Dog Trainers at War
It’s a dog eat dog world
Have you watched the social media presence of trainers, handlers, rescues, and behaviorists grow to untenable levels? If you were doing advanced mathematics, this would be exponential growth mapped out, and it would grow in increments by intervals of one hundred every time you turn around.
Why am I bringing this up? Because, as a dog owner, you are constantly looking for information.
Am I doing the right thing by my dog?
Did I make the right decision by buying this dog?
What training method should I use?
Of course, the ultimate answer is whatever you determine to be the right answer or what you feel is right, however, if you look online you will be bombarded by every different opinion in the universe and credentials from every category telling you what to do and how wrong you are for the decisions you made.
So why does this happen, and how did we get here?
Let’s take a look at the war between trainers and the de-evolution in the training community.
Social Media Conflict in the Dog World
Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is also right about their opinion. I’m sure we’ve all seen this and heard this before, and of course, the implications of what comes after. You must respect the opinion of what was said or stated because it’s the right thing to do.
They have credentials, and so as a person who doesn’t understand the premises or the concept of the spoken dialogue, you shrug it off and say, “That must be true.” They’ve seen it and done it! Then we all make the same mistake. We head to the comment section, and we see eighty-seven profiles with dogs in the photos or k9 in the name, and they are all infighting with one another.
Everyone’s experience is different, and so they arrived at a different conclusion. They trained a different type of dog than you, they never needed that method to get it done, their dogs are better than yours, you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve seen it all underneath some of these posts and have been comfortable enough to leave it at some browsing, but at the end of the day we’re all supposed to be here for the dog right? Wrong.
Even in closed private groups where we are all there to share knowledge, there is infighting. Even with some practices that I disagree with, I ask myself a few questions first.
Is the dog being harmed? No.
Can they reach the same state with this training? Yes.
Is my opinion going to make a lick of difference here? No.
Upon answering these, I decided to just step back away from it and not fan the fire. However, there are some nefarious characters in the dog training world, and they take advantage of unsuspecting clients and owners.
The God Complex
When we talk about the people you meet in the dog world, especially new owners, the first person inside the training atmosphere almost looks like a God.
The trainer can do things with dogs you never thought were possible. As a new owner, you start to look at this person like they’re invincible, and that’s what some, not all, trainers feed off of. Instead of working on owner education and relying on empowering you to be a better dog owner and explain things to you, they will almost relish in that power complex that you’ve provided them.
This doesn’t apply to every trainer, but if reading this makes you upset, it’s for you directly. When clients go home and can’t replicate methods or don’t understand the WHY behind the training and homework you’ve set out, then you’re not instructing, you’re demonstrating.
There is a fundamental difference between the two. I also find that most of these trainers don’t participate in one-on-ones. They are ushering people into a group class so they can become the center of attention, or worse, they can’t perform under scrutiny. When it’s you and your dog, and the trainer, the margin of error becomes very small. I say this to clients often: You don’t know what you don’t know until you know it.
About the God Complex we’re talking about, when a new client meets someone they deem to be the Dog God, they will champion that particular person, methodology, style, and participate in the holy dog war until someone changes their perspective, should it need to be changed.
“I’m right, you’re wrong.”
I can’t even begin to dig into how many people argue about styles. Even inside the same community. You will see K9 guys arguing methods, and positive-only people arguing with themselves. Then you have them fighting each other on top of that. The eternal dog war never ceases in this new hyper-politicized world.
Dog training has become so tribal that the communities, instead of sharing knowledge, gatekeep and argue amongst themselves while waging war on the “others”. Styles don’t make the dog; the trainers and owners do. I have had plenty of dogs come to me that have been messed up with an e-collar from being shocked into oblivion.
Conversely, I’ve had plenty of dogs that refuse to do anything and continually misbehave because they’ve been force-fed treats, and now, without a cookie, they won’t behave because you can’t pay them for behavior immediately, so there’s no patience.
What’s astounding to me is that both principles have a place in training, and I use both very frequently. I just have to judge the dog in front of me and see what the best course of action is. Anytime you’re on social media, you open yourself up to criticism, and that’s fine. What never happens is the education from trainer to trainer.
I’ve been personally attacked before for posting a video of doing civil agitation with a new personal protection dog. He was a younger dog, and we were getting him warmed up without equipment, so he learned to target a person. Some people knew what they were looking at, others lost their minds. I was ruining the dog, I was capping his behavior too early, and my clients needed a new decoy. I saw it all. It got to me pretty good, but like anyone, I just kept working, and that dog is one of the best dogs I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
My training in personal protection dogs came from one of the best trainers I’ve ever met. He spoke dog-like, no one else, and is employed as a K9 supervisor to this day. That’s my Dog God, and he influenced me greatly. I have veered off from some of the things that we practiced since he is so old school, but when I have a question, you can guess who I’m calling. That’s a personal bias; however, when something doesn’t work, it isn’t our job to double down. As trainers, we are supposed to find another way and work towards the ultimate goal, which is not a superior feeling but making the dog the best they can be.
This needs to stop
Can we actually end this conflict? Truth be told, I don’t actually know.
If you find a trainer that works well with you and your dog, and you’re seeing results and feel good about them, I would stay away from social media.
We all feed into it by generating likes and clicks on these videos, and it propagates the violent rhetoric that has become dog training.
I love all my clients, and the dogs love me. I even work as hard as I can to get the aggression cases to like me, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters to me. I don’t have the time to participate in this war between trainers, and silence is currently my best policy.
Your trainer should be beholden to you and your dog, not their five thousand or more followers. Until clients and trainers take back the idea that the dog is what matters most and not popularity, I don’t see a way out.
That’s not to say there is no hope.
Some trainers, like myself, post very little on social media and spend their time working with their clients on the dogs. You won’t see me debating tactics and procedures here or anywhere else. If you’re a good trainer, you will find a way to get the dog to do what you’re teaching without violence and have a healthy relationship between all of you. Not all dog training feels good; sometimes, certain things like corrections or punishment are appropriate, and they need to happen to fix a dog.
Other times, just letting the dog be a dog will help with tons of behavior, and letting them run around off leash can change a whole dog's attitude. What matters most is whether we are helping and whether we can offer up more in a healthy amount.
I’m not expecting any of this to change overnight, but with owners and trainers, please focus on your dogs and clients.
Keep training and loving on your dogs, it will make your life better.
