What does it mean to have a best friend? You trust that person, you respect that person, and you’re confident around them cause you know they have your back – and wouldn’t ordinarily put you in harms way. There is 2 way loyalty. Would you call a person you don’t trust a best friend? I wouldn’t… You wouldn’t either.
What does Mans Best Friend mean? It’s the same with the human best friend. My dog is my best friend – he is loyal to me and I am loyal to him – he knows I got his back, knows that I will step in to protect him from harm. That’s what gives him the confidence to be off leash and deal with everything that comes his way. i’ve always encouraged Monty to stand on his own 4 paws – I’m here if you need me – but he’s learned to do things on is own. I trust Monty, I respect Monty – and I had to take the time to earn his trust, his respect. It’s mutual. He is an independent dog and that’s what I wanted
i couldn’t fathom needing to bribe my dog to get him to do something for me. I couldn’t imagine locking my best friend up in a box for my convenience. I couldn’t imagine wrapping a prong around my dogs neck and cranking and yanking to punish him. Or using an e-collar to shock him when he’s suffering an emotional outburst. He would never forgive me – and I don’t blame him – because none of this crap belongs in a healthy relationship. Why is that so hard to understand?
Radical behaviorism is quite Radical. Radical behaviorism would tell you to replace your dog with a human child and ask you what you would do differently. When I tell people – if I wouldn’t do something to a human child – i wouldn’t do it to a dog. And I take that seriously.
If your child is scared – would you shovel food into their mouth? Would you crank and yank on a prong on that scared childs’ neck? Would you shock your scared child? No – cause it would be called abuse – and it wouldn’t work. But yet, lets do it to the dog and expect different results? This is the insanity called dog training – and people have the nerve to wonder why it’s not working? Now – why does all this exist?
Because B.F Skinner was doing experiments in lab on animals to understand OUR behavior – the man was a human psychologist. He replace “human” with dog, pigeons and rats and learned all about our behavior. We are no different behaviorally from the dog, the pigeon or the rat. And I know it’s a bitter pill to swallow – but swallow it you must.