* Before anyone gets started, I'm not saying that dogs never need to be under control - they very definitely should be under control out in public, in areas where other dogs/people/livestock/wildlife may be or anywhere that they could be in danger.
So what do I mean by cooperation, not control? I'm talking about the way in which we train our dogs, teach them the cues that we need them to know and follow.
That title up there started its existence as part of a conversation with a friend about the fundamentals of dog training and the methods that we use, and evolved into that final phrase in a handwritten message in a signed copy of a book. (The fact that people want signed copies of things I have written is still prone to causing massive grins and occasional disbelieving chuckles. 😂)
One truth that becomes readily apparent once anything you have written is out and available to anybody in the wider world is that people will often have opinions on what you have created. They will then share those opinions if the mood takes them, and nothing the writer can do may stop that. It can be intimidating, but it is not something an aspiring writer should let hold them back. Bad reviews can be hard to swallow early on, but there is no reason to become obsessed with them, and certainly not to let them restrict any future writing plans.
Dogs process their world in a way that is fundamentally different to humans. We are largely a visual species, relying on our eyes first to make sense of the environment around us. Dogs gather information mainly by the use of their nose. For around 6 million scent receptors in the human, dogs have somewhere in the region of 300 million. Brain area dedicated to analysing scent is approximately 40 times larger in the dog than in the human.
There can be a real sense when talking to some dog people that they are digging in their heels when talking about the ways in which we handle and train dogs. "We've always trained this way. My grandfather learned from his grandfather!" and so on.
A question I see frequently when perusing forums and social media etc. concerns the use of aversive training methods, and wondering why people think they are fine to use on dogs they say they love.
I still remember the first time I saw a picture of a prong collar, designed to be fitted and used around the neck of a dog. I remember that sense of disbelief, that prompted me to ask if this chain of metal prongs designed to sit around a dog's neck and dig in when a 'correction' is applied was real or if it was some kind of lingering warped April Fool's joke. Sadly, I discovered they are all too real, as are many other unpleasant devices used on dogs.
It's a well-known fact that different dog breeds have different traits, usually connected with the purpose for which humans developed that particular breed. Labradors are friendly and like to carry things. Terriers like to dig and many also like to terrify small furry creatures. Border Collies are very intelligent, herd everything, and need 4 hours of walks a day to stop them doing a wall of death around the living room.
I write that last sentence with a wry smile (and in the case of the last part, a chunk of mildly sarcastic exaggeration) as I look at my own Border Collie Finn, who flatly refuses to set a paw outside the door if it's raining and is usually found upside down and snoring. He is indeed very bright, will herd a football if kicked to one side of him and, while he enjoys his walks, isn't overly fussed how long he's walked for, so long as he gets a few minutes of sniffing time.
(I should note before I start that I do not regard my dog as a 'thing'! Thing in this instance refers to the whole bundle of events that happened after he joined our family.)
I know, that title sounds insane. I've written many times of the emotions that can run rife as the guardian of one of these complex, complicated, sensitive dogs. Of how hard it can be on us, as well as them, to drift through a sea of stress and fear, or spending a large proportion of our time outside both in a state of hypervigilance constantly on the look out for triggers and problems on the horizon. And yes, I still struggle with that at times. The tears come much less frequently now, but I remember that raw, embarrassed and humiliated feeling as yet another person sneered at me and my 'bad' dog.
