A recent discussion on a dog training email list got me to thinking about some issues that are currently tearing the dog training world apart.

The comment from the email list was from an obedience judge with over 30 years of judging experience. She was commenting on the general lack of obedience that is currently being seen in competition level dogs and wondered if this was due to the changes in training methodology over the past 15 to 20 years.

She felt that even the highest examples of dogs…those trained to compete in the highly disciplined sport of competitive obedience were no longer able to perform reliably because of a lack of consequences.

I have to agree with her on this one. However a lot of people went on to say that dogs should not be trained with consequences…. they should only be rewarded for good behaviour and all bad behaviour should be ignored. Saying no to your dog is not acceptable. One responder even went so far as to suggest that we employ standards from the Children’s Aid and make it illegal to even walk a dog with the leash pulled tight.

Perhaps this might work if you are single, don’t work, don’t have anything else do and there are no children in the house and you devote your entire day to training the dog.

Somehow I just can’t imagine this working for a working mom with 3 kids. Having a dog around that is constantly knocking over a two year is going to be a big problem if all mom can do is reward it for being good.

These trainers make claims that training dogs with consequences are going to cause aggression in dogs. Balderdash! The opposite is the case. In a lifetime of training dogs and using consequences that has never been the case here.

It is also true everywhere in Nature. Consequences for making bad choices are part of everyday life, no matter if you are a bad driver or a deer crossing a busy highway. Even among barn yard animals there exists a hierarchy and a consequence will occur if a certain horse ventures too close to the best hay or grain.

A mother with 3 little kids and a dog can afford the time to ignore bad behaviour waiting for good behaviour to occur. She needs the behaviour to stop in a timely manner. If we as dog trainers fail to provide her with a solution we are failing both her and the dog. We will leave her with no other choice but to re-home the dog or surrender it to the shelter.

Insisting on good behaviour from your dog will not cause aggression in your dog. Saying no to your dog will not cause aggression or destroy its self confidence.