Thoughts from a “Positive Reinforcement” Trainer

Is it Really All or Nothing?

In February, I wrote an article titled Is it Really All or Nothing? That article described a few of my concerns about the obstacles some positive reinforcement trainers place in the way of converting new trainers to positive techniques. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies in helping new trainers embrace positive reinforcement. There were two main topics I focused on in that article. The first was the reluctance many trainers feel in allowing more traditional trainers to approximate or gradually convert to the use of positive reinforcement tools. The other issue that I addressed was the troubling trend of being overly critical, and not very positive, in the approach that some take talking about or to trainers who have not yet adopted positive reinforcement.