Striking fear into dogs isn't the best way to train your pooch. Find out why.
Are you afraid of spiders?
Is your heart racing reading this? It would be if you were terrified of spiders or snakes or whatever scares you and I forced you into a whole herd of them. And then to be extra unhelpful, what if I decide to tie a bunch of spiders to you? Would you scream (as a dog might growl)? Fight like mad? Or get very still as you move into an overwhelmed state?
Where am I, a dog trainer, going with this? Stick with me.
By now you’ve probably read some of the intense, worldwide blowback facing TV personality Cesar Millan and his Nat Geo show Cesar 911.
To recap, Millan took a French Bulldog-Boston Terrier mix named Simon with a history of killing pigs into a pen of pigs for a training session — and then he turned the dog loose.
Millan wildly chased Simon, saying “I’ve got this,” over and over again. He finally caught the dog and forced him onto his side, into an “Alpha roll,” which triggered Simon’s own fight or flight response.
Simon went into fright mode, and he surely would have attempted to flee again were he not so scared. In the face of this threat, Simon became very still. Stillness in a situation like this is far too often misunderstood by dog owners as an obedient behavior.
Trainers who use an Alpha roll count on dogs — our proclaimed “best friend” — to shut down, give up the fight, and slink into a state of “submission.”
The dog went from a pig predator to being scared of them — based on intense body language such as ears pulled back, trying to pull to get away, dejected tail, stiff body posture, stress panting — in just 24 hours.
Millan has stated in numerous interviews since this incident that he “was the dog’s last chance.” Why was that? I don’t blame the owner, as she did what we ask owners to do and that is to take troubled dogs to a trainer. In this case, a credentialed, certified behavior expert (such as a veterinary behaviorist) would have been the most qualified to assist Simon.
You can also walk away knowing that dogs with behavior issues should not be thrown to the wolves, pigs, spiders, or a TV show that exists for our entertainment. Dogs showing their teeth, those who have their hackles raised, or those who are so overwhelmed in fear that they freeze and shut down should not be forced into these behaviors for human entertainment.
You can do something about this. Dogs have no voice, so it’s up to all of us to speak for them. Join the thousands of concerned dog lovers who have signed this petition to get Cesar Millan off the air.
So now you see why a pit of scary spiders has a lot to do with submissive dog training techniques. It just isn't the way to go about training a doggy. Hopefully, striking fear will be erased from common dog training practices in the future.
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