That’s hyperbolic nonsense. There is plenty of “alpha crap” that is extremely effective because that’s how dogs function (no, that paper written by that woman about how wolves don’t have an “alpha” was throughly debunked). You can’t bring up the worst possible instance of some technique and try to sully all attempts in that realm.
Even the researcher who popularized the idea of the alpha wolf in the 60's, Dr. L. David Mech, changed his tune in the 90s when he actually studied them in the wild:
>Conclusions - The above observations show that, at least in summer, social interactions among wolf-pack members are not very different in intensity or quality from those among members of
any other group of related individuals.
He states on his personal website,
>The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf literature, at least partly because of my book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, published in 1970, republished in paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it. Although most of the book’s info is still accurate, much is outdated. We have learned more about wolves in the last 40 years than in all of previous history.
As a longtime owner of large dogs: Don't live with pitbulls or pitbull mixes. In their case it's not the owner, it's the breed; and they're all undetonated ordinance.
They are notoriously sweet, clingy and loyal, but they have a 'hair trigger' other breeds do not have. Once they get into their aggressive state, they are simply unconscious of any loyalty or sweetness they may normally have. If you own a pitbull you endanger yourself and everyone around you.
If you're going to cite a YouTube video of TV news as your source... I hardly know what to say.
Any large dog can be dangerous. They are, after all, carnivorous predators. Proper training and handling are the key responsibilities of any owner of a large dog.
So spare us the clickbait, and before you go quoting some unrefereed published number of bites by breed, at least do some rudimentary arithmetic and divide by the number of dogs of each breed in the sample population. So-called "pit bulls" are the most popular dog breeds in the United States, far outnumbering any other single breed.
My roommates' dog is a half pit and he is extremely friendly and well behaved. It's true that pitbulls are more likely to have aggression problems but the rate compared to the base rate for dogs is not as different as you'd think.
Good article. But I do wonder. She is so confident about how she raised the dog, so angry at her father's suggestion that some method of asserting herself was necessary, yet she failed to reform his behaviour, and everything seemed to get worse the longer things went on.
I hate to say it, as it was a heartfelt piece that ended with weight and sincerity, but I do implore people; find a way to make clear to your animal what behaviour is unacceptable.
Every animal I know that's indulged in this way has turned out poorly. You don't only owe it to yourself to not get mauled by your own pet, you simply owe it to others.
The anecdote about the party was nice, but could have easily ended with a dog inflicting permanent cosmetic damage to a party-goer's face or limbs, and that situation would have absolutely been the author's fault.
When we took in a rescue animal it wouldn't stop barking at me, quite aggressively. My father's partner at the time kept patting it because it was scared and she needed to calm him down. When I pointed out that patting him every time he barked at me would encourage him to bark more, she protested loudly and unreasonably over and over. But once my father put his foot down after a few of these incidents and insisted that I was right, the dog in question was firmly scolded every time he barked and within a week he had completely ceased aggression toward me, but any others as well, and he developed a wonderful friendly nature.
Dogs have limited feedback mechanisms. You have carrots and sticks, and there's no real carrot you can offer for "not barking" or "not biting". Unfortunately, with such behaviours there needs to be some sort of stick, chosen appropriately, or what is communicated is that this behaviour is totally acceptable. It would be nice to make the animals understand.some other way, but these are the tools available to us.
It feels a little meanspirited to point this out, but the conclusion of the story is exactly what I would have predicted in a situation like this, where the main carer takes pride in failing to find a way to train the animal.
People don't realize that you have to communicate with animals at their level. They don't speak English.
I watched a relative's dog for a week. It was a small breeed that barked at everyone walking by the house. The owner had given up on "correcting" (picking up the dog and cuddling with it while explaining that it shouldn't bark at everyone) it and just put up with the noise.
I wasn't having it, so when it barked at my house, I'd aggressively rush up to it, dominate its space, and stare it down. I'd then shun the dog for a couple minutes by completely ignoring it.
It only took a 2-3 days to stop the barking and I considered it a huge victory when my contractor rang the doorbell and walked in and the dog didn't even budge.
Of course, all training requires reinforcement and the dog still barks nownthat they're back with the relative. When the dog visits, it barks as well but only needs a couple reminders to stop.
> I didn’t see why my boyfriend couldn’t tolerate living with a dog.
She admits the dog is difficult and yet doesn't see why the boyfriend didn't like it. This screams of bad faith and gaslighting. The boyfriend dodged a massive bullet and the woman got a horrible dog in exchange.
18 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 64.2 ms ] threadThe only resources you need:
Don't Shoot The Dog: https://archive.org/details/PSYDontShootTheDogKarenPryor
The Other End of the Leash: why we do what we do around dogs https://archive.org/details/otherendofleashw0000mcco
News to me, and Google isn't helping. Got any keywords I can search?
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1...
>Conclusions - The above observations show that, at least in summer, social interactions among wolf-pack members are not very different in intensity or quality from those among members of any other group of related individuals.
He states on his personal website,
>The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf literature, at least partly because of my book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, published in 1970, republished in paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it. Although most of the book’s info is still accurate, much is outdated. We have learned more about wolves in the last 40 years than in all of previous history.
https://youtu.be/k9ZGEvUwSMg?feature=shared
They are notoriously sweet, clingy and loyal, but they have a 'hair trigger' other breeds do not have. Once they get into their aggressive state, they are simply unconscious of any loyalty or sweetness they may normally have. If you own a pitbull you endanger yourself and everyone around you.
If you're going to cite a YouTube video of TV news as your source... I hardly know what to say.
Any large dog can be dangerous. They are, after all, carnivorous predators. Proper training and handling are the key responsibilities of any owner of a large dog.
So spare us the clickbait, and before you go quoting some unrefereed published number of bites by breed, at least do some rudimentary arithmetic and divide by the number of dogs of each breed in the sample population. So-called "pit bulls" are the most popular dog breeds in the United States, far outnumbering any other single breed.
I hate to say it, as it was a heartfelt piece that ended with weight and sincerity, but I do implore people; find a way to make clear to your animal what behaviour is unacceptable.
Every animal I know that's indulged in this way has turned out poorly. You don't only owe it to yourself to not get mauled by your own pet, you simply owe it to others.
The anecdote about the party was nice, but could have easily ended with a dog inflicting permanent cosmetic damage to a party-goer's face or limbs, and that situation would have absolutely been the author's fault.
When we took in a rescue animal it wouldn't stop barking at me, quite aggressively. My father's partner at the time kept patting it because it was scared and she needed to calm him down. When I pointed out that patting him every time he barked at me would encourage him to bark more, she protested loudly and unreasonably over and over. But once my father put his foot down after a few of these incidents and insisted that I was right, the dog in question was firmly scolded every time he barked and within a week he had completely ceased aggression toward me, but any others as well, and he developed a wonderful friendly nature.
Dogs have limited feedback mechanisms. You have carrots and sticks, and there's no real carrot you can offer for "not barking" or "not biting". Unfortunately, with such behaviours there needs to be some sort of stick, chosen appropriately, or what is communicated is that this behaviour is totally acceptable. It would be nice to make the animals understand.some other way, but these are the tools available to us.
It feels a little meanspirited to point this out, but the conclusion of the story is exactly what I would have predicted in a situation like this, where the main carer takes pride in failing to find a way to train the animal.
I watched a relative's dog for a week. It was a small breeed that barked at everyone walking by the house. The owner had given up on "correcting" (picking up the dog and cuddling with it while explaining that it shouldn't bark at everyone) it and just put up with the noise.
I wasn't having it, so when it barked at my house, I'd aggressively rush up to it, dominate its space, and stare it down. I'd then shun the dog for a couple minutes by completely ignoring it.
It only took a 2-3 days to stop the barking and I considered it a huge victory when my contractor rang the doorbell and walked in and the dog didn't even budge.
Of course, all training requires reinforcement and the dog still barks nownthat they're back with the relative. When the dog visits, it barks as well but only needs a couple reminders to stop.
Her father is being rational. And as much as she tries to do good for that dog, she's still eating the flesh of slaughtered animals.
I feel a lot of women have a tendency to get deep into this. It's the strong maternal instinct.
She admits the dog is difficult and yet doesn't see why the boyfriend didn't like it. This screams of bad faith and gaslighting. The boyfriend dodged a massive bullet and the woman got a horrible dog in exchange.