08/12/2023
I see countless social media dog training “help” pages where owner after owner share the struggles they’re going through with their dog, and which they then proceed to list all of the politically correct, “science-based”, emotionally comfortable, morally superior, always positive-focused approaches they’ve attempted to use to remedy the issues…to no avail.
What’s wild is, they’ll share how long they’ve been at it, the money spent, the damages incurred (materially, physically, and emotionally), and they’ll proudly list all they’ve tried, almost as if it’s a banner, or a signal. Well, after all, it is a signal. A signal that says “I’m on the good team.”, “I’m one of the kind, caring, humane, smart, science-y ones.”
And every time I read these posts (don’t ask me why I torture myself), I’ll then read them to whoever happens to be close by—which is usually my wife or my team. (Sorry! 🤣) And then I’ll list all the incredibly obvious ways the owner could actually stop the problem—if stopping the problem was actually more important than feeling morally superior, emotionally comfortable, or belonging to the right group was to them.
Of course these suggestions I make would not only never fly on these pages, but even if they did remain, the chance that anyone would act on them would be an almost guaranteed zero.
Why? Because although these solutions would almost certainly solve the problem, they would most inconveniently not align with the current PP/FF ideology/cult/religion, AND they would involve countless interactions that these owners would find unpleasant, uncomfortable, unenjoyable—and morally unacceptable.
And so the issues, struggles, stress, and pain shall remain. Not because there aren’t solutions, but because real, honest to goodness solutions aren’t at all what any of these people are actually looking for. Solutions garner no attention, sympathy, or belonging—only chosen suffering, for dog and owner garner these prized benefits.
And so eyes and minds will remain closed and the suffering will roll on.