Chief Cheery Officer (CCO) Kiyo’s approved training tip…
Your dog can learn without fear or pain, and so can you. Traditional training methods tend to be punitive in nature, making use of corrective techniques to make a dog behave. But dog training has since come a long way from these traditional methods – we now have a better understanding of how dogs and other animals learn.
Choke collars or chains, prong or pinch collars, shock collars – these tools are unnecessary in effective dog training. Humane, fear-free training works by motivating a dog to do something you like, rather than punishing her for doing something you don’t. While dogs share a common ancestry with wolves, they are not wolves waiting for an opportunity to take over our lives. Hence there’s really no need for us to be ‘alpha’, ‘pack leaders’, or ‘dominant’ to our dog.
What we do need to do is to understand our dog’s behaviour and communicate with her in a way that motivates her to do what we want, in a way she finds rewarding. As dog guardians, we have a choice – would we like our dogs to follow us because they want to, or do we want them to obey us out of fear? The choice is clear.
For more information about force-free, fear free ways to train your dog, check our Puppy Brains and Dog Foundation Programmes.