In light of some of my recent activities, I have received quite the onslaught of comments and messages form the proponents of the aversive free movement of dog training.
“Force should never be used in dog training!” They exclaim.
“It’s been proven by science that the use of aversives is ineffective and counter productive!”
and of course “You should really look up the work of people like Jean Donaldson and Ian Dunbar, and Sophia Yin. They have been on the front lines of animal behavior and they believe non-aversive training!”
Putting aside such details as the fact that it has never been proven by science and aversives are ineffective.
And, ignoring the almost offensive suggestion that as a professional, I wouldn’t be familiar with the works of such popular names as Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson, and Sophia Yin.
I present the following video from Jean Donaldson featuring a cameo from Ian Dunbar:
I have no problem with the Gentle leader, and aside from the sloppy handling techniques presented here, and the fact that neither one of them appears to know how to hold a leash properly with a large breed dog, I have no problem with the training presented either.
My problem begins when professionals like these, and their followers claim that this isn’t “Force based” training. Or that the techniques presented here are any different that what the majority of skilled dog trainers do with prong collars, slip collars, and low-level electronic collar work.
In fact, the concept of “Pressure on, Pressure off,” is exactly how we teach handlers to use the electronic collar, and there is an argument to made that e-collar can do the same work as presented in this video with less force, less stress, less confrontation between the handler and the dog, and exponentially less risk of damage to the dog’s neck.
My problem begins when the lies, mis-directions and blatant disregard for the facts begin.
You may understand my frustration when you consider this quote from Jean’s own Blog, regarding someone else’s training:
“This is the use of negative reinforcement . . . and it doesn’t fall within my personal method constraints – I am philosophically opposed to the use of aversives in training”
Really Jean?
That’s very interesting since in the above video, quite a bit of aversive force is applied.
My favorite part is at 1:28 when she says:
“You’re going to tighten up, and the nose loop is going to press around the dog. He is going to feel that, and then that can be released to slack when the dog is behaving as you’d like. Thats the negative reinforcement, It’s the powerful part of the tool.”
So one minute, she never uses negative reinforcement because she is philosophically opposed to it, and the next, it is the powerful part of her training demonstration. Hmmm. . .
Of course a close second is from 2:05-2:15 when she virtually hangs the dog by the gentle leader.
The amount of force she uses, is in my opinion excessive, especially considering that the dog is not actually aggressive, but just wants to go see the other dog, as seen at the end of the video.
When Cesar Milan holds up a dog, who is literally trying to eat him alive, so he can protect himself, he is called the devil; but, when Jean Donaldson does the same to a relatively mild dog who is showing no threat to her, she is an angel. If we are going to judge a canine professional on ethical grounds, then lets at least be consistent about our ethics.
We’ll have more of Jean Donaldson’s personal brand of hypocrisy in a moment, but for now, let’s turn the tables over to Dr. Sophia Yin.
Dr. Yin is another individual who has been placed high on a pedestal of almost God-like proportions by her followers.
Let me just say, that I like Dr.Yin and I think she does nice work. She also was the developer of one of my favorite training tools, the “Manners Minder”, which is a remote rewarding system. Dr. Yin’s core philosophy of leadership through guidance and information resonates with me and fits nicely with my own brand of Dogmanship.
That being said, my comments here pertain not to Dr. Yin, but to the followers of hers who take some very good and practical advice on reward based training, and twist it into an extreme that gets followed with religious fervor.
Here’s Dr. Yin’s rendition of the “Yank and Crank” approach to Head Halter use:
Now, I do believe that Dr. Yin is being very careful about her language in this video, making sure to say things like “I am using gentle pressure”, even though due to the leverage that the Gentle leader gives the handler, the pressure may not seem so gentle to the dog. Also, at the point when the dogs accidentally meet, she says she “calls” him away, where clearly she pulled or jerked him away with physical force on the Gentle Leader.
The main point however, is that the techniques that she is using are almost identical to the techniques involved in modern electronic collar training. However, as previously stated, the electronic pressure can be applied with better consistence, less force, less confrontation between dog and handler, and less risk of trauma to the neck.
No big deal, to each their own right?
Wrong. Dr. Yin and her followers vehemently oppose electronic collars, citing all types of falsities, such as chances for injury that just do not exist. Again, I think that Sophia Yin is a very talented trainer, but the way tools are presented with such bias and misinformation strikes me as more political than scientific.
This last video is just the icing on the cake. It feature Jean Donaldson addressing the pros and cons of various tools for stopping pulling:
As could be expected at tho point, this video is filled with blatant lies.
“This is a prong collar. If used as directed, the prongs will dig into your dog’s neck whenever he tries to pull. It is very painful, and that’s why it works.”
First, this is not how prong collars are directed to be used. You do not simply let the dog pull against the prongs and hope that he will stop. The human is to use pressure on the leash to give the dog feedback about their choices. Remember that whole “pressure on, pressure off” routine from Jean’s first video?
Second, When used properly, the prong collar should not cause pain. Mild discomfort, sure. Annoyance, probably. But pain? absolutely not necessary, no more that and Gentle Leader must cause pain.
“This is a choke collar. if used as directed, when your dog pulls is strangles him.”
I personally am not a fan of choke collars, but that doesn’t make it O.K. to lie about them. The proper use of a choke is not to let your dog strangle himself at the end of the leash. The handle is to give a very quick ‘POP’ on the leash the instant the dog makes a bad decision. Is it uncomfortable? Certainly. However it is very different from strangulation. The choke chain is a harsher correction than I like to use, and I agree with Jean that it is not a good tool for stopping a dog from pulling, but to lie about it is unprofessional. Let’s call a spade, a spade.
“This is a head halter. . . If the dog tries to pull, her head will be gently pulled around.”
Gentle says who? The head halter is a leverage system similar to a pulley. If I use a pulley system to life a 2 ton anvil, there will be very little force applied between my hands and the rope, however, there will still be 2 tons of force applied between the rope and the anvil. Understood in the way, it is clear that the only one the head halter (gentle leader, halt etc.) is gentle on is the human. In fact the head halter or gentle leader operate on the same learning principles as the prong collar, negative reinforcement. This tool feels more gentle to the human, looks more gentle to the human, but is practice is not much different from many of the told that Jean Donaldson opposes.
I am not arguing against the gentle leader. I think a good trainer needs to be capable of utilizing a variety of different tools, gentle leaders included, I am aging against the lies and deceit. Jean’s comments are meant to promote her own personal and professional agenda, not to properly educate the public on the facts.
As usual, it is the unassuming public that gets misled and now has to trudge through the muck of agenda pushing dog trainers to try and figure how to manage their dog.
Now, just to solidify my point, here is a video of me introducing a prong collar to a dog. I had never met this dog before, and he had some serious dog-dog reactivity issues:
One day later, this dog was able to hang out around other dogs, something that was not possible before. And I didn’t have to use all the jerking around that was seen in the above Gentle Leader videos.
So which is more forceful? Should I be convinced that light pressure on a prong collar is worse than hanging a dog on a Gentle leader. Or maybe, different dogs and different people require different approaches to be successful. You be the judge.