We are bringing home a new puppy this weekend. It has been my daughter’s dream, and we all are incredibly excited. I used to have a dog long time ago, but things have changed since then in nearly all aspects of dog ownership, from food to training approaches to the amount of information available. I’ve been enjoying the period of waiting for the puppy to grow old enough to be taken home by making most of it and reading the book I wanted to read even before we were considering taking a puppy – “Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Prior. As with many great books, this one goes beyond dog training to a much wider context of shaping behaviours by positive reinforcement. It is uncanny how similar training of humans (indeed, education) is to that of animals. The book is so direct in making these analogies that it even took me aback a little bit: “I get it that it’s effective, but is it really alright to treat kids and loved ones like dogs?” I am over exaggerating the moral dilemma, but there is an unsettling aspect of whether behaviour shaping is too manipulative, at least when applied to human relationships.
I rationalize the issue for myself by shifting my perspective to that of the trainee (e.g., the dog). This is beautifully illustrated by Jane Killion her “Puppy Culture
” video, which was recommended by our breeder. Take for example an exercise of taking a bone away from a dog and rewarding him with a higher-value treat for giving up the bone. On the one hand, this is, essentially, imposing your view of the social structure and overriding a perfectly natural canine behaviour (resource guarding). But on the other hand, you are enabling the dog to use his behaviour to manipulate the environment (your giving him a treat). So who is manipulating whom is a matter of perspective.
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