All training procedures, whether they rely on rewards or aversives, have the potential for misuse if not applied according to established principles of learning. Rewards, however, pose little bodily risk to the dog.
Training with positive reinforcement does not imply permissiveness. Dogs still must learn limits to their behavior. This can be accomplished by establishing persistent, desirable habits through the use of rewards, or by inhibiting unwanted behaviors through the removal of access to rewards.
Some dogs may find the removal of rewards as unpleasant as the use of aversives. This is especially possible when using time outs. The act of removing a dog from an interesting situation can be aversive to the dog. Time outs should never be excessively long, because the dog may find its own forms of reinforcement.
If food is used as a lure (a "bribe"), it will be necessary to fade its use later in the training process. Otherwise, the food may remain part of the picture the dog needs to see to understand that the behavior is being cued. Also, attempts to interrupt unwanted behaviors by cueing an alternate behavior and then rewarding it can create a behavior chain, increasing the frequency of the unwanted behavior.
