Why Isn’t Positive Reinforcement Working For My Dog?
You did everything right. The treats stopped working anyway. Here's what's usually going on.
Positive reinforcement isn't failing you — it's usually being asked to do a job it was never set up for. If your dog ignores treats outside, the behavior probably isn't confusing them; the situation is. Most dogs labeled stubborn or reactive don't know what's being asked, don't know how to get it right, and don't know what happens when they don't. Rewards can't fix a communication problem. Clarity can. Sometimes that means a tool, and sometimes it doesn't — but it always means the dog understanding you before anything difficult gets added.
I learned to train dogs from people who disagree with each other.
Kelly Dunbar comes out of the positive reinforcement world. Michael Ellis comes out of working dogs and balanced training. I studied with both, and spent five years doing behavior modification in San Francisco on dogs other people had already given up on.
What I took from all of it is that the argument happening online is mostly beside the point.
Because here's where you actually are.
You've been doing the work. You bought the good treats. You practiced. You watched the videos and read the posts and did what they said. And in your kitchen, your dog is brilliant.
Then you get outside and it's like they've never met you.
So you're on the internet trying to figure out what's wrong — with the method, with your dog, or with you. And what you find is a fight. Force-free. Balanced. Positive-only. Modern. People getting shamed for using tools, other people getting shamed for not using them, and so much information coming at you that you can't sort any of it.
Here's what I'd tell you instead: your dog probably isn't refusing. They're confused.
Is your dog stubborn, or just confused?
More often than not, your dog has no idea what you actually want.
Maybe they get frustrated and start biting the leash when you add pressure. Maybe they displace into sniffing and pulling and never look at you. Maybe they're scared, because they don't believe you're going to handle the situation, so they handle it themselves.
Now look at what's happening on your end. There's pressure on the collar or harness saying the opposite of what your mouth is saying. Your body language changes from one day to the next. Your cues change. And the behavior was never taught to the point where your dog could do it anywhere but the kitchen — not on a crowded sidewalk, not in a busy park, not halfway up a hill in this city.
That's not defiance. That's a communication problem. And no amount of chicken fixes a communication problem.
What does clarity actually look like?
A dog with clarity understands five things:
- What behavior is expected in this environment
- What the command is and how to do it
- How to make the right choice
- What happens when they make the wrong choice
- How to avoid making wrong choices
Most training gets stuck because only the first two ever got taught.
Are your expectations reasonable?
Before your next session, ask yourself two questions.
First: how could my dog possibly know not to pull, or not to lunge at another dog, if I've never actually taught them otherwise?
Second: even if they did know — why would they listen to me?
That second one is about relationship. How much time have you spent helping your dog understand what you want, and helping them understand the world around them? Obedience without that underneath it is thin. It falls apart the second something more interesting shows up.
So where do tools come in?
This is the part most trainers won't say plainly, so I will.
I use e-collars, prong collars, and Starmark collars. You deserve to know that before you call me.
Here's the thinking. Most of what goes wrong on a walk is leash pressure your dog was never taught to read. Teach that properly — condition the dog to understand what pressure means and how to turn it off — and a lot of problems stop being problems. Sometimes getting that across clearly takes a more active tool.
I reach for a prong more often than people expect, for a reason that surprises them: it's usually the safest option. It releases pressure fast and the communication is clear. Your dog knows immediately when they got it right. Muddy communication is what makes training feel like a fight.
There's also a plain safety piece nobody likes to say out loud. Some people cannot physically hold their dog. If you're eighty pounds and your dog is ninety, or your shoulder isn't what it used to be, a tool isn't a shortcut — it's the thing keeping both of you upright on a hill.
The order matters more than the tool
Your dog has to understand the tool before it goes anywhere difficult. I would never put a prong on a dog and walk them straight at something they've reacted to before. That's not training. That's an ambush, and your dog learns exactly the wrong lesson from it.
Teach it first, somewhere easy, until your dog understands what's being asked and how to make the pressure stop. Then start adding difficulty.
Find someone who's used these before you do
I'd rather you work with a trainer experienced with a tool than buy one off a shelf and figure it out on your dog. Most of the harm I've seen from these tools came from good people using them without knowing what they were doing.
Why doesn't any of this show up when you search?
Because the labels are marketing before they're methods.
"Force-free" is language built to land on you emotionally. It doesn't mean a trainer who hasn't adopted the label is out there using force. It means the label is doing work on you.
I'm not the only trainer tired of this. Terra Ruiz of Wholistic Canine, up in Sacramento, has been at it thirteen years:
I'm not interested in the fight. I'm interested in your dog.
Terra Ruiz, The Dog Training World Is Divided, and It's Exhausting
We work in different cities and came up through different mentors. We landed in the same place anyway.
I don't put myself in a box. I'd rather get to know your dog and your situation and go in with an open mind.
Clarity builds better relationships
Trust, communication, consistency. That's the foundation.
When your dog understands what you expect, they get more confident. When you understand how your dog learns, training stops being frustrating and starts being something you look forward to.
Great training isn't about fitting into a category. It's about helping dogs and people communicate clearly, live together peacefully, and enjoy life as a team.
Common questions
Does this mean positive reinforcement doesn't work?
No — rewards are central to how dogs learn and they're in everything I do. But a reward only teaches a dog what to do more of. It can't tell them what to stop, and it can't compete with an environment that's more interesting than your treat pouch. Rewards work best once your dog is clear on what's being asked.
Why does my dog listen at home but ignore me outside?
The behavior was never generalized. A sit in your kitchen and a sit on a crowded San Francisco sidewalk are two different skills to your dog. Home has no competing smells, no other dogs, no traffic. If you haven't practiced in progressively harder places, your dog isn't defying you — they don't know the cue applies here.
My dog bites the leash when I correct them. What does that mean?
Usually frustration, not aggression. Leash biting shows up when a dog feels pressure they can't make sense of — the leash says one thing, your body says another, and there's no clear way to make it stop. The fix isn't more pressure. Back up and teach your dog what releases it.
Do you use prong collars or e-collars?
Yes, both, along with Starmark collars. A prong is often the safest choice because it releases pressure quickly and the communication is clear. But the tool is never the starting point. Your dog gets taught what leash pressure means somewhere easy first, and only then do we add difficulty.
How do I choose a dog trainer when they all say something different?
Stop sorting by label and start asking questions. How did they learn? Will they explain the reasoning behind what they're doing? Will they tell you honestly when your dog needs someone else? Wholistic Canine has a useful breakdown of what a no-label training approach looks like in practice if you want a second trainer's take.
How long does training take?
I work in packages of six sessions across about three months, and most people continue with another block after that. Pace depends on where you're starting. If you've got decent leash handling and your dog follows direction, every other week is usually enough. If this is all new, weekly — and I'd rather you commit to that than disappear for a month, because dogs don't hold onto much when the gap gets that long. Consistency is most of the work.
If your dog is confused and you're tired of guessing which method you're supposed to pick, that's the conversation I want to have. I work with dogs and their people across San Francisco and down the Peninsula — the Richmond, the Sunset, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Excelsior, Pacific Heights, the Marina, Russian Hill, and south through Daly City, Pacifica, San Mateo, and Half Moon Bay. Get in touch and tell me what's going on.
