Tastes Like “It!”
There’s an old joke about the guy who comes across “something” on the sidewalk so he decides to conduct an in depth scientific study:
Looks like “It”.
Feels like “It”.
Smells like “It”.
Tastes like “It”.
It IS “It”.
Conclusion: I’m sure glad I didn’t step in “It”!
A stupid joke, yes, but it’s exactly how I feel when I read questions posted to my professional facebook groups, looking for scientific studies linking pain to shock collars (or other aversive devices) so they can win an argument with some jackass they met in the dog park who thinks otherwise.
Maybe it’s me, but I just can’t get emotionally invested in ludicrous conversations with “dog lovers” named Mark in the park, when it’s dark, or when I hear a dog bark (sorry Dr. Seuss) especially those who are not paying me!
Sure, I’ve had clients over the years asking my opinion about information from their latest Google search, however they are NOT the same people with cognitive dissonance, and fortunately, I have a screening process to weed out those geniuses.
I really do love dogs and because of that I do my best to educate my clients so that even if they’ve heard that pain motivates dogs, I’ll let them know that pleasure motivates dogs too, without the nasty physical or emotional side effects.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in science, however, there is an actual process that begins with a hypothesis such as “This study was designed to look at the the difference between those who avoided “It” on the sidewalk and those who kept stepping in “it”. The next step is to test the hypothesis by collecting data and then we’d have to find out if the hypothesis could be peer replicated. Once we have enough data to support the our hypothesis, it becomes a theory and of course that theory can be challenged if different data becomes available sometime down the road.
So imagine collecting data on whether or not dogs feel pain when shocked!
For those who feel that they need a library of scientific journals to “prove” the obvious, I ask this question: Do we really have to taste “It” to know it’s probably not a good thing?
HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT
© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2023
