01/29/2026
There is no scientific consensus showing that non-aversive, positive-only training is universally effective, safer, or superior across all dogs and all behavioral problems. The research in this field is mixed, limited, and highly contextual, especially when it comes to aggression, predation, and high-risk behaviors.
Legislating one training ideology as “evidence-based” does not make it so! By excluding aversives and punishment by law, the state will not be following science, but rather selectively interpreting it, while ignoring well-established principles of learning theory and decades of applied animal training across species.
What this bill does is criminalize competent trainers for how they train. It reduces the options for addressing dangerous behavior in dogs which will lead to more euthenasia as positive-only training can only create new behaviors, IT CANNOT ERADICATE UNWANTED BEHAVIORS (i.e. agression, predation, resource guarding, jumping, excessive vocalization etc...). Behavioral science has long proven that in order to reduce or eliminate behavior, punishment must be applied to the degree that is necessary to inhibit the animal’s desire to perform the undesired behavior.
Ironically, police and service dogs are exempt, suggesting that there is a need to use aversives and punishments to modify or train dog behavior, yet somehow it’s still necessary to ban for general public use.
Good training is about results, clarity, and responsibility, not about projecting a narrative that makes owners and trainers feel good about themselves. Learning does not happen without discomfort or conflict.
Handicapping trainers and pet owners will severely limit the efficacy of training a dog can receive, and if that dog’s behavior is deemed dangerous, the next step will be euthanasia instead of aversive/punishment-based training. This bill proclaims that an end to that dog’s life is preferred over temporary training discomfort.
For trainers who work with pet dogs, instead of helping dogs, they will be forced to walk away knowing they could have helped but are not legally allowed to.
NYS RESIDENTS MUST VOTE NO!
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S7723