Canine Behavioral Experimentation

Farei Infrequently 2026 0608

From the Back Yard of Tarma Shena

This is the age we are living in right now.

Dog training has become a social media experiment.

I don't really know how this happened but it's something I have noticed getting worse and worse every day.

I told a dog owner yesterday that based on the information she had given me I was not going to be able to help within the limitations of a comment string. I invited her to reach out for additional training.

I was removed from the group for "Promoting Myself".

Yup, that is against the rules now. If I wasn't willing to fight through the trolls in the comment section to help this woman with her dog than I was not dedicated enough to help.

"Trainers are just in it for the money." The Admin stated. "Here we help each other for free!"

If you are concerned about animal welfare in this country, this is one of the biggest problems right now.

Everybody is worried about the beagles in a research facility and nobody is watching the thousands of dogs who are abused, neglected, and tortured with "free training advice".

You think I am exaggerating? Let me list some examples from just the past week or so.

To stop chicken killing -

• "Put the dog in a crate in the chicken house, do not give food or water until it lays down and ignores them. It only took mine four days. "

• "Tie the dead chicken around its neck and leave it until it rots and falls off. They can't stand the smell and won't touch another bird."

• "Put your dog in a small crate with the dead bird and leave it there for a few days. Just watch out for flies."

• "Each time they look at a bird yell NO loudly and correct with an e-collar. Hold the button down longer each time until they willingly avoid the birds."

Jumping -

• "Bring your knee up sharply and yell NO! If you are tall enough you can connect a little higher and get results quicker"

• "Rush forward and knock them over."

• "If they are jumping on visitors put them on a short leash and jerk them over backwards just before they make contact."

Then we have the other side of the spectrum where you just have to put up with all the behaviors, limit their interactions and environment, until some magical age when they outgrow it and finally settle down or die.

Jumping on visitors? Don't have people over.

Barking at neighbors? Move. Buy them a fan to drown out the noise. Tell them to get over it, dogs bark.

Resource Guarding? Build them their own house where no one will be around them while they are eating.

And then my favorite - "Why do you even have a dog if you don't like what dogs do?"

And that is the crux of the situation. If it doesn't work out you can just rehome it and everyone will say it's not your fault. Some dogs just do not do well in "XYZ" environment.

• It needs a home without small children.

• Without chickens.

• More room to run.

• Less neighbors.

• No other dogs or cats.

• Better fence.

Never better training.

We are not allowed to even insinuate that these things can be trained because then we can't blame it on the dog. If we admit these behaviors can be corrected then we have to take responsibility for the fact that we didn't do right by the dog in the first place.

We can say "We tried everything." Be absolved of all responsibility and send it off to a new home or rescue leaving us free to get another pup and repeat the cycle.

Behavior modification via Social Media experimentation.

That is the reality of dog training right now and I have never been more sad for dogs than at this very moment.