People are always trying to “get” their dog to do things for them. The reality is – the dog exists to do for us – they want to do for you. Problem is, the communication isn’t there and that is part of the relationship – or lack thereof for the dog.
I always tell people – go put that e-collar on your cat and shock it. Of course the answer is no. You wouldn’t do it – and you know damn well why. There won’t be enough treats in the world to get you out of that dog house. So why do we do it to a dog? Let me explain.
There is a channel on youtube called Bird Trick with Jamieleigh Womack and her husband, it’s a great channel. Jamieleigh knows her animals and she always says that in reality, birds are self serving, they don’t really care about humans. Your cat is no different – they are indifferent to us – it’s all about them. Your cat in reality is selfish – the dog isn’t. When you listen to Jamie, she will tell you that she uses a clicker to turn behaviours into tricks – right down to flight. If a trainer was honest about what a clicker does – would you use it? Flight itself becomes a trick. She uses treats because the bird is self-serving – no treat – no trick.
That’s not the dog – your dog is craving a relationship with you, that’s all they want. We get away with shocking and pronging the dog – because they are so forgiving. Your dog wants to be with you – not so much for the cat. The dog cares about you and they will take abuse and keep coming back – they never stop trying. Abuse your cat – and you know what the outcome is.
And we are taking advantage of the dog. And I’m going to tell you why.
Stop and think about how many tools are on the market for dogs – just dogs. E-collars, prongs, muzzle, crates, choke collars, martingales – the list goes on and on and on. Why aren’t these tools marketed for other animals? Why just the dog? These are all tools to “control and manage” the dog. Why?
Because the very science of behaviour and simple common sense has been thrown in the garbage by the dog training community at large and replace with all this garbage that the dog doesn’t need. You are “ADDING” things that the dog doesn’t need – what they do need is in the garbage. Replaced with trainer opinion based protocols and quadrants of dog training that have no scientific merit at all.
Reward and punish the dog for everything – that’ll work right? And that IS “dog training” which IS the trainers definition of “operant conditioning” which IS “The Quadrants Of Dog Training”. The terms are interchangeable. It all needs to go in the garbage from where it came. There is no scientific merit to the quadrants.
And people scream “Why isn’t this working?!?” Because YOU are being LIED to by dog trainers that should never have stepped foot into the behavioral ring in the first place. Dog trainers stepped out of their lane, and in the process have run over millions of dogs. And how many owners had their lives ripped apart because trainers push control and management so hard? Anyone that pushes “control and management” doesn’t give a shit about the causes of a dogs behaviour. If you don’t understand the cause – fix the cause – you’re not fixing anything. You only suppress the behaviours – and suppressed behaviours need to be “controlled and managed”.
Dog trainers need to get back to focusing on training dogs. What does that mean? Teaching dogs to do things – not training dogs to behave. Training for things like search and rescue, herding, drug sniffing, agility etc – these are all trainable things. Behaviour is not.
When I walk into a pet store, all I see is row upon row of treats, toys, clickers, prongs, e-collars, muzzles, crates and the list goes on. Why does all this exist? It’s called the “Pet Industrial Complex” – a $70 billion dollar industry mainly focused on the dog. Who built it? You guessed it – dog trainers – and the pet industrial complex is now sponsoring – paying dog trainers. Anyone else see an issue with that? I do.
I don’t “train” dogs, behavioural isn’t a training issue at all. Stop trying to “train” your dog to behave. When I meet a dog – I already know that I’m doing a relationship intervention with a dog. People tell me to get the owner to bring the dog out? I’m not there to assess a human, I’m there to assess a dog – and the dog is going to spill the beans on everything. They are going to tell me exactly what the relationship is like with the human – and it always comes down to lack of relationship.
I raise my dogs under the same premise that I raise children, they have very similar needs – yet, the dogs needs tend not to get met.
Every dog breed exists for a reason – every dog breed was bred for a purpose. Does you German Shepherd ever get to be a German Shepherd? These dogs are bred to run and chase sheep all day if necessary – that’s their mental exercise, that’s the blow out the lines exercise. Am I telling you to buy a flock of sheep for your dog? No, but find an analogy for it.
Find a viable and useful tool that your dog loves. Some dogs love a flirt pole, it encourages prey drive which is a good thing. The flirt gives them a time and place to get all that stress out of their system.
Many dogs will chase the heck out of a remote controlled car, it’s a great analogy for what they were bred for. You can “train” your dog to herd an RC car. You can use the RC car for tracking for nose hounds – couple of drops of urine and off they go.
That furry little Pomeranian that’s frustrated and barking at the world is in reality a sled dog. So many times, I’ve told owners to put their Pom in a harness and hook up some weight. This is what many dogs want to do. Give them purpose.
Look up the breed of dog you have and find an analogy for their breed to get it out of their system.
This is step one to building a solid relationship with your dog – meeting the dogs needs and the breeds needs. A tired dog with a purpose in life is going to be a much calmer dog – and that is what every dog owner wants. An overall calm dog. It’s funny how calm dogs are never an issue, they don’t need to show aggression or reactivity.