Least intrusive most positive
Many times we don’t even realise when we are using methods that are intrusive from our animal’s perspective. When the dog pulls we yank the leash. That’s what we’ve been told to do. We don’t think about it, we don’t question it, we just do what seems to be working. And I’ve been there too! Before I learnt anything about dog training, I was yanking the leash of my beloved husky. I thought that you have to do that. I thought that there is no other way...
You can observe the same effect within horse ownership. Many owners think that the only way to make the horse move is to have a big posture, maybe hands up or holding a whip in your hand. But let's think for a minute what in this scenario is making the horse move and what is maintaining the behaviour? When the horse moves where you wanted him to move, you relax your posture and appear less intimidating from his point of view. You took away the aversiveness of your intimidating posture (negative reinforcement). Alternatively, if the horse doesn't move, some people revert to the use of the whip. In other words, apply punishment for standing still. Next time in a similar scenario when the horse sees the whip, he moves away to avoid punishment. It's the consequences that drive behaviour.
Now I fully follow the least intrusive, most positive ethos that I learned from dr. Susan Friedman. Effectiveness (or presumable effectiveness) of a method that we use is not enough to follow it. There are also ethics that play a huge role. I highly recommend a brilliant article by Susan Friedman that goes much more in-depth into the subject.
The first thing that I believe we would have to do is to notice when we are reverting to more intrusive methods. Acknowledgement is sometimes the hardest step to do. We live on autopilot, we just do what seems to be working for us without question. I would love for you to stop for a second and look at your interactions with your animal (whether it's a dog, horse or any other animal) and ask yourself how does this look like from your animal's perspective? Is it really the way you want to communicate with your animal?
Using positive reinforcement, acknowledging the things that you want to see and reinforce them so they are more likely to happen again in the future is something that we need to learn. Unfortunately, it's a concept that is rarely used at schools or at work. Therefore it requires a process of learning. But don't just settle for "what I do is working". Positive reinforcement, when applied correctly, is incredibly effective and produces long-lasting results. Punishment, on the other hand, has it's fallouts and because it looks like it's working, you might see the immediate small results and fail to see long-lasting consequences. We all have the ability to question what we've been told to do. Just because someone says it's ok, it doesn't have to appear ok to you. Use your freedom to challenge your beliefs and look for alternative answers. Everybody needs to start somewhere. You can start today.
Be a superhero for your beloved animal, she will love you for it!
