What Is Balanced Training & Why I Train That Way

This is a pretty important thing to consider when choosing a trainer to work with. Whether you’re looking at positive-only training or balanced training, you’ll find varying degrees of skill, ability, and knowledge. Not all those who train dogs do it well, and it’s easy to let a label put you off because of hearsay or a bad experience.

Since I’m what you’d call a balanced trainer, let me tell you what that actually means before I explain why I train this way. A balanced trainer uses all four quadrants of operant conditioning:

• Positive Reinforcement

• Negative Reinforcement

• Positive Punishment

• Negative Punishment

At first it sounds confusing. How the hell can a punishment be positive? And why would I want to punish my dog anyway? That sounds awful.

The terms “positive” and “negative” don’t mean good or bad. They mean addition and subtraction. This language came from early behaviourists like B.F. Skinner. It’s not ideal, but it’s what we’ve got.

“Reinforcement” means to make a behaviour more likely to happen again. “Punishment” means to make a behaviour less likely to happen again. That’s it.

So how do these 4 quadrents work. Let’s take a look at the 2 diagrams below:

Positive Reinforcement (green)
Do a job → get paid. The payment makes it more likely you’ll do the job again in future.

Negative Reinforcement (blue)
Forget your seatbelt → car beeps. Put the seatbelt on → noise stops. Removal of the noise makes you buckle up quicker next time.

Positive Punishment (red)
Touch a hot stove → unpleasant burn. The consequence makes it less likely you’ll touch the hot stove again.

Negative Punishment (orange)
Ignore chores → lose your games console. Taking away something valuable makes it less likely you’ll ignore chores again.

Positive Reinforcement (green)
Dog completes a behaviour → gets a reward (food, praise, toy). This makes the behaviour more likely to happen again.

Negative Reinforcement (blue)
Gentle pressure is applied (lead tension or hand on hindquarters) when asking for a sit. The moment the dog sits, the pressure is removed.

Positive Punishment (red)
Dog lunges at a cat → firm lead pop is added. The aversive makes lunging less likely in future.

Negative Punishment (orange)
Dog doesn’t do the behaviour → no reward, and may be removed from the situation. Losing reward and access makes the behaviour less likely to be ignored again.

The Four Quadrants

The diagrams above show how each quadrant works with human and dog examples. The key thing to notice is the addition or removal of something that changes behaviour.

Some trainers will argue that punishment or negative reinforcement can make behaviour worse — and that can be true. But it depends on what happens next.

Take positive punishment. Say your dog lunges at a cat and you use a leash pop. If that correction is firm enough and it reduces the behaviour, then it’s punishment. But if it isn’t firm enough and the dog still manages to push forward, then it isn’t punishment at all — it’s actually become negative reinforcement. The dog has just learned that pushing through the pressure helps them get closer to what they want. That makes them more likely to lunge harder next time.

To put that in human terms: imagine you’re trying to hold a door closed to stop someone getting in. If you apply enough force, they can’t enter and they give up — that’s punishment working. But if they continue and/or lean harder and manage to push their way through, your resistance hasn’t stopped them. It’s taught them that pushing through works. That’s exactly how a dog can learn to lunge harder if a correction isn’t effective.

This is why it can seem complicated at first. If a consequence doesn’t actually reduce behaviour, it isn’t punishment — and if it allows success, it’s reinforcement.

Why Balanced Training?

Let’s be clear: a good balanced trainer uses huge amounts of positive reinforcement. My job is to make sure a dog is confident, fulfilled, and clear on what is and isn’t allowed. I use food, yes — but I also use a lot of play. Play as a reward, and play as a release between drills.

Do I issue corrections? Yes. But only after I’ve done the groundwork to teach a dog how to understand pressure. Sometimes a correction may come sooner — that’s real life — but then it’s on me as the trainer to build that dog back up.

People often hang onto the memory of a correction. We judge it. We feel guilty. But dogs live in the present. They may remember that a certain behaviour brought a consequence, but they don’t sit there reliving it like we do. I’ve never once seen a dog down the pub with its mates ruminating over something that didn’t go well that day. That’s a human trait.

Another reason I train the way I do is because it creates reliability. There are consequences — good and not-so-good — and dogs learn that their choices matter. When I ask for a sit, I need to know that sit holds even if I step away. That reliability comes from reps, clarity, and consistency.

And this is where balance really shines. Done properly, balanced training teaches dogs to comply even when no reward is in sight. And that’s real life. You don’t always have a treat pouch handy — but you still need your dog to listen. That’s what makes balanced training powerful: clarity, reliability, and results you can trust outside the training field.

The Bigger Picture

I get it — many people want to avoid corrections altogether. But remember: the outside world doesn’t play nice. If your dog chases a squirrel into a road and the unthinkable happens, that’s a far harsher “correction” than anything you’d ever do in training. A balanced approach prepares dogs for the real world.

I’m not here to bash positive-only trainers. There are some great ones. But I’d argue that truly being “positive-only” is impossible, because even withholding a reward is negative punishment. And the skill required to make that method reliable in day-to-day life is much higher than people think. It leans more towards management than teaching.

For me, training is about long-term reliability and clarity. It’s about a dog that can handle life’s triggers, not just be managed around them. That’s why I train the way I do — balanced.