Please Don’t Call That Dog Training!
On my way to catch the train last week, I saw a guy walking his dog, when suddenly I heard him command, “Drop it!”, followed swiftly with a hard slap on the dog’s back! The dog cried out, but apparently didn’t drop whatever he had in his mouth, so the guy again commanded, “Drop it!” and slapped the dog harder!
The dog must have dropped the item, otherwise I suspect this “trainer” would have continued his assault on his poor dog.
Emboldened by his success at forcing the dog to drop the item, this person will likely continue to hurt his dog and call it training because in his mind it worked! Perhaps this method was passed on to him by a friend, a blog post, or a popular “trainer” on TV, but you can bet he will most assuredly offer his newly found “expertise” to anyone who asks him about fixing their dog’s problems.
You see, it appears that people trust what they hear from friends, friends of friends, TV personalities and other humans that say things that are aligned with their own instincts. So for example, say the dog is barking in his crate continuously, human instinct might be to yell at the dog to be quiet. And maybe in that moment the dog stops. Typically though, the dog will continue the barking, as the tone was not severe enough to punish him. Frustrated by the lack of success, the person then Googles “How to stop dogs from barking” or asks a friend who has dogs what they recommend. I have spoken to clients who gave answers that they heard, such as cover the crate, spray him with water and if that doesn’t work, spray him in the eyes with lemon juice, hit the crate and so on. All of these techniques are focused on stopping the behavior, and what’s worse is that even seemingly compassionate humans who really love their dog will follow the advice because it is rooted in their own instincts. Even though the human’s behavior begins with something relatively benign and ends with a full on assault at trying to stop the barking, the thought being that it’s for his own good. Hmm, sounds like old school parenting, but I’ll digress…
There are many behaviors a dog will do that humans want to stop. In other words, they have a laundry list of “Don’t do that!” In fact when a client calls me, we discuss their goals which typically are “I don’t want him to pull on the leash, bark, jump, potty in the house” and so on. To think of this in a human experience, suppose your significant other was sick in bed and wanted you to go to the store to pick up some items. They then handed you a list that read, “Don’t bring home the following items: Bread, oranges, pizza, or milk”. If you’re a typical human, I hope you’d ask, “Well what the @#$%^ do you WANT me to bring?
Ludicrous, of course, and yet this is the same endless list of what humans tell their dogs, “Don’t give me that behavior!”
In the example of the dog barking, we should begin by trying to find out why the dog is barking in the first place, because if we can find that out, the barking will likely stop. We need to ask questions of ourselves such as does the dog need to relieve himself? Has the dog been in the crate too long? Is the crate too small? Is there a water bowl in the crate? Is the crate comfortable such that the dog has, in addition to water, something to chew and a comfy bed? Did he hear something outside? Did I actually put in the many hours to crate-train the dog? Should I try leaving him in a larger room, because he feels too confined in the crate? These are only some of the example questions that are likely to lead to a solution, none of which involves seeking retribution on the poor dog for communicating his discomfort in the only language he knows!
When I’m working with a client, we look at the undesirable behaviors, and strategize, beginning with how to prevent the behavior in the first place, teach the dog what we’d like him to do, and if the behavior is rooted in fear, for example, then we find a way to change the emotions, by making sure the dog makes a pleasant association with something he finds especially frightening; often times this means working with a veterinarian who can rule out an underlying medical condition that may present as a behavior problem. And if it turns out to be an emotional issue, the veterinarian may prescribe the appropriate medication, to aid in the behavior modification plan. As you can see, there’s a lot more to training than a coming up with a way to attack the dog!
Let’s face it, it wouldn’t take any skill to force you to dance if I had a gun in my hand, but please don’t call me a dance instructor. Likewise, you can assault your dog using a harsh tone, your fist or another weapon, but please don’t call that dog training!
HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT
© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2022
