Our philosophy

The dog (Canis familiaris) is a domesticated carnivore of the Canine (K9) family. It has its own needs and physical instincts. They communicate differently that we humans do and many of their common habits might not seem favorable to us. The moment we bring a puppy or an adult dog to our home we ask them to alter behaviors; many of which are normal for their species. We need to guide and help them adjust in the new environment. At the same time we need to learn how to fulfil their needs so that we can accommodate them and adjust our expectations to have the best possible outcome for both of us.

DogSociety training

We live for 10, 15 or even 20 years with our dogs so it is worth taking the time to train our dogs but also train ourselves to enjoy the companionship and many activities to the fullest.

Many dog owners are concerned about the training methods and negative experiences that our dog may have during the training process.
We have all heard of harsh and violent training methods, both in training wild animals and pets. Fortunately, in recent years there has been a major shift in the training methods of our four-legged friends. More and more trainers now have the all positive training method as the main core of their system. With this term they want to emphasize that violence is not used at any stage of the dog's training. However, an owner who wants to train his dog must have in mind some pitfalls inherent in this model of training. Training in the broadest sense includes all activities that aim to influence in a specific way thinking, the character and physical skills of the individual (in our case, dog). From a technical point of view, with the process of education, specific knowledge is acquired, skills and abilities are developed.

So a dog, just like a human, learns not only during school (or training), but in any interaction with its environment. The owner should keep in mind that he, like the other members of the herd that owns the dog, is part of the training. Thus, they should have stable behavior towards the dog, so as not to confuse them.

All positive training

Positive training is a term in psychology and especially of its part called behaviorism.

In behaviorism, we have 2 main learning methods:

-Classical Conditioning

-Operant Conditioning

In the second method there is the process of positive reinforcement , from which the concept of positive training took its name. This process is based on the simple theory that linking a behavior to a positive stimulus makes this behavior more likely to be repeated.

Theory vs Practice:

Now that we know the above, let's look at what actually happens during "positive training only" with a few simple examples:

You want to teach your dog to sit when you ask him to. According to positive training, you should reward your dog as soon as he performs the requested behavior. This must be done voluntarily and without the intervention of the handler. If the dog does not sit down, then he will not receive the reward.
You want to teach your dog not to pull the leash on the walk. According to positive training, you should reward your dog when he does not pull the leash. If the dog pulls the leash then he will not receive the reward. For most dogs this will work just fine. But what if your dogs bites people or it's aggressive to other dogs? Then we need to have a way to control their impulses in order to protect them and others.
We should also take into account that even the most liberal methods of education in children (Montessori - Frenet, etc.) contain some kind of punishment linked to problematic behaviors that impact the group. Finally, we must not forget that the city is not the natural environment for our dogs and it is our duty to protect them.

Reward Based Balanced Training

As we have seen, "only positive training" starts from a completely acceptable principle, but it sometimes leads to deadlocks in the training process. So what is the solution?
Reward based balanced training suggests that the method of training should be tailored to each dog individually and work according to their abilities, strengths, temperament and weaknesses.
The first dog we had in the family 25 years ago, when I was still a child, if you raised your voice for something "bad" he did, he would hide for hours and you would lose part of his trust for days. If any trainer suggested to me then to use pressure or punishment he would have made a terrible mistake. Instead of helping, he would have created a huge problem for the dog and our relationship. On the other hand, with the dog I have been living with for a year, when I caught her chewing the walls in my house and raised my voice to stop her, she did not even turn to look at me.

Corrections during training should be such as to produce the right result, without risking in any way a change in the dog's character nor lose his trust on you. We must not forget that we do not want to change his character but only the specific behavior.