Beyond R+
Emerging from the confines of “pure positive”
Although I may not be proud of it, I was 100% THAT person that would judge someone the moment I saw their dog in a prong collar or E- collar. To me, tools outside of your typical harness, collar, or gentle lead were just cruel– I jumped to conclusions as I would empathize with the “poor dog” and their misunderstanding owner.
It was for several years I had this thought pattern while training under a corporate company. Coming into my position with no dog training experience, I was trained extensively under the “fear- free” philosophy. I fell in love with dog training, and our methodology was something I studied day-in and day-out… I was taking R+ to the grave. Corporate training holds strict boundaries of following strictly pure- positive, and in turn, we were taught all the reasons why any other method just wasn’t effective.
”Prong collars only work because they hurt!”
“The dog is only listening out of fear.”
“ ‘No’ is not useful information”
“ ‘Shocking’ a dog is a copout for actual training”
“These tools will scar your dog physically and mentally!”
“The owner clearly doesn’t want to take the time to understand their dog!”
“It’s borderline abuse!”
“It's just not necessary.”
And of course… “Positive reinforcement is scientifically proven to be the most effective way to train… So why use anything else?” (Diving into the pitfalls of those studies is something I could write a whole textbook about)
I was good at my job. I built a strong clientele, I saw so many happy families, had breakthroughs, I really connected with every aspect of my career, and needless to say– the methodology just worked.
Until…
Well, until it didn’t.
Per protocol, dogs that were too aggressive, too anxious, or “too much”, would be referred to a behaviorist. Behaviorists were basically other R+ trainers with more time and resources for that kind of thing… and were notorious for getting dogs on medication. Feedback from pet parents almost always mentioned the “behaviorist” requiring the dog to be on a hefty dose of trazadone or xanax before having a second, or even first session. At the time, I believed it was a perfectly reasonable course of action. Despite that, many behaviorists do some incredible work, and anyone with the time and patience to tackle a rehab case is deserving of a gold metal. Operating within the walls of pure positive with reactive dogs was a challenge I quite enjoyed. Most times, I had to make the choice on behalf of the company to turn away a lot of dogs that needed help beyond what we could offer (it wasn’t so much the training, but the image and liability). Big companies of course avoid the liabilities of aggressive dogs, and mustn't let the other onlookers in their facilities see the horror that is a reactive dog.
I loved my job because I love helping people (Cliché, yes).
Turning people away felt like turning a forced blind eye.
I wanted so badly to help them, and it took me a long time to understand that no matter what my circumstance, we trainers can’t do it all. But I still knew I could do more. I aspired to work with a rainbow of dogs; over- excited, for service, over- anxious, lazy, reactive, for therapy, sassy, pushy, aggressive– my passion really drove me to crave a myriad of cases.
Enter: COVID!
I was furloughed from my job for a few months and I was devastated. My time apart from the company really gave me time to think, and I came to a few realizations:
#1… corporate will survive without you (ie, take that vacation, take the sick day, don’t pick up that shift if you don’t want to…)
#2 Balanced training may not be so bad…
A whole new era of trainers on youtube and social media really got me to dip my toe in the balanced training waters. After removing my metaphorical horse blinders, I found myself learning a lot, and even understanding methodologies and training ideas beyond what I was ever willing to open my mind to before. Sure, I didn’t agree with it all, but that is the beauty of being a trainer.
If you knew me during my training journey, you may know that I helped my best friend with raising a beautiful German Shepherd puppy. We didn’t know what we were doing. Two girls in their early twenties in a tiny two bedroom apartment just trying their best to make things right for this ticking time bomb. We both were trainers and still, I had this overwhelming feeling of “WTF did we get ourselves into”. Our perfect puppy developed some nasty reactivity and the aggression had us over our heads. We couldn’t have people over, she bit our maintenance man, she would break out of a padlocked crate, my boyfriend was the only one who was able to watch her if we weren’t around, and it really became a pain point. We loved her with all of our hearts, and we celebrated little wins when we could… but it came time we got her help beyond what we could do. My friend found a trainer and it really made big strides in her progress. This trainer used tools and watching the whole process as a tool- curious individual was fascinating. In person, I was able to watch the dog I love thrive a whole lot more– with a prong collar!! Even though she will never be an “everywhere” dog, the training gave me a new perspective of what we could do with her, and the possibilities of balanced training.
In my work life, I still taught and abided by our guidelines– but understanding exactly how balanced training worked really put my training restrictions into perspective. It was like all these answers were right in front of me, and yet, I couldn't quite put them to use. Seeing a dog struggle, and knowing there was so much more you could do for them… except you couldn’t… was painful. I didn’t even technically have the ability to suggest another balanced trainer, because that could come back to the ear of someone– thus having me end up in a lot of trouble. My perspective? You wouldn’t go to beauty school to become a biologist; some of these dogs just weren’t in the right environment, and I vowed to do my best to help them in any way I could. I’m here to give dogs and their families a better life, and I’m open to using a variety of methods to make it possible.
My study of balanced training and my career as an R+ trainer both went on for years (cue “Best of Both Worlds” by Hannah Montana). As someone who already has a habit of decision paralysis, all of this competing information was a challenge to juggle. There will come a day when I’m doing this on my own… How am I going to know what the right thing to do is? The world of “balanced” training can be, well, unbalanced. A true balanced trainer takes all types of training into consideration, so when I’m seeing so many successful routes, I’m already feeling stuck! R+ is very much a safety net for me. When it came time to leave corporate training, I really was concerned about my ability to be a successful trainer outside of pure positive. People knew me for one thing, and now I’m emerging from the balanced training closet. The different styles of training communities can be harsh AF and I didn’t want to fall victim to that, but it was time for me to put someone else’s opinion of me aside and go for it. I’ve never really truly conformed to one single type of… anything… So why be worried about starting now? During a trainer- focused seminar I attended (shout out Bethany and Kait), my eyes were opened to the fact that I don’t have to just “throw away” my 7 years of training experience. My *literal* blood sweat and tears I put into dog training wasn’t for nothing– it's my catapult. I changed my perspective on what I was capable of and I found confidence within the parts of dog training I had yet to experience.
I find myself working the balanced spectrum to the best of my ability. The dog I meet where I plan on using lots of E collar work ends up being more treat- based on their journey, and for others, I get to see tools transform their once over- treated world into a whole new lifestyle. I like to think of dog training as an iceberg; We may only be familiar with what we see on the surface, but there is a whole BIGGER part to it we all have room to explore. Not conforming to one particular style is the biggest way I can stay true to myself in my career.
If you stayed with me through this big change, thank you. If you joined me after I “made the switch”... welcome to my iceberg! I’m so excited to discover and practice all the things I have yet to learn. I have and always will put my heart into this training journey of mine.
Happy Training,
XO,
Hannah, Mind your Canine LLC
