It matters to me not to content myself with my "sensitivity", not to advise only from what I have always personally experienced, always believed. The perception that one can have is not necessarily close to the truth without the slightest knowledge. For me, sensitivity without knowledge leads to improvisation and misunderstandings (in the best of cases).
Thus, I get educated, I study, on dogs, their domestication, their functions, their origins, diseases, how they learn, emotions, their senses, their interactions, their familiarization, etc. Although we have been cohabiting with dogs for at least 15,000 years, we have only recently sought to understand them (although observations have been made here and there). I read, I listen, I visualize, I attend. I make choices because 24 hours a day are not enough to acquire everything.
However, if science brings knowledge, my ethics lead me to favor and exclude some techniques.
Science teaches me that adding an aversive after a behavior to decrease its occurrence is effective. Yet, I refuse to do so. Indeed, if the dog performs some behaviors, it may have a particular motivation. If I just make the behavior that is undesirable to me disappear, it does not mean that its motivation is no longer there. Moreover, science also informs me that adding an aversive modifies the relationship negatively, whether temporarily or in the long term. Imagine if I yell at you every time you approach my computer with a sandwich ; if your behavior stops, do you believe that your perception of me remains the same ? Had I only that at my disposal…
Voluntarily letting the dog show undesirable behavior is excluded for me. Undesirable behavior can be, for example, barking intempestively when he is alone, jumping at the end of the leash and barking loudly when he sees certain elements, eating what is on the table. By letting the behavior happen, be repeated, I offer it the possibility of being remembered. Even if my goal is to make it disappear, paradoxically I have just favored its anchoring. What's more, how is it morally fair to let the dog perform a behavior that I disapprove of and then reprimand him (even if it's "gently") ?
Taking into account the dog's body language, the signs of his emotional state, enables me to keep him in a state where he is able to opt for other strategies, to integrate other learnings, to understand the changes to be made, to cooperate in trust.
Comments