Why I Choose to Train Force Free

The dog training world is a contentious one. Especially in this day and age, social media can easily overwhelm with the amount of conflicting information and trainers loudly proclaiming that they are right while everyone else is wrong. Who you listen to is ultimately your own choice, but allow me to explain why I make the choices I do as a professional.

It’s important to me that dogs feel safe. Safety can take a lot of forms, all of which I believe are important. I want my dogs to feel like they can safely seek me or their parents for comfort when they are afraid and won’t be shunned. I want my dogs to feel like they can express when they are uncomfortable and they won’t be scolded or punished due to an unrealistic expectation that they must be 100% happy and carefree at all times. I want my dogs to feel safe to explore and try new things, because thanks to the fact that I do not punish, no behaviour is unsafe to try.

Ultimately, when we punish, we reduce behaviour. We make certain behaviours unsafe, we make ourselves unsafe in certain conditions, we potentially make other dogs, other people, or certain environments unsafe. Because we can never just punish a behaviour. A process called classical conditioning - forming an association between two events - is always happening. So if you tug your dog’s lead when they bark at another dog, not only is their expression of fear or frustration unsafe, but other dogs also mean unpleasant things will happen.

So not only are we decreasing our dogs’ feelings of safety, but we can also create a less enthusiastic learner; because, once again, not all behaviours are safe. Your dog may become more hesitant to try new things out of fear of correction. If you were presented with a bowl of Skittles and told that five of them were in fact laxatives, how many would you feel safe eating?

Now, certainly, there are some behaviours that are inherently dangerous, or simply unpleasant, and I am not at all saying that we shouldn’t address them; just that it is possible to do so without decreasing your dog’s sense of safety. Your dog has no morality; they will never understand right from wrong, and everything they do has a purpose and value to them. To oversimplify it slightly, all we need to do is make other, more desirable behaviours more valuable instead!

I believe that my training reflects what a lot of people want out of their relationships with their dogs. Most people get a dog for the companionship, not because they want a puppet whose every move they can control. Because sharing your life with a dog is enriching, because they are fun, and characterful, and even their naughty antics make you laugh. Because even though you do not speak the same language, you share a bond, a trust, an understanding. Because dogs are unconditionally loving, and wholly honest.

I want to help you build a relationship that maximises joy and mutual trust and understanding. I don’t want to teach you how to make your dog do certain things; I want to teach you how to understand what your dog is telling you and work together to reach a common goal. I want to help you meet your dog’s needs, both physical and emotional, and create a bond where your dog loves to engage with you, loves to work with you, and feels safe being their entire selves with you.

I don’t think we reach those goals when we punish. I don’t think we can create that relationship when we are so focused on what we can make our dogs do and how tightly we can control them. It breaks my heart to see the amount of arbitrary advice handed out daily that does nothing but strip joy away from what it is to share your life with a dog.

If our goals don’t align, that’s okay. But I don’t think I have ever met anyone who has, at the end of their dogs life, regretted not training a tighter heel, or wished they had won more awards. And if you simply don’t believe that any dog can be trained without force, discomfort, pain, or fear… why don’t we try together?