An explanation of different dog training methods

Because all dogs are different, and may respond differently to each method, it’s important to keep your options open when training your dog. What might work for your neighbors poodle, might not work for your Husky.

Below are a few explanations of different methods. This article is not bias toward any one method. Use your own judgment on what you feel will work best for your dog. If you have doubts about which method to use your best bet is to contact a qualified trainer in your area and get an in person evaluation. He or she can steer you in the right direction.

Positive Training
Simply put, the act of positive training involves rewarding your dog for a correct behavior with food, a toy or something he loves. Positive training by definition does not include any physical corrections and instead suggests that you ignore any bad behavior. Since dogs do what works, they’ll realize that a certain behavior gets them a reward and other behaviors do not. The behavior that produces the reward will become more frequent.

Traditional Training
This method is on the opposite side of spectrum. It involves using a physical correction when your dog displays a bad behavior and verbal praise when he does something right. The basic idea is to make your dog obey to avoid a correction and to gain your praise. A correction does not have to be painful, in fact it should only redirect your dog’s attention, not scare him. A quick pop and release on the leash is an example of a physical correction. It’s annoying to the dog but not harmful provided your only “pop” and not YANK.
Using a correction that is too forceful will actually set back your training and possibly make our dog fearful of you. Less is more.

Clicker Training
This method requires the trainer to use a small device called a ‘clicker’ that makes an audible click when pressed. This is used to mark a correct behavior, after which you follow through with a small reward, usually a treat. The goal is to get the dog to associate the click with the food,. The clicker serves as a bridge between the behavior and the reward. Clicker training makes it possible for you teach more complicated commands since you can easily mark very specific behaviors with the clicker.

Balanced Training
This is a mixture of both traditional and positive training, and can even use the clicker to make training go faster. Balanced training involves using both fair physical or verbal corrections for bad behavior AND using food or toy rewards for good behavior. The idea is to teach your dog that both actions produce a result. For example, in the case of a jumping dog, the act of jumping may cause a physical collar “pop”, while the act of sitting (and by default not jumping) will produce a reward. This gives the dog both pieces of the picture.