Why Dog Trainers Are Switching Methods: Empathy and Education
If you have ever hired a dog trainer, you may have noticed the field does not fully agree with itself. Some trainers work almost entirely with food, play, and praise. Others still reach for leash corrections, prong collars, or even shock collars — despite years of research showing those tools carry real risks for a dog's welfare and for the relationship you are trying to build.
A recent Psychology Today article by Zazie Todd, Ph.D., takes a close look at a new study that asked a quietly important question: what actually separates trainers who use aversive methods from those who never do? The answer, it turns out, is not a difference in how much they love dogs. It is a difference in education, evidence, and empathy.
Inside the study
The study, led by Jamie DeLeeuw, Ph.D., of Community Research Plus and published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, involved detailed interviews with 35 dog trainers across the United States. The researchers recruited through the directories of three major trainer organizations — the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), and the International Association of Canine Professionals (IACP) — so every trainer worked under some form of professional standards.
Even so, the trainers fell into two clear camps: those who sometimes use aversive methods (often called "balanced" trainers), and those who never do. Notably, the reward-based group was recruited specifically because they used to use aversives. They are crossover trainers — people who once trained the other way and walked away from it.
Common ground on welfare, division on evidence
Both groups said they cared about dogs' emotional well-being, and both worried about the same thing: dog training is an unregulated industry, and owners arrive with unrealistic expectations and incomplete knowledge of how dogs learn. That shared concern is easy to miss in a polarized field, and it is one of the most hopeful findings in the research.
But the differences were just as real. Trainers in both camps disagreed about whether it is acceptable for a dog to be stressed during training, and about how well aversive methods actually work. Reward-based trainers rated tools like counterconditioning — the slow, careful work used to help fearful dogs — as far more effective. Aversive trainers leaned on techniques designed to suppress behavior, and on their own years of experience, even when that experience contradicted the published research.
The education gap
One of the study's sharpest findings is about where each group places its trust. Reward-based trainers put much more emphasis on formal education — coursework, certifications, the growing scientific literature on how dogs learn. Aversive trainers put more emphasis on hands-on experience, and many disputed research findings they had never systematically engaged with.
The crossover trainers are the walking rebuttal to that position. Their move away from aversives usually began with education: more exposure to positive reinforcement, more understanding of learning theory, and — as the study puts it — growing empathic feelings toward dogs. For some the change was gradual. For others it was a specific "aha" moment, a dog who got worse instead of better under correction, that made the old methods impossible to keep using.
As DeLeeuw told Psychology Today, "training is not just about stopping behavior — it is about understanding what dogs are communicating and supporting the relationship they have with the people who care for them."
What this means if you are choosing a trainer
Because the industry is unregulated, anyone can print business cards and call themselves a dog trainer. The study, and Todd's article, point to a practical checklist for owners:
- Ask directly whether they use reward-based methods — and whether they would ever recommend prong or shock collars. A trainer who cannot clearly explain their approach is a warning sign, not a mystery to solve later.
- Look for membership in a professional organization such as the Pet Professional Guild, the IAABC, or the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, which hold members to published standards.
- Be wary of quick fixes. Suppressed behavior is not changed behavior. Behaviors that look like "defiance" are usually rooted in fear, confusion, or a mismatch between what the dog needs and what the situation asks of them.
- Choose someone who teaches you, not just your dog. The best trainers help both ends of the leash understand the emotion and need behind a behavior.
The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior also publishes a position statement on how to choose a dog trainer that is worth reading before you book anyone.
The deeper lesson: understand the mind, not just the behavior
What the crossover trainers discovered — empathy supported by education — is the same idea that shaped the work of Dr. Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods at the Duke Canine Cognition Center, and the book it produced, The Genius of Dogs. Dogs are not simply obedient or stubborn. They are individuals with different cognitive strategies: some read human gestures fluently, some solve problems independently, some lean on memory, some on social attention. Research on the best way to train a dog keeps converging on the same conclusion — methods work best when they match how the individual dog actually thinks.
That is exactly what the Dognition Assessment measures: five cognitive dimensions — empathy, communication, cunning, memory, and reasoning — mapped through short science-based games you play at home. Knowing whether your dog is a social problem-solver or an independent thinker changes what "understanding what your dog is communicating" means in practice. It is the difference between correcting a behavior and understanding its cause.
The trainers in this study who changed their methods did not stop caring about dogs on the day they used aversives. They learned more, felt more, and updated. That is the standard worth demanding from anyone you trust with your dog — and the one worth holding yourself to, too.
Explore our science-based training guides →
Breed-specific puppy training: match the method to the mind →
