It’s OK to Change Your Mind
It is my personal view that there is a strong correlation between people who seek education, further learning and new experiences and positive open mindedness and that there is also a strong correlation between those who do not seek education, new experiences and closed mindedness. By education I mean experiences, meeting new people, trying something new, trying a new way of doing something and learning more. I do not mean education from a purely academic point of view.
Why is it so difficult to say I have changed my mind, I have learned something new today and based on that new information I have changed my mind and would like to do things differently from now on? This is a perfectly reasonable and human thing to do. I wonder why some people are so closed off and feel that attending a Seminar, Conference, Training Course or seeking further education is an admittance of lack of knowledge or a sign of weakness, that they somehow are meant to know it all and turning up to such an event may signal that they don’t know it all.
I can honestly say that have never regretted attending any Seminar, training session, discussion group or course. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone even if this means attending something that you may feel uncomfortable about. I feel uncomfortable about +P training but I have been to events where aversive style training is taking place and a considerable amount of + P but that does not mean I won’t take something important away from that experience. Sure I find it hard to keep my mouth closed and I won’t tolerate downright abuse of any animal but I still put myself out there, why? Because I feel it helps me to be a better trainer and a better person. I do not want to remain ignorant on those topics that cause me discomfort. If I remain ignorant then I have no right condemning or commenting on such actions as +P training. If I become educated then I can give an educated informed opinion with sufficient backup as to why I feel +P training is not acceptable. I can then demonstrate a better way of doing things. Maybe someone will spot how my dog works with me and like the relationship or results, maybe they will wonder how I do that without correction and notice me using a clicker and treats.
I can’t change the world and believe me I get tired of seeing the dog listeners, whisperers and correctors on TV but I still watch and learn, yes I learn what not to do and the effects of getting it wrong. There are generally some excellent demonstrations of effective timing and the application of the punisher and its effectiveness. I use these TV clips to show our Interns, trainees and new staff how stress, flooding and correction affects a dog.
We can see the +R trained dogs winning at competitions, happy stress free and willing to work and listen to their owners. We can see the difference in body language displayed by the dog trained using +R. We can critically evaluate what method works best and it becomes easy to spot the dogs trained using +R over the dogs who are trained using +P which is a nice skill to build up.
Vets, Trainers, Behaviourists and Animal Care workers need to become a little more open minded. Don’t get bogged down with what goes on in TV world, don’t let the marketing and PR manipulate your view; go with your gut feeling. If it doesn’t feel right maybe it is not right. Does that mean that use +R trainers need to become more open minded as well? I think so, I think we need to try and find some good in all training even the stuff that we don’t like. Sometimes this means a harsh trainer getting a deserved nip from a dog and learning that correction does not always mean results.
Science is science +R and +P will produce certain results and behaviours that’s fact but we can use experiences to learn and grow. I think this is what separates the true trainers from those who will always be stuck in the bad old training days!
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Yay happy days are here! Compassion...that's where I'm at
Thank you soooooo very much for airing this what some may call dirty laundry!
So true. I think the more people that take their ego out of the picture and embrace how life changing having an open mind can be and spending more time playing, rewarding, understanding how healthy +R training is, or just be empathetic and compassionate, and the world would be a much better place.
There are a couple books out regarding what I call the sleeping majority...like "The Empathetic Civilization" and "Born to be Good". I think it's just time to lead by example. Do not get hooked on the same bait that leads you away from all that you work to build in your character. Learn to let go. Concentrate on all you have to offer. Share what you know in every medium that is available to you.
re: TV..there's always Vimeo Youtube! Flood Youtube with videos ... where people can watch the relationship grow, and cheer their progress and reap the benefits as it sky rockets their oxytocin levels to the point it spills over in your and their everyday life.
Sometimes it just takes a while for people to wake up.
happy-houndz.blogspot.com
cheers, kate
Beautiful
Thanks Tara. Sometimes find it hard to leave the build up of resentments at the door and just speak the truth. Its far more effective. Thank you for saying what you did. The other person who spoke of Ego has such a beautiful point. I think I need to pick up Eckart Tolle and Anthony DeMello again and have another read. We can only lead by example if we are to keep our own peace of mind and keep our side of the street clean. Your posts have been a little meditaion for me this morning. Thanks again. x
Changing one's mind
Sometimes it IS very difficult. As a so-called cross-over, I was satisfied before getting my last dog that I knew how to train my dog. It would take patience, but it would work. After all, I'd done it with 4 previous ones. Then by accident we ended up in a lcoal dog club and they worked most positively. No real hitting, shoving etc. Ok, Alpha rolls were done, but sparingly, only when the dog was disrespecting our authority (gasp). But it was miles kinder than how I'd raised my previous dog and Luna (Greater Swiss Mountain Dog mix) was terrific. If not for some health issues, she would have been a Swiss SAR dog. After 3 years of age, we didn't need a leash with her. I'd come to accept new ideas - out of necessity. Sometimes it takes that.
Then after Luna finally succumed to the myterious problems that held her up from being certified as SAR dog, we got Vela, an overly-friendly and hyper-sensitive Flat-Coated Retriever. Smart as a whip, but one "little" leash correction or one too loud vocal correction and she collapsed - literally. On the leash she start veering away from me while walking, not wanting to be with me and my "corrections". Something had to change - this is not what I want for me and my dog. So I had to rethink everything. She could not tolerate corrections in the "old" manner. What else was there?
So now we are a clicker team, with and without clicker. And besides Dummy work and Freestyle we are working through her only real issues - loosing her head because of her overly-friendliness towards people and other dogs - using the related techniques for reactive dogs. After 3 months we can now greet people without leash and she can control her impulses and wait nicely (still dancing a little on her front paws, but still, she CAN control herself) until her "ok" comes to say "hello" instead of "HI, HI!, HI!!!". Encountering dogs gets better all the time. Still not quite there, but it too has made massive improvements.
The most important things though IMO:
1) I had to see, that that which I "knew" to be true and good, was not going to work in this case AND look for something else.
2) What I found had to work AND either preserve or deepen the good relationship I wanted with my dog, not just human->dog, but also dog->human.
This more than anything is what I would wish for all those thinking about what methode to use training their dog. To think about what kind of dog they want. And then pick the best method to achieve that goal, which may not always be the fastest method.
greetings from Vela & Buzz
Good post...
Great post about something I've been noticing for a long while now. It's so frustrating to see professionals 'stuck' in a time warp and never moving forward or altering their methods simply because they're embarrassed to say 'I've learned a better way', even if only to themselves... Me? I spend hundreds every year on seminars, conferences, online courses, books and journals so that I have the opportunity to fine-tune my methodologies. I'm not afraid to say 'I've learned a better way', even if that's a full 360 from what I was doing before, but I have to say that once on the +R road, it's never a full 360 - so doesn't that say that road is in the right direction?...
~Jaq~
www.dogpsyche.co.uk