Often the paths between training obedience and natural animal behaviour clash. We officially become owners of our dogs, much as slaves were owned. Our love does not confer the ethical right to demand obedience to our wants in any and every situation simply because we are the owners.
I have frequently heard statements such as “I expect my dog to do what I ask when I ask it”.
How often are animals harmed, physically and psychologically, by hard autocratic training that demands blind obedience to every command?
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As a behaviourist and trainer my most taxing work is with dogs who have been damaged by this ill-informed, ruthless regimen.
I believe in allowing my dogs fair rights, including the right to say no. I do agility training with my young Border collie.
If she is frustrated with my handling and has to stand in the sun while I am trying to devise a comprehensible directive to indicate a complex manoeuvre, she may decide to wait in the shade, have a drink or cool off in water. Should I insist she stays with me and overheats, or allow her to satisfy a sensible, understandable need and return to me when she’s satisfied that need?
To deny an animal the right to a legitimate refusal to obey any command can result in one that does your bidding regardless of the harm you may be inflicting. Consider physical reasons when dogs are reluctant to be obedient.
A reluctance to sit because of hip pain or refusing to jump because of an injury. A dog who doesn’t want to go outside at night might well have vision problems. Yes, I am empathetic when my dog sometimes disobeys.
Any frustration is far preferable to harming by forcing unconditional obedience.
Allow your dog to grow into a happy adult, understanding that within the bounds of practical reason she has freedom of choice and is not, as a trainer today described his dog, a “working machine”.
All that needs doing to grasp the veracity of my point is to consider how we as human animals suffer when deprived of the most basic and harmless rights under authoritarian rule.
Susan Henderson
© Accredited Animal Behaviour Consultant of SA
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