Have you heard the phrase "crossover trainer"? This month, my guest is fellow trainer Holly Boyes. Holly and I are both crossover trainers, which means we at one point used aversives, corrections, and punishment as part of training, and then ditched those techniques and shifted to a force-free positive reinforcement methodology. In this episode we share a bit about our journeys from balanced to force-free, what prompted us to switch to a new method, and how being crossover trainers helps us to tap into a specific kind of compassion for pet guardians who are struggling with their dog’s behavior.
Minor trigger warning for this episode: we do talk a bit about our own time as balanced trainers where we reference some of the corrections and tools that we used at that time, so if that discussion will be triggering for you please feel free to skip this episode or listen to one of our other positive reinforcement focused episodes.
Enjoy!
Holly Boyes is a multi species force-free crossover trainer, certified trick dog instructor/triple crown coach and a force-free content creator. She is currently working through her DN – DTC, a force-free dog training distinction with DogNostics. She is also a full time reptile breeder and stays busy looking after her many personal pets on her and her husband’s farm in northern Ontario, Canada. Animals have been an obsession from day one and Holly always knew she was going to make a living surrounded by them. She taught the family dog a few tricks as a kid and was completely hooked on training since then.
After discovering trick titles, Holly quickly worked her way up to grand champion with both her dogs but she didn’t stop there. She went on to earn an expert trick title with her cat, and became the first person in the world to earn a trick title with a hedgehog! Gradually making the crossover from balanced to force free training after rescuing a pitbull named Daisy, it’s become Holly’s mission to show others the amazing things that can be accomplished through R+/FF training.
Find Holly on Instagram at @fivefreedomstraining
Download the complete transcript for this episode here