Because I said so…

Riddle me this.  Nowadays with all the political correctness, you’d think people would be nicer to their animals too.  So why is it people still train using outdated forceful methods?  Why is it when a <cough> bad <cough> trainer says to: leash correct, pinch, yell, hit, smack, spank, squirt, tug, shock, kick, or (my favorite) throw something at the dog, why oh why do it?  Often there are fluffy words to soften the real punishment like: gentle tug, quick spank, mild pinch, a few squirts, or (again my favorite) don’t aim right at the dog, just next to him.  Seriously?  Every single one of these, so called training methods doesn’t teach an ounce of what you want.  There is no information in “don’t.”  And telling your dog “I told you to don’t” and squirting him with a water bottle isn’t fair.  If you’re working with a trainer who is focusing on what you don’t want and how to punish the bad behavior, run.  Don’t look back.  Just run.  They’re clueless.  Seek trainers out who emphasize what to do. Because that’s teaching.

So why do people hurt their dog in the name of training?  Look up the Milgram Experiment. Obedience to authority figures, even if their advice conflicts with your conscience is (strangely enough) usually followed.  In the 1960s Stanley Milgram conducted a series of social psychology experiments at Yale University.  These were marketed as a memory experiment.  People would sign up and were randomly selected as the teacher or the learner.  Little did they know it was rigged and they were always selected as a teacher and the learner was a paid actor.  The electric shock the learner received for each wrong answer was also fake.  (If you are interested in watching some original footage scroll to the bottom of this post or click here.)  Believe it or not, an average of 60% – 65% of people administered the final shock.

So don’t beat yourself up if you’ve given your dog a leash correction or slapped on an electric shock collar because the animal professional told you to.  Know you have the power to say no.  You need to speak up for your dog, because he can’t (well actually dog’s are quite clear when they “speak up.”  It’s called aggression).  If it seems wrong, don’t do it.  Move forward.  Change methods. Many trainers that I know are “crossover” trainers.  Meaning they crossed over from the dark side of training into the positive style.  The method of training WILL affect your relationship between you and your dog.  So even if the animal professional says to (insert punishment of choice here), say no.  Know this: you never “have to.”  There are always many options to get to a final result.  That’s a cop out for the lack of intelligence to modify behavior.  Whether you realize it or not, whenever something decreases, something else increases and vice versa.  Dogs don’t get out the human handbook flip the page and read, “Human wants you to sit for attention.  Jumping won’t work.”  So why not just heavily reward what you want until it’s second nature.  It’s far less guess work for the dog, and the bad behavior will fade in time naturally.

Just say no to punishment.  Use positive reinforcement training methods.  Because I said so.

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