By Chris Bach, Founder and Developer of THE THIRD WAY www.trainthethirdway.com

The first way uses force to make dogs obey and punishes them for doing something wrong. THE THIRD WAY’S program does not utilize force when teaching skills nor punishment when a dog makes a mistake. Instead owners learn to give their dogs a good education by utilizing positive THIRD WAY procedures that are fun, easy, effective, and dog friendly. Guidance and management tools and techniques are used to prevent mistakes or stop and redirect an undesirable behavior when it does occur.

The second way uses lots of food, but sometimes with undesirable results such as when a dog depends on the presence of food in order to perform, or when the dog does well at following food, but doesn’t learn and therefore doesn’t do what the owner wants. In these cases, the dogs are confused, don’t perform and owners aren’t happy.

THE THIRD WAY uses food to reward a dog’s choice to do something right and simply interferes with a dog’s choice to do something wrong. By utilizing THE THIRD WAY’S exclusive teaching and proofing processes and without force or punishment, owners teach dogs how to ignore food and obey cues. As a result, they are very reliable in the face of strong distractions and are not dependent upon food to be accurate and willing performers. Dogs learn what owners want. Owners are happy, and best of all, dogs are happy, too!

By giving your dog good guidance, using proper management, and educating him by giving him choices about his behavior and then feedback about these choices, you are using the most effective way possible for teaching your dog how to live in harmony with you. You are using THE THIRD WAY!