12 Reasons to Use Positive Dog Training Methods
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- Punishment (corrections) can have the side-effect of causing distrust, fear, possible injury and/or aggression. For example, rubbing a dogs nose in "it" can cause him to avoid going to the bathroom in front of you, electric fences can cause a fear of going outside, and choke collars can cause throat injury and back and neck misalignment if "jerked". "
- Punishments (corrections) tend to escalate. If your were to resort to physical punishment, you would find that a light tap would get your dogs attention at first, but then the contact would tend to get more and more force behind it.
- Punishment (correction) inhibits creativity. If your dog is corrected for lying down when asked to sit, he will be confused and fearful when asked "down".
- Using corrections to teach places you and your dog in an adversarial relationship.
- We know better now. In the past we punished children more harshly and have since learned better ways to motivate them. It is the same with our dogs.
- Punishment (correction) can "break an animal's spirit". This is not what you want for the friend you have adopted.
- Training with corrections takes a lot of skill. Most people don't have this amount of skill. If you have poor timing or use to much force you can really harm your pet physically and psychologically. With reward training, the worst you can do is to be set back a bit or move more slowly until you become more skilled.
- Many dogs simply cannot handle being trained using correction-based techniques. Breeds such as Beagles, Terriers and Huskies are labeled difficult to train using traditional correction based techniques. If a dog were to become aggressive after receiving a correction the dog may well be "put to sleep" for having a poor temperament or being "dominant".
- Puppies cannot be trained using correction-based techniques until the age of 6 months.
- Children are not generally able to participate in correction-based training. It is too difficult for them, as it requires so much skill.
- "Positive", Reward-Based Training is In!
- Training using rewards relies on teaching the dog to behave as we would like using treats, toys, play, petting and whatever else the dog likes. If your dog is doing something you don't like, instead of punishing, teach him to do something different for a reward. Then prevent, prevent, prevent, reward, reward, reward!
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