04/23/2024
If you pay attention to enough dog training posts and comments, you’ll notice an interesting thing...
There’s a disturbing lack of care, support, or concern for the human.
You’ll find a never ending supply of the above for the dog, but the human...nah, they must have somehow deserved what they got, or are getting. They’re painted as ignorant, lazy, and in some strange way, the enemy.
It’s deeply telling that the humans writing the posts and comments, find it almost impossible to actually care about other humans.
Who cares about the owner who’s been pulled to the ground, drug across the pavement, had muscles pulled, bones broken, fingers crushed, assorted puncture wounds and nasty gashes?
And this doesn’t even touch on the emotional fallout. Loads of stress, anxiety, fear are terribly commonplace. Having to rearrange your life to be able to walk your dog at a safe time. Not being able to safely have friends or family over. Romantic relationships getting caught in the crossfire. Hoping you don’t come home to a broken crate, and a destroyed house.
Yep, I’m a dog lover. But I’m also a human lover. That’s why I train the way I do, and why I recommend the tools I do. I want the best for both species. If training is going to work, it needs to work. It needs to be straightforward enough, simple enough, and replicable enough...for regular, everyday owners. Owners who aren’t trainers, and who don’t have 10 hours a day to devote to working some incredibly intricate and nuanced training.
Too many trainers continue to focus on the dogs, the art, and themselves. And while there’s nothing wrong with being artful and deeply thoughtful about the training process, if it’s not something your clients can or will duplicate, it’s simply a waste of time, and an exercise in self-indulgence.
The true art, the true nuance, and the true magic of great training is figuring out how to make something that IS complex and nuanced, as simple as possible. Not dumb, not unfair, not crude, but simple and replicable.
If trainers can make a shift and learn to see the human as at least as important as the dog, and at least as deserving of empathy and care and kindness, they might just find a new focus on their methods, and their tool choices. They might just find themselves realizing that owners who are happy and comfortable with their dogs, tend to keep their dogs. They tend to enjoy their dogs. They tend to give their dogs much better lives.
And if dogs are your passion, then perhaps when you realize they only thrive when cared for properly, you might leave the fancy, the complex, the ego-fueled lingo, mindset, and techniques at the door, and instead find what actually works for those who’ve asked for their help.
And maybe even do it with kindness and care. Just a thought.
