Fact VS Fiction, Part II

There are many falsehoods and fictions circulating about the science and reality of dog behavior. Here are a few facts to help you understand the most effective, long-term approach to dog training.

False:

Positive reinforcement doesn't work on more severe behavioral cases such as aggressive dogs.

Fact:

Actually, positive reinforcement methods are the most effective option with aggressive dogs. Using positive reinforcement to treat ‘red zone’ dogs is not only a safer option but a much more effective one.

Aggression is a fearful dog’s way of protecting himself and his resources. Their behavior is deeply rooted in fear for survival, fear of loss of comfort, a desire to repel a perceived threat, and wanting to control space and the environment.

Punish an insecure dog and you make that dog even more insecure--even though it looks like he is behaving better. When a dominance trainer uses punitive techniques to get a dog to submit or ‘calm down,’ that dog may use an instinctive survival tool of ‘shut down’ to make the person stop whatever they are doing. Then the dominance trainer labels the dog’s non-reaction and ‘calmness’ as a success.

People love successes, especially when they are achieved quickly and they look very impressive. But those of us who really know what is going on shake our heads in dismay because not only has the dog been mishandled, the person has been misled into thinking that their dog has been ‘fixed’ or ‘cured’.

Dogs that have been manhandled with dominance techniques are prone to lash out and bite the trainer or owner in anger, frustration, and/or fear in order to get that person away from them. The person is hurt, the dog is then punished again, and this destructive cycle is repeated.

Address The Cause, Not Just The Symptom

Aggression in dogs needs to be handled sensitively and with compassion. Aggressive dogs are under stress and this stress needs to be managed so that the dog can feel better while the trainer finds the cause of the aggressive response and then works with the dog and the owner to modify it.

For some dogs, this can be achieved relatively quickly but for others, it can take a while, which is why it is important to see every dog and every situation as unique. Positive reinforcement is the best philosophy to use in these cases, but there are many methods within this one philosophy that can be used, making positive reinforcement a much safer and more reliable method to use on even ‘red zone’ dogs.

False:

Dominance training is safer because it has quicker results and for an aggressive dog, anything that works quickly makes the dog safer for humans to be around.

Fact:

Using punishment as a ‘quick fix’ is a flawed and dangerous idea, because it ignores the dog’s experience and is psychologically unachievable. After being subjected to harsh dominance techniques, a dog can become more likely to bite without warning.

A dog’s emotional brain is wired in exactly the same way as that of a human. Yes, exactly the same way. So his physiological response to emotion is the same as ours, which means that our bodies have the same internal reaction to emotions such as fear, joy, excitement, etc.

When a dog is suffering from anxiety or fear that provokes a negative behavior such as aggression, then it is sheer foolishness to profess that by punishing a dog, the dog is fixed. This is dangerous and fundamentally wrong.

If a human has an anxiety problem, they may seek out therapy to help them. It takes time to work through anxiety and change the way a human feels about something. It is exactly the same for a dog: time is needed to really change the way a dog feels emotionally. Punitive training may appear to put a band-aid on the problem, but the dog still feels the same inside--and often more insecure because of the punishment he has received for ‘behaving badly’.

False:

The two different behavioral philosophies that you can use to train dogs - positive reinforcement or dominance training -- are essentially equal.

Fact:

There are many great training methods and many effective and humane ways to train dogs, but all of those methods fall under one general behavioral philosophy – Positive Reinforcement.

I advise owners to walk away from dominance trainers. Dominance methods are destructive and when it comes to training dogs, positive reinforcement is the only truly effective and humane philosophy for all the reasons listed above.

The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior exclusively recommends reward-based methods, even when working with aggression cases. Read their statement on dog training.

This Positively site is the online home for positive reinforcement education and I am so proud to have the best voices blogging here. We know that only through practice, scientific research, and discovery can we truly understand a dog’s behavior and help to mold and change it--all without using forceful or punitive methods. We treat and train dogs with kindness and respect every day, and most importantly, we see the positive results that our training methods have both for the dogs we use them on and for the people that love them.

Read more about myth versus fact in dog training and handling.