People need to open their eyes to what is being sold to you as “dog training”. Schutzhund/IGP is an obedience and protect dog sports – that most have never heard of. You are trying to train your dog using schutzhund and you haven’t a clue of what you’re doing.
I am not selling you anything other than a message, not even a bag of treats. How many other trainers can say that?
Robert Cabral himself exposes the entire scam called dog training on one page of the internet. Have a listen to this video – there is alot to unpack. And read the description – this is a warning to people outside the quadrants.
The pet care industry is a multi billion dollar conglomerate. Dog training as well has a huge stake in the game and that is why you see so much controversy from the positive only, force free community trying to convince everyone of their way.
Convince everyone of their way – that’s an interesting statement to chew on.
What he’s telling you is if IGP is shut down – then the tools that IGP needs will no longer be needed to be manufactured. He’s telling you as well that if you don’t have the tools – you can’t do the sport. So if I take his tools away – what is the word for him. But he’s claiming that I want to shut down Schutzhund to get rid of the tools? No. Schutzhund itself is fine where it is – keep it over there – but you won’t. Tools are banned in Germany, they still do IGP without the tools. But you are telling people that you can’t do it – why?
Prongs, e-collars, chokes and such are tools of Schutzhund. You should never have had these tools in the first place – but they’ve been sold to you. They are not tools for home behaviour for you to use on your Chihuahua but it’s funny how these companies are making tiny tools for your little dogs now? There is a tool for every body style. I am disgusted by what I’m seeing. So how did we get here?
15 years ago, treats weren’t very common. Use them and lose them. 15 years later, always carry a treat bag, reward the dog for everything. And we have shelves and shelves of treats etc. And trainers scream “have a treat!” Is it a failure of the dog? Or could it be IGP taking over?
15 years ago, ecollars and prongs were tools of last resort – use them and lose them. Today, it’s an insurance policy – always keep it on and you can train anything with it now. Is it a failure of the dog? Or could it be IGP taking over?
15 years ago, the dog was a puzzle to be solved. Trainers asked questions – why is the dog acting this way? Lets find the cause! Today they could care less – why? Could it be IGP taking over?
A caveat before I deep dive. Don’t get me wrong, if trainers want to brand clothing and such and sell it? Fill your boots, have at it, that’s capitalism – enjoy. No issues with people making money off their brand, happens all the time.
But trainers have become corporate sluts for this aforementioned Pet Care Conglomerate – commissioned salesmen that couldn’t train a dog without tools – that they get commission for selling. These companies have affiliate programs, when people go to a trainers page and buy a prong or ecollar etc – It’s the trainers checkout. They get commission for every sale. Hrmmm, that sounds like incentive to me to push these tools on you hard and fast. Cabral isn’t the only one – Tom Davis, Shield K9, Larry Krohn and so many others.
Larry Krohn did a video on his new book on teaching recall. Read the book, buy an e-collar and teach your dog recall. Forget about all that spesky Schutzhund training that you need to learn, you don’t need that. That to me is akin to giving a 15 year old a book on how to drive, toss them the keys to the car and say good luck.
Does that make sense to anyone?
Ivan Balabanov stands up in front of the world and declares that only people like him – IGP trainers should be working in behaviour. He’s telling you the scam. Since when did protection sports take over behaviour? Now we have shield K9 screaming that IGP is dying? And the fault is on people like me?
Haz, if IGP had stayed in IGP – this blog wouldn’t need to exist. You brought IGP to behaviour – and when I watch you work with behaviours? I want to puke. But you are the expert. Trainers have put themselves on a pedestal and expect dog owners to kiss their ass. This is what I see.
If you were being sold primary inducement, secondary inducement, primary compulsion, secondary compulsion – how would you feel about that? Doesn’t this sound familiar? Cause it definitely isn’t positive and negative reinforcement – that’s the entire joke right there. This is the very reason they blame Skinner.
Inducement – an act or a thing that is intended to make something happen or to persuade someone to do something.
Compulsion – the action or state of forcing or being forced to do something; constraint.
Temple Grandin wrote a book called Animals in translation, I love Temple, would love to have coffee with her. She wrote that book near 20 years ago and described what we are seeing today called dog training.
I need to get into WHY all this happened. Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour. The mind (you) needs to be looked at separately from the body – which includes the brain. Here’s the thing about Skinner.
Skinner was everything when it came to Behavioural Psychology in the 1960’s, he had some status. Skinner didn’t care about the mind, it was a black box that didn’t need to be investigated. He didn’t need the animal mind to shape your behaviour, all he did was manipulate the environment. His manipulation of the environment forced the animal to figure out puzzles. The mind does the thinking – the body doesn’t.
Problem was, behaviourists of the time took that as the not having mind. If you don’t have a mind, then you don’t have feelings. In Temples own words – this woman knows her stuff.
“Some animal behaviorists took this idea to the extreme by teaching that animals didn’t even have emotions or intelligence. Animals only had behavior, which was shaped by rewards, punishments and positive and negative reinforcements from the environment.”
And here we are. See the problem? Here’s another problem. I don’t see dog trainers having any medical knowledge at all. The human neck isn’t that different from the dogs. Trachea, thyroid, parathyroid all at the front of the neck, just like our neck. If I lifted you off the floor by the neck with a prong or ecollar – you would need an ambulance to the hospital for serious treatment. But the dog is “fixed” right? What would go through your head as you’re strung up from the floor. Would you have much fight left in you after the blood supply and oxygen are cut off from your brain?
Can we please stop calling this dog training? This is legalised animal abuse and legal theft. Dog trainers have convinced you that your dog doesn’t have emotions or feel pain. When the dog yips, it’s just being dramatic. Can we please stop this?
What is being sold as Positive reinforcement isn’t positive reinforcement. It’s Primary inducement – food and affection. Skinner was all about positive reinforcement, and he would be bewildered what trainers are blaming him for. Trainers I’m sure would argue black and blue with Skinner. Why? If dog training were all based on Skinner – then Skinner should be mandatory reading. Why isn’t he mandatory reading?
Because dog trainers wouldn’t be in the behavioural ring at all. Here’s the problem itself. Behavior is where the real money is for them. To sell their wares, all the shit the dog doesn’t need in the first place. The conglomerate.
So how did we go from prongs and ecollars and treats being a tool of last resort 15 years ago – to a tool that you can’t do without? In 15 years? Are we ready to start asking questions yet for the sake of our dogs? I am bewildered walking into a pet store, rows and rows of treats, clickers, ecollars, prongs, crates, toys, muzzles, and on and on. All the shit the dog doesn’t need?