I am continually astonished at what
passes for “dog training” these days. This post, for example, from one of the dog trainers forums:
“Ever
since my son brought home a yellow lab puppy named Dirks, he has pulled like a
freight train while walking on lead. First he tried CT (click
and treat) but pulling was more
rewarding than any food treat or toy. So next came a Halti then a Gentle Leader
and still no dice. Even an Easy Walk harness didn't stop him. So when all else
failed, and unbeknownst to me, my daughter tried a prong collar. The reward of
pulling was greater than putting holes in his neck!
Let’s pause for a moment. Several things are interesting here – first, she
is surprised that a dog has natural drives that trump click-and-treat, luring, and containment devices. Balanced
trainers understand dogs’ natural drives and they work in harmony with them;
they don’t try to shut them down, they USE them. Second, she is unaware that trying to use a prong
collar (or any tool) without first
learning how to use it properly is bound to get poor results. Third, prong collars don’t poke holes in dogs.
That is a myth perpetuated by the Cult of Purely Positive.
(back to her post…) “When I found out what was going on, it was time for some motherly intervention. I simply told my daughter to think outside of the box and to channel what Dirks loved best, and since he loved pulling just teach him when it's appropriate. And since I had all equipment along with a draft harness that I though should fit a 2+ y/o Lab, she taught him to back up (necessary skill for a cart/draft dog), get used to the rattle sound of wagon following him down a gravel driveway, plus a solid stand stay...yielding right and left can come along though turning around is relatively easy given enough room to maneuver. Now Dirks can "pull his weight" here by pulling my Radio Flyer wagon with daily garbage down the 2/3 mile gravel driveway to the garbage cart at the road. Best of all it's *mission accomplished* with loose leash walking!”
The poor dog is now so exhausted from pulling a wagon full of crap 2/3
of a mile down a gravel driveway every day that he no longer has the strength
to pull on leash. Nice job - you’ve
turned your dog into a pack mule.
But
what do we do with a client who doesn’t have a wagon full of crap and a 2/3
mile gravel driveway handy? Or the
client who simply doesn’t have the heart to subject her poor dog to hours of
weekly slave labor? Instead of simply using, gentle, humane, professional
leash training, i.e. training the dog
to walk on a leash without pulling - you use a short cut and announce that “it’s mission accomplished” by exhausting the dog instead of properly leash training him.
Call me crazy, but this doesn’t sound very “positive” to me. If this dog belonged to one of
our clients, we would take the time to do some basic leash training and the
result would be a new world opened to the dog - a dramatically improved quality
of life for both the dog and his owner! They could get out into the world, go to the town’s July 4th parade,
to the county fair, to the local big-box-pet store, to a neighbor’s home for a
barbecue, to the vet’s office for a checkup, to a sidewalk café for a snack or
simply enjoy a pleasant walk in the neighborhood. All of these activities are a heck of a lot more
fun than pulling a wagon full of garbage up and down a gravel road.
Instead of
teaching the dog how to walk politely on a leash, you’ve eliminated his desire
to walk on a leash at all! Take a break from your victory laps, buy
Lindsay’s three volume “Handbook of Applied Dog Training and Behavior” and read
about the dead dog rule[i].
While you’re at it, read about operant conditioning and you’ll begin to understand why all working
dogs (seeing eye, service, military, search and rescue, police patrol, etc.) are
trained with balanced training protocols.
Sadly, if today’s purely-positive-training madness continues, it will cost
many dogs their lives. Their owners, after having tried some of the inane
dreck that passes for dog training today, will
conclude that their dogs are “untrainable” and give up on them.[ii]
Purely Positive cult members – please stop using gadgets and gimmicks as
substitutes for real dog training!
Herbal potions, hoods over the head (ThunderCaps) and containment devices (head halters and no-pull harnesses) are no substitute
for training. Open your minds and your hearts, and learn how
to give your clients and their dogs what they really need, not just what makes
you feel good.
[i] The dead-dog rule is a complementary logic for framing
the least intrusive and minimally aversive (LIMA) principle. By converting
training goals into affirmative statements and identifying objectives that can
be achieved only by a live dog, the resultant perspective is biased toward
reward-based training efforts.
[ii] Despite the great efforts made by animal shelters in low
cost spay/neuter programs, shelter [dog] populations have continued to
increase. Is it mere coincidence that the number of dogs in shelters has
increased along with the spread of the purely positive movement over the past
decade?
