mardi 2 mars 2010

A shocking way to train a dog

I'm so pleased to see that Wales is to be the first part of the UK to ban the use of electric shock collars for “training” dogs. http://ow.ly/1bmSn Wales hasn't always had a very good track record for canine welfare, since it houses more puppy farms than anywhere else in the UK.

This has happened because a lot of animal welfare groups have been working with the Welsh Assembly to ban what the RSPCA calls “a cruel, outdated and unsuitable method of training dogs.” They say “electric shock collars train dogs through pain and through fear”. Just ask any dog that's ever been subjected to them.

So that makes me wonder, again, about Monsieur César Millan and his methods. I have never seen one of his programmes, but I have seen parts of them on YouTube. In one, he seems to be using a shock collar on a dog which does not like cats, although he doesn't say he's using one.

I was puzzled about that, so I asked Monsieur Millan a question about it, a month ago, via Twitter.

@cesarmillan Did you really use an electric shock collar on this dog monsieur? http://ow.ly/ZNi6 If so can you explain why, s'il vous plait?

I didn't get a reply. I know he's very busy and I'm only a little dog, but I would still like to know the answer to my question. I'm pleased to see that if you put “Cesar Millan electric shock collar” into Google, my question comes up on page one, so it's there for all to see.

And I'd like to ask again. If Wales thinks these shock collars are so bad they have to be completely banned, why does Mr Millan think they are a good thing to use? If he uses them, why doesn't he say so, at the time he's using them. And why doesn't he warn people that their use will shortly be against the law in one part of the UK.

Most importantly, why doesn't he tell people that while it might, just might, be ok for very experienced dog handlers and trainers to use them in exceptional circumstances, with great care, they should definitely not be used by inexperienced dog owners unsupervised at home.

For those of you new to my blog, ma maitresse rescued me from a rehoming centre where I was very frightened, so now I can get a bit aggressive if I feel threatened or I don't understand something. I'm gradually training ma maitresse in the best way to explain things to me, so mostly we get along fine and I now have her trained to give me treats when I do the right thing.

Luckily, she's not keen on Mr Millan and his methods. She doesn't believe in his dominance theories. Nor do I. If ma maitresse wants to be pack leader, that's fine by me. I'm only a little toutou, and a scared one at that. I don't want to be top dog. If I growl a bit sometimes it's because I get worried when I don't understand things. Luckily, she usually gets down to my level and explains things a bit more clearly and gently. If she grabbed me by the throat and threw me onto my back – I think M. Millan calls it an alpha roll – I would be so frightened I would definitely bite her.

I try to read everything I can about new ideas to help us dogs train our human beans, and I read this very interesting article on M. Millan and the principle of parsi...parsley .. keeping it simple. http://networkedblogs.com/Crlt (Please excuse me, my heenglish is not very good). I like this article, it makes a lot of sense to me.

When I growl, I'm trying to tell you something, usually that I'm afraid because I don't understand what you just asked me to do. Because even though human beans are supposed to be intelligent, they sometimes don't realise we simply don't speak heenglish, or French, or any other human language. We speak dog, and body language. Very well. Much better than they do. So sometimes when they bend over trying to be friendly, they're really saying something scary and threatening in dog body language.

Most of us dogs know when we're onto a good thing. We don't want to become “pack leaders” in the human bean world. All that stress- who needs it? Going to work, paying bills, doing the shopping. Merci, mais non.

We're perfectly happy to be your faithful companions, ready with a lick and a wag to cheer you up when you need it, desperately keen to get the rules right in your complicated society. Sometimes we get them wrong. When we do, please just ask yourselves – could I have explained that a little better, and give us a second chance.

Please don't ever, ever, subject us to electric shocks, prong collars and choke chains, because they are never the answer.