Many people have deep emotional reactions to power and even the word power. This is understandable. How power is used and our views about power influence much of our lives. Power is the realm of control, domination, and influence. How power is used is a life and death reality. However, people also live their lives in a realm of make believe because of how power is perceived. Some errors made about power are useful to us, and therefore we’ll never let go of these beliefs easily.
There are different kinds of power. Dog training provides a wonderful venue to learning about how to use power. We have many options of how we’ll respond to our dog’s behavior. When training a dog we have a choice as to what types of control we’ll implement. We can use force and totally dominate our dogs or we can use all positive reinforcement and try to take social control totally out of the picture.
There is also the question of how much should we control our pets. Some people want total control and others let their dogs do whatever the dog wants. What responsibility does the dog owner have to society, to the dog, and to themselves? How much effort should dog ownership entail? Is there a practical answer or perhaps there is a moral one.
The truth is that there is no easy answer. Sometimes total control may be required for the good of the individual or society. An area where even some of the most ardent positive reinforcement trainers will agree to use negative reinforcement is in snake proofing dogs. Snake proofing dogs is done with a very impactful aversive stimulus. While this stimulus may be unpleasant it’s safe and much better than getting bit by a poisonous snake.
At other times the greater good of society is best served by using positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement will need to be used in all governments if we’re to ever have a just system that encourages peace and happiness.
Have you ever thought about why Mohandas Gandhi said “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”? It is because in the eyes of our governments the individual is nothing. At our most basic level we’re no more that Gross Domestic Product livestock. The individual is but a mere revenue source that enables power. When power is misused it makes for much suffering. The people are the slaves of the state. We submit to the state. Who is it that allows you to leave your home and visit another’s territory? Who lets the dog out? Is it only the neighboring group that must accept you or do you need a license, with a license number, restricted by a length of time.
When we’re skilled at dog training we can see the world for what it is, and work to change the bad to good. We can work to make the world a better place. From dog training we can see there are some similarities with how a government treats its people and how the people treat their animals. Which come first the people developing saintly ways to interact with animal or governments acting more saintly towards there people?
Love and power are intimately connected. Little love and higher love can be cultivated through the use of power. We must evolve a social system that promotes acceptance and higher love for humanity to survive as a species. If we cultivate the fields of little love we will harvest Armageddon.
Little love leads to hate, higher love leads to acceptance.
Wishing all the very best in dog training and in life,
Andrew Ledford