30/04/2025
LANGUAGE IS KEY
Iâm not talking about dogs right now â Iâm talking about us humans. Today my friend Connor from Commando K9 Dog Walking came to visit, and of course, about 99.9% of our conversation revolved around dogs.
A big topic we kept coming back to was how much people misunderstand what theyâre actually doing with dogs. Itâs very easy to dress things up for owners in marketing â and then convince yourself of a softer, less factual narrative. Especially because the actual facts often involve words that sound big and scary. Take, for example, negative reinforcement.
It sounds harsh, doesnât it? But the reality is, pet owners, dog walkers, groomers, vets â and yes, even parents â use negative reinforcement every single day. They just phrase it differently to make it sound softer.
The classic example: Your car beeps annoyingly when you donât wear your seatbelt. That irritating noise negatively reinforces the behaviour of putting your seatbelt on. The ârewardâ is the noise stopping.
You werenât punished â you just did something to make an unpleasant thing go away.
Or think about a groomer: A groomer might hold a dogâs chin gently but firmly by the fur until the dog holds still long enough for the groom to continue. The pressure is removed once the dog stays still. Thatâs negative reinforcement too. Itâs not pleasant, but itâs also not the end of the world. And the dogâs ârewardâ for staying still? The experience ends quicker.
Another example: A trainer using a prong collar (correctly conditioned and handled by someone competent â before anyone jumps into the comments!) to help a dog walk nicely on the lead is another form of negative reinforcement.
Side note: This is a very basic example â yes, you can move across different quadrants depending on context â but thatâs not the focus here. The point is to help people understand the language issue.
Even outside of dogs â Imagine a child who keeps trying to run into the street. The parent holds their hand firmly (which the child dislikes) whenever they get close to the road. The parent says, âIf you stay close and walk nicely, I wonât have to hold your hand.â
The child chooses to stay close to avoid having their hand held. Thatâs negative reinforcement too â the removal of something unpleasant when the correct behaviour happens.
Now hereâs where emotion clouds judgement:
On paper, using a prong collar on a dog might seem barbaric. But arguably, so is holding a dogâs face tightly by the fur to groom them. Personally, I think a properly conditioned prong collar correction for a behaviour the dog understands is far fairer than physically restraining a dogâs head while they have no idea why itâs happening.
Dogs donât understand that being groomed is for their own welfare. But they can learn rules about life clearly and fairly through proper training.
And yes â I know this can open up a huge debate.
But my point is: Most people are already doing these things with their dogs every day â they just donât realise it, because the words are wrapped up to sound nicer. Then when tools like prong collars, slip leads, or e-collars are mentioned â which, by the way, provide MUCH clearer communication than a flat collar or a halti â people get emotional.
We now have people lobbying to ban these tools â despite having zero real experience working with the kinds of dogs that truly need them.
I regularly work with dogs that have been kicked out of other facilities or failed by other trainers because they were deemed âtoo much dogâ. Yet I still get demonised for giving owners the education and tools they need â and helping them move past simply managing behaviours, into actually changing them.
Balance doesnât mean everything is equal. What is fair and balanced for one dog may look very different for another.
Please donât take everyoneâs uneducated opinions as gospel. Iâve had vets tell me Sonny is âso happyâ at the vets just because heâs wagging his tail â while completely missing his whale eyes, heavy panting, and appeasement behaviours.
Because recognising that would mean peeling back the curtain of truth â and not everyone is willing to do that.
(And yes, chat gbt helped me rewrite my words to make it clearer because my ADHD brain had me writing 5 different points in one post đ)
