A New Puppy For Christmas
What could be better than opening a wiggly box of puppy happiness on Christmas morning? Not much if you were in the market for a puppy, and the one in the box is exactly what works best in your household. But buying an animal as a gift is a tricky thing, and should be done […]
Beating a Dead Zebra – Final Note
The apparent success of punishment can be convincing. Punishing will often result in an end to a behavior. It may also result in the temporary suppression of a behavior. At least, as long as the one doling out the punishment is present. Dog pees on the floor, and his owner rubs his nose in it. […]
Crossing Over
I thought it wise to take a break from my current series to explain something about my training methods for those of you who have known me for a long time. I am what they call a “crossover trainer”. What that means is that I once used methods and tools I no longer use. You […]
Beating a Dead Zebra – Part 5
Learned helplessness occurs when an animal/human finds their situation so out of their control, they eventually stop trying to change or escape it. This is the reason that humans stay in abusive relationships, and it happens when punishment is used with our four legged friends. Because our timing is not perfect, our dog doesn’t understand […]
Beating a Dead Zebra – Part 4
Next on our list: Modeling. Modeling is seen in humans when children live through abuse. The often grow up to be abusers. Thank goodness our dogs are so often capable of living through horrendous torture and still coming out the other side without any apparent signs. But as a general rule, violence in a relationship […]
Beating a Dead Zebra – Part 3
So, going with our list, avoidance is next. This one is fairly straightforward. If you punish your dog the dog is likely to be unaware of your intentions. Most people (even trainers) don’t have the absolutely precise timing that it would take to allow the dog to associate punishment with the act he’s being punished […]
Beating a Dead Zebra – Part 2
Okay, so on the list I gave you in my last post the first one is not really applicable to dogs. Dogs don’t act in a passive aggressive way. I know some people will argue with me. I myself had a little dog that would pee under my chair every time I sat at my […]
Beating A Dead Zebra
I don’t want to feel like I am wasting my time trying to convince people that they do not need to cause their dog distress in order to get their dog to behave. It is SO important to me that people understand their dogs and don’t just go with the latest fad because it looks […]
Greetings and salutations!
I have long been unhappy with the limitations of my current blog on my website, so I decided to go with the pros and set up a blog on wordpress. I will do my darndest to actually do some regular blogging now that I have a much more friendly platform for it. I welcome your […]