I chose this name, The Balanced Dog, for my business back in 1997. I purchased the URL in 2000. 

The inspiration behind the name is very important to me because it describes the ideal state of mind/body for our canine friends as well as their relationship with us. By “balanced” I mean that each aspect of the dog’s life style is in harmony so it can live a joyful life with only the healthy amounts of stress that indicate happy excitement and anticipation. “Balanced” also includes the ability to relax in social situations or when left alone at home, and a reasonable reaction to environmental stimuli. 

Each breed of dog was originally selectively bred to have certain behavior characteristics that make one dog perfect for hunting and another perfect for herding and yet others perfect for guarding. The roots of these behavioral aptitudes express themselves even at a young age when the pups start to perform the characteristic behaviors with family members, toys, squirrels, and other environmental stimuli. These motivations and behavior sequences must be satisfied in some way in the dog’s life or the dog will be stressed for lack of them. What this means to the dog owner and what it has to do with “balance” is that I believe in finding easy to do activities that simulate the natural behaviors in enough ways to satisfy the dog’s natural need to do its ancestral job. This is usually in the form of games that can be done at home.

When the dog learns how to perform the behavior skills of basic obedience, self control, and games that give it much joy and satisfaction then we experience a much closer bond with our friend. That Is what I mean by “balanced”. 

Unfortunately, in the last few years the term “balanced training” has been co-opted to the philosophical and verbal name calling in the wars between so called all positive trainers and the trainers that believe in a lot of positive and a little bit of unpleasantness in a training progression to teach dogs what and what not to do. Several other dog training companies have used my business name to promote their own brand of “balanced training” which has absolutely nothing to do with my original intentions.

I am now experimenting with a different label for my particular combination of training and interaction by calling it “integrative training”. Perhaps this name will reflect the idea of a fulfilling combination of life style skills for our beloved dogs. 

Chris Redenbach CDBC, CBCC-KA
©2019