Black, White, and Shades of Gray
I was dining with a friend recently when the topic of Flexi leads in scent work came up. My friend was admonished at how readily commenters would tell her, “Flexis aren’t allowed at AKC events!”, despite this being a falsehood. Earlier I’d confessed to her that despite competing at the highest level in both AKC Rally Obedience and Scent Work, I have never read the rulebooks for either sport. Everything I know (or think I know) is because someone told it to me. And before this conversation I would have told anyone who asked me that Flexi leads are not allowed at AKC events. (I still have not read the rulebook, and am now just taking her word on what it says about Flexi leads! She seems very knowledgable and confident, though, so I’m running with it).
This blog is not about Flexi leads. This blog is about rethinking what we think we know.
The most intelligent thing my graduate school professor ever said was, “The more you learn, the less you know.”
What? That’s not true! That makes no sense. If I learn more, I know more!
When we first begin acquiring knowledge about new interests, we are very confident in the things we learn. As we continue on the path of discovery it becomes apparent that there is much more to know than we realized. Each deep dive, each rabbit hole we go down, exposes infinite detail of things to learn, hence, we realize that with each accumulation of knowledge we know LESS of what there is to know than we thought we did in the beginning.
How much of what the general public “knows” about dog training is because someone told them? How many of those someones “know” this about dog training because of the proliferation of a certain dog training celebrity who’s training methods are based on disproven theories; Disproven by their own originator?
If you’re pickup up what I’m putting down you know I’m talking about Cesar Milan. For more than two decades this dog training celebrity has been on our airwaves, championing a type of training that contradicts what we know to be true about animal behavior, and that most (myself included) find abusive and dangerous. There is no doubt that his example was the feeding ground for what led to the highly abusive “social media trainer” influencers that are proliferating today.
Which brings me to a short, but important read: Plenty in Life is Free by Kathy Sdao, ACAAB.
Reading this book right after the aforementioned conversation with my friend got me wondering how many people might just need permission to think past what they’ve been told. In fact, the reason so many people find dog training so confounding might, in fact, be because what they’ve been told about it is so contrary to what their gut tells them about how to treat a dog they love.
Kathy’s book comes in at less than 100 pages, and is packed with a succinct explanations on why these old ideas are harmful to your relationship with your dog(s), and some basic premises on which to base your training that will immediately help you improve your ability to communicate with your furry family member.
This is also an important read for anyone working as a professional in a dog training field, as it’s packed with ways to explain this shift in methodology to potential clients. One of the greatest hurdles I’ve encountered is getting past these old ideas that are ingrained in so many.
Hand me your dog and I’ll train them — but if the dog’s owner doesn’t have buy-in on the training methodology I’m wasting my time and their money. The first step is always owner buy-in.
