In addition to avoiding training procedures that are needlessly aversive, cynopraxic trainers avoid procedures that intrude excessively upon a dog’s freedom incentive (see Hydran-Protean Side Effects, the Dead-dog Rule, and the LIMA Principle). Training efforts that inappropriately restrict a dog’s ability to initiate goal-directed behavior not only adversely impact the dog’s quality-of-life but often do [...]

In recent years, the introduction of a medical model of dog behavior has led some practitioners to treat adjustment problems as mental disorders having physical causes and often to emphasize the role of disease as the underlying cause of behavior problems. Although the medical model is not entirely without merit, as some valid parallels exist [...]

At every step in a dog’s ontogeny, predictive relations are refined and integrated into a base of genetic and experiential prior knowledge. These predictive relations are organized to promote stability through change, referred to as allostasis. Allostatic adjustments enable dogs to anticipate and avoid future risks to stability, thus enhancing adaptive efficiency by responding to [...]

Aversive procedures are legitimate and valuable tools for controlling undesirable behavior, but such techniques can be rapidly debauched into a form that substantially complicates matters. Technically, punishment results when established control expectancies are discontinued, for example, when the trainer discontinues an attractive or aversive contingency. Punishment occurs when the dog recognizes that some previously successful [...]