Unleashed Pawtential Dog Training

Unleashed Pawtential provides dog training in Wellington. We believe in our dogs doing the hard work - teaching them to problem solve and choose the right thing to do makes it easier for us and more fun for them. Our training approach helps to build the relationship and bond with your dog, as well as addressing any of those challenging behaviours.

If you want to use training language - we use positive reinforcement and negative punishment. In plainer English, this means we reward the behaviour we want to see, clearly teach those behaviours we are after, and if faced with an undesired behaviour remove the reward the dog is seeking through that behaviour.

An example of this training approach in action is one of the ways to train a dog not to jump up on people - in this situation the reward the dog is seeking by jumping is the person's attention. So, if the dog jumps, remove all attention (negative punishment as you're removing something rewarding to decrease an undesired behaviour). Then, when the dog stands still, sits, lies down give the attention, pats and focus they were looking for (positive reinforcement - when they do what you'd like them to, it's fun for them). In no time the dog will be trying the new options to get your attention as that is what reliably works.