Perfect Companion K9

A lot of force free trainers love to attack videos posted by balanced trainers by saying things like, "the dog looks stress", "the behaviours are just being suppressed", etc. I like to discuss this, based on my own first hand experience both as a force free trainer (first 5 years of my career) and a balanced trainer, because I think this misconception can cause a lot of owners of challenging dogs to end up missing the chance to get the help they desperately need.

If you have problem stopping an undesirable behaviours, you should look at how you correct that behaviour. Are you correcting the behaviour with an aversive or are you using an obedience command as if it was an aversive?

I have seen so many aggressive dogs who were totally healthy that were sent to various vets for all sorts of tests - when what they had was a behaviour problem that is not going to be detected by MRI, CT scan, X ray or things like that.

“No” is a complete sentence in the human world; ironically, it is a dirty word to lots of people in the dog world.

Are you familiar with the term “Sprezzatura”? According to wikipedia, Sprezzatura ([sprettsaˈtuːra]) is an Italian word that refers to a kind of effortless grace, the art of making something difficult look easy, or maintaining a nonchalant demeanor while performing complex tasks.

Is your dog following you around everywhere in the house like a shadow? Is your dog very aggressive towards other dogs and people around...