Why prong and shock collars?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hbk4kx86204

Do you know this movie?  It’s Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.  I love it!  Despite the historical inaccuracies, the bad accents and the predictable plot, I love it.

In this scene, Fanny is about to give birth to her eighth child but she knows something doesn’t feel quite right.  The good Friar Tuck means well but he is speaking words of fear out of ignorance.  It’s a close call, Tuck’s emotional whispering into Little John’s ear nearly makes him burst in and remove Azeem from assisting Fanny.  Yes, Azeem’s approach to midwifery is bold and causes some discomfort but he is looking at the problem logically- the baby was breach and needed to be turned to be born safely.  He takes the necessary action to remedy the situation.  In the end, Azeem saves the day.  He helps Fanny safely deliver her son.

Why am I going on about a 28-year-old movie?  The same thing is happening in the dog training world.  There is a very well-organized, very loud and well-meaning group spouting emotional fear about balanced training.  They cry out against training tools they neither use nor understand.  They do this in an attempt to be kind; they truly believe that using force-free methods are the best path.  Sometimes it works!  Just like in medieval times, sometimes a breech baby could be born safely without assistance.

The sad reality is that the vast majority of those babies died just as the vast majority of dogs trained using force free methods are unsuccessful.  Instead of becoming family members who are able to accompany their humans everywhere, instead of helping a dog confront and conquer their dog reactivity, they keep their pet in a fenced back yard.  Instead of teaching their dog not to jump on visitors, they stop having people over.  People allow their lives to be taken over by their dog’s behavior instead of reaching for a different method of modifying the behavior. 

Balanced training is often uncomfortable.  I will stipulate that.  However, all growth is uncomfortable.  Show me one human who didn’t have some struggle in school and I’ll show you an uneducated person.  If a butterfly does not struggle in discomfort against the cocoon then her wings will not be strong enough to fly.  In a dog pack, they keep one another in check in the most primitive way possible- they growl, snarl, snap and bite.  This is the language dogs already know.  Balanced training taps into that reality and uses it as a map to help the dog learn to understand English and to live in a human pack.

I have the utmost respect for anybody who cares enough about dogs to make an effort at helping them live their best lives.  Truly.  In the name of science, which is the force free advocate’s favorite argument, please remember that there are four quadrants of behavior medication.  Two of them involve punishment which is often uncomfortable.  We must often cause controlled discomfort in order to grow.  Just as Little John resisted Friar Tuck’s advice, resist the emotional manipulation designed to avoid teaching your dog.  In the end, Tuck himself admits that we all have much to learn from one another and celebrates with a beer.  Azeem accepts his grateful humility and politely declines the beer as his faith forbids it.  What a beautiful example to follow.