YES. Another must-read from Your Pit Bull and You: I think that the notion that dogs just need the right “leader” in order to behave is particularly appealing to humans for a few reasons. 1) To some extent, it takes the onus off of us. If the dog is misbehaving, it isn’t because we’ve failed to teach him alternative ways to behave, it’s because he’s dominant. 2) The belief that the dog is always behaving in relation to us, not to serve his own purposes, feeds human narcissism. 3) We live in an instant-gratification, techno-speed world of plenty. We have one-click access to virtually anything that we want, or want to know more about. So slowing down to bio-speed, the rate at which our dogs learn, is challenging for us. But here’s the thing: No properly functioning living thing does stuff for free. Period. All behavior serves a purpose. And that purpose is what is motivating the animal to behave. So, to affect behavior change in our dogs, we have to decide how we will motivate them. Dogs will work to start/continue good stuff or to end/avoid bad stuff. It’s the carrot or the stick. Such a great piece. Read on and please share.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:01:15 +0000
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