Putting Punishment In Its Place

In the past, dog trainers used forced-based methods – traditional choke chain training. This type of training was all that anyone knew or taught. Training with food as a motivator was decried as “bribery,” and relief from punishment was as “positive” as the reinforcement got. I myself was taught to be a force-based trainer from the time I started training in 1969 until I reached my own epiphany and enlightenment in 1983, the year before I graduated from Brown University.

In 1993, the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), started by Dr. Ian Dunbar, held the first international pet dog training conference, and since then the world of dog training has changed dramatically. Trainers have become increasingly educated about learning theory, the correct use of rewards, and how to introduce a variable schedule of reinforcement. Both dogs and owners have breathed huge sighs of relief as training methods have become easier and kinder, and produced stronger, more reliable behaviors. Dogs that previously would have been declared untrainable (and therefore euthanized) were able to be rehabilitated and saved!

To my great sadness, not all trainers have embraced these far better methods. Some “old school” types do not want to open their eyes and their minds and admit to themselves and others that the methods they have been using are not only outdated, but abusive. I am sympathetic to how they feel; when it first hit me, in 1983, that I was being kinder to the “bad” dogs (whom I trained with treats) than I was to the “good” dogs (on whom I used choke chains), I literally froze in my tracks. I walked out of the house of the client I was working with, claiming a sudden illness, and rethought my entire training process.

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~ by alexandramorgan on May 13, 2009.