Barks Blog

By Nichola Marshall 

My dogs are livestock guardian dogs and some people will tell you that they cannot be trained to be “obedient.” My old girl was trained “old school.” She is a very good girl and now I understand why – she has been conditioned to avoid an aversive (leash check) by responding to a verbal cue…It seems so obvious now, but mentally it was a total paradigm shift for me to reward behavior rather than “obedience.” Feed my dog just to make her happy? Yes.  Without her having actually “obeyed” anything necessarily? Yes. Result? Exponential explosion in desired behaviors, better recalls than I ever had from “yank and crank” training methods, and beautiful leash walking – all in a matter of weeks. Read article