Finally, the public is being let in on the debate. Word is out that the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is against alpha-dominance dog training. The article quotes the former AVMA president as saying "We are on record as opposing some of the things Cesar Millan does because they're wrong."
Last year on Zen Dog Training we posted the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) position statement explaining the scientific perspective against dominance theory and submissive techniques. These are the methods recommended and used by Cesar Millan and others who teach that people need to be their dog's "alpha" in order to train.
It's no secret that the scientific community has been debunking "alpha-dog" and "dominance" training for decades now! Positive reinforcement is used by trainers at Sea World, for birds of prey, and with animals on movie sets and television shows. Why? Because it works. Period.Positive reinforcement techniques like ours use motivators that are not pain-inducing or depend on startle-response techniques to work. The bottom line here is realizing that yes food, love, fun and fear all motivate your dog.
Alpha training methods that rely on: startling a dog, scaring a dog, or causing pain (choke chains, prong collars) absolutely make a negative association to a behavior. Used correctly — in a way where the dog does not perceive that a human doled out that punishment — these methods can work.
But the pitfalls of using "direct-confrontation" or "alpha-dog" training methods are many:
Reason 1: Unwitting owners who rely on the "fear/startle" techniques often find themselves missing the critical timing (about 1 sec) to make successful connection required for training.
The problem is that dogs live in the present moment, so successfully connecting that negative feedback about your dog’s behavior to each specific act is extremely difficult.
Reason 2: Worse-case scenario — if you are perceived by your dog as the one delivering that negative consequence, he won’t learn that chewing furniture is bad, he will learn that sometimes “humans comes around and get really mad and scary!” This can be confusing to your dog because punishment seems random and inconsistent. This breaks the dog/human trust — to your dog the crucial dog/human bond is in question. Are humans to be trusted or not? So how do we define domestication? Our goal is to co-exist with this once wild animal, but if your dog learns that sometimes they need to fear you... then what?
Reason 3: Having a punitive relationship with your dog creates more situations where we tend to "act angry” or yell as a response to unwanted behaviors. Assuming your goal is to calmly have your dog listen to you, then practicing more yelling is not the right solution.
Reason 4: The dog starts to think that we too are upset by these situations. Think about it. If we yell or get angry every time the doorbell rings, your dog will think that — you too — get upset by the UPS guy or when visitors come over. Bad association to the doorbell!
Another example is using prong collars and choke chains on walks, often they are the cause of leash aggression. The first time a dog gets excited to see another dog — they get a painful pinch on the neck and a “correction” from an uptight owner. Pretty soon, meeting other dogs sure takes on some negative associations.
Lucky for us, after many years successfully co-existing with humans dogs are experts at learning what we are trying to teaching them… in spite of ourselves!
Unfortunately, some dogs — often the smarter, more sensitive types — can have their spirit broken by this kind of training. So when it doesn’t work, it really doesn’t work. The consequences to a confused dog who finally lashes out can be life-threatening.
At Zen Dog Training we promote positive-reinforcement methods that do not rely on pain or fear to motivate a dog. We train with understanding, communication, consistency and love.
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