Internet Information and Animal Training
There are a lot of people out there misleading everyone with misinterpreted information. They will say they are following this or that expert and even share links to that person’s “research” based “facts”.
The problem is that many people don’t go beyond the interpretation to read the actual ORIGINAL research, so what they are reading is a watered-down version that is misinterpreted at several layers and ends up being laced with facts but all in all is very incorrectly interpreted.
As an example, I’ll use “animal rescue” people. As you know Mike and I ran a rescue from our Arizona location. We understood that these animals had been through a lot before coming to us and like all creatures need patience and consistency, but many “rescue people” take research and experience and put anthropomorphic philosophy behind their interpretations. This in and of itself is why many animals come back to a rescue. The rescue never fixed the problem and the animal goes back to it’s former behaviors which are not tolerable by most once it leaves the rescue. It’s easy to do, especially when you love animals. I consulted with a trusted friend and horseman on an issue I was having with a horse I was particularly bonded to and he said, “you’re treating her like a victim, not a horse. Sometimes you can be too patient and this mare is walking all over you.” That first part in particular is very important to remember.
These animals may be victims of circumstance, but when we put human emotions into their scenario, we are doing them a dis-service. Animals in bad situations survive them by relying on their instincts to develop behaviors that enable them to survive. “Develop behavior” means they learned something and if it can be learned it can be unlearned/relearned.
When I remember this basic animal training principle, I never have an issue, when I’m having one I step back and review. Here’s the principle: ask, tell, make. If you stay on one step that animal learns it doesn’t have to listen because there’s never a make. Think of this. I ASK a horse to turn by wiggling my fingers on one hand, the horse does not respond, so I TELL the horse to turn by bending my wrist, the horse does not respond, so I MAKE the horse turn by pulling it’s head around. If I don’t up the pressure the horse learns nothing, but if I always follow that process the horse learns that the finger wiggle is the lowest command to turn and much easier to follow then to have its head pulled to one side.
Now take the horse from a bad situation in the hands of an anthropomorphic “rescue”. “Oh, we can’t pull on her mouth like that because she doesn’t like it. See she came from a bad situation where they abused her by putting this really harsh bit in her mouth and when you pull on her head, she fights it.” No, she came from a place where they never taught her to yield to pressure properly and now, she knows how to avoid it and this 1000 pound animal is going to hurt someone because it has no respect for your leadership.
Remember that animals respond to situations based on instincts and if you don’t take their natural instincts into consideration or substitute anthropomorphic principles to describe those instincts you are really going to have problems.
Let’s look at dogs for a moment. The AKC has many decades of breeders and trainers compiling data on different breeds of dogs and have developed a learning phases timeline for dogs, especially puppies, to help new dog owners understand the why’s and how’s of puppy learning. But some people out there on the internet take this research and misinterpret it to mean a strict timeline and consequence for not following it. What these people forget to relay or perhaps don’t understand themselves is that this guideline has several mitigating factors including breed, line genetics, and individual temperament. Weening for example. Does it mean when a puppy is eating solids? When mom starts to push them off? Or when they are emotionally mature? There is a great deal of misinterpretation out there about the socialization a puppy needs through its first few months of life. Studies have revealed that at certain stages a puppy learns things like limitations, self-control, independence, and coping skills. Going back to natural behavior these things are learned by interactions with their dam and litter mates. So, what happens when a puppy leaves that environment to go to its new home? Nothing if that new family continues on with the puppy’s socialization and it becomes a properly adjusted member of their pack. Disaster happens if not, and they end up finding a trainer like me. The lesson here is that these anthropomorphic re-layers of misinformation forgot the importance of the word IF in these studies.
IF you do not wolf your puppy, it will not learn not to play too rough. IF you do not divert chewing instincts to toys you will lose a lot of shoes. IF you do not spend time with your puppy, it will not learn limits. IF you allow certain behaviors because it’s “cute” you will have a menace on your hands when it is full grown. It has nothing to do with age alone, but the interactions the puppy had. Those interactions do NOT have to be from litter mates or mothers, they can be from people.
So, once again beware of the “facts” going around the internet and dig deeper into the “research” people are quoting from “experts”.
As always if you have questions or want to chat you are welcome to.