Purely Positive Training?
Just as a fishing lure must first appeal to a fisherman before the fish ever has a chance to give an opinion, dog training books tend to pander to what the paying customers want to see on the cover rather than what is actually meaningful for real life dog training. A good example is "Purely Positive Training." A typical statement in support of the emotion behind such a preference is "I watched enough sad looking working dogs, no doubt they were trained by compulsion, and have seen and heard of enough dogs ruined that way!" The implication is that by being nice to the dog you never have to make him do what you want, that he will naturally reward your nice attitude by performing as you desire. Many of us have been witness to the sad result of similar permissive theories of child rearing.
The simple truth is that effective training is always a balance between compulsion and reward. Everybody can see that compulsion in the sense of "Duh, see dis here stick, I will beat you within an inch of your life if you delay an instant in fulfilling my slightest whim" is obviously stupid, cruel and more to the point ineffective.
But why is it that so many of us want to buy into a program of "I will be just so nice to you and feed you more and more hot dogs and babble more and more effusive praise until you do what I want" which is equally ineffective, and therefore stupid.
In the end purely reward based training may be equally cruel if the dog's failure in training results in an accident or being sent to a "shelter," that is, a place where they kill your dog because you did not care enough to be the leader and trainer he needed.What, exactly, is "Purely Positive Training" ? In particular, does it mean that you can train a dog for work or serious sport without any compulsion? If it does, it is utter nonsense, a stupid slogan designed simply to sell books or classes to gullible and inept people.
The implication, and the appeal, is that you can go train your Poochie without any unpleasant "compulsion" or "punishment", that the reward of a hot dog chunk and pleasing mommy will be enough. This is indeed the appeal of the slogan, but if this is applied literally it is preordained for failure.
If, on the other hand, "Purely Positive Training" in the end says to the dog "You can be positive that working with me will make your life very happy" - with the implication that less than your best effort will make your life less happy - then it is nothing more or less than a clever slogan to sell a book. In this case, the need of compulsion, while perhaps only implied, is nevertheless real.
Many canine sports have individuals and clubs with unbalanced training. Those lacking in discipline essentially are social organizations, and there is no problem with this unless you want to earn titles and are concerned with your scores.
I know of individuals in AKC, Schutzhund and KNPV who have used very compulsive methods. Sometimes they have good success, bit in the long run both the trainers and the dogs tend to burn out. The best remedy is in judging, that is, for the system to reward a happy, up performance by giving the judge the latitude to reward with points for more than just rote execution of the exercise.
Sometimes you must tell the truth, it is a fact that some very violent training has gone on in Holland by a minority of trainers in KNPV, and some young trainers have seen this as the road to success. There are credible rumors of more than one dog being killed on a training field. I know at least two KNPV judges who tell me that most of the people in the sport are very concerned about this. I mention this not in the spirit of gossip, but to indicate that in competitive sports the desire to win is an ever present danger. Even a senior NAWBA officer has been publicly accused of abusive dog training. Think of what we put some of our Olympic athletes and football players through in terms of pressure.
Several years ago Martha Saddler commented in a letter that Bouvier trainers in Schutzhund were on the whole not getting good obedience performance, and that the most serious problem was the lack of attitude in the dogs. Many of us recognized that there was a lot of truth in what she said, and I hope that she will agree that over the past several years we have seen more "up" dogs. This is a matter of selecting dogs with the requisite drive and also training to build the drive and then building in the necessary precision.
I always train with a pinch collar, and on one of my dogs there is an electric collar in training because this is suitable for this dog. I use it relatively infrequently, but I do use it. The other dog, about the same age, responds to voice correction and the long line. There is some handler aggression here, and I want to work through this one on one rather than just using the electric to intimidate the dog.
Sometimes I confine a dog prior to training. This is standard Koehler training, and the confinement may be 20 minutes in a run or half the day in a run or crate. As a general rule, it is a good idea. Our puppies never have their toys except when we play with them, and playing with puppies evolves into training. Training should always be the best part of the dog's life. Iron knows that after training there will be frisbee time, and it keeps his drive up. I will also withhold food as a tracking incentive, sometimes for 24 hours, but I will go longer if necessary.
Some of you will perhaps conclude that I am an abusive trainer, but these are important issues which require candid discussion. I do not believe that dogs perform well because they "love" you. I believe that dogs perform well because they love the experience of training with you. When I was a beginner as a trainer I came to realize that I had to make the dog go to training, and that something was seriously wrong. Now all of my dogs pull to go out for tracking, obedience and protection. This is not bragging, I just simply stop and figure out how to restore drive when I find it is not present. Sometimes, this means finding a home for a dog, and that is the nature of breeding selection.
In all training, the time comes when track means track, heel means and out means out. The handler must be the boss, just as in my work I have a boss. My boss is a very good man, and we have an excellent relationship. Sometimes we disagree, which is permitted. But in the end, he makes decisions and I carry out the plan. So it must be in dog training. There will be consequences to fail to perform an exercise the dog understands, and sometimes compulsion is necessary. No dogs in any serious sport or line of work perform at the top without an element of compulsion.