The Beast Without

Local Dog Whisperer: Rehabilitation isn’t ‘cure’ – Part 3

Mike — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:37:52 +0000

In the final post in this series (delayed I know), I’ll offer some thoughts on just one or two of the issues that most concern me about how some trainers and behaviour professionals approach “aggression” cases in dogs. This I’ll contrast with more established and informed methods of B-Mod (behaviour modification), as well as some of the advantages of more recent advances, incorporating an assessment of emotion and mood and its relationship to behaviour. I do this for a simple reason – since I first started working in this field I have been consistently alarmed at just how many ‘trainers’, ‘consultants’ and ‘behaviourists’ continue to ply a very lucrative trade based on claims of knowledge and expertise, or near-miraculous instinctive skills, they appear not to possess.

Instead, what I encountered over and over again in consultations were clients that had been sold a garbled rehash of obsolete ‘show-the-dog-who’s-boss’ techniques or else some collection of fable and fabricated wisdom that the seller didn’t seem to really understand. Time and time again vets would refer clients to me who had been through at least one previous attempt at professional behaviour-change, sometimes many more, which had had no effect whatever, or oftentimes had become much more unpredictable and dangerous instead.

Local Dog Whisperer: Whispering Sweet Nothings – Part 2

Mike — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:05:58 +0000

‘Dog Whispering’ is largely a media contrivance. It alludes to the “Whisperer” moniker made famous by Monty Roberts in his work with horses, and directly appropriates the title of Paul Owens’ 1999 book “The Dog Whisperer” – a very different kettle of fish entirely, promoting as it did an entirely positive reinforcement approach to training dogs.

Local ‘Dog Whisperer’s’ dogs bite.. again: The Incidents – Part I

Mike — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:32:42 +0000

Accidents do happen.. or so they say. And I guess it’s true (rhetorically, in any case), that any dog can bite under some specific set of circumstances. But when the dog that bites is owned and supposedly under the control of a controversial and opinionated young ‘dog rehabilitator/shaman/psychologist/whisperer’ with no recognizable roots in the local dog world, and no apparent industry-specific qualifications in a field already compromised by its lack of official regulation, it quickly becomes controversial.. and newsworthy. And when this sort of thing has happened twice to the same self-promoting individual, in different places and at different times, with each event posing serious questions about the human judgment in play, it just screams out for an investigation into the circumstances that led to this, and of the bona-fides of the individual implicated.

One year ends, another begins..

Mike — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:31:28 +0000

It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m looking back on a tumultuous year, and beginning to contemplate the onset of another. Still mid-summertime, the summer holidays linger lazily onward and everyone around me is in a characteristically relaxed and post-festive torpor. And yet life goes on with its infuriating and disdainful disregard. In retrospect, 2011 was a difficult year for many people all over the world, both financially and in so many other ways, and all realistic indications suggest that 2012 is unlikely to be a great deal easier. And of course difficult times for people usually implies a tougher time for animals; especially those that share our homes, communities and resources.

The flipside of holidays

Mike — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:16:17 +0000

The holiday season is upon us once again and spirits soar as we contemplate this annual break from drudgery, commitments and work. A departure from the mundanity of everyday rituals is suddenly on offer, as is the possibility of spending more quality time with friends and family.

Read more on The flipside of holidays…

Videos: Recent scientific research about dogs.. and us.

Mike — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:51:11 +0000

Despite their unparallelled popularity amongst humans, until the end of last century there had been very little dedicated scientific inquiry into the domestic dog. Not into its behaviour, the beguiling history of its domestication or even that ubiquitous bond they seem to have forged with our species.

The ties that bind

Mike — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:11:15 +0000

As detailed in an early post on this blog, this time last year my eldest brother passed away. In this last week, as I sat pondering what I should write about in this latest post, this anniversary seemed to subsume everything else. It was clear to me that whatever subject I chose would have to acknowledge my introspection, and the enhanced sense of missing that this landmark has evoked in me and others that knew and loved him.

The fireworks menace: thoughts and some tips

Mike — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:01:06 +0000

This week I was reminded yet again about the extent to which personal investment – and that includes emotional reflexes and ideology as much as more obvious material interests – narrowly determine the way people interpret what is going on around them in the world. Also, how much it influences most of the important decisions they make, even when the downsides seem so glaringly obvious. And all this despite our current epoch supposedly being defined by scientific rationalism; a time in which evidence is meant to be considered the central and determining tenet. Still those more subjective influences seem very often to hold far greater sway in how and what we decide to do.

Videos: Jaak Panksepp

Mike — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:46:02 +0000

So far I haven’t posted any multimedia other than the usual photos that accompany my written posts, but I hope the following videos will provide an informative follow-on from my last piece on core emotions. As fascinating as the subject is, Neuroscience is by definition a really obtuse and complicated field. And Affective Neuroscience – the study of those very basic, biological emotional systems that lie at the very foundation of consciousness – is even more so.

Emotions Are Back

Mike — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:02:02 +0000

“We are like people looking for something they have in their hands all the time; we’re looking in all directions except at the thing we want, which is probably why we haven’t found it”