog.
I don't care how bad the problemis.
I don't care if your dog hasinsane prey drive and anything
(17:54):
that moves, whether it be aleaf, a bird, a squirrel, a
rabbit, your dog takes off likecrazy, that can be trained out
with positive reinforcement,with extinction,
counterconditioning,desensitization.
These are all tools of positivereinforcement.
(18:17):
Withholding reinforcement forthose type of behaviors.
Differential reinforcement,teaching behaviors that would be
incompatible or different, thinkdifferent, differential,
different behaviors to doinstead of growling, snapping,
(18:39):
biting, lunging, barking.
Our goal is to change the dog'sunderlying conditioned emotional
response, one of anxiety, fear,and stress, that then drives the
aggressive or reactive behaviorthat you're seeing on the
outside.
The lunging, barking, snapping,maybe biting, growling.
(19:08):
That stopping those behaviorstemporarily with punishment has
all kinds of psychological aswell as physical fallout for
most dogs.
You look at these videos, thesebefore and after videos, you
think you got a calm dog, andreally you just have a compliant
dog temporarily.
(19:29):
The dog has just shut downemotionally.
The dog is shut downemotionally.
And when you're in that kind ofstress, to think that an animal
(19:50):
is going to learn and learnreliably and retain that is
ridiculous.
If you know anything aboutneuroscience, if you know
anything about physiology, ifyou know anything about biology,
about what happens when you'rein fight or flight and you're a
dog, and dogs have the cognitiveabilities of about a
(20:11):
two-year-old child.
But here's the kicker.
When you're in fight or flight,when you're in that anxiety,
that stress, that fear, you'rein survival mode.
And the thinking part of thebrain, the frontal cortex, the
neocortex, shuts down.
Your brain is hijacked by theamyglia that deals with fight
(20:33):
and flight.
And that's more of the olderinstinctive part of the brain.
My point is you can't usethinking, executive functioning,
and especially if you're a dog,that really shuts off and it's
limited when you're in thatlevel of stress and anxiety.
(20:55):
Our job, whether you're atrainer, whether you're a
behavior consultant, whetheryou're a behaviorist, is to pair
positive things, positiveexperiences with the trigger,
presenting the trigger in a verycontrolled way, at a distance
that's very safe for the dog,where the dog's not feeling
(21:17):
uncomfortable, where the dog'snot engaging in the unwanted
behavior, and start pairing thatpresentation and association,
whether it be a dog that the dogis reactive to, whether it be a
person that the dog is reactiveor aggressive towards.
You want to pair positivereinforcement.
(21:37):
Now, you can't do that andexpect to make a change if
you're too close and the dog'sreactive.
You can't do that if the dog'stoo close and maybe you don't
see outward physical signs, butinternally the dog is stressed
out and anxious.
You literally got to start at adistance from the trigger where
the dog doesn't have a care inthe world.
Now, think about it.
(21:59):
Imagine if I were videotaping acounterconditioning and
desensitization exercise, andI've got a dog that doesn't have
a care in the world.
We're looking at a dog, say 50,100 feet away, or a person 50,
100 feet away.
Maybe that's the magic distancefor this particular dog where it
doesn't care.
And we bring out the trigger andwe start feeding the dog or
(22:24):
playing with the dog, creatingfun, positive associations.
That's not exciting.
It's boring.
And that's one of the reasons,you know, balanced trainers are
always saying, hey, if you're apositive, force-free trainer,
wear the videos.
Show us your work.
Well, first of all, most of usare too busy doing real
(22:45):
behavioral work.
We don't have time to bevideoing everything that we do.
And we're not doing it for dramaeffect.
First of all, if the problem isa dog that's reactive and
aggressive, we don't want thatbehavior.
Anyone can set the dog up forfailure for a quick video clip,
(23:08):
you know, bring a trigger tooclose to the dog.
The dog blows up, has ameltdown.
You've got this dog going crazy.
You've got 20 seconds of thatvideo.
Then they start working with theelectronic collar, the prong
collar, punishing the dog,shutting the dog down around a
trigger.
And now all of a sudden you seeanother 20, 30 seconds, maybe a
(23:29):
minute, of a dog walking bypeople, walking by other dogs,
seemingly not caring.
It's smoke and mirrors.
It doesn't last.
Now, a lot of balanced trainerswill say, Well, you're living in
a fantasy world with thisforce-free training.
(23:51):
You don't understand.
You must not really work withdifficult dogs.
Well, first of all, I've beentraining dogs for a half a
century.
Longer than most people havebeen alive that are training
dogs today.
(24:12):
And I work with the mostdifficult.
That's why I'm a certifiedbehaviorist.
Because I work with the mostdifficult dogs, dogs with
extreme fears, phobias, anxiety,extreme reactivity, extreme
aggression, extreme prey drive,extreme poor impulse control,
and low tolerance forfrustration, the most complex
(24:35):
behaviors, intra-dog aggression,intra-household, two dogs or
more in the same home fighting.
Dogs with severe, serious bitehistories.
Don't tell me I don't work withsevere.
I work with very severe.
And then the balanced trainerswill say, well, he doesn't
(24:59):
understand negativereinforcement.
He doesn't understand positivepunishment because they think
I've never used it, right?
They think, well, if he's afear-free positive reinforcement
trainer, he doesn't have a clueunless he's been there done
that.
Well, guess what?
I've been there.
I've done that.
I'm what's called a crossovertrainer.
(25:21):
See, I wasn't always force-free.
I wasn't always positivereinforcement.
I was a balanced trainer.
And quite frankly, before I wasa quote-unquote balanced trainer
using rewards and punishment, Iwas a compulsion-based trainer.
Because when I started trainingin the 70s, I don't know anybody
that was using positivereinforcement.
(25:41):
It was all about forcing the dogwhat to do.
Now, throughout my journey, Ievolved because I'm committed to
constantly improving.
I'm committed to constantlylearning and to constantly be
more effective.
And the learning part is what'sreally important.
(26:02):
You know, I hear from a lot ofpeople that when they're calling
around looking for a trainer,somebody to help them,
especially with aggression orsomething like that, or
reactivity, or anxiety, stress,fear, that they talk to these
trainers and the trainers arewilling to come out to their
(26:23):
home and do a free evaluation.
Folks, very little in life isfree.
Remember that.
Nothing in life is free.
There's a kicker.
Quite frankly, these trainersthat are offering these free
in-home evaluations is reallyabout a meet and greet and about
a sales pitch.
(26:44):
They're not evaluating your dog.
Because a real professional thathas formal education is going to
do a functional behaviorassessment.
A real professional not only isgoing to do a functional
behavior assessment, they'regoing to put together a training
(27:06):
plan that involves appliedbehavior analysis.
It's going to involve a trainingplan where there are measures
and it's going to be force-free.
It's going to be positivereinforcement.
It's not going to involvepunishment.
It's not going to involve fear,pain, or intimidation.
And this is going to be backedby the overwhelming scientific
(27:27):
consensus that this is the mosteffective, most efficient way to
train a dog and the mostreliable.
If you want permanence andreliability, if you want
something that's going to last.
(27:48):
But the problem is that mosttrainers, because it's an
unregulated industry, unlike,say, medicine, I can't call
myself a doctor.
I'll go to jail.
Yeah.
It's a regulated profession.
But here's the thing (28:01):
the beautiful thing about medicine
being a regulated profession,and really a real profession.
And what separates a realprofession from one that isn't?
First of all, formal education.
That gives the consumer someconfidence that the person
they're working with knows whatthey're talking about.
(28:22):
But it goes beyond the formaleducation into board
certification.
You've got to pass very strict,very rigid certification,
testing, interviewing, casepresentations.
You've got to prove that, hey,this formal education you have,
(28:43):
you can actually apply it in thereal world.
That you know what you'retalking about.
You can actually do.
It's not just book knowledge,you can actually apply it, board
certification.
In addition to that, they don'twant you to be stagnant.
Things change.
Science changes.
Things we learn more day in andday out, and we improve upon
(29:06):
what we do day in and day out.
And the only way that that'sgoing to happen is by staying up
to date and current on thelatest and greatest
evidence-based, science-basedmethods, research, information.
And so, a real profession,there's continuing education,
mandatory, continuing educationin order to keep your
(29:28):
certification.
And in a real profession, thosefolks are licensed, and that
license can be revoked if youfall away from real science
based, real evidence based, realethical practice.
If you screw up, there's goingto be disciplinary action.
(29:51):
You may lose your license.
None of that exists in the dogtraining world.
Anybody can call themselves adog trainer.
They may never have owned.
A dog.
They can say whatever they want,they can build a website, print
whatever they want, publishwhatever they want.
They can sound like they reallyknow what they're talking about.
(30:12):
They may have lots of charisma.
That doesn't mean that whatthey're doing is the most
effective, most efficient, thesafest, and the best way to work
with your dog and improvewelfare.
When your dog can feelcomfortable, when your dog is
(30:36):
relaxed, when your dog feelsfree to make a mistake, and
nothing bad is going to happen,because let's face it, in life
we all make mistakes.
That doesn't mean that we shouldbe punished.
Making a mistake means also wedidn't get what we wanted.
Try again.
And listen, when things are notgoing well in training, it's not
(31:00):
that the positive reinforcementdoesn't work.
It's that what you're doing asthe trainer isn't working.
And you need to make anadjustment.
And therefore, you need tounderstand that force-free
training, positivereinforcement, is very
complicated, actually.
There is a lot involved.
(31:21):
It's not just about givingcookies.
That's the biggest myth thateverybody makes.
You know, for many years I usedshock collars.
For many years, I used prawncollars.
For many years, I used chokechains.
When I didn't know what I didn'tknow.
And I didn't know what I didn'tknow when I didn't have formal
(31:42):
education.
I didn't know what I didn't knowwhen I wasn't certified and had
to really prove what I knew.
I didn't know when I didn'tcontinue my education.
It's so important, especially ifyou've got a dog with
reactivity, aggression, fears,phobias, anxiety, that you
(32:05):
really work with somebody that'sa real professional.
Now, just because they have awebsite, and hey, they may have
lots of good reviews, too.
Most people don't like writingreviews.
Most people, when they have abad experience, actually don't
(32:25):
write a review.
You don't hear from them.
And the trainer that didn't getthe right kind of results
because they really didn't knowwhat they're doing, they don't
call that person back again whenthings aren't working.
They spent a bunch of money,they spent a bunch of time with
that balanced trainer.
Now the aggression, now thereactivity came back.
They realize the relationshipwith them and their dog is now
(32:47):
not close to being the kind ofbond and trust they had before.
It's gotten worse.
And the behavior got worse.
That's when they start lookingfor a completely different
approach.
That's when they start Googlingand learning hey, there are real
professionals out there that arebehaviorists.
And listen, just becausesomebody calls themselves a
behaviorist doesn't mean theyare.
(33:08):
Where did they get theiraccreditation from?
Where is their certificationfrom if they're a behaviorist?
What kind of continuingeducation are they doing on a
yearly basis?
Here's the thing next time atrainer says, Hey, I'm going to
come out for a free evaluation,say, what does that all entail?
And do you do a functionalbehavior assessment?
(33:30):
Ask them on the spot, what is afunctional behavior assessment?
How does applied behavioranalysis work?
Talk to me about antecedents,arranging the environment,
extinction, positivereinforcement, differential
reinforcement,counterconditioning,
(33:50):
desensitization.
Listen, if they start goingblank, if they start going
blank, and they can't answerthose questions quickly, easily,
without fail.
You just need to say thank youvery much.
(34:11):
We're not going to be a goodfit.
And you find yourself someonewho's certified.
Look, there's certifiedtrainers, certified behavior
consultants.
You can find them on theinternet.
Go to the Certification Councilfor Professional Dog Trainers.
They've got a directory ofcertified professional dog
trainers, certified caninebehavior consultants.
(34:34):
Or go to the InternationalAssociation of Animal Behavior
Consultants.
They certify trainers.
They certify behaviorconsultants also.
Or go to the Animal BehaviorSociety, look for an applied
animal behaviorist.
Now, those behaviorists, there'sjust a handful.
They primarily are involved inresearch and academics.
(34:56):
A lot of them don't do clinicalwork, casework with animals and
pet parents.
And a lot of them don't evenwork with dogs because they're
an animal behaviorist.
They don't necessarilyspecialize in one species.
But the International CanineBehaviorist, which certifies
(35:17):
behaviorists that specialize indogs and canines, where I've got
my accreditation, I've got mycertification with International
Canine Behaviorist atiCbdogs.com.
And I've got my certifiedprofessional dog trainer
credentials through theCertification Council for
(35:39):
Professional Dog Trainers, whereI also am certified and
credentialed as a certifiedbehavior consultant.
I'm also accredited, certifiedforce-free or fear-free, I
should say, trainer.
These are the kind of thingsthat you need to be looking for.
(36:01):
Not these flashy videos that yousee on YouTube.
Real training is gradual.
Real complex behavior change canbe slow sometimes.
And it's boring.
Good behavior work, we're notseeing dogs fearful.
(36:21):
We're not seeing them anxious.
We're not seeing them stressed.
We're not seeing them reactive.
We're not seeing them withaggressive behaviors because
we're keeping them what's calledunder threshold.
If we bring them too close andthey start becoming fearful,
anxious, stressed, reactive,aggressive, barking, lunging,
(36:42):
snarling, growling, airsnapping, biting, we've set the
dog up for failure.
We've got them too close toosoon to the trigger.
That's what balance trainers do.
And then they punish them andthey suppress the outward
behavior.
(37:02):
They're not doing anything tochange the underlying emotional
state where the real magichappens.
But it's not that positivereinforcement doesn't work.
It's not that you must usecorrections to get a very
well-trained dog, especially adog with high prey drive, or a
dog that's aggressive orreactive.
No.
(37:22):
You need to change the dog'sunderlying emotional state.
You need to gradually and slowlydesensitize them systematically,
change the underlying emotionalstate, the feelings, the
behavior goes away.
And then you actually havepermanence and reliability of
behavior.
Well, folks, that music means weare out of time.
(37:45):
Hey, hit that like button, hitthat share button, give us a
five-star review.
If you love what we do, pleasegive us a review.
That's what helps us rankhigher.
That's what helps get thisinformation out to more people
that can benefit from this.
So please, if you've beenlistening for a while, if you
love what we do, or if you justlove this episode, think about
giving us a five-star reviewafter you're done here.
(38:07):
I'm Will Bangura, certifiedcanine behaviorist.
You've been listening to anotherepisode of Dog Training Today.
Have a good one.
I'm out of here.
There's a balanced training myth in the dog
training community that saysthat positive reinforcement is
great for teaching newbehaviors.
It's great for teaching tricks.
But if you want a reallyreliable dog, you have to use
corrections.
That when there are bigdistractions, there's always
going to be some kind ofdistraction that's more
(00:22):
important to the dog, morevaluable to the dog than
whatever positive reinforcerthat you have.
So distractions, dogs that liketo chase after squirrels or
rabbits.
And then there's the myth aboutyou've got to give a dog a
correction.
You've got to teach boundaries.
You've got to teach them no ifthey're an aggressive dog.
(00:47):
None of that could be fartherfrom the truth.
Let's unpack the reality ofbalanced training myths and
positive reinforcement.
All that and more in 60 seconds.
SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Raised by wolves with canine DNA in his blood,
having trained more than 24,000pets, helping you and your fur
babies thrive.
Live in studio with WillMangura, answering your pet
behavior and training questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome your host and favorite
pet behavior expert, WillMangura.
SPEAKER_02 (01:48):
Peel back the myths, and focus on what actually works
for our dogs.
I'm Will Bangora, certifiedcanine behaviorist, and today
we're tackling one of the moststubborn myths in dog training.
The claim that positivereinforcement doesn't work
unless you also add corrections.
(02:10):
You've probably heard it.
You need balance.
Or purely positive training isfine for tricks, but not for
aggression.
That statement gets thrownaround a lot, especially on
social media by so-calledbalanced trainers.
Today we're going to pull thatidea apart piece by piece and
(02:35):
look at what the scienceactually says, what positive
reinforcement really means, andwhy the idea of balance isn't
balanced at all.
All right.
So let's get into the firstsegment, and that's the mythical
(02:56):
narrative.
All right.
Let's start with what thesetrainers are really saying.
They'll tell you corrections arenecessary.
Dogs need to know what's wrong,not just what's right.
Or you can train, you can'ttrain aggression.
You can't train high-drivebehaviors with just treats.
(03:20):
Now, it sounds reasonable,right?
The word balance sounds mature,responsible, even scientific.
But it's not balance.
It's a misunderstanding ofbehavioral science.
When a balanced trainer sayspositive reinforcement doesn't
(03:42):
work, what they're reallysaying, what they really mean,
is that their understanding ofpositive reinforcement doesn't
work because they've reduced itto cookie training.
And that's not what the sciencesays at all.
Positive reinforcement isn'tabout bribing.
(04:05):
It's not about being permissive.
It's a complete behavioralsystem that includes structure,
consequences, andaccountability.
Just without the fear, the pain,and the intimidation that
oftentimes comes with balancetraining, which uses
corrections.
Corrections are just apolitically correct, nicer way
(04:28):
of saying punishment, anythingthat causes the dog to be
uncomfortable.
All right.
Let's talk about the sciencebehind it.
Let's break it down.
In behavioral terms, positivereinforcement is adding
something desirable to increasethe likelihood of a behavior.
(04:49):
But it doesn't stop there.
It's part of an entire systemthat includes things like
extinction, removingreinforcement for unwanted
behaviors, negative punishment,which really is very simple.
(05:09):
Doesn't involve any fear, pain,or intimidation.
Negative punishment is justremoving something that the dog
wants when they make undesirablechoices.
Okay, so let's talk aboutperhaps you could quietly turn
your back when a dog is jumpingup, or you stop moving when the
(05:34):
leash tightens.
The behavior gets a consequence,but it's an informational
consequence, not a painful one.
A well-designed reinforcementsystem is built on
predictability, clarity, andemotional safety.
And that's what createsreliability, not shock, not
(05:57):
jerking on a prong collar, notpulling on a dog's neck with a
choke collar or a martingale,not intimidation, not scolding.
Let's talk about what correct,let's talk about what
corrections actually do.
What, and and the technical termfor a correction is positive
punishment, adding somethinguncomfortable to try to get a
(06:21):
different result.
Now, let's talk about thesecorrections.
Let's talk about prong collars.
Let's talk about choke chains,let's talk about e-collars.
First of all, corrections do notteach.
Punishment, positive punishment,does not teach.
(06:44):
They suppress, and there's a bigdifference.
They can temporarily stopbehavior, but at the cost,
oftentimes, of emotionalfallout.
You know, fear, pain,intimidation causes stress,
avoidance, anxiety.
It can even cause aggression orexacerbate already existing
(07:10):
aggression.
There was a 2020 study by VieraDeCastro, and Castro and the
colleagues that did the studyfound that dogs trained with
aversive methods had highercortisol levels, the stress
hormone.
Yeah, they showed more stressbehaviors and they learned
(07:32):
tasks, here you go, more slowly.
And then Shackley did someresearch back in 2007 that
showed that even low-levelelectronic collar training done
by industry professionals,industry experts in electronic
(07:55):
collar training, well, even atlow levels, it created
measurable stress responses.
So when balanced trainers saycorrections create clarity, what
they're really creating isfear-based inhibition, not
understanding.
(08:17):
Not understanding.
And that's really important.
But let's talk about what realbalance is.
True balance isn't about mixingcookies and corrections.
It's about balancing motivation,clarity, and safety.
(08:40):
A dog that feels safe learnsfaster, retains better, and
shows more stable emotionalregulation.
Force-free as far as forceretraining, total positive
reinforcement, doesn't mean norules.
It means teaching boundariesthrough structure and controlled
reinforcement, not pain, notintimidation.
(09:03):
It means creating behaviors thatlast because the dog wants to
perform them, not because it'safraid not to.
And too oftentimes, becausebalanced trainers love to do the
before and after social mediavideos, for example, they may
take a dog that is highlyreactive, aggressive, on the
(09:27):
leash when it encounters anotherdog on the walk, and they give
it a correction with the prongcollar, or they give it a
correction with the shockcollar.
And all of a sudden, you see adog that goes from being
extremely reactive to veryquickly not being reactive at
all.
(09:49):
But what you don't understand,what you don't see, what appears
to be a calm dog is a dog thathas shut down.
The dog has not learned a thingother than how to avoid pain.
How to avoid pain.
Now think about this.
(10:09):
And this is where some of thebiggest issues are.
(10:51):
Trainers, behavior consultants,and behaviorists utilize every
single day.
When it comes to aggression,very, very, very few dogs have
dominance-based aggression.
That is rare.
Despite what you might hear,think, or read on the internet,
(11:12):
it is extremely rare.
Almost all aggression, almostall reactivity is based in fear,
stress, anxiety.
Look, no animal for the mostpart ever goes into fight or
flight unless they perceive athreat.
(11:34):
Now, that word perceive isreally important because
oftentimes there is no realthreat.
But if they're perceiving athreat, if they feel they've got
to be defensive, they feel thatthey're threatened.
They've got anxiety, they gotfear, they have stress.
(11:58):
So that outward display, thatbehavior could be barking, it
could be lunging, it could besnarling, showing the teeth, it
could be uh biting, thoseoutward displays of behavior are
really a symptom of the realproblem.
What's the real problem?
(12:19):
Perceiving something as athreat, having anxiety, fear,
stress that drives the outwardbehavior.
If the dog didn't have thatunderlying emotional state of
anxiety, fear, and stress, itwould not feel the need to
engage in that unwantedbehavior.
Now, if we just use corrections,if we just use punishment, if
(12:41):
we're just using prawn collarsand shock collars to suppress
outward behavior, don't confusecompliance by the dog with a dog
that is calm and a dog that hasbeen cured.
First of all, you don't changepowerful underlying emotional
(13:04):
states in one lesson, twolessons, three lessons.
You don't change that by sendingyour dog away to a board and
train for one week, two weeks,four weeks.
You don't change that by doing aseries of private lessons, maybe
six or so with a trainer.
This doesn't happen in sixweeks, eight weeks.
A dog that truly has realreactivity, a dog that truly has
(13:27):
real aggression, it can takemonths of counterconditioning,
desensitization, stoppingreinforcement.
A lot of these dogs have astrong reinforcement history
when it comes to thesebehaviors.
The behaviors have become veryfunctional.
You know, if you're walking downthe street and your dog feels
(13:49):
that there's a threat and itstarts lunging, growling,
snapping, and you turn aroundand walk away, what does that
teach the dog?
Now, I realize you may not havea choice initially, but what
does that teach the dog?
It teaches the dog, hey, thatbehavior is functional.
That behavior works.
They're not gonna give that up.
They wanted distance in space,they weren't feeling
(14:11):
comfortable.
And if whatever happens rightafter behavior, whatever the
consequence is, that's gonnareinforce the behavior.
And in this case, it's therelieving of that emotional
pressure through distance bygetting away, turning around,
(14:32):
getting the dog out of there,that strengthens that behavior
over time.
So if we're not just correcting,if we're not just punishing
behaviors, if we're not justsuppressing outward displays,
which, by the way, if I haven'tsaid it already, does nothing to
change the dog's underlyingemotional state that is the
(14:54):
cause, or at least one of thebig causes of most reactivity
and aggression.
And just like weeds, if youdon't get at the root of the
problem, they're gonna keepgrowing back.
So if you're not dealing withthe root of the problem when it
comes to reactivity andaggression, if you're just
punishing, if you're justcorrecting, if you're just
suppressing that outwardbehavior temporarily, it's going
(15:18):
to come back.
And it's gonna come back usuallymuch worse because you've put
the dog in what I call thepressure cooker effect.
The dog already is feelingpressure emotionally, feeling
that there is a possible threat,perceived threat, having
anxiety, stress, fear aboutanother dog or another person
that it might be reactive oraggressive to, that it becomes
(15:41):
defensive.
So we got that level of anxietyand stress and fear.
And the dog's trying to, throughits behavior that we don't like,
but for the dog, it's the dog'sway of responding to fear.
The dog's trying to communicatehey, I want distance.
And we make some huge mistakeswhen we're correcting and
(16:04):
punishing.
Number one, we start punishingfear rather than correcting
aggression.
And when you start punishingthose behaviors with shock
collars, prong collars, chokechains, yelling at the dog, and
other types of punishment, akacorrections, you are adding
(16:26):
another layer of stress to thedog.
You are exacerbating because nowthe dog's already anxious and
fearful about the trigger.
Now the dog has to be afraidthat my gosh, if I try to do
something about my fear andanxiety, my pet parent or the
trainer is gonna causediscomfort, fear, pain,
(16:50):
intimidation, stress, anxiety.
And yeah, the dog will shutdown, and you may think
compliance is calm, but it'snot.
It's smoke and mirrors.
You've really done nothing.
And let's face it, how difficultis it to punish a dog?
(17:11):
How difficult, what kind ofskill?
Really, what kind of skill doesit take to punish a dog with an
electronic collar, a prongcollar?
It doesn't take much skill atall to cause pain.
The other problem with this,besides it really not working in
the long run, it's a temporaryquick fix, it adds more stress
(17:33):
to the dog and it starts toerode at and destroy that bond,
that relationship that is soimportant with you and your dog.
I don't care how bad the problemis.
I don't care if your dog hasinsane prey drive and anything
(17:54):
that moves, whether it be aleaf, a bird, a squirrel, a
rabbit, your dog takes off likecrazy, that can be trained out
with positive reinforcement,with extinction,
counterconditioning,desensitization.
These are all tools of positivereinforcement.
(18:17):
Withholding reinforcement forthose type of behaviors.
Differential reinforcement,teaching behaviors that would be
incompatible or different, thinkdifferent, differential,
different behaviors to doinstead of growling, snapping,
(18:39):
biting, lunging, barking.
Our goal is to change the dog'sunderlying conditioned emotional
response, one of anxiety, fear,and stress, that then drives the
aggressive or reactive behaviorthat you're seeing on the
outside.
The lunging, barking, snapping,maybe biting, growling.
(19:08):
That stopping those behaviorstemporarily with punishment has
all kinds of psychological aswell as physical fallout for
most dogs.
You look at these videos, thesebefore and after videos, you
think you got a calm dog, andreally you just have a compliant
dog temporarily.
(19:29):
The dog has just shut downemotionally.
The dog is shut downemotionally.
And when you're in that kind ofstress, to think that an animal
(19:50):
is going to learn and learnreliably and retain that is
ridiculous.
If you know anything aboutneuroscience, if you know
anything about physiology, ifyou know anything about biology,
about what happens when you'rein fight or flight and you're a
dog, and dogs have the cognitiveabilities of about a
(20:11):
two-year-old child.
But here's the kicker.
When you're in fight or flight,when you're in that anxiety,
that stress, that fear, you'rein survival mode.
And the thinking part of thebrain, the frontal cortex, the
neocortex, shuts down.
Your brain is hijacked by theamyglia that deals with fight
(20:33):
and flight.
And that's more of the olderinstinctive part of the brain.
My point is you can't usethinking, executive functioning,
and especially if you're a dog,that really shuts off and it's
limited when you're in thatlevel of stress and anxiety.
(20:55):
Our job, whether you're atrainer, whether you're a
behavior consultant, whetheryou're a behaviorist, is to pair
positive things, positiveexperiences with the trigger,
presenting the trigger in a verycontrolled way, at a distance
that's very safe for the dog,where the dog's not feeling
(21:17):
uncomfortable, where the dog'snot engaging in the unwanted
behavior, and start pairing thatpresentation and association,
whether it be a dog that the dogis reactive to, whether it be a
person that the dog is reactiveor aggressive towards.
You want to pair positivereinforcement.
(21:37):
Now, you can't do that andexpect to make a change if
you're too close and the dog'sreactive.
You can't do that if the dog'stoo close and maybe you don't
see outward physical signs, butinternally the dog is stressed
out and anxious.
You literally got to start at adistance from the trigger where
the dog doesn't have a care inthe world.
Now, think about it.
(21:59):
Imagine if I were videotaping acounterconditioning and
desensitization exercise, andI've got a dog that doesn't have
a care in the world.
We're looking at a dog, say 50,100 feet away, or a person 50,
100 feet away.
Maybe that's the magic distancefor this particular dog where it
doesn't care.
And we bring out the trigger andwe start feeding the dog or
(22:24):
playing with the dog, creatingfun, positive associations.
That's not exciting.
It's boring.
And that's one of the reasons,you know, balanced trainers are
always saying, hey, if you're apositive, force-free trainer,
wear the videos.
Show us your work.
Well, first of all, most of usare too busy doing real
(22:45):
behavioral work.
We don't have time to bevideoing everything that we do.
And we're not doing it for dramaeffect.
First of all, if the problem isa dog that's reactive and
aggressive, we don't want thatbehavior.
Anyone can set the dog up forfailure for a quick video clip,
(23:08):
you know, bring a trigger tooclose to the dog.
The dog blows up, has ameltdown.
You've got this dog going crazy.
You've got 20 seconds of thatvideo.
Then they start working with theelectronic collar, the prong
collar, punishing the dog,shutting the dog down around a
trigger.
And now all of a sudden you seeanother 20, 30 seconds, maybe a
(23:29):
minute, of a dog walking bypeople, walking by other dogs,
seemingly not caring.
It's smoke and mirrors.
It doesn't last.
Now, a lot of balanced trainerswill say, Well, you're living in
a fantasy world with thisforce-free training.
(23:51):
You don't understand.
You must not really work withdifficult dogs.
Well, first of all, I've beentraining dogs for a half a
century.
Longer than most people havebeen alive that are training
dogs today.
(24:12):
And I work with the mostdifficult.
That's why I'm a certifiedbehaviorist.
Because I work with the mostdifficult dogs, dogs with
extreme fears, phobias, anxiety,extreme reactivity, extreme
aggression, extreme prey drive,extreme poor impulse control,
and low tolerance forfrustration, the most complex
(24:35):
behaviors, intra-dog aggression,intra-household, two dogs or
more in the same home fighting.
Dogs with severe, serious bitehistories.
Don't tell me I don't work withsevere.
I work with very severe.
And then the balanced trainerswill say, well, he doesn't
(24:59):
understand negativereinforcement.
He doesn't understand positivepunishment because they think
I've never used it, right?
They think, well, if he's afear-free positive reinforcement
trainer, he doesn't have a clueunless he's been there done
that.
Well, guess what?
I've been there.
I've done that.
I'm what's called a crossovertrainer.
(25:21):
See, I wasn't always force-free.
I wasn't always positivereinforcement.
I was a balanced trainer.
And quite frankly, before I wasa quote-unquote balanced trainer
using rewards and punishment, Iwas a compulsion-based trainer.
Because when I started trainingin the 70s, I don't know anybody
that was using positivereinforcement.
(25:41):
It was all about forcing the dogwhat to do.
Now, throughout my journey, Ievolved because I'm committed to
constantly improving.
I'm committed to constantlylearning and to constantly be
more effective.
And the learning part is what'sreally important.
(26:02):
You know, I hear from a lot ofpeople that when they're calling
around looking for a trainer,somebody to help them,
especially with aggression orsomething like that, or
reactivity, or anxiety, stress,fear, that they talk to these
trainers and the trainers arewilling to come out to their
(26:23):
home and do a free evaluation.
Folks, very little in life isfree.
Remember that.
Nothing in life is free.
There's a kicker.
Quite frankly, these trainersthat are offering these free
in-home evaluations is reallyabout a meet and greet and about
a sales pitch.
(26:44):
They're not evaluating your dog.
Because a real professional thathas formal education is going to
do a functional behaviorassessment.
A real professional not only isgoing to do a functional
behavior assessment, they'regoing to put together a training
(27:06):
plan that involves appliedbehavior analysis.
It's going to involve a trainingplan where there are measures
and it's going to be force-free.
It's going to be positivereinforcement.
It's not going to involvepunishment.
It's not going to involve fear,pain, or intimidation.
And this is going to be backedby the overwhelming scientific
(27:27):
consensus that this is the mosteffective, most efficient way to
train a dog and the mostreliable.
If you want permanence andreliability, if you want
something that's going to last.
(27:48):
But the problem is that mosttrainers, because it's an
unregulated industry, unlike,say, medicine, I can't call
myself a doctor.
I'll go to jail.
Yeah.
It's a regulated profession.
But here's the thing (28:01):
the beautiful thing about medicine
being a regulated profession,and really a real profession.
And what separates a realprofession from one that isn't?
First of all, formal education.
That gives the consumer someconfidence that the person
they're working with knows whatthey're talking about.
(28:22):
But it goes beyond the formaleducation into board
certification.
You've got to pass very strict,very rigid certification,
testing, interviewing, casepresentations.
You've got to prove that, hey,this formal education you have,
(28:43):
you can actually apply it in thereal world.
That you know what you'retalking about.
You can actually do.
It's not just book knowledge,you can actually apply it, board
certification.
In addition to that, they don'twant you to be stagnant.
Things change.
Science changes.
Things we learn more day in andday out, and we improve upon
(29:06):
what we do day in and day out.
And the only way that that'sgoing to happen is by staying up
to date and current on thelatest and greatest
evidence-based, science-basedmethods, research, information.
And so, a real profession,there's continuing education,
mandatory, continuing educationin order to keep your
(29:28):
certification.
And in a real profession, thosefolks are licensed, and that
license can be revoked if youfall away from real science
based, real evidence based, realethical practice.
If you screw up, there's goingto be disciplinary action.
(29:51):
You may lose your license.
None of that exists in the dogtraining world.
Anybody can call themselves adog trainer.
They may never have owned.
A dog.
They can say whatever they want,they can build a website, print
whatever they want, publishwhatever they want.
They can sound like they reallyknow what they're talking about.
(30:12):
They may have lots of charisma.
That doesn't mean that whatthey're doing is the most
effective, most efficient, thesafest, and the best way to work
with your dog and improvewelfare.
When your dog can feelcomfortable, when your dog is
(30:36):
relaxed, when your dog feelsfree to make a mistake, and
nothing bad is going to happen,because let's face it, in life
we all make mistakes.
That doesn't mean that we shouldbe punished.
Making a mistake means also wedidn't get what we wanted.
Try again.
And listen, when things are notgoing well in training, it's not
(31:00):
that the positive reinforcementdoesn't work.
It's that what you're doing asthe trainer isn't working.
And you need to make anadjustment.
And therefore, you need tounderstand that force-free
training, positivereinforcement, is very
complicated, actually.
There is a lot involved.
(31:21):
It's not just about givingcookies.
That's the biggest myth thateverybody makes.
You know, for many years I usedshock collars.
For many years, I used prawncollars.
For many years, I used chokechains.
When I didn't know what I didn'tknow.
And I didn't know what I didn'tknow when I didn't have formal
(31:42):
education.
I didn't know what I didn't knowwhen I wasn't certified and had
to really prove what I knew.
I didn't know when I didn'tcontinue my education.
It's so important, especially ifyou've got a dog with
reactivity, aggression, fears,phobias, anxiety, that you
(32:05):
really work with somebody that'sa real professional.
Now, just because they have awebsite, and hey, they may have
lots of good reviews, too.
Most people don't like writingreviews.
Most people, when they have abad experience, actually don't
(32:25):
write a review.
You don't hear from them.
And the trainer that didn't getthe right kind of results
because they really didn't knowwhat they're doing, they don't
call that person back again whenthings aren't working.
They spent a bunch of money,they spent a bunch of time with
that balanced trainer.
Now the aggression, now thereactivity came back.
They realize the relationshipwith them and their dog is now
(32:47):
not close to being the kind ofbond and trust they had before.
It's gotten worse.
And the behavior got worse.
That's when they start lookingfor a completely different
approach.
That's when they start Googlingand learning hey, there are real
professionals out there that arebehaviorists.
And listen, just becausesomebody calls themselves a
behaviorist doesn't mean theyare.
(33:08):
Where did they get theiraccreditation from?
Where is their certificationfrom if they're a behaviorist?
What kind of continuingeducation are they doing on a
yearly basis?
Here's the thing next time atrainer says, Hey, I'm going to
come out for a free evaluation,say, what does that all entail?
And do you do a functionalbehavior assessment?
(33:30):
Ask them on the spot, what is afunctional behavior assessment?
How does applied behavioranalysis work?
Talk to me about antecedents,arranging the environment,
extinction, positivereinforcement, differential
reinforcement,counterconditioning,
(33:50):
desensitization.
Listen, if they start goingblank, if they start going
blank, and they can't answerthose questions quickly, easily,
without fail.
You just need to say thank youvery much.
(34:11):
We're not going to be a goodfit.
And you find yourself someonewho's certified.
Look, there's certifiedtrainers, certified behavior
consultants.
You can find them on theinternet.
Go to the Certification Councilfor Professional Dog Trainers.
They've got a directory ofcertified professional dog
trainers, certified caninebehavior consultants.
(34:34):
Or go to the InternationalAssociation of Animal Behavior
Consultants.
They certify trainers.
They certify behaviorconsultants also.
Or go to the Animal BehaviorSociety, look for an applied
animal behaviorist.
Now, those behaviorists, there'sjust a handful.
They primarily are involved inresearch and academics.
(34:56):
A lot of them don't do clinicalwork, casework with animals and
pet parents.
And a lot of them don't evenwork with dogs because they're
an animal behaviorist.
They don't necessarilyspecialize in one species.
But the International CanineBehaviorist, which certifies
(35:17):
behaviorists that specialize indogs and canines, where I've got
my accreditation, I've got mycertification with International
Canine Behaviorist atiCbdogs.com.
And I've got my certifiedprofessional dog trainer
credentials through theCertification Council for
(35:39):
Professional Dog Trainers, whereI also am certified and
credentialed as a certifiedbehavior consultant.
I'm also accredited, certifiedforce-free or fear-free, I
should say, trainer.
These are the kind of thingsthat you need to be looking for.
(36:01):
Not these flashy videos that yousee on YouTube.
Real training is gradual.
Real complex behavior change canbe slow sometimes.
And it's boring.
Good behavior work, we're notseeing dogs fearful.
(36:21):
We're not seeing them anxious.
We're not seeing them stressed.
We're not seeing them reactive.
We're not seeing them withaggressive behaviors because
we're keeping them what's calledunder threshold.
If we bring them too close andthey start becoming fearful,
anxious, stressed, reactive,aggressive, barking, lunging,
(36:42):
snarling, growling, airsnapping, biting, we've set the
dog up for failure.
We've got them too close toosoon to the trigger.
That's what balance trainers do.
And then they punish them andthey suppress the outward
behavior.
(37:02):
They're not doing anything tochange the underlying emotional
state where the real magichappens.
But it's not that positivereinforcement doesn't work.
It's not that you must usecorrections to get a very
well-trained dog, especially adog with high prey drive, or a
dog that's aggressive orreactive.
No.
(37:22):
You need to change the dog'sunderlying emotional state.
You need to gradually and slowlydesensitize them systematically,
change the underlying emotionalstate, the feelings, the
behavior goes away.
And then you actually havepermanence and reliability of
behavior.
Well, folks, that music means weare out of time.
(37:45):
Hey, hit that like button, hitthat share button, give us a
five-star review.
If you love what we do, pleasegive us a review.
That's what helps us rankhigher.
That's what helps get thisinformation out to more people
that can benefit from this.
So please, if you've beenlistening for a while, if you
love what we do, or if you justlove this episode, think about
giving us a five-star reviewafter you're done here.
(38:07):
I'm Will Bangura, certifiedcanine behaviorist.
You've been listening to anotherepisode of Dog Training Today.
Have a good one.
I'm out of here.
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