@daniom
In my experience it is almost exclusively dog owners who espouse R+ ideology, people who work with dogs for a living generally learn that some degree of aversive is often necessary.
The thing is, if you work with dogs for any length of time, it's really obvious that some dogs are going to give you a choice. You can spend years, literally, on trying to get a dog to walk down a street, without having him lunging and reacting to everything or, you can teach him that that isn't what you're looking for and go on with things.
I used to live down the street from a family that had gotten a Lab puppy. By the time the dog was a year old, the only person who had any hope of walking the dog, was the husband. The kids and wife couldn't hold onto this dog.
The guy used a big heavy choke chain. He also wore ski gloves, to keep his hands from being destroyed while the dog pulled. I have no idea why they used a choke chain other than it was about 1988 and that's what everyone used but the dog was so used to it, that he just dragged the guy anyway. There were no handy videos or anything like that, to help the family with the dog, and that's how they lived with that dog, till the day he died.
I start all my puppies with R+ methods. I want them, for dog sports, to understand offering behaviors, what a click signifies, how to play with toys with me, how to take treats and not my fingers, etc.
But I have puppies, well bred ones, who come from pedigrees of wanting to work with, and being interested in working with humans. I'm also good at environmental control. My puppies are dragging a short leash around on a buckle collar, so if they do something I don't want them to do, I can grab the leash and redirect them and have a party.
Someone who, as I said before, takes home a big, adult dog from a shelter, a dog who has never been taught any rules or commands, let alone behavior chains, doesn't have that luxury. The dog has to learn things fast or in most homes, he'll be returned. And that process will happen again.
My young dog had pretty bad leash reactivity starting at about 6 months, when our state pretty much shut down because of COVID. And I do dog sports. Once that resumed, it was serious work to get her into a training building, let alone a dog event, without her being an ass. I did a great deal of LAT with her, and taught her that, and taught her that staring at some random dog, meant we went nowhere.
So now? We can be ringside at a crowded, crazy agility trial, and she can lie on top of my feet and not react. She can ignore it all and go into the ring and be a good working dog.
But the entire process was not PP. At some point, when I was sure she knew what my criteria was, I corrected her for carrying on. It wasn't major, but it was a correction, and she understood it.
I thought
this was a good summary of working with a dog who needs to learn what the deal with working with a human is all about. He's very fair to the dog, and clear with the dog.
