One of the most perplexing arguments against balanced training goes a little something like this: “You’re just doing it the fast way!”
It’s always said laced with shame and malice and venom, as if getting results in days (or sometimes less) versus years makes said results invalid in some way. It’s often accompanied by snarky looks, crossed arms, and accusations of laziness.
It’s a great example of toxicity in the dog training world.
The idea that getting slower results is somehow noble and is the only right way is incredibly harmful. It’s harmful not only to humans, but to the dogs we are trying to help.
For example, an unwanted behavior can be stopped or greatly reduced in a session or two when corrections (positive punishment, in scientific speak) are included as part of the equation. That same result by pursuit of extinction (the reduction or elimination of a behavior through negative punishment, or refusal to “pay” a behavior) may take years, if it happens at all.
Can it work? Sometimes. Through time, diligence, favorable genetics, and a bit of luck.
But usually, we end up waiting around for minimal changes in behavior. This is often marketed as “kind.”
As usual, the big picture often sings a different tune than the short-term feel-good.
Dog Owners Don’t Always Have Time
I don’t mean to invalidate “pure positive” or “force free” reward-based training as an option. It can help some dogs, some owners, and serve some situations. I have definitely trained some dogs with specific sets of behaviors this way with lovely results.
For example, it’s fantastic in teaching new behaviors; after all, the science of balanced training uses the same concepts. Reinforcers are the absolute best way to increase behaviors.
But in modification of behavior (especially reduction of unwanted behaviors) it does take significantly more time to get comparable results (if those results come) in a lot of scenarios, time that a lot of dog owners just don’t have.
I’ve had dog owners come to me in tears because their dog has been to so many trainers over the years and they’re ready to throw in the towel.
I’ve had dog owners who have been threatened with eviction from noise complaints or are in overwhelming debt from having to fix damages their dogs have done to their homes. If the unwanted behaviors don’t stop, they will either be homeless, or their dog will.
I’ve had dog owners come to me who are dealing with the rest of life: an upcoming wedding, a new baby, an in-law moving in, a new job, a move to a new city.
I’ve had dog owners come to me who have physical limitations around physically managing their dog. Their dog pulled them down on the “anti-pull” tool and broke their wrist. Their dog jumped on them and knocked them down. They’re pregnant, recovering from a surgery, or might have an chronic physical disability.
Denying people the tools and flexibility to get things done within their physical abilities and within a time period that actually solves their problems in a reasonable time is not an act of kindness.
Not everyone with a dog has the time, resources, natural affinity, or just plain interest in becoming a dedicated amateur dog trainer. Asking them to do so is unreasonable, at best.
It’s easy to shame dog owners for not “taking the time.” It’s harder to pivot, find what works, and create a plan or program for specific circumstances.
If laziness, if taking the easy way, is so obscene in the dog training world, perhaps we should extend that same mindset to our human clients who are also having a hard time. It’s easy to tell a dog owner they are immoral in some way and wash your hands of it; it’s the work of a good trainer to help them through.
Dog Trainers Don’t Always Have Time
In no other profession in any part of the world is a contractor expected to make little-to-no progress over a long period of time and ask for more money, and for that to be called a good job. But that is uniquely considered the norm in dog training.
At Lugaru K9 Training, we sell our private lessons in a basic five-lesson package, and expect most or all of a client’s immediate goals to be taken care of within those lessons.
For our board-and-train, everything from puppy training to light behavior modification is expected to be cleaned up in about three weeks. It’s four to eight weeks for extreme behaviors like aggression, depending on severity.
In both of these options, the approach is tailored to the situation; the dog, the human, the context. And in both of these options, we always expect a significant difference by the end of the initial training period.
Maybe some trainers feel comfortable keeping their clients on the hook over years and years. We do not.
Dogs and their owners could spend those years and years out living the best version of their lives together instead of wondering when they will finally be able to take their dog for a walk at the park safely. We book our board-and-trains on a schedule and with the ideology that dogs should be going home on their best paw.
And when we work with behavior fosters and help out local shelters and rescues, time is even more critical. When a dog is waiting on an adoption, every day counts. I’ve helped rescues with dogs that had potential but needed to get adoption-ready, and dogs that needed behavior modification in order to become available to a wider pool of adopters.
And when the ever-looming adoption is sitting just ahead, sometimes training has to happen in the span of a few weeks so that the dog is not a return risk.
This is true now more than ever.
Rescues and animal shelters are struggling to keep up from all the dog rehoming and owner surrenders of “covid puppies.” I know because I am working with some of these dogs to get them adoption-ready for new homes. Dogs are being left at shelters and rehomed left-and-right.
It’s a rough time for rescues, and for dogs.
“Well, you shouldn’t have gotten a/that dog if you don’t train my way,” or, “just rehome the dog if you don’t have years to make progress,” doesn’t help anyone.
Not the humans, and definitely not the dog.
Dogs Don’t Always Have Time
And that brings us to the real core of this topic: insisting that the noble long way is the only right way does not help dogs. It hurts them.
The fact of the matter is that dogs don’t have the time we have. While we humans have 50-100 years to figure things out, dogs get around 10-13, give or take a couple years depending on size, breed, and genetic health.
Larger dog breeds can have healthy life expectancies as short as 6-8 years. Right this moment, I have a 3-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog in for a board-and-train. He simply doesn’t have the years that many trainers want to take to get basic behavioral results.
That’s the fact of the matter. Many dogs just don’t have the time that so many dog owners are pressured to take.
Consider that taking years to do what could be done in a month or two, a week, sometimes even a single day, wastes those years that the dog could be spending fulfilled and happy. Years that account for 20% or more of the dog’s life. Years that are, in the context of a dog that lives ten years, equivalent to decades for a human.
Is it still more noble?
Being rigid in our methodology (or, rather, fussing over what other trainers are doing because you prefer a different way) we actually expedite the process of dogs losing out on those best years.
Dogs (both in-limbo shelter dogs and dogs with otherwise happy homes) are euthanized for the kinds of behaviors that can be fixed in a session or two of flexible training, all the time. Jumping, mouthing, being too pushy with other dogs, reactivity, you name it. All these behaviors that take years for extinction to occur (if it occurs at all) are sending dogs to the pink juice every single day.
The circumstances deny these dogs the time they need for some training methods to work. And these are not extreme behaviors; I handle them on a daily basis. These are not dogs that need to be put down. These dogs are still deserving of a fighting chance.
If that fighting chance is balanced training, are we doing right by dogs as a whole by shaming those who choose to train in more flexible ways?
With these wonderful animals being here with us on this planet for a brief moment in time, is it noble to drip-feed progress and have them put down, expire naturally, or become fatigued with age before the methods can work?
Dogs deserve that chance, and dogs deserve to spend their best years living those years best.
