Our Philosophy: Fulfillment-First, Balanced Training
Give your dog a life they’ll love. Then, set the boundaries that allow both of you to enjoy that life to the fullest.
Updated: July 27, 2026
Written by: Jon Somers
Reviewed by: Matt Cochran, Certified Professional Dog Trainer
Not all training philosophies are created equal.
The point of a training philosophy is not to follow something because it feels good, or sounds good, or gets us into a group we want to be a part of.
A training philosophy should not start from ideology. At least, not a good one.
What makes a good philosophy then?
A good philosophy comes from looking at what works in the real world. It is derived from what is effective.
The philosophy I’m going to lay out in this article, I didn’t come to it because I liked the name… or because I thought it made me sound smart… or because other people I like are using it. To my knowledge, we’re the first to coin the term.
I came to this philosophy, because it is the best description (that I could come up with) of what actually works to achieve our goal: which is to help everyday dog owners resolve their dogs’ reactivity. And then to live the best life they possibly can, together.
That is our goal. Whatever gets us to that goal in the fastest, simplest, surest way possible is what we believe in.
And so what is that?
It’s Fulfillment First, Balanced Training.
What is Fulfillment First, Balanced Training?
Part 1: Fulfillment First.
Part 2: Balanced Training.
In this article I’ll break them both down briefly, explain what separates our philosophy from almost everything else that’s out there, and why ours is, frankly, the best philosophy to follow if you want to resolve your dog’s reactivity. Or any other problem behavior. Or just raise a great dog and live a great life with them.
Let’s start with Part 2 — it’s a term you may have heard before… Balanced Training.
What is Balanced Training?
Balanced Training is not unique to Trail & Bone. Far from it. The majority of average, local, in-person dog trainers you meet will be balanced trainers. (At least in the US, it may be different internationally).
In simplest terms, Balanced Training simply means that you use both rewards and corrections while training your dog. It means you say both “yes” and “no”.
“Yes” is backed up with rewards, while “no” is backed up with corrections.
That’s the easiest way to think of it. And if you’re thinking to yourself: “well that sounds obvious, isn’t that everybody??”
No dear reader, no it is not.
Opposite of Balanced Training is what most call “Force-free” or “Purely positive” training. Which is exactly what it sounds like – there’s no “no”.
Force-free adherents don’t believe in using corrections, and for the most part, don’t believe in the idea of telling your dog “no” or stopping behaviors at all. Instead, they believe in the idea of redirecting to alternative behaviors or teaching new behaviors instead of unwanted ones.
To give a practical example, instead of telling your dog “no, you can’t chew on my shoes,” they believe you should instead offer a treat, a toy, or anything else the dog would prefer to your shoes — and then swipe the shoes and stash them away.
“But that sounds like you’re just rewarding unwanted behaviors??”
Yes, that’s exactly what it is. And that’s why Force-free / Purely positive training is largely ineffective, especially when it comes to fixing unwanted problem behaviors, such as reactivity and aggression.
Because nothing is ever learned. Boundaries are never set or enforced. And so problems often fester and get worse over time.
So to sum up: Balanced Training just means that you communicate both “yes” and “no” to your dog. We tell them what we want them to do through rewards, and also what they’re not allowed to do through corrections.
If you want to go deeper on any of these topics, you can by reading these:
Does the Force-free / Purely Positive approach to reactivity work? →
The Ethics of Punishment & Corrections →
Why Fulfillment First?
I did not include the phrase “Fulfillment First” as the other half of our philosophy just because of the alliteration (though I admit I do have a serious weakness for a good alliteration).
I included Fulfillment First because it works. It works incredibly well and fulfillment alone can completely change your life and especially your dog’s life.
And it’s also the primary thing that separates us from the thousands and thousands of other Balanced Trainers out there. (and the results show it)
Because that is what our dogs are: they’re animals.
They’re not babies, they’re not toddlers, they’re not teddy bears.
They’re animals that have been bred over thousands of years to chase, hunt, run, herd, explore, sniff, fight, and much more.
And so very few dogs in our modern world have those needs met.
And when those needs are not met: that energy doesn’t disappear. It finds other ways to channel that energy and drive. And rarely in ways we approve of.
The best example is shelter dogs. Why are so many of them just barking into the abyss all day long? Because they’re locked in this small box all day! Their energy and drive doesn’t disappear, it needs somewhere to go. And if they’re in an empty box, where else can it go besides just barking? What else can they do to stimulate themselves? Nothing good.
That’s why, in the vast majority of cases… especially with owners training their own dogs… The first step to any training program should be to provide the dog with true biological fulfillment — fulfillment for them as a living, breathing animal, not a plush toy.
To a dog who has never had it before... Even a small taste of real fulfillment changes everything.
It makes them calmer at home, less demanding, more resilient, and easier to live with. It gives them a healthy outlet for their natural drives and something to genuinely look forward to.
You cannot recreate the benefits they get from being able to fully and freely be a dog.
A dog can be deeply loved, well-fed, perfectly safe, have a whole closet overflowing with toys, games, and lick mats...
and still be missing the things that bring them true satisfaction and fulfillment.
It is that important.
We were deceived, swindled, and hoodwinked.
If you are reading this, realizing you haven’t been giving your dog enough fulfillment, don’t feel like I’m attacking you. I absolutely am not.
Believe me, I spent years in the dog training world, not to mention raising my own dogs, never knowing what true fulfillment is, what it looks like, or how important it is.
So it is absolutely not your fault.
I don’t know whose to blame, but I know that the default beliefs of the dog-owning world at large does not include true fulfillment. So unless you happen to stumble upon the rare gem of a trainer or breeder who tells you… you’d never know.
So when your German Shepherd starts barking at everything that moves, pestering you for attention all day, and chewing on whatever they can get their mouths on… no one tells you that all of these problems stem from the same root issue: they have nothing else to do. They are a living, breathing animal with energy and drive we can’t comprehend, and they’re expected to sniff around a backyard and lay on the floor quietly all day.
Fulfillment First is the most important part of our Philosophy, because it is the missing ingredient from the vast, vast majority of professional trainers and behaviorists.
So until providing fulfillment is a default in every training program across the world, it needs to be emphasized.
Those 4 words can get you so incredibly far by themselves.
Fulfillment First, Balanced Training.
It means before anything else: Make sure you give your dog a life worth living. By their standards — not yours… Then set firm boundaries on what they can and cannot do, so then both of you can enjoy that life together to the fullest.
If it sounds simple: it is. That’s the idea.
Raising and living with well-behaved, confident, trustworthy dogs does not need to be complicated. Making it complicated has caused a lot of damage.
Fulfillment First, Balanced Training is how we can fix that damage for our dogs now, and make sure it doesn’t happen to dogs of the future.
If you’d like to learn more about what is and what isn’t true fulfillment, and how to provide it to your dog… read these:
How the single most common tool we use with our dogs has caused an epidemic of behavioral problems →