If and when the people in the purely positive (or as they also like to refer to it, the "science-based" training community [cult]) read this, they will have a lot to say and disagree with me. That's fine. I'm not interested in their opinions on something they don't know anything about.
Here's the thing...
Corrections WORK!
Not only do they work, they are an excellent and valuable tool just like positive reinforcement- using food, toys or praise and affection.
That said, there is a art to them as well as a mindset or approach that has to be implemented in order to not do damage. When they are done right, they build trust and respect and understanding between you and the dog.
Corrections need to be clear to the dog as to why it happened. That means they are well timed, given at the perfect level and the proper medium and they match the individual dog in the specific situation in the exact moment it happens. Nothing more, to create an unhealthy fear and nothing less to make it so our input is meaningless to them.
How you correct a Rottweiler for eating food off the ground versus correcting a Chihuahua for being reactive is very different. And the correction needed to stop the Rottweiler from eating food off the ground is not the same as the correction needed to stop that Rottweiler from putting stitches in a kid.
There has to be a fundamental understanding and minimum requirement of reading a dog and their behavior before applying any of these. There is no copy and paste measure across different dogs and situations. When I talk about the mindset, I'm talking about being level-headed and fair. If you are mad or upset or anything that can bleed down the leash and into the dog when you correct, you should put the leash down and put the dog away because taking it out on the dog is obviously not fair.
It's also not fair to correct dog when they are actively learning, corrections are reserved for inappropriate behavior- stopping a dog from doing something dangerous to itself or another dog or person and for when a dog has shown clear understanding of what we're asking and they are choosing not to comply.
If I have a young puppy or even an adult dog that has no understanding of obedience, I will not correct that dog when I'm teaching it to "sit" because it doesn't know what I'm asking and it will hurt the foundation of trust and understanding that I'm trying to build.
Correcting a dog for not understanding is not correction, that is punishment and it is unfair.
Correcting a dog because you are mad or upset is not correction, that is also punishment and it is unfair.
The definition of correction is when an error is made and then made right. Barking and lunging at a kid walking by is wrong and by correcting the dog for this inappropriate behavior, (in conjunction with other behaviour training and counter conditioning WITH tons of positive reinforcement) over time, the inappropriate behaviour becomes less and less until it's nearly non existent.
Corrections are essential to being a good pet parent and having a healthy, balanced relationship. Think of being a parent to a human kid-
They have been screaming and throwing things during their class at school. Friday night comes around and they say "I'm gonna go out and steal a car and buy some heroin to shoot up." The purely positive equivalent response to this would be
"Please don't do that, stry home with me, I'll let you drive and we can smoke some weed together."
The kid has done NOTHING to deserve the rights and privileges of using a car and they are NOT responsible enough to handle making those choices. Driving and drugs for an adolescent mind is DANGEROUS for the kid and the general public.
But we "don't want to make them uncomfortable."
That's not how it works.
Kid acting up in class?
You're grounded and you're gonna do a ton of chores around the house, everyday and act right in class until I see your behaviour and grades improve. Once I see that, you STILL can't go out to steal a car and buy drugs when it does improve because it's still dangerous and you still can't handle it.
This will be an ongoing topic and I will have videos and articles to follow to give empirical evidence supporting the claim that corrections work.
Safe training!
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