It is possible to train without any aversives at all, to quite a high standard, more than most pet dog owners would be happy with.
However, there are some disadvantages to ‘positive-only’ training, the key example being the length of time it takes to achieve the same goal using some form of correction. There is an interesting guy in the USA that has trained his lab for the shooting field with absolutely no aversives whatever. He is a professor of ethics, and very very dedicated. Another member of the positive gundogs email group has achieved a senior hunt test field title (American title) on his standard poodle without any aversives, and that is quite an achievement because USA tests require advanced control and handling of the dog on water. However, the trainer in question took several years to reach a goal that most retriever trainers achieve in around 18 months!
The fact that training without aversives is possible of course, does not mean that it is necessarily desirable. I have trained a few skills without aversives, but for me, the usefulness of an occasional mild correction, outweighs the length of time it takes to effectively ‘proof’ a behaviour without any corrections at all.
There is no doubt though that more and more people are interested in training without aversives and this is such a good thing because it encourages the rest of us to be more positive overall.
Pippa
