I have never claimed to be the “expert” in anything, I simply love psychology. Even B.F Skinner, the father of Operant Conditioning – the man that dog trainers blame for their dog training – never claimed to be an expert either. The man wrote 22 books and 180 papers in his career – but never the expert. In About behaviorism – the first line of the intro went like this.
Behaviorism isn’t the science of human behavior – it’s the philosophy of the science. Philosophy is a quest for knowledge and nobody can know everything.
But throughout the dog training industry, so many are claiming to be an expert in behaviors – why? Expert in aggression? Expert in reactivity? Expert on behavioral euthanasia? That one turns my guts – because once you understand behavioral psychology – you will understand that behavioral euthanasia shouldn’t be happening at all.