The Naughty Dog Podcast

I love this podcast! So much amazing information. Especially if you have a dog who suffers from reactivity.

I am so grateful to this podcast! I appreciate the positive reinforcement philosophy and also understanding the problem in pet behavior and fixing that problem instead of creating more problems through aggressive or domineering sort of dog training. I enjoy Sherry’s experience and story telling while explaining a concept. I have already recommended this podcast many times over to friends who are struggling to understand their dog’s behavior. Thank you!

Pro trainer and K9 handler here. After listening to a few episodes she is obviously very jaded with positive reinforcement training. While positive reinforcement is always the best way to teach a behavior in most dogs, some situations dictate other tactics are needed. She quotes research studies that dogs learn faster using positive reinforcement than positive punishment or negative reinforcement . The studies she referenced however have been widely panned for a small sample set, no control variable on the trainers and the studies only lasting five days with zero follow up on the long term impact. Example when I would use positive punishment and an ecollar. I have had dogs that like to run deer and I happen to live in a state where it is legal for hunter to shoot dogs running deer. Now I could take a long time using positive reinforcement to change the behavior or I can do one correction and have an immediate change that will likely save the dogs life. I personally always opt for the immediate change. What she also fails to understand is that there are benefits to positive punishment and negative reinforcement. Both have been scientifically proven to have better long term retention. Example, if you have touched a hot stove once when you are young you don’t have to touch a hot stove every year to remember how bad it is. Finally she obviously only has experience with low drive pet dogs. Some dogs love to bite, they aren’t afraid, they aren’t conflicted, they just have no better reward in the world than biting. Mals are famous for this. Dogs like this need a correction. You won’t fix this with positive reinforcement since there is no better reward in the world than the bite to begin with. Simply being told and communicated with that the behavior they are exhibiting isn’t acceptable. It also doesn’t have to be painful as it can be a vibrate from a collar that is just telling a dog that isn’t what you want. I love dogs and want the best for every dog I encounter but the pivot to positive only has cost many dogs their lives. Dogs that could have been saved if they simply were told no. To be clear I always train behaviors using positive reinforcement but if you want solid behaviors you need accountability once the behavior is actually learned. That is the balance.

Her training information has been helping me work with my reactive schnoodle. The videos on Instagram are so helpful!!!