I have a Malinois, we do PSA and around July I started having engagement issues in training that hurt us in the sport but also at home. If there’s any sector of trainers that focuses on engagement beyond eye contact it’s the ff community so I took a deep dive into the world of positive reinforcement. Although we’ve made a ton of progress in engagement, managing arousal, vet visits, learning through play we’ve also had some set backs that have made me reconsider our training plan and going back to aversive tools*.
I’m torn because I know a lot of these things can be solved or managed using r+ methods and although the ff community loves to talk about fallout using tools, sometimes I think my dog is experiencing fallout from lack of boundaries.
Has anyone gone from balanced to r+ and back? Or r+ to LIMA? I think I’d fall more in the LIMA category. How did your dog respond? What was your reasoning for switching training techniques? Or did you go from balanced to r+ and stay there?
I enjoy learning from all sides of training as there’s always something to learn but would love to hear your thoughts.
*prong and/or e collar. I’ve used and taught them in the past but will work with another trainer on reintroducing e collar although this time more as a gas pedal than break. It will only be used with commands he already knows, all learning is done without tools and I mostly use long lines instead of going off leash due to leash laws.
I’m torn because I know a lot of these things can be solved or managed using r+ methods and although the ff community loves to talk about fallout using tools, sometimes I think my dog is experiencing fallout from lack of boundaries.
Has anyone gone from balanced to r+ and back? Or r+ to LIMA? I think I’d fall more in the LIMA category. How did your dog respond? What was your reasoning for switching training techniques? Or did you go from balanced to r+ and stay there?
I enjoy learning from all sides of training as there’s always something to learn but would love to hear your thoughts.
*prong and/or e collar. I’ve used and taught them in the past but will work with another trainer on reintroducing e collar although this time more as a gas pedal than break. It will only be used with commands he already knows, all learning is done without tools and I mostly use long lines instead of going off leash due to leash laws.