Take the time to learn how to train effectively and you will have all of the freedom you could possibly want with your dog. However, this training does come at a cost, especially when you don't know how to do it effectively.

So many of my clients come to me after going with another trainer and wonder why they weren't told everything from the beginning.

They trusted someone and they got burnt. A lot of the time dog owners will never go back to any training and that leads their dogs to have less-than-ideal lives and more stress in the home than necessary. In today's episode, I am going to go over exactly what Balanced Training is and how it can hurt or help you depending on the situation you are in.

Here is a free PDF download on stopping bad behaviors without punishment to get you started in training and succeeding. https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits

If you want to work one on one with me schedule a discovery call here and let's make sure this is a right fit for you. https://www.matadork9.com/coaching

Episode Transcript

00;00;01;05 - 00;00;20;01
Michael Accetta
Hello. Welcome to the show. My name is Michael Accetta I'm the founder of Matador Canine, brilliant author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes and host of the Acknowledged Dogs Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. Today's topic is about balanced training. Now, I appreciate your time. I appreciate you looking into this. I'm not going to use it. Let's jump right into it.

00;00;20;14 - 00;00;48;11
Michael Accetta
Balance training. What is it? Balance training. Is the concept an idea of using as many quadrants and what is quadrants quadrants of learning for your dog? This is positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. They try to use a balanced amount. Now, many dog trainers that are switching into a balanced field, it's very popular right now, have either come from a compulsive background or a positive reinforcement background.

00;00;48;17 - 00;01;10;13
Michael Accetta
What do I mean? By that? A compulsive background is where they mainly at verses. Okay. They're correcting dogs constantly to teach them. They're using leash pressure and then releasing that pressure when the dog does do the thing that they want. Or a trainer is coming from a purely positive mindset. This means they're training dogs with a lot of treats, and maybe they weren't seeing the results that they expected.

00;01;10;26 - 00;01;34;11
Michael Accetta
And so now they're figuring out new ways to get easier results for them. Now, balance training as a whole is not a terrible idea. I'm going to tell you very, very bluntly. It is not a terrible idea. Bounce training in theory makes a lot of sense. That's exactly how dogs learn. Things get punished and things get rewarded. Things that get punished.

00;01;34;18 - 00;02;05;10
Michael Accetta
Decrease in the likelihood of being present and happening and things that get rewarded. Increase in the likelihood of them happening. So if you do something and I give you $100, you're more likely to do whatever it was that got the $100. That's exactly how it works. What ends up happening? However, if a trainer came from a compulsive mindset and is moving towards a balanced training, probably not because of an inner change of heart, although it is possible.

00;02;05;25 - 00;02;29;10
Michael Accetta
Most likely it came from social pressure because the purely positive side says you don't need to correct your dog, ever. You can teach them everything they need to know. And if you do it correctly, if you do it right and you spend the time doing it well, then you don't have to correct your dog. So a corrective based trainer is now in a very weird predicament.

00;02;30;10 - 00;02;53;07
Michael Accetta
Everybody's eyes are on them. Everybody is judging them. Everyone is telling them they're doing it wrong even though they have been rewarded. Mind you, first, however long they've been doing it, trainers that have been training for 40 years have been rewarded for 40 years of the same thing that they've been doing. This means it is very difficult for them to give up on their old ways and move into new ways.

00;02;53;20 - 00;03;18;18
Michael Accetta
Unless something is that traumatic for them, I think it comes down to social pressure. If as a whole, we're all pressuring these individuals to move away from aversive methods. They're going to find something that still allows them to do these old habits, even if intermittently, which then puts it on a variable schedule. Right? So even intermittently they can still do the old habits they have.

00;03;18;18 - 00;03;45;19
Michael Accetta
And if they fall back on those old habits, it's excusable with that. With that comes the problem of doing it too much. So a compulsive based trainer who's moved into a balanced trainer mindset still might correct their dog 90% of the time. That's just the old habit. It's going to die hard right? Old habits die hard. That's just what's going to happen.

00;03;46;16 - 00;04;07;20
Michael Accetta
Now, a purely positive trainer who moves into a balanced trainer mindset probably has a better skill set when it comes to using more treats and more rewards than the compulsive trainer. Now, I didn't say they just have a better skill set. They have a better skill set when it comes to treats. The problem, though, is that they can still correct wrong.

00;04;08;15 - 00;04;38;16
Michael Accetta
They can still punish incorrectly, and the dog isn't going to get the information that they need. This is where a good balance trainer will get results. I'm not suggesting that they don't bounce. Trainers do get results and they do get them very quickly. However, however, at what cost is it really about going about punishing the dog for doing something it doesn't know is wrong and trying to cover that up by using treats?

00;04;39;20 - 00;05;01;16
Michael Accetta
Now, I want to tell you a very quick story about a dog named Neptune. This is my favorite dog in the world. If I could have him, I would while I was in college, I'm studying to be a dog trainer I was given a task of training this dog to just do general obedience. Nothing crazy, but the dog was going to say seven or eight months maybe a year old.

00;05;02;17 - 00;05;23;18
Michael Accetta
Absolutely. Off the walls. Loved him for it, but he was off the walls. He could run for 2 hours a day. He could, you know, he could beat you in a race any day the week over and over and over again. He never needed to stop running. He loved life. We even got him on the treadmill for a half hour before doing any training because he had too much energy.

00;05;24;17 - 00;05;49;02
Michael Accetta
That being said, we did obedience work. No big deal right now in the class that I had him, I did a lot of work making sure that he understood he had to focus on me for an extended period of time. I had to do a lot of duration work. And that's important. If you have a high energy dog and you need them to calm down, the more duration work you do, the easier it is for them to relax.

00;05;50;07 - 00;06;17;12
Michael Accetta
In another class, they used compulsive methods on him. Now, this was because the college was determined to teach us all of the skills of dog training so that we had a well-rounded understanding of every aspect, tool and technology. So we also learned compulsive methods and I insisted that this dog did not need compulsive methods. I insisted so much so that a professor and I had a disagreement about it.

00;06;18;13 - 00;06;44;18
Michael Accetta
Didn't end in me getting a bad grade or anything. It just ended in. Okay, well, prove it. Prove that you can do this. And I did. I practiced over and over again. I did not have the skill set I do now, but with the skill set I had, I was still able to get really good results, really good obedience, simply because I worked with what I was presented with, if I had resorted to just punishing him.

00;06;46;02 - 00;07;05;15
Michael Accetta
The charismatic nature of this dog would not have been there. And I could see it when he was in the other class. He wasn't bouncing around. He wasn't having a great old time. There was no smile on his face. He wasn't happy. He was just shut down. Sure, he did sit and he did down and he did his stay, but he wasn't happy about it.

00;07;06;04 - 00;07;25;13
Michael Accetta
And that dog had so much charisma. So much charisma. If you shut that down, what's the point of training the dog? Did you want a robot or do you want a well-trained dog? I would like a well-trained dog. I don't want a robot. If I'm going to have a robot, I might as well get a robot dog. They do sell them.

00;07;26;11 - 00;07;50;10
Michael Accetta
I think they come over from Japan or China. They do sell robot dogs that you tell them to do something and they will do it immediately. I think even then, sometimes they won't do it as a programing feature. But if you're going to be a balance trainer, understand that 90% of your work should be treats. And if someone says, Oh, aren't you a bounce trainer?

00;07;50;10 - 00;08;16;22
Michael Accetta
Aren't you supposed to use corrections? No, because corrections should only take place, only take place when you are 100% confident that the dog really knows the behavior in the situation that you're asking it for. And there is nothing else There is nothing else outlining why your dog shouldn't be doing the behavior but I have one more problem. I always got problems, right?

00;08;17;13 - 00;08;36;24
Michael Accetta
I have one more problem with it. If I taught a dog for six months that training with me is a positive, enjoyable thing, and I say sit over and over and over again at my dog, understand? Sit is a great thing to do. We call it a great thing to do. Any trick is a great thing to do because of the amount of rewards they get.

00;08;37;12 - 00;09;15;14
Michael Accetta
And all of a sudden I say it, they don't respond. And now I correct them What does that teach them? There's a tonal shift. They learn that behavior does not always mean rewards. It might mean punishment. And here's another caveat to it. If punishment only ever happens, one out of every 100 chances, it's on a variable schedule, which means my dog does not know when they're going to get punished and they're going to start to be more concerned about the behavior instead of excited about the behavior.

00;09;15;29 - 00;09;35;03
Michael Accetta
I want my dog to enjoy running to me, enjoy performing with me. And I was doing competitions with my dogs. I want them to look happy and excited. Pretty sure judges look for that kind of thing. We don't want a robot. We want a dog that is lively and inspired to work. This is what we mean when we say dogs love to please people.

00;09;35;07 - 00;09;56;17
Michael Accetta
It's because they look like they're loving to please us because of how excited they are to do their work. If a dog doesn't look excited and doesn't look like they're enjoying the activity. Why would you do the activity? In fact, a person. I mean, yes, there are some parents who force their kids to do things, and they end up being wonderful, wonderful athletes and musicians and artists.

00;09;56;18 - 00;10;22;13
Michael Accetta
Yes. Beethoven. I'm pretty sure his father locked him in the basement for 10 hours a day into practice. He became a wonderful, wonderful musician and composer. But he was sad. He was sad most of his life. That's a terrible way to live. I'd much rather have somebody who's excited about music and is inspired, even despite being pushed down and berated.

00;10;23;03 - 00;10;52;17
Michael Accetta
I'd love to see somebody do that, not just doing it because they're forced to do it. So for bounce trainers, it comes down to this. Are you a balance trainer? Because you are from a compulsive side and you're starting to change your heart? Which I would absolutely love. I think going to a balance trainer is a wonderful step before realizing that there are complete, complete systems to train any behavior you previously thought of.

00;10;53;20 - 00;11;21;08
Michael Accetta
You can now do it with positive reinforcement. And in fact, I know some trainers that can't think of what they should do in order to teach these new skills. Right. If you're an older trainer or you've just been taught a different way, starting to think about new ways of doing things is very difficult. When I first started out and I had learned primarily positive reinforcement, first, I couldn't fathom how you would teach a dog to do something through corrections.

00;11;22;03 - 00;11;36;04
Michael Accetta
How could how could I teach my dog to do a dance routine with me with corrections? It just didn't seem possible Am I just going to nip them in the feet and have them jump up? Of course not. And I don't think corrective based trainers would do that.

00;11;38;10 - 00;11;57;25
Michael Accetta
There was probably a time and a place where they did. But if you're a corrective based trainer, an aversive based trainer, an alpha dog trainer, which has been debunked if you're any of those and you're moving into a balanced trainer area, kudos to you. I think that is great. You're using more treats, you're using more rewards, and maybe you'll find you don't need to correct.

00;11;58;21 - 00;12;21;28
Michael Accetta
If you're a positive based trainer, you're using so many treats, so many rewards, and you're moving into a balanced trainer concept It might be because the skills that you have are not full. They're not complete. You're missing something. You're missing some kind of mentorship or tutelage from someone who's been doing it for a very long time and has had a lot of success.

00;12;23;04 - 00;12;44;16
Michael Accetta
A lot of success. Now, if you like the concept of teaching your dog without punishment, without any punishment at all in solving problem behaviors, I want to invite you to download the PDF Guide below is resolving bad habits without using punishment is a wonderful PDF. Of course I wrote it myself was my gift to you is absolutely free.

00;12;44;25 - 00;13;04;10
Michael Accetta
It walks you through the steps on how to end problem behaviors without punishing your dog, without yelling, no correcting them, without having to use equipment. You can just engage with your dog and stop the problem. Behaviors before they start, while they're happening or afterwards trying to be proactive, interrupted, or reactive. And I go over that in the guide.

00;13;05;14 - 00;13;26;24
Michael Accetta
Thank you guys for listening today. I appreciate all of you taking the time. I hope I didn't waste it. I hope you gathered some information. If you're deciding whether to move into a balanced area or you're a dog owner who is looking for a trainer and you have heard bounce training and know, is it good, is it bad, it is fine, it'll get you results, good training, regardless of what the method is, we'll get your results.

00;13;27;26 - 00;13;42;10
Michael Accetta
But if you don't want to correct your dog, you don't want to punish your dog and you want to be able to do it by bringing life to your dog, enjoyment to their training, go with a purely positive trainer who knows exactly what they're doing and how to get you with results without waiting years to do it.

00;13;43;24 - 00;13;48;04
Michael Accetta
Make sure you download that PDF guide and I'll see you guys next time. Oh,