A few weeks ago, as I was taking my dog for a walk, I witnessed a curious situation.
A gentleman was walking his Labrador down the street. The dog reached for something on the ground and picked it up. The gentleman said “drop it” but the dog refused to obey the verbal command. The man leaned over to his dog to take the unknown object from its mouth, and the dog gave him a growl. The owner, without any hesitation, said “nope” then gave the dog a gentle slap on the side of the face. The dog instantly came to his senses and stopped the growl. The owner opened his mouth, took out whatever object the dog tried to swallow, threw it to the side, and kept on walking.
Just as he was turning to head his way, a woman appeared out of nowhere and started yelling. She accused him of animal abuse. She said he was beating his dog and that she was calling the police on him. She screamed at the top of her lungs about how such a cruelty towards animals should not exist in today’s civilized world. The man kept walking away and, because her speech was not taking a desired effect, she started looking around hoping to find like-minded witnesses.
She noticed me and said, “Did you see that?!” I asked in response, “Saw what?” She engaged, “This man was beating his dog on the head! In the middle of the day! We should call animal control!”
I said, “I saw a caring dog owner who probably just saved his pet’s life.”
Our society is admirably focused on becoming better. We celebrate humanity and respect. We teach children to be polite, to share, and to say nice things. We politely stop when a stranger on a street asks us for directions. If someone accidentally bumps into us with their shopping cart, we are quick to reassure them that this is okay; some will even apologize for being in a way.
Finally, we are trying to translate all those cultural beliefs into dog ownership, and this is where the problems begin.
Dogs have no understanding what “polite” means. They will not show you any appreciation for endless apologies. Most will not “share” and will not be polite with strangers. If another dog bumps into them, they will snap and bite.
What they do understand, though, is rules and structure. The simpler, the better. For instance, you cannot growl at me. You cannot touch me with your teeth. You cannot jump on me. You must obey my verbal commands. You must let me open your mouth.
Some of these rules are taught to young puppies by their mother, who will harshly correct a puppy who is biting too hard by grabbing them by their neck. She will do it once, and the puppy will never bite her nipples hard again.
When this puppy gets into a civilized and “nice” family, they suddenly lose all the structure. They become confused because they must create a structure for themselves now - and for their owners as well. This is where the resource guarding, the obnoxious jumping, the “don’t touch my paws” comes in. If the owners continue being polite about it - correcting it is considered animal abuse - the dog becomes bolder and pushes for more and more power.
What happens next? Sometimes, a particularly powerful or dominant dog puts holes in its owner’s body. At other times, a dog who was allowed to run free and has no recall, is killed by a vehicle. And yet at other times, they pick something from the ground and, because an owner is not willing to insist that the dog needs to let go of its possession, such a dog swallows an object and is either poisoned and dies or dies from obstruction.
There is no “positive-only” thing in the world that will outweigh the temptation of chasing a squirrel for a dog who has a strong prey drive.
Your treats and baby voice have no power if the dog considers an arriving mailman an exciting event.
There is literally nothing positive you can do to “fix” a habit to run away - the dog who does it already decided that whatever is out there is better than you.
The only thing that will help avoid those issues is establishing the rules, according to which none of that is allowed to happen. Those rules need to be fair, clear, and uncompromising, and they need to be enforced when necessary.
Correcting a dog for guarding an object in their mouth is fair. A dog understands and respects that - they will not suffer a psychological trauma because of a slap. What they will do, though, is reconsider growling the next time.
Correcting a dog fairly is not animal abuse, but is a mark of thoughtful and smart ownership; an ownership that is built on respecting the dogs for who they are and on communicating with them in a language they can comprehend.
I do not think that woman understood what I said. She looked shocked, almost betrayed, and I was in no mood for educating her in that moment.
I am bringing up this situation here because so many people reach out and ask whether I am a positive-only trainer, or I prefer aversions, or I am balanced.
I refuse to label myself as any of those things. I use whatever methods work with a specific dog in front of me, and I do not limit my choices based on the made-up terminology that has no solid theoretical grounding.
I am against any kind of abuse, but that works both ways and includes dogs abusing their owners and terrorizing them with their obnoxious and dangerous behavior.
Ultimately, I am for peaceful and safe dog-human relationship, as this is the goal most people, including myself, have in mind when they decide to get a dog.