Month: January 2019

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The Dominance Controversy

https://canineprinciples.com/10-great-reasons-not-to-copy-cesar-millan/
I will forgive the writer for using the term ‘guardian’ and not owner only because she uses so many other wise words in this blog entry.

“The one thing all dog trainers will agree on is that the others are wrong”

I don’t know who said that first but in my experience its certainly true. No wonder most pet owners are confused. Before I knew any better I too was influenced by a local guy who a ton of dog owners referred to as our very own dog whisperer. I took a badly bred, very reactive dog to his class. I watched in horror as this man proceeded to place a prong collar on my dog and yank the crap out of him in order to get his attention. Wow. When that did not work he placed a shock collar on him, except he referred to it as a ‘stimulation training device’. I will never forgive myself for what I allowed this person to do to my dog and for me thinking this was acceptable. Times have changed.

His end goal was for the dogs to basically behave like doormats. He was a tape recorder telling us that we are the pack leader, we are in charge, we are in control….blah blah blah. Bullshit.

I bought/adopted/owned dogs all my life. I live with dogs for the interaction and pleasure of enjoying each others company. If I wanted a doormat I could buy one at Home Depot. I didn’t want to hurt my dogs. I didn’t want them to obey me because they feared me. I want them to make decisions to do things with me and enjoy these things. Granted, nail trims, baths, grooming are not always exciting activities but they also do not have to be torturous or scary!

Cesar Millan did a lot of things for dog owners. He did bring to attention the need to interact with the animals. At least people did see that they should spend time with their pets. BUT he also (having zero credentials) was offering some terrible advice on his reality show. He was cruel to the dogs. Watch a show of his with the sound off. Look at the dogs body language. Do you see fear? Do you see joy? The man is cruel. He is barbaric in so many ways. He teaches people that in order to live with a doormat . . . erm, a dog, that they must use force, intimidation and pain. Boy was he wrong.

I urge you to click the link below and read Dr Sophia Yin’s post on dominance. It’s lengthy but super valuable! After reading both articles posted here think about how you feel about what Mr. Millan tells people on his reality show and decide for yourself how you plan to engage your dogs. My hope is you choose a positive approach, offering choices to your dogs and engaging them in the learning process with you.

https://drsophiayin.com/philosophy/dominance/

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“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”

There is much controversy as to who first spoke those words. There is little controversy over the truth those words speak.

Lately we have been discussing how interesting it is that for some people their default action/reaction is negative. It’s as if an immediate response must be made on each and every topic being discussed and they feel compelled to complain, bring in drama, point fingers, attack or bully. It almost seems out of the persons control, a conditioned response that may have taken a lifetime to develop and perfect.

In my transformation to try to become a more reasonable, peaceful, forgiving, tolerant and kind person I sometimes will play little games to amuse myself. One game is to keep mental notes of names of people who are either as described above or who is directly involved in the history of a dog we get into rescue or a re-home situation. This game is similar to the one you might play to make an important decision- making lists of pro and con – except in this instance the only conclusion which can be made is that the same names remain on each list. Those names become so familiar that when I log into FB to post my feed is littered with their drama and I see the pattern emerging daily.

These same people are great at grandstanding, playing the victim or creating drama. Always. The. Drama. If you didn’t know better you may think they work very hard and are wonderful giving responsible people. And in some parts of their lives they are just that. BUT when it really comes to selfless contribution you won’t want to count on these folks. Don’t put them on your team. Acknowledge that drama if you must, however walk, scroll, move away from it quickly. It’s contagious.

These folks will do their very best to sabotage those hard at work, no matter who they are, and instead somehow create a scenario where they are the heroes and save the day while holding the true workers under their hand, underwater, for as long as possible attempting to drown out reality. Don’t allow their actions to deter you from your goals. These people are little more than annoying flies, buzzing around, always. Flies never live long lives.