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Putting punishment in its place: the evolution of dog training
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Both dogs and owners have breathed huge sighs of relief as training methods
have become easier and kinder, and produced stronger, more reliable behaviors.
Photo: "Bill"
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 (see my article on Crossover Dog Training here).
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open their eyes and their minds and admit to themselves and others that the methods they have been using are not only outdated, but abusive.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.
It is hard to go through a complete change of methods and ideology on a subject you thought you knew well. However, as the years pass I am losing my patience with those die-hard “no food” force based trainers. They are surrounded by better information, and now are simply in denial.
This does not mean that there is not a place for punishment in dog training. There is, and I will discuss punishment in my next article.
In the bad old days, when many dogs were called “untrainable” because they could not respond well enough to force-based training methods, they were euthanized. Murdered, because of our ignorance. Having been involved in rescue since 1967, and learning first hand how many dogs die because of behavior problems, I do not want to see a return to the dismal past for any dog, or for any dog owner.
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