05/14/2026
I am NOT sharing this to disparage Karen Pryor or Clicker Training - in fact years ago we had lunch together and she invited me and my business at the time "Good Dog! Training" to be a part of her training academy. I politely declined because I have never sought any kind of certification that limits how I can help pet owners. Positive reinforcement is the most pleasant and powerful way to train a dog...it's fun and it works. That said a cookie will never be enough to keep a dog from chasing a squirrel, rabbit, deer or a car in any and all situations. Dogs need an understanding of "no we do not do that". If you want a trainer experienced with thousands of dogs and owners...offering humane, scientific, practical and effective training solutions get in touch. Booking now for June. Helping pet owners create better relationships with their dogs since 1998.
THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT KAREN PRYOR
Karen Pryor, the author of “Don’t Shoot the Dog,” and the queen of clicker training, kept her own much-loved Border Terrier behind an Invisible Fence with a powerfully aversive electronic collar that delivered several thousand volts if the dog tried to cross a buried wire.
Did punishment make her dog aggressive?
It did not.
Did punishment make her dog fearful?
It did not.
Did punishment ruin her relationship with the dog?
It did not.
And did punishment work to keep her dog in the yard?
Yep. Like new money.
Did Ms. Pryor need to know WHY her dog wanted to leave the yard?
Nope. She just needed to provide persuasive and consistent punishment when it did — and an electonic fence collar did that, and does that.
And so we get to the bottom line: Punishment and only punishment will stop a powerfully self-rewarding unwanted behavior.
A tug on a web collar is punishment, same as a tap on an e-collar.
If you do not know what punishment means — or how to apply it in the context of dog training — then you need to go read up on that.
Punishment is not torture, nor is it ongoing, nor does it create a massive amount of psychological damage to the dog, nor does it always need to be powerful. Electric and electronic fences do not torture the dog or the cow — they provided perfectly timed negative consequences and the “no go” lesson is quickly learned.
You do not need to know WHY the dog is doing the unwanted behavior.
The Invisible Fence does not care if the dog is chasing a deer or a squirrel.
It does not matter if the dog is interested in the bitch in heat seven yards over, or if they hear a yowling cat on the neighbor's porch.
The Invisible Fence does not care if the dog is bored or excited, curious or enraged.
The Invisible Fence does not care because correcting unwanted self-rewarding behavior is not about psychology; it's about sending a clear, consistent, and insistent NO signal. And, in a well trained dog, that signal can be fairly subtle and slight.
If you are talking to a dog trainer that does not understand this one basic thing, go elsewhere, because it's a simple and provable fact that you cannot keep a dog inside a small yard with cookies alone.
Karen Pryor knew.
What did Karen Pryor NOT know?
Believe it or not, she did not know how to walk her Border Terrier off-leash in the woods.
Cookies and a clicker, it seems, were no match for the prey drive of a 15-pound working terrier.
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For Karen Pryor, in her own words, see >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2017/04/terrier-training-that-works.html
