Jolts & Jabs
You turn your head to see a spider on your shoulder. You shriek! You jump! I smack you! Why? Because I don’t like the fact that you shrieked and jumped. You are naughty. You deliberately did that to annoy me. (If this sounds absolutely crazy . . . then I made my point.)
Furthermore, do you think that you will find spiders crawling on you to be joyful now because I smacked you? I have added sudden, outside pain and fear to your established frightened emotion. So probably not.
One day, you are walking your dog, a skateboarder rides towards you, the wheels loudly vibrating on the asphalt, wizzing fast, and without normal leg movement. Your dog barks and lunges. What is your dog thinking?: “What the heck is that?” or “AHHH that is terrifying.” You respond with; a shock of electricity to their delicate neck, or a sudden strangling of a metal chain, or spikes digging in. So why do people think this will make skateboards all better?
Dogs are not unreasonable, they are just trying to figure out how to cohabitate with us. What owners call a “naughty” dog, is actually a confused dog. There is miscommunication. Dog training is not intuitive. They are not little humans. They are an entirely different species trying to learn the rules of our homes, our live and us. The term “domestic” does not mean they come knowing how to do this.
How often do you hear this? “Well I only use the shock collar on vibrate.” The reason the vibrate setting works — is because your dog remembers the time when you put 4000 volts of electricity through their neck. Does this sound like a fond memory for your pet to keep reliving? Not to mention, coming from you, their loving owner?
What is with this desire to always fight against our dogs. Wait until they have done something that you find inappropriate, then punish them. We give them one option; to problem-solve through error and punishment in order to learn how to coexist with us. But . . . when you train a dog with punishment, it removes their natural problem solving ability. It takes away their trust in you and your bond of working together. Let’s teach our dogs HOW TO behave instead.
For an island of dog lovers, I see so much abusive equipment. I am pretty sure people just aren’t thinking about the reality and damage it could cause. I see the shoulder pinning harnesses (even on puppies trying to grow, and dogs trying to run). Collars of 20 spikes of metal (prong collar). And then there is wrapping the leash around lower abdomen to strangle their intestines if they pull or lunge. This is fear-based training. What I call “or else” training. It is the opposite of science-based training. Canines and primates communicate very differently. What this means, is that we communicate a lot of things to our dogs, that we don’t mean to. This also means that we don’t understand the majority of what our dogs communicate to us.
Whatever you feel like you need to DO TO your dog to get the behavior you want. I promise you, your dog will happily learn that behavior with positive encouragement and clear communication. Let’s bring dog training out of the dark ages and learn some science-based methods. Let’s learn how to communicate, so our dog household can be happy and stress-free, as well as preventing dangerous incidents.
photo by julie weisberg photgraphy