The Conflict

There is a big controversy going on right now in the dog training community about a certain article that came out saying that “Purely Positive” trainers don’t know what they are doing and that they are killing dogs because of it. Thankfully, an intelligent positive dog trainer created an article with scientific proof that positive reinforcement based dog training is the LEAST likely to get a dog killed because of behavior. In addition to that, “purely positive” is absolutely not what force-free training is about.

“Positive reinforcement based training is the most efficient form of training that leads to lasting results, keeps dog out of shelters, and is more humane and effective than punishment for training. It is effective for training simple pet obedience to severely advanced behavior problems and everything in between.”

Personally, it was not until I educated myself about calming signals that I truly understood dogs. I already understood the four quadrants of operant conditioning. But learning the minor signals that a dog gives off as warnings of their emotional state really got to me. After I had learned about those, I returned to a Cesar Millan video that I had not had an issue with before. I was astonished to find that I was disgusted by what I saw – it was like night and day. Check out my post about this experience: “A Whole Different View”.  Isn’t it amazing what a bit of education can do!?

Please take a minute to read the article with scientific evidence to support their claim.

The True Killer – Ill-informed “Professionals” Lacking Critical Thinking Skills