Positive Reinforcement vs. Negative Reinforcement- What is Fear Free - What is “Balanced Training”

Exploring the benefits of positive training methods and debunking the so called “Balanced training method”

In order to properly talk about this, we first need to explain training or behavioral lingo as simply as possible. 

Defining Positive Reinforcement vs. Negative Reinforcement

So, let’s talk about what these mean, truly and how it’s often misconstrued. 

People mistake Positive Reinforcement with Fear Free all the time. 

 Positive – is Adding something.
 Negative- is Removing something

 Like a battery, plus and minus signs are called positive and negative.

 Reinforcement is meant to Increase a behavior
 Punishment is meant to Decrease a behavior

 Positive reinforcement:

Positive reinforcement is adding something to increase a behavior.

Example: Dog walks up, sits, gets pets and attention. 

Outcome: The dog learns that sitting gets them pets. 

Adding or the Positive here: petting and attention.

The Reinforcement here: the dog will sit when walking up to people.

When Positive Reinforcement is mentioned together, it is usually treats or a toy or anything the dog deems as positive or good. Something that will make the dog want to do it again.

On that note, Positive Reinforcement is just a way to explain behaviors and how certain outcomes are achieved. It doesn’t have anything to do with the trainer themselves or the training method the dog gets, more so a tool we all use in teaching. I’ll show you:

Example: Dog jumps on friend that comes over. Friend likes dogs, friend pets the dog jumping on them. 

Outcome: Dog learns that jumping gets them pets and attention. 

Adding or the Positive here in this example: petting and attention.

The reinforcement here: the dog will jump when walking up to people.
It’s about the Positive- Adding the attention and pets.

And the reinforcement of the behavior: Jumping or sitting because it liked the outcome.

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I know it’s confusing, but stick with me!

Learning is explained through four main principles (And more, but we want to keep it simple for now.) 

• Positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement
• Positive Punishment
• Negative Punishment

These are the building blocks of all learning and outcomes. It works with everything, even you! 

So let’s make it simple. Let’s understand why this is important. 

Once you understand these principles, training is so much easier. Now you understand what's creating good behaviors and things you may accidentally be doing to reinforce bad ones. 

From your dog’s point of view. 

Okay, so that’s Positive Reinforcement. Then what is Negative Reinforcement?

Negative Reinforcement is taking something AWAY to increase a behavior. 

Example of Negative Reinforcement in Dog Training:

"Pressure-and-Release" on the Leash for Loose-Leash Walking

• Scenario: The trainer applies slight pressure to the leash when the dog starts pulling. The dog feels this pressure and stops pulling. The trainer then releases the pressure.
  
  
• Explanation: Here, the leash pressure is uncomfortable for the dog, but when the dog stops pulling, the discomfort goes away. The dog learns that keeping the leash loose makes the pressure go away—this is negative reinforcement, as it removes an unpleasant feeling to encourage the desired behavior.

Negative reinforcement is like letting go of tension or discomfort when the dog does what we want, so the dog learns to behave to avoid the uncomfortable feeling.

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Imagine you’re in a hot car with no AC. You open the window, and the heat goes away. Next time it’s hot, you’ll remember that opening the window helps you feel better. That’s Negative Reinforcement.

The most simple explanation of Negative Reinforcement is your dog learns to avoid something in favor of better behavior, thus learning not to pull on the leash to avoid being choked

Negative Reinforcement, by its nature, does involve some level of discomfort or aversion—after all, it's based on removing something the dog finds unpleasant to encourage a behavior. However, it doesn’t always have to be harsh or frightening. Here are a couple of less aversive examples:

1. Teaching a Dog to Settle on a Mat with Body Pressure

• Example: Imagine gently guiding a dog toward a mat by standing close to them and lightly leaning your body weight (not forcefully!) to encourage movement in that direction. When the dog steps onto the mat, you step back, releasing the gentle pressure.
• Explanation: This creates a slight sense of spatial pressure that’s removed once the dog goes to the mat, teaching them that moving to the mat brings comfort.

2. Using a Gentle Hold to Encourage Calmness During Vet Exams

• Example: Suppose a dog is anxious about vet handling. A trainer or vet tech might hold the dog gently (not tightly), giving them a sense of light restraint. When the dog relaxes or stops struggling, the light restraint is immediately released.
• Explanation: The dog learns that calm behavior helps them gain freedom or avoid restraint, reducing anxiety over time.

Now then, with those two laid out, we can still see such a big difference here. 

Fear free training tends to lean into Positive Reinforcement techniques while more aversive and standard training may sometimes dip into Negative Reinforcement. 

But what about the other two possibilities?


Negative Punishment and Positive Punishment 

Negative Punishment:
Negative Punishment works on removing something pleasant or desirable by the dog to decrease a behavior. 

Let’s go back to that example from before. 

Example: Dog walks up, jumps up, You pull your hands away and turn your back on them not saying anything. 

Outcome: The dog learns that jumping makes their owner turn away, taking attention away from them. The dog will try something different next time to get what they want: the attention. 

The Negative: Removing  petting and attention..

The Reinforcement: the dog will stop jumping when walking up to people. Because the jumping does not get the results they want.

Positive Punishment

Positive punishment is something fear free training tends to stay away from as it’s very frequently used in aversive methods. 

Adding something to Decrease a behavior. 

 (Remember when talking about training and using these examples, Positive just means adding, it doesn’t mean good, and Punishment means decreasing a behavior, it doesn’t mean hurting or bad.)

- Dog barks, dog gets shocked (The shock here is adding or the Positive), dog learns not to bark (This outcome is the punishment. It’s serving to lessen the behavior of barking)

Dog jumps up, dog gets slapped, dog learns not to jump up.

I do not condone using methods that cause fear, pain or distress. These are purely examples to explain in a way people can understand, because a lot of people out there talk about being “Positive reinforcement trainers” and that is not the same as “Fear Free.”

Even Aversive trainers use Positive Reinforcement methods in their training. They use it a lot. All trainers use positive reinforcement, but not all Trainers are Fear Free. 

There is a reason for this. Well, there are several reasons. But let’s talk about one of the main ones. 

Stress.

A lot of owners struggling with dog behavior are fed up, impatient and stressed. All they want is the problem fixed. They don’t care how we get there. Just fix it. 

This puts trainers under a lot of pressure, to just deliver results and quickly. Some owners don’t want to put in the work. They just want to have a dog that’s already trained and they want it done as fast as possible, as cheap as possible. 

Trainers like being able to show results. They like when the owners see this really impressively trained dog. A lot of trainers like it so much, they will die on the hill of “Balanced” Training.

What is Balanced Training?

Balanced training is a method of dog training that incorporates both reinforcement and punishment to teach behaviors. Trainers who advocate for this approach often use a mix of positive reinforcement (rewarding desired behaviors) and aversive methods, such as physical corrections, leash pops, or the use of tools like prong collars, choke chains, or e-collars, to discourage unwanted behaviors.

Proponents of balanced training argue that it allows the dog to understand both the "good" and "bad" consequences of their actions. They often claim that this approach mirrors real-world experiences, where behaviors can lead to either rewards or negative outcomes. Balanced trainers believe that using corrections can provide clarity for the dog and help reduce undesirable behaviors more quickly.

Supporters also suggest that balanced training provides flexibility to address a wide range of behaviors and personality types, as it incorporates a spectrum of tools and techniques. They may frame it as a practical and effective way to achieve reliability and obedience, especially in high-distraction or high-stakes environments.

But this is not the case. Let’s talk about the problems.

The Problems with Balanced Training

While balanced training is often marketed as effective and practical, a closer examination reveals significant flaws in its methodology and outcomes.

1. Behavior Suppression vs. True Learning

Balanced training often relies on aversive tools and corrections to suppress unwanted behaviors. While this may appear effective in the short term, it doesn't address the root cause of the behavior. The dog learns to avoid the punishment, not necessarily to understand what behavior is desirable.

For example, a dog corrected for barking may stop barking in the moment, but this doesn't mean they are calm or understand what they should do instead. Suppressed behaviors often resurface once the tools or punishments are removed because the underlying motivation for the behavior was never resolved.

Let me break that down a little more and explain it better. 

Unless we treat the cause of the behavior, the fear, the reaction, we aren’t really addressing the behavior. You’re simply addressing the reaction. This can have devastating consequences. 

One thing you may not know: Growling is SO very, very important. Growling is a warning. Growling tells you that your dog is uncomfortable or they don’t like something and you should never, ever, punish a growl, because all you’re doing at that point is making the dog not want to growl, thus not give you warning in the future. 

I hear time and time again - “Oh he just bit out of nowhere!”

No, he has been taught not to show discomfort, so now he just reacts. 

2. Fear and Avoidance Replace Confidence and Engagement

Using aversive methods often teaches dogs to act out of fear rather than make thoughtful choices. A dog that avoids a cue like "sit" may do so because they’ve learned the consequence of not sitting is unpleasant, not because they truly understand or trust the cue. This can lead to a dog that appears obedient but is internally stressed and anxious.

Dogs trained with balanced methods often exhibit signs of learned helplessness—a state where they give up trying altogether because they associate attempts to engage or experiment with the possibility of punishment. This crushes their confidence and stifles creativity and willingness to learn.

You want to teach your dog to do different things, to cope in different situations. We can’t do that if your dog is afraid to try. You can’t teach how to do something if all you’re teaching is what not to do. 

3. The Fallout: Inconsistency with Owners

One of the biggest weaknesses of balanced training is how poorly it transfers back to real-life settings. Dogs trained with aversive methods may "perform" for the trainer out of fear or submission, but as soon as the dog returns to their owner—who may lack the same timing, technique, or willingness to use the same tools—the behaviors often regress.

This creates a cycle of dependency on the trainer or tools, rather than empowering the dog and owner to succeed together. True training builds a dog’s ability to generalize positive behaviors across environments and handlers, which balanced training often fails to achieve. 

Owners with a shock collar that have gotten their dog back from training don’t fully understand how to use it. They just use it when the dog is acting “bad”, but owners haven’t had years of training like a professional dog trainer. They don’t know or understand how to correct or timing, and one or two hour long lessons is not going to instill an owner with that kind of understanding. Not to mention, "Board and Train" situations typically only train basics. They don’t teach a dog how to handle more unique situations and generalize. They teach recall, they teach "place" and they teach an active heel. They may also teach even looking at another dog is bad, giving the illusion that your dog is now dog friendly. 

4. The Illusion of Effectiveness

Balanced training can look impressive in controlled scenarios because the immediate suppression of behavior is visually striking. A dog might heel sharply, stop barking, or remain still, but these are often fear-based reactions, not genuine understanding.

In practical, day-to-day situations—like interacting with other dogs, visitors, or distractions—the cracks in this foundation become evident. Without the tools or corrections, the dog may revert to old behaviors or even develop new ones, such as increased anxiety or aggression.

Think about it this way: When using a shock collar or a pinch collar, dogs are often trained by association. 

Human’s get so caught up punishing a behavior that they perceive is bad, they could inadvertently teach a worse behavior. If you’re trying to train your dog not to react to other dogs, and you want them to look at you, and then shock them every time they look at another dog, you could be teaching them that every time a dog approaches, they get hurt, thus making the behavior worse. Because of this, a dog may now become more volatile and reactive to other dogs, associating them to pain and discomfort, associating them with more fear than they did originally.

5. Positive Training Yields Lasting, Trust-Based Results

Evidence-based, fear-free training methods focus on teaching dogs to make good choices by reinforcing desired behaviors and creating positive associations. This approach doesn’t just suppress unwanted behaviors; it replaces them with healthier alternatives.

For example, a dog trained to sit instead of jumping learns, not only that sitting is more rewarding, but also that engaging with people calmly is safe and enjoyable. This builds confidence and problem-solving skills, empowering the dog to adapt to new situations without fear.

It helps the dog to make good choices and learn, rather than be afraid to make bad ones and shut down.

6. Protecting the Dog’s Emotional Well-Being

Aversive techniques can damage the trust between a dog and their owner. Dogs trained with corrections may begin to associate their handler with stress or punishment, leading to a breakdown in the bond. Fear-free training strengthens the relationship by fostering a positive, cooperative partnership based on trust, respect, and mutual understanding.

You’re not putting the fear of god in your dog by punishing them, you’re putting the fear of you. There is no true respect built in fear. True respect is built in trust. 

7. The Ethical Argument

Finally, balanced training raises ethical concerns. Is it fair to subject a dog to pain or fear when evidence shows that positive reinforcement is just as—if not more—effective in creating reliable behaviors? Fear-free training aligns with modern understanding of animal behavior and welfare, prioritizing the dog’s physical and emotional health.

In Conclusion

Balanced training may promise quick fixes, but the results are often shallow, temporary, and harmful to the dog’s overall well-being. Positive reinforcement, on the other hand, builds lasting behaviors, fosters trust, and creates confident, happy dogs. True training isn’t about control through fear—it’s about guiding dogs to thrive in a human world with confidence and joy.