05/09/2025
O mundo dos cães, do Treino, do comportamento... de tudo o que os envolve é tão mais complexo e abrangente do que o que as discussões atuais fazem passar.
O conhecimento adquirido nas últimas décadas é tanto e porém continuamos a discutir o s**o dos anjos, enquanto os anjos levam porrada e são incompreendidos.
Temos de fazer melhor que isso.
Nós profissionais, temos de fazer melhor.
So much of the dog training world is still stuck in the 20th century. Behaviourists chanting “you need to learn about negative reinforcement” or “that’s a punishment - the dogs reduced his behaviour!”; or ethologists reducing dogs to hard-wired instincts based on village dog behaviour “you just have to learn where your dog came from man”.
Don’t get me wrong, both schools gave us something, but clinging to them as exclusive explanations does our dogs a disservice.
Guys - the science and practice has already moved on.
Tolman (1948) showed rats form cognitive maps — they weren’t just conditioned.
Garcia & Koelling (1966) proved preparedness — nausea links to taste, not tone or light.
Harlow (1958) demonstrated comfort mattered more than food.
Bandura (1961) revealed learning through observation without reinforcement.
Ulrich & Azrin (1962) saw rats working to attack intruders as a reinforcer.
LeDoux (1990s) mapped fear circuits showing emotion isn’t a simple reflex.
Vygotsky and Piaget taught us that minds are built socially and developmentally, not just reinforced.
Yet here we are: it’s 2025 and too many trainers are still peddling the idea that behaviourism (or ethology) is the whole picture. It’s not. Pet dogs are not machines, and they’re not village dogs.
They are living, thinking, feeling animals whose behaviour is shaped by cognition, biology, emotion, motivation, and social context. And we can use these studies to inform practice that works smarter and quicker and makes so much more sense to them!
That’s why at The JRH Academy, I refuse to flatten dogs into one narrow paradigm. What I teach is built on modern science - the whole picture and the experience I have applying it to create meaningful practice that works - so trainers can finally step beyond the tired “click & treat vs instinct & breed” debates and start doing right by the dogs in front of them.
If you’re ready to train beyond behaviourism, beyond ethology, and into the science of what dogs really are then this is your invitation. DM me with the word READY and I might even chuck in a discount. ###x love you!
