Ok, so maybe it’s not that easy. Often times I am asked whether I am “purely positive trainer” or a “compulsion trainer”. The truth is that I’m split in the middle of both. I try to use the best tool and method that I feel the individual dog warrants. Methods are entirely at the discretion of the owner of the dog so often times I simply explain my position and my plan and we go from there.

There are a couple things that all trainers seem to agree on these days. Very few trainers are around that still use the “jerk and treat” methods of training. So by and far, almost everyone agrees that dogs should be taught behaviors in a positive manner.

Luring, bribing, shaping, capturing…. All of these are methods used by dog trainers to achieve the start of behaviors. Theoretically, they should requiring little or no force on the part of the trainer (unless you consider placing a dog force and that is a separate can of worms).

The ethical quandary comes in when we begin to want behaviors to be reliable without having to go through the song and dance of shaping bribing, luring, or perhaps don’t want to be rewarding as much. This is when the question of – should I continue training with purely positive methods or should I switch to a form of compulsion.

Gottfrield Dildei and Sheila Booth wrote an excellent book explaining the phases of learning and when to know a correction was appropriate. This book was titled “Schutzhund Obedience, Training in Drive.” They broke the stages of learning into three distinct stages which they called Foundation - Proofing – Polishing. This addresses the behavior from start to finish, whereas most purely positive trainers are interested in only getting the initial behavior (rather than shaping it out to a more perfect, precise version of the initial behavior.)

Following this line of thinking, which I follow relatively closely but not exact, you teach with all the positives we mentioned before (bribing, luring, shaping, capturing). As you begin proofing, you may begin adding in some form of compulsion dependent entirely on the dog’s attitude and understanding of the behavior. You can’t correct for something that the dog does not understand lest you wish to see a dog perform obedience with a poor attitude. The  best way for me to explain this is if I see the dog blowing me off in a behavior they certainly understand – then most commonly I will choose to initiate some form of compulsion.

Compulsion does not always me a correction on the collar.

Sometimes it is simply withholding further reward.

Sometimes it is making the dog start the chain of behaviors all over again.

Sometimes it means a correction.

The big thing that most opponents of compulsion will cry is that it hurts the dogs attitude or that…why train with compulsion when we have the science of operant conditioning which allow us to train a “better” way.

This is where we begin to delve into the competition dog. I tend to be fairly blunt with respect to how I feel about my dogs and competing with them.

The overall picture is this. We train 3-4 times a week, usually more which require an incredible amount of time and money. Gas, club dues, equipment fees, etc all begin to add up when you start on the path of doing any kind of competition with your dog. The last obedience trial I entered with my dog was a 2 hour drive each way up to Bakersfield, CA. The entry fees for the competition amounted to over $100, not to mention gas, entrance fees, lunch, etc. While my dog did incredibly well (finishing two titles that weekend), I will admit that my compulsive side says “yeah she better have done well”. We performed behaviors she is clear on in situations she is familiar with. I’d like every purely positive trainer to get in an obedience ring and have their dog give them the middle finger and split just one time and tell me they don’t feel like ringing their dogs neck a bit.

It is human nature not only to be competitive but also to think of our animals as our best friends. To this end, I would hope my best friend in that situation would have done well in the competition rather than floated off after a balloon (as my first competition dog had done in our very first show!) The stress and varied circumstances of competition training and the precision which it requires is very difficult to accomplish on a reliable basis without some form of compulsion to balance out the training.

Yes, it’s absolutely possible to train purely positively with a competition dog. Is it the norm? I don’t think so. I think very few dogs are capable of maintaining advanced training that way, unless something else is at stake such as a closed economy. It definitely takes a special kind of dog and I would love to hear of dogs who have attained high levels of competition being trained purely positively.

For more food for thought, there is an excellent article by Judy Byron about positive training and the introduction of stress for the competition dog. You can read that article by clicking here.