21/04/2026
I have always thought that balanced trainers have to lack something in logic, reasoning and emotional intelligence to believe that dogs need to be hurt or frightened to learn or, equally bizarrely, that using force, pain and intimidation doesn’t really hurt or frighten dogs. But the latest attack they have launched on positive reinforcement training or, rather positive reinforcement trainers, is beyond anything I thought even they were capable of in its complete logic failure and viciousness.
I am referring to the current slew of posts on social media claiming that well-known trainer Denise Fenzi caused the death of her dog Ice, because she refused to give him a good correction or use a shock collar on him. Ice tragically died from heat stroke when the climate control system in Denise’s car failed while he was in it. This happened last September, but for some reason, the balanced training community has latched on to this horrific event as an excuse to shout their usual “force free trainers kill dogs” mantra at the top of their lungs many months later.
Aside from what it says about a person’s character to use someone else’s personal tragedy as a means to publicly attack them, the twisted reasoning they employ to do this, is insane. These trainers are claiming that the dog would not have been in the car, if he had been trained with aversives. They are claiming that he was put in the car as a “time-out” and that if he was punished with an aversive, the time out would not have been necessary and he would not have died.
Where does one even begin:
Firstly, there is no evidence that in this case the dog was placed in the car as a training measure. None whatsoever. He was not the only dog in the car, so why it is assumed that this had anything to do with training at all is truly bizarre.
Secondly, time outs are not a “popular tool of positive reinforcement trainers”. Denise Fenzi may have used them in certain circumstances (not in this case), but many “force free” trainers like myself would give you 10 reasons why we don’t use time-outs: the main one being because we aren’t great proponents of negative punishment, due to the frustration that it tends to cause and it’s ineffectiveness to teach anything. To say that not utilising shock collars automatically means you have to utilise time-outs is just stupid.
Thirdly, are balanced trainers honestly claiming that they never use negative punishment? I seriously doubt that. I have seen plenty of balanced trainers deny their dogs all sorts of things in the name of “training”, including forcing them to spend 80% of their lives confined in a crate. Let’s not even start to look at all their vehicles kitted out with cages for their dogs to stay in for hours while they are at sporting events etc. To imply that only force free trainers leave their dogs in their cars is just ludicrous.
Honestly, I can’t believe that I am actually having to state this stuff, it is just so blatantly and ridiculously stupid. But this is so appalling that I really cannot keep quiet.
I am not a follower of Denise Fenzi and I don’t agree with some of what she has written as a dog trainer. I am more interested in dog welfare and healthy dog-human relationships than dog sports and I am more interested in emotional wellbeing than training for performance. I don’t leave my dogs in my car other than for a brief few minutes or if I am waiting in the car with them or literally standing right there with the windows open. I can’t say I would be comfortable relying on technology to keep my dogs safe, but then I am probably a bit paranoid and am always imagining worst case scenarios and that’s not necessarily healthy either (I haven’t been on holiday without my dogs for years because I don’t even trust any human to look after my dogs). But it is unfathomable to me to use what was clearly a tragic accident to attack another trainer, who would never have intended harm to come to her dogs in a million years and who trusted that her dogs would be safe. To use a devastating loss to score points over training methods is just beyond the pale. I cannot actually find the words to express how despicable I find it. All this latest episode has proven to me is how mentally and emotionally deficient many balanced trainers are and reaffirmed that it is not a world that I will ever want anything to do with.
