Training Style

At Q&A Dog Co. we consider ourselves balanced trainers. This means that we use a combination of positive and negative feedback to effectively communicate to the dog what we want from them.

Positive and negative feedback are part of every creatures’ learning experience, which is why it’s important to include both in dog training. Positive training (treats, rewards, praise, etc.) are extremely effective at teaching your dog how to do new behaviors and reinforce behaviors that we like. We use a ton of positive reinforcement in our training (especially with young dogs), but that’s only half the story. We need to also be able to communicate to our dogs when they are doing something that is undesirable, or potentially dangerous (pulling on the leash, not coming when called, barking or reacting inappropriately to things in their environment, etc.) The way we do that is through structure, consistency, predictable expectations and consequences. 

Oh no! Not consequences! This is the word that instills the most dislike and fear and also the one that has so much misinformation attached to it. Dogs, just like other living beings, learn based on how their environment and pack reacts to them. They try something, it works, they do it again. If they try something and it doesn’t work they are less likely to try that thing again. It’s very black and white to your dog and very unemotional. It starts to get muddied when anthropomorphising and human emotion gets involved. 

We want to make exceptions for our dogs or allow them to live in a world where they never have to feel discomfort of any kind, but that leads to an extremely confusing (and by default) even more uncomfortable world for your dog. By using low level corrections (flat collar, martingale collar, prong collar, e-collar, etc.) we’re able to easily and effectively communicate to our dog (in a way they can understand) when they have made a choice we didn’t like. When we give them both sides of the story it makes this confusing, human world a lot more predictable for them. Let’s make it easier for them.