Cooperative Care

Check out or newest video on Cooperative Care techniques.

Understanding Force-free and Fear-training Philosophy

In today’s world of dog training, pet owners are presented with many options—but not all methods are equal when it comes to strengthening your bond with your dog, building their confidence, and giving them the freedom to make choices.

In this blog, I want to focus on two core philosophies that guide how we work with dogs and their people: force-free and fear-free training.

The force-free approach is grounded in the science of animal behavior. It relies on positive reinforcement to reward desired behaviors and uses prevention or redirection to address undesired ones. But I want to explain it in a way that clears up some common misunderstandings.

When I talk about force-free training, I mean that we don’t force a dog to comply. That doesn’t mean we let dogs walk all over us—as some balanced trainers like to claim. Instead, we look at the whole dog and ask: Why couldn’t they follow through? And more importantly, how can we help them succeed next time?

For example, if I ask a dog to sit and they don’t, I won’t push their rear down or jerk the leash to make them sit. READ HERE.

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Nutrition

Nutrition is a crucial part of your dog’s development and how well the brain functions. There is a lot of confusion on what the right food is for your dog. Tiffany Walker, Canine Nutrition Specialist has put together a list of approved kibbles, can, dehydrated, and raw so you can feel confident that you are feeding a food that is ethically sourced and contains high quality ingredients.

Download our Food Recommendation list for FREE.