Field Guide · Glossary
Balanced training
Methods and protocolsA training approach that combines rewards for wanted behavior with corrections or pressure for unwanted behavior, drawing on all four quadrants of learning.
How it works
Practitioners who use the term generally teach new behaviors with food, toys or praise, and add aversive consequences, such as leash pressure, a prong collar or electronic collar stimulation, to stop unwanted behavior or to enforce a cue the dog already knows. The term covers a very wide range. One balanced trainer may use a light leash correction a few times a month, while another may rely on an electronic collar for most of the work. Describing a trainer as balanced therefore says which kinds of consequences are on the table, and very little about how often or how strongly they are used.
What it looks like
A dog is taught to come when called with food rewards in the yard. Once the dog reliably understands the cue, the trainer adds low-level electronic collar stimulation that stops the moment the dog turns toward the handler, and the dog is still rewarded on arrival.
Commonly confused with
- LIMA
- LIMA is a decision rule about the order in which options are tried, and it permits aversives only after less intrusive options. Balanced training describes the range of consequences a trainer uses, and does not by itself say anything about order.
Related terms
Sources