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Reality and Rescue
By Rue Chagoll
Dogs Don’t Dig Democracy
As surely as they share our beds, minivans, and TV couches –
companion dogs are bound also to share the consequences of our human
excesses. Such is the case with the influence of "political
correctness" on dog training these days – too often, I
believe, to the detriment of our partners’ well-being.
For years, the pendulum in dog training theory and practice has been
swinging toward more positive methods and away from harsher aversive
techniques. Positive methods have become universally preferred for
teaching behaviors, balanced with humane corrections to establish
limits and achieve reliable compliance. A sound philosophy, embraced
by most trainers I know. But now, add the ideological overkill of
political correctness and that pendulum swings to the extreme –
where another group of trainers hangs out. Emerging buzzwords like
"purely positive" and wholesale condemnation of any
procedure that even smacks of being a correction now characterize
advertised methods of some trainers, and even some organizations. In
a nutshell, the thesis is Fido must "want" to comply and
never be coerced, well-illustrated by a recent satirical barb
imagining revamped obedience trial rules in one West Coast city
famous for their extreme political views:
Obedience competition gets a much-needed overhaul, as the idea of
one species taking orders from another is deemed abhorrent. Instead,
sapien partners and dogs will enter the ring and their exercise
might sound something like this:
"Precious, let’s sit, shall we? We’ll do it together."
"Precious, how do you feel about that jump? Not today? OK"
"Precious, let’s both go pick up that dumbbell."
Sure, we all laugh. But there’s a critical misconception
illustrated here. Plain and simply: Dogs don’t dig democracy. Like
it or not, they don’t understand free choice or group consensus,
nor do they subscribe to the concepts of equal rights or diversity.
They’re not conservatives or liberals, nor Republicans or
Democrats. In their world there are but leaders and followers, the
dominant and the submissive. Their social hierarchy is established
by means quite often physical, and certainly never political.
But the chorus of politically correct dog trainers will not be
ignored, mostly targeting pet-owners, the larger and unfortunately
more gullible market (than those who train for specific work or
competition). More and more we’re hearing declaratives such as
"I only train with positive methods," or "I don’t
believe in corrections." The inevitability of adverse
consequences is assured when training method eclipses the importance
of training results. This is exactly what’s come to pass, asserts
Connie Cleveland, a widely renowned and highly regarded trainer, in
a recent issue of Golden Retriever News. She wrote, "In the
current dog training climate, most dogs are not disciplined, dogs
have no respect for their owners and are simply out of
control."
Accompanying that hard-hitting indictment on training is Cleveland’s
equally powerful assertion that the Golden Retriever community’s
current fretting over deterioration in temperament is largely
unfounded. What we’re witnessing, she proposes, are the
consequences of poor training or no training at all. To illustrate,
she cites the example of a clinic she ran last fall for one of the
largest Golden rescue organizations in the country. Over a weekend
she evaluated twenty-eight allegedly "aggressive" dogs,
all but three, Goldens. Her findings? Only two were deemed truly
aggressive, neither of them Golden Retrievers. The rest she judged
to be simply out of control. "Out of control dogs often exhibit
aggression," she stated.
Cleveland’s words resonated strongly with me, reflecting personal
experiences in teaching obedience and involvement with rescue. Many
a shocked expression has been flashed by student handlers when I
prescribe a dose of discipline in the form of verbal admonition or a
collar-pop. In rescue, I've encountered numerous Goldens –
advertised as aggressive – but mostly needing rules and leadership
in their lives.
In the code of politically correct dog training, any method other
than "purely positive" is implied to be unenlightened and
inhumane. That perspective needs redirection. If there must be a
guideline, it should be that any selected methodology must be
humane, contributing to the long-term welfare of the recipient. In
such context, I would regard as in-humane, any training program that
failed to produce the desired outcome and resulted in a dog being
ostracized to the back yard or basement or, worse yet, turned out to
a shelter, rescue or otherwise abandoned.
Please understand I subscribe 100% to a positive approach in
training. Positive is the only way I teach my own dogs, or other
handlers to train, a new behavior. But here’s where I, and many
others, depart from the purely positive crowd: Achieving reliable
compliance. What in the world good is a dog that knows how to –
and you choose the behavior: come, sit, stay, off, down, leave it,
give – but only complies when it suits their fancy? Corrections,
not bribery, are how you obtain compliance. Here again, political
correctness has turned that very term, "correction," into
nearly a four-letter expletive. Corrections may be visual (hard
stare, encroaching posture), verbal (sharp voice), or physical
(collar pop, tap on the head) – and must be tailored both to the
recipient and the circumstance. Any study of canine pack behavior
will reveal that all three types of corrections are used routinely
by dogs themselves: between mother and her young, among puppies, or
between adult dogs.
Remember, when you next gaze at that beloved creature curled up at
your feet, that it’s a dog – not a little person in a fur coat.
Earning his or her respect and compliance through intelligent and
benevolent leadership is probably the most humane thing you could
ever do for your canine friend. Failure to have a dog that behaves
in your home and is welcomed into the community, regardless how
"politically correct" your method or lofty your
intentions, is still nothing beyond failure – your failure. - RC
Rue Chagoll
rchagoll@capital.net
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