Have you ever considered that the absence of something can harm you? What if I upped the ante and included “something that hurts and/or scares you? What if I included “something that plainly causes physical damage.” Would you really know what I was talking about? If this line of reasoning seems totally bizarre I’ll give you some contexts to see what I’m driving at. Continue reading
I was at a popular dog park recently when a young man entered with a female pit bull mix, who was obviously wearing a shock collar. As the dog started to play a little rough with a smaller dog, the man pushed the button on his hand held transmitt
er and “zapped” his dog. She yelped a little and walked slowly away from the puppy. If you had been watching this act, would you have considered it cruel or responsible? If your dog was about to attack an innocent puppy and your only means of control was an electric collar, what would you do?
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Note: I was asked to do a seminar for Dogs East – a very prestigious search team based in Virginia. I was sent videos of searches and discovered a major problem – false positives. I was aware of the Navy program that I mention in the article, but the work they did was classified secret. They couldn’t talk to me. So I recreated the process. A few years later the head of the Navy Marine Mammal group in San Diego called me to help him tweak their program. Ironically, I couldn’t help him because he couldn’t tell me what they actually do. This same problem with “false positives” is an inherent weakness of any detection dog – for search, explosives, drugs or any other scent identification task.
” My dog used to jump. I tried turning around and giving my back. So she walked around to my front and jumped again. The next time she jumped, I bonked her. She stopped jumping. Case closed.”
Frank Adams CEO On Point Dog Training Clayton, Ohio
This report is true, accurate and impossible to argue – unless you are living in a fantasy world. However, Frank and I meet resistance when we deliver such simple, direct and effective advice. Imagine why this would be controversial. It’s controversial because many ‘modern’ trainers, animal behaviorists, behavior analysts and other such ideologues claim that simply ignoring a behavior will make it go away. OK. Let’s see how that works… Continue reading
Groucho Marx remembered that he once sent a telegram to the Friar’s Club that said, “Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member” While not trying to imitate Groucho I sometimes wonder if he didn’t have the right idea. Here’s an example. A veterinarian friend suggested that I join a behavior organization for the purpose of having professional affiliations. I am truly an open minded individual on leap-years so I decided to give it a whirl. I joined the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. (IAABC) They “Grandfathered” me in because many of them use a method that I created, albeit poorly. Continue reading