The Good Dog Tip Of The Day: The Power Of Balanced Training

   By Sean O'SheaThe Good Dog Tip Of The Day: Correcting unwanted behavior, in the moment it occurs, in a fashion that the dog takes seriously is one of the biggest reasons why a balanced training approach is so powerful, and why this approach is able to fix/solve/resolve behavior problems and issues that rewards only based training is often unable to help with. In an effort to over intellectualize dog training, many trainers have lost sight or forgotten that the greatest dog trainers - dogs themselves - never ignore unwanted behavior (if it is truly something they dislike), never put dogs in time-outs, and never reward good behavior (with anything other than continued social interaction), they simply, and effectively address the problem, in the moment, with whatever level of intensity that particular situation and that particular dog needs. When we take this most natural and common K9 communication off the training table, we end up with lots of stressed out dogs, lots of bad behavior, wasted time, frustrated owners, a compromised relationship/connection with our dogs, and in many cases, dogs being euthanized or surrendered absolutely unnecessarily.