Simple Dog Training Advice

These dog training techniques are based on learning theories.

• Traditional dog training

This kind of training is usually targeted to dog obedience exercises, disregarding behavioral problems.

Detractors of traditional dog training argue that both the technique and the tools are cruel and violent. They also claim that the technique can cause dangerous collateral effects, such as fear biting and damages to the dog's trachea.

On the other hand, if your dog lies down and you reward him after 10 seconds, he may not associate the action of lying down with the reward. He may think you gave him the treat because he was looking up, or moving his ears. So, you rewarded your dog but you didn't reinforce the desired behavior.

Some people think that positive trainers never teach to the dog that a particular behavior is unacceptable. This could be the main advantage of this kind of training.

Other advantages are that this kind of training is easy to understand and fun to carry out. Besides, these techniques are not only focused on obedience exercises. Instead, they are widely used to solve behavioral problems.

Although very common, those claims are not true. While choke collars are common tools, it seems that mixed techniques are friendlier to dogs than traditional training.

Perhaps the main reason for the use of mixed techniques in those sports is that some behaviors, such as leaving an attack sleeve, are very difficult to train without negative reinforcement.

Although trainers who use mixed approaches also use positive reinforcement, they usually avoid using food as a reinforcer. Thus, you should achieve the higher hierarchy, the alpha dog status, in order to maintain a good relationship with your dog.