I responded to a dog owner this morning on facebook about understanding their dogs behavior instead of training it. This was part of her response. This is what today’s dog training is doing to people. This breaks my heart cause I see it all the time. I can’t stress this enough – dog owners are victims in all this training ideology. Owners name removed of course.
I’m hearing this time and time again. And it’s really upsetting.
Dog owners can help their dogs on their own in so many ways without assistance from a trainer or a behaviourist if they can just take a step back and understand their dogs behavior. If you can understand the root cause of the dogs behavior – then you can help the dog. If it’s something as simple as the dogs needs not being met – and you start doing your best to meet them, it won’t take long to see change. Cause and effect.
Dependent dogs are dependent on their owner for pretty much all guidance. Independent dogs are given their brains back – they have free will. They are free to learn on their own by making choices without their human intervening too much. Which do you want? I personally want an independent dog. I want him running dog parks and to do that, he can’t be dependent on me for everything.
CBD can help counter the production of cortisol – the fight or flight hormone – the bodies fire alarm so to speak. Cortisol is one of the leading causes of behavioral issues in my opinion. It’s not for the life of the dog, it’s not going to hurt them but it can calm the brain enough to get you over the hump. When dogs are running hot on cortisol, generally the brain is gone – same in humans. You can’t work with a dog that is in an excited state – they aren’t thinking properly, and they certainly won’t retain much in that state of mind. Trying to treat train a reactive dog is the worst thing you can do.
Calm is king with dealing with behavior, put away your emotions for the sake of the dog. Be the change you want in your dog. Training with the dog should be fun, it’s ok to be excited. But if you’re out there making everything a big deal with a reactive dog, and then dragging them away, you’re making the thing a big deal to the dog, that’s creating fear by proxy. Could it be that they want to meet that big deal to investigate it?
Monty is an independent dog, that’s what I wanted – that was my goal. And I firmly believe that’s what all owners want – the independent dog. I have the dog that people tend to want. In order to achieve that goal, I needed to push him to use his brain, to think, to problem solve and I needed to learn to trust his choices – that’s what creates independence. But in order to learn to trust his judgment – his choices – I had to let him make choices. We need to give dogs their brains back – give them free will. When a dog is allowed to choose to overcome fear because it trusts the owner in every way, that’s when things change – and it changes fast. It’ll make your head spin. Fear is nothing more than lack of trust – and confidence can only come from trust. No, you cannot train confidence. People raise their children the best they can, they teach them how to think and hope that the child makes the right choices. Why not dogs?
You see, positive reinforcement is one quadrant of a 4 quadrant system that is based on the ideology that dogs need absolutely need reward and punishment to learn anything. That is what the quadrants dictate – that you need to reward and punish your dog in order for it to learn anything. This is so backwards. But then it’s taketh the dogs brain away – listen to me or I’ll punish you in some way. And you will hear trainers say “as long as the dog thinks it’s making a choice – then it is”. This is exactly what B.F Skinner called “free will is an illusion” – it’s the illusion of choice.
But now you’re being told to reward or punish the dog based on the illusion of choice? How can you reward or punish a dog that never made the choice in the first place? And we wonder why “training” fails so often.
Now top that off with “hire a trainer”, that’s all owners are told, but many have wrote that book to no avail. I hear the frustrations of owners – they are being told that they are not capable of working with their dog on their own. That they can’t possibly “fix” their dog without the help of a trainer or a behaviourist and this is so wrong. Take the dog to a behaviourist – but the quadrants is all that many learn. Many learn to push the same stuff. And owners are left in a rut with no real way out being told by other owners that they can’t do it, control and manage the dog. The dog is a liability to all around it. The dog should be an asset.
If you don’t understand the reason for a problem, there isn’t much chance of fixing it. And today through all the training venues – understanding of how the dog got to this place isn’t being pushed, people aren’t asking question anymore about the dogs behaviour only what they should do to the dog. All dog owners are getting is about tools, drugs, control and management, hire a trainer, shock the dog, prong the dog. It’s no wonder why dog owners are beyond frustrated and defeated. Then we wonder why dogs run away all the time.
So many owners are being told their dog is aggressive – and that aggression can’t be fixed, that it has to be controlled and managed. Again, this is so wrong. Aggression isn’t a diagnosis – neither is reactivity. They are only symptoms of an underlying cause – and the kicker is, all you can do is control and manage symptoms. It’s a dog, not diabetes. We need to think different. A 5 year old child can look at a dog raging at the end of a leash and declare it aggressive – it doesn’t say much about trainers ability to diagnose a dog. And I’m sorry I have to say that.
Understand that a dog showing aggression due to fear doesn’t make for an aggressive dog. If you’re scared, and I put you in a situation that makes it worse – you will likely show aggression in response. Does that make you an aggressive person? No, not at all. You’ll be reacting – same as the dog. Stop treating the dog like it’s aggressive. It’s scared, it doesn’t trust anything – the dog isn’t broken but but you’ll likely train it til it is.
What is causing the aggression? When you have to ask that question – it means there is an underlying cause for the aggression. It becomes a symptom. Find the underlying causes – work on the underlying cause and the symptoms of aggression and reactivity disappear. That’s how it really works. There is a whole list of things that can cause aggression. Not meeting the dogs needs is a big one. Bored silly and frustrated. Being mentally amped up and no way to burn it off – this is a huge problem for pitbulls. There is so much more. But we are told to control and manage it instead of stepping back and understanding what brought the dog to this place in its life? Has anyone given you – the dog owner – a clear and concise reason for your dogs behaviour that actually made sense? Has anyone really talked to you about it?
And ask yourself – do I want an independent dog? Most dog owners don’t want a highly trained dog, they want a family dog that can socialize out in public.