Confession: I once hit my dog Nellie when she was narrowly missed by a car, while misbehaving. I was so scared I reacted without thinking, I was also 24 years old (not an excuse, just that we are a bit impulsive around that age). I smacked her on her head, with an open hand, and then hugged her and bawled. I also consider the methods I once used to be the same as hitting my dogs. I am a crossover trainer and I started out just as ignorant to the science and evidence as anyone else. Those of us in the here and now, we are SO lucky that the evidence is so widely available and it is so much easier to implement than being an asshole to our beloved animals. Even if wrapped in a love package, its still being an asshole to hit a dog. We are just not all that good at applying positive punishment, as a rule our timing is absolutely awful. In order for it to be positive punishment, it needs to change the behavior in 1, maybe 2 trials. After that, it is no longer positive punishment, but abuse. Think of choke chains and prong collars, if they actually worked the way we intend, 1-2 jerks would have taught the lesson. Ever seen this happen? Me neither. And by the way, to yell-scare-bully-intimidate them, its the same thing.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 02:30:20 +0000
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