Related Posts

Addressing Dog Daddy Followers

Dog Daddy Under Scrutiny for Abusive Practices by Entire Dog Training Industry and Media

Dog daddy is going to Toronto and we are protesting. 

About

View all posts by →

22 Comments on “Positive Reinforcement Training Doesn’t Work For All Dogs #dogtraining #dogtrainer #puppytraining”

  3. One of my annoyances with people criticizing positive reinforcement trainers who make content is when they bring up how said creators haven’t tackled enough “big & bad” dogs. At that point, it feels to me like what they’re after is mostly something entertaining to watch, not educational content. Like, if you have a dog that’s so aggressive you don’t know what to do with it, you obviously shouldn’t be getting your information from youtube dog trainers anyway. You need to talk to a professional in real life who can meet your dog and train with you where you are.

    Positive reinforcement creators might not post as many dramatic high-stakes videos, but I’d rather take something away from a dog training video that I feel I can use myself with my dog in our lives. Just my two cents.

    1. If people really want to see a positive reinforcement training on YouTube
      They can search up
      It’s Me Or The Dog
      On YouTube, it’s a UK show that only does positive reinforcement training with bad behaving dogs

    2. With positive reinforcement, you always want to keep the dog under threshold. Because the dog is under threshold, you don’t see aggression and reactivity (and therefore, some people think, positive trainers don’t take on aggression and reactivity). Positive training isn’t always entertaining. It can be downright boring to watch. But it’s well worth it.

  4. I have a dog who was extremely leash reactive. I tried all sorts of positive reinforcement training methods to get him not to react to seeing a person walking ACROSS the street from us. He didn’t respond to clicker methods, toy distractions, treat distractions, any of it. I recently got him a gentle lead because his behavior wasn’t just dangerous for other people and animals, but also for him because he would lunge so hard that I would trip and step on him by accident. Anyway, I got him a gentle lead so that I could redirect his head any time he was about to lunge, he has since stopped lunging at people, sometimes he still does bark at other dogs or children, but he doesn’t lunge nearly as much. I’ve been using positive reinforcement every time he doesn’t bark or lunge he gets a treat, but he seriously would not have gotten to the point he is if I hadn’t gotten him a gentle lead. He DID NOT respond to treats, toys or verbal ques. I’m not saying all dogs are like mine, but I’m saying that some dogs need just a little bit of help.

    2. I see a gentle leader as management. I have used them.
      I had one rescue dog who was afraid of being taken away from me, so he would threaten strangers who got too close. I would put a muzzle on him when people were around. The idea was to keep people away and it worked. It wasn’t intended as a punishment and he was happy that he was left alone.

  5. I’m at a complete loss with my daughters dog. He has destroyed dog crates, so he has roam of the house with the other dogs. He’s dog #3 of 4..He has completely destroyed furniture. He chews the arms of chairs.. He’s also urinated on furniture. He just doesn’t stop. He’s not intact thinking that might help. He’s also the only male dog. I’m open to ideas!

    1. Hi, sorry that you are going through so much stress in your house. 💜 If I was a friend of yours helping you out I would have a strong guess that the dog is hungry for mental challenges so he finds stuff to do to cure boredom so the first thing I would do is challenge him both physically and mentally to burn excess energy as well as tiring out that little noggin. I would find puzzle feeders, teach tricks, hide treats for him to find with his nose, maybe teach coffee or tea search to play drug dog for fun since the biggest area of their brain is dedicated to their nose. I would also do leave it training because sometimes the hardest challenge is to leave things alone! Start in baby steps and work up difficulty slowly, set him up for success. 🙂

    2. Another thing to add to the other persons comment(which is great advice) is to maybe take him to a vet. He could have a medical issue(like a thyroid or neurological issue) that it would be best to rule out. If it really is just behavioral what that person suggested as well as teaching a “settle” will likely help. Also are the females spayed? Sometimes neutering a dog doesnt completely rid them of instincts so if there are dogs in heat in the same house as him he could be getting a bit restless from that still.

  6. Not every dog can be trained by positive reinforcement alone the same way not every human will learn to be the best through positive training alone. For example, you can’t train a Police dog on positive only as their drive is FAR to high to think you could never give them a leash correction. But in ALL cases, positive reinforcement should be the vast majority of all training.

    1. Wherever you think physical punishment or physical corrections are needed, consider that management will stop any behavior while you properly teach a dog. Best of luck!

    2. Actually IGP and Schutzhund is super popular in Europe with very intense dog breeds and they are trained positive only. Not only is it fully possible and doable but it is being done.

    3. Are you saying people respond to negative reinforcement as a learning tool? Physical reinforcement as one w/ an animal (dog,bear)-no that will & would never work- really- 🙄

  9. Hey, Zak. My family had a yellow lab when I was little who was extremely reactive to everything! We tried positive reinforcement methods, my mom took him to a number of trainers, and nothing helped. He would literally just drag her along, no matter what. Do you have any suggestions for things we could have done for him?

Leave a Reply