There are disadvantages to certain behavioral training methods

Last week, a reader named Claire expressed her sadness and concern for the subjects of my last few articles, Sally and her dog Pancake. Claire asked if I could “talk about the cruelty of training collars (e.g. choke, prong and electronic).” This post is for Claire.

Because this is a very controversial topic in the dog training world, I would like to highlight the American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior’s (AVSAB) position on dog training methods: “Based on current scientific evidence, AVSAB recommends that only reward-based training methods are used for all dog training, including the treatment of behavior problems. Aversive training methods have a damaging effect on both animal welfare and the human-animal bond. There is no evidence that aversive methods are more effective than reward-based methods in any context. AVSAB therefore advises ........ (read more)