{"id":349823,"date":"2025-12-18T17:08:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/when-does-dog-training-become-animal-abuse-shay-kelly\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T17:08:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:08:01","slug":"when-does-dog-training-become-animal-abuse-shay-kelly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=349823","title":{"rendered":"When does dog training become animal abuse? \u2013 Shay Kelly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
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This is a difficult subject. It\u2019s difficult to write or speak about it without upsetting a lot of people on either side of the debate. It\u2019s difficult because humans often think in absolutes, all or nothing. It\u2019s difficult because humans are very susceptible to confirmation bias. It\u2019s difficult because humans are often outraged at any perceived criticism. It\u2019s difficult because we are, by nature, quite an aggressive species. But hey, let\u2019s give it a go.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an almost constant argument about compulsion vs none compulsion-type training. Many of the same arguments\/insults come from each camp. Each often claims the other to be uneducated and harmful to dogs. Despite having several degrees in animal behaviour, I\u2019ve been called uneducated countless times. It\u2019s just used as an insult. I don\u2019t think education plays a big role in how we treat animals. The words used in these debates have become almost meaningless. For example, I was told a few days ago that the none-compulsion trainers should be accepting of anyone who agrees to the principle of \u2018welfare first\u2019. Sounds reasonable, doesn\u2019t it? Well no, it doesn\u2019t! The obvious problem is that anyone can, and does, claim to put welfare first. \u00a0The guy who calls himself the dog daddy, Augusto Deoliveira, uses some of the most extremely aggressive methods I\u2019ve ever seen and would be considered by many, even in the compulsion side of dog training, to be abusing dogs. I can guarantee that if asked, he would say he\u2019s putting the dog\u2019s welfare first. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The word \u2018balanced\u2019 is also pretty meaningless. It\u2019s used by many trainers who use shock collars and prong collars. It is supposed to indicate the fact that they use all of the four quadrants of behaviour: positive punishment, positive reinforcement, negative punishment, and negative reinforcement. In scientific terms positive = added stimuli, Negative = remove\/reduce stimuli, Reinforcement = behaviour will increase, and Punishment = behaviour will reduce. Notice that the words differ in meaning from their everyday usage, this can cause confusion. This isn\u2019t the point of my post, actually, I don\u2019t think about the quadrants much, but I have to point out, for my own sanity, that quadrants are a way of understanding the learning process. They are not a set of instructions or list of things to cover. Placing a gardening fork through my foot at age seven was positive punishment. Prong of fork (pain) added to foot = positive. Behaviour of playing with a gardening fork was reduced = punished. Just because the theory of positive punishment can be used to explain my learning process does not necessarily justify its use. How else might I have learned? Does every child need to learn this way? It\u2019s totally illogical and without any sense of reasoning to assume positive punishment is required based on it being one of the four quadrants.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like the word \u2018balanced\u2019 because it indicates an assumption of being reasoned and fair. If using all four quadrants is \u2018balanced\u2019 there\u2019s a false assumption that those not wanting to use unpleasant consequences are unbalanced. Whoever came up with the word was smart, I\u2019ll give them that, but it\u2019s based on a lie. The four quadrants are not dog training instructions. It\u2019s. like baking a cake with a potato in the middle of it; when your guests ask why you put the potato in the cake, you say, well it was in the cupboard so I thought I\u2019d use it.<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
There are plenty of industry leaders who want to flirt with both sides of the training world. \u00a0Why fall out with people eh? Many of them sell courses, seminars, workshops, etc. It doesn\u2019t make good business sense to alienate people. I don\u2019t know the motives, perhaps it\u2019s not a business decision but an honest personal belief of inclusion. I feel some of them pushing this agenda, \u2018we should all work together and learn from each other\u2019. I posted recently that there is no such thing as balanced training.<\/p>\n
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There is no such thing as balanced training. There is training and there is abuse. Mixing them doesn\u2019t equal balance. Abuse remains abuse, no matter how you dress it up<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Granted, it is slightly provocative, but was on my personal page and the people who follow me are largely none-compulsion trainers. It\u2019s not something I\u2019d necessarily post in a group of compulsion trainers. Then its intention would be to antagonise. But still, my language was criticised. Their inference was that I was calling all \u2018balanced\u2019 trainers, abusers. In fact, they tried to lead me down the path of accepting this premise. Why? So they could then say \u2018saying NO to a dog is balanced training so you\u2019re accusing all people who say NO to their dogs of being abusers\u201d. They were actually posting that suggestion on their own page as they tried to lead me on my page. This is the world of social media I guess, full of straw man arguments. However, it highlights the very real problem of where you draw the line. When does training become abuse?<\/p>\n
For me, and I only speak for myself, if the training involves the attitude of \u2018do what I want you to do, otherwise I\u2019ll hurt you, scare you, or do something unpleasant to you\u2019 then I believe we are abusing our position over that animal. It is no longer training, in my view, but bullying. Who am I to impose my will on another being through fear or pain? To teach\/help animals is a privilege. It should be a beautiful thing. It should be an act of nurture, not one of aggression. People will try to muddy the waters for their own agendas, but that\u2019s where I stand.<\/p>\n
It should also be considered that absolutely none of us are superior, perfect, humans. We all mess up, most of us have bullied someone at some time or otherwise been less than pleasant. It\u2019s not about being superior, it\u2019s simply about not accepting abuse as a legitimate means of training dogs.\u00a0 For many people it\u2019s the norm, it\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been done, it\u2019s reinforcing for them, they\u2019re comfortable in their crowd, and they genuinely believe they are the dog\u2019s salvation. It really is difficult to change a mindset forged over so many years and I understand that, but I will not stand by and pretend it\u2019s acceptable to me.<\/p>\n
I think people need the truth \u2013 forcing dogs to comply by means of fear or pain is abuse.<\/p>\n
Hi to all the people who are going to call me uneducated \u2013 please at least make it funny because it\u2019s getting boring.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a difficult subject. It\u2019s difficult to write or speak about it without upsetting a lot of people on either side of the debate. It\u2019s difficult because humans often think in absolutes, all or nothing. It\u2019s difficult because humans are very susceptible to confirmation bias. It\u2019s difficult because humans are often outraged at any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":349824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111412],"tags":[16834,1330,2634,3788,30863,324],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-349823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-abuse","tag-animal","tag-dog","tag-kelly","tag-shay","tag-training"],"yoast_head":"\n
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