I am proud to be a positive reward based trainer. Every time I go see a client for a private consultation and I tell them they no longer have to use a shock collar or a pinch collar or a choke collar to change their dogs behavior I see a huge sigh of relief from the client. From my experience most people do not want to hurt their dogs but sometimes they just do not know another way to train. Traditional type training methods –those methods that use pain to stop a behavior is really just a band aid that covers up the dogs issues. In other words it only suppresses the dogs behavior. And stresses the dog out and deteriorates the bond between dog and owner.
When dealing with leash reactivity, you want to get the dog to offer you an alternate behavior to barking and lunging- and for dogs the more you reward the dog with something really yummy the more they will offer you a different behavior.
Teaching your dog to look at you in the presence of another dog is a great alternate behavior to barking and lunging! So many times when I see a client for the first time and I bring super high value food rewards like cheese, chicken, meatballs, hotdogs the dog is much more willing to take my yummy food reward than bark at the other dog. Sometimes all it takes is for owners to understand what a high value treat is and to ONLY use it in the presence of dogs!
Stay tuned for more tips on leash aggression
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