Is it possible to end up with a mannerly dog without using force? Is it the best way to deal with existing behavioral problems?
An unequivocal YES on both accounts, based on my decades-long experience with clients’ dogs, and our life with our owned and guest dogs.
Force-free is most effective. That’s a fact. Every form of reactivity and aggression comes down to fear/anxiety, frustration/anger, or excitement/overstimulation. In neither case will threats and punishments change how the dog feels. All it does is quell the expressions. The inner turmoil is still there, festers, and the behavior the person attempted eliminate could resurface any time, anywhere, and more intensely—explosively. In addition there is biochemical arousal that is also not under the dog’s control. What happens in the body hormonally and neurochemically also doesn’t magically change for the better with a zap or prong collar correction.
So I don’t do that. It’s an ethical issue. However, I am frankly also not that keen on the term ‘force free’ or ‘purely positive’. It’s not descriptive enough for me, too big of a tent that includes trainers who are opposed to shock and prong collars, but still put a good amount of pressure on a dog. Examples are the ever so popular snoot-loop harnesses or making everything the dog wants and needs contingent on her performing some irrelevant trick are examples. So I was pondering, and came up with a term that represents better what I, and countless other up-to-date dog pros, do. How about with Stress-Alleviating Trainer or SAT. Opposed to Stress-Increasing (or Inducing) Trainer or SIT = the balanced kind.
As the humans in charge, and we are by virtue of species—the owned dog is a dependent like our children are, it is our duty to teach our dogs patiently and set the conditions for them to succeed. Punishing the dog is grabbing the long stick and putting the onus where it doesn’t belong. It’s the humans who have the power to make all the decisions. Dogs are completely at our mercy; the responsibility to create welfare is ours alone.
Murray Sidman’s “Coercion and its Fallout” and Joseph LeDoux’s “Anxious” were eye-opening reads and game changers changers for me. There are many other publications. We have mounting evidence that pressure and social stressors promote aggression, lead to avoidance and escape behaviors, cause fear, anxiety, neuroticism, and learned helplessness. Universally: pain and the threat of it is as stressful for the dog as it would be for you and it is for the lab rat. And you can’t predict in advance which of the above your dog will develop.
Every leading professional and organization educated in behavior and authentically interested in dogs and their welfare is against punishments. Below are just a few examples:
Pia Silvani (www.piasilvani.com) says that already overly aroused dogs are sensitive to punishments and become more aroused when punished, and especially when rewards are also present—which is balanced training.
Science Daily (May 25/2009): “Misplaced ideas about dog behavior and training is likely to cause, rather than cure, unwanted behavior”.
Researchers at the University of Bristol’s Department of Clinical Veterinary Sciences state: “Contrary to popular belief, aggressive dogs are NOT trying to assert their dominance over their pack”. Far from being helpful, the academics continue, dominance reduction methods can be dangerous and likely make behaviors worse. (Note that Nothing in Life is Free and its variations, for example Learn to Earn are dominance reduction methods.) Senior lecturer Dr. Rachel Casey says that the assumption that dogs are motivated by an innate desire to control people is ridiculous; and that it hugely underestimates complex communicative and learning abilities of dogs. She, too, opines that the use of coercive training techniques compromises welfare and causes problem behaviors, including aggression. Knowing dogs and having worked with them for almost three decades, I could not agree more. You couldn’t be lording over a friend and expect companionship. Being micromanaged is frustrating, and the next two levels up are anger and rage. In addition, control always needs surveillance. The dog only behaves when the prong or shock collar is on or he knows he can score a piece of kibble.
A human study, published in the November/December 2011 edition of Scientific American Mind, revealed in a study with people that performance did not improve with practice when practice was combined with something perceived as aversive. Since it’s unfashionable to inflict physical pain on people, a putrid smell was paired with the practice session. That was enough to cause a decline in performance, and not just for the moment—it lingered a day later.
Veterinary Director Chris Laurence at Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare center, says that they can tell when a dog was treated as seen on TV. These dogs are either fearfully aggressive and too dangerous to be around, or are shut down and offer none of the behaviors natural for dogs.
Here is a University of Pennsylvania study: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217141540.htm
A few articles: http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2014/02/dog-training-animal-welfare-and-human.html —
And tons of info here: http://beyondcesarmillan.weebly.com
Specifically on shock collars
www.banshockcollars.ca lists numerous studies from leading professionals and scientists.
And this: http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2013/06/the-end-for-shock-collars.html
And:
By the way, the UK in the meantime did ban them, following in the steps of several other countries. However, it’s protested.
Being a SAT instead of a SIT works for every dog. Trust me. The Australian shepherd you see in the photo is our Davie, who came to use second hand and did not like people other than us three—her family. And she’d bite when we got her. In our care she was never a people-social dog, but she stopped biting. We could take her anywhere. Safely.
If you don’t trust me or the science, please trust the countless knowledgeable and experienced professionals mentioned here and throughout my other articles on this website—and the many more not mentioned. Trust that they know more than the social-media influencer and the shock collar franchisee.
Commentaires