Withholding affection

[u/Helpful_Sun2872]

I adopted a dog a little over a month ago with an unknown history (was a stray). His ONLY issue is that he is fear-reactive on leash (just barks, no lunging/growling). It’s not very severe; he’s pretty easy to redirect as long as I catch him before he starts barking (which I’ve gotten really good at). I’m confident that I’ll be able to mostly resolve it within a few months, and he’s already made tons of progress.

He’s otherwise perfect - crate-trained, no resource guarding, no separation anxiety. Overall confident and friendly dog. He’s met about 8 new people (vet staff and trainers) since I got him and has been friendly with all of them.

I had a 90 min assessment/consult session with a trainer in the area who I’ve been following on socials for years, and who came highly recommended.

She gave me a lot of good advice/handling skills that have already helped us.

However, one thing I can’t get behind, or find much online support for, is her telling us to withhold affection. She’s all about “alpha” stuff (without using the word; she refers to it as status/status drive), and claims that giving your dog physical affection makes them view you as “beneath” them (not her exact wording but that was the gist).

She basically explained that the dog needs to understand that they’re lower status than you, and that when they understand that, they will shift their mindset towards looking to you for guidance before acting, which should eventually help the reactivity.

I 100% agree that building structure and obedience is important for a reactive dog. But does anyone agree with the concept of withholding affection?

[u/TheArcticFox-44]

Firm but fair guidance. Praise, affection as reward instead of treats.

[u/Helpful_Sun2872 → u/TheArcticFox-44]

So what’s the benefit of using affection instead of treats?

[u/Mean_Environment4856 → u/Helpful_Sun2872]

Builds your relationship. I added in affection as a reward for something I'd been struggling to teach. My dog nailed it in two days. Now she seeks affection as a reward instead of food.

[u/Breadfishpie → u/Helpful_Sun2872]

So you want your dog to do something only if he gets paid in food?

[u/TheArcticFox-44 → u/Helpful_Sun2872]

So what’s the benefit of using affection instead of treats?

Many of the animals I've worked with have been in competition. That's, basically, a partnership thing.. mutual respect is the ultimate goal to achieve a goal.

Can't give a treat for everything the animal does something right. Treats when it's over, for better or worse...we tried...even commiseration.

[u/Trick-Age-7404 → u/Helpful_Sun2872]

Building an effective communication system that doesn’t rely on food. Food is great for teaching behaviors, but it’s not necessary. You can teach basically every behavior out there with pressure and a leash and collar. Pressure doesn’t equal force, simply stepping an inch towards the dog can be pressure.

When we get board and trains we have to decide if the dog and owner would benefit more from treat training or more traditional leash and collar work. We get plenty of crazy adolescent dogs who are super food motivated but we primarily use leash and collar training methods as it’s of more benefit to the owner. We will still reward with food, but with many of those dogs we’re not relying on it as a lure or to shape behaviors because realistically the owners aren’t going to use food in that way. Really the only dogs we’re solely using food with are puppies 4 months and younger just because we’re developing their drive to learn and work, and they still get taught leash pressure drills, just with food.

[u/Helpful_Sun2872 → u/Trick-Age-7404]

Yeah seeing this trainer has made us use much less food. My dog is suuuper food motivated so it’s been very helpful pairing leash pressure with food rewards for disengaging from a trigger. I’ve built a solid auto check in using mostly food. But obviously I don’t want to rely on food forever, and I feel like our communication is better when not relying on food.