I don't actually think CM is all that bad. Everything needs to be taken in context, and a lot of what he teaches (or used to teach, been years since I seen anything he's done) was pretty good, IMO. A lot of his practices, while widely debated, are just that, debated. (So many different training/teaching styles) * (so many different types of people) * (so many different animal personalities) * (so many different end goals) = No one size fits all.
For a TV personality, I personally don't think he's done a bad job of portraying one type of training/behavior modification approach (his). Not really his job to provide a broad overview of techniques he doesn't believe in. Thats our job!
I am really not sure I want AVMA to say "CM is Wrong"; unless he is truly wrong about something. Again, too much is opinion and preference.
But due to my education, I can almost guarantee that I know less then everyone on these forums about behavior, the only thing going for me is I know that 🙂
I do agree with sumstorm, that he cannot be (and usually is) taken as an absolute authority. But then again, I don't believe ANYONE should be taken as an absolute authority on ANYTHING.
Touche. His techniques may work in some isolated cases, when performed by an individual with excellent timing and a real eye for nuances. However, the lay person does not have that. They watch his show and even though it says "do not try this at home without consulting a trainer" or whatever, they do it anyway. A lot of editing goes into what he does, and a lot of what he does can be downright dangerous. Some things I do agree with: exercise is great for any dog (though I don't think forcing a dog on a treadmill and smacking it when it gets off or tying it so it can't get off is good for anyone). I also agree that dogs can read our emotions and definitely play off of that.
However, the big problem you run into is when people think that leash jerking is okay in every situation, that positive punishment is to be used in every situation, and that you need to alpha roll your dog to put it into submission so it will obey you. These techniques are traditional, yes, and they have been basically debunked by science. The guy who came up with the "alpha" theory of wolf packs later recounted his theory (not before the damage had been done, though). He was observing a captive wolf pack that was not natural in any way and saw a hierarchy emerge. In natural settings, (and one can say a dog living in our house is natural because of domestication), the alpha male and alpha female are merely the breeding pair, and the rest of the pack is their offspring. An offspring grows up, he leaves the pack and forms his own.
Alpha rolling IS NOT OKAY. "Dominance downs" are NOT OKAY. Leash jerking a dog until it is blue or hanging it from its collar because it tries to bite you are NOT OKAY. Flooding is NOT OKAY (these are all things that have been shown on his show). What he is doing is actually making the dogs more dangerous (in most cases). If he stop a dog who is fearful from growling because he is afraid you are going to take away his food, you are not stopping the fear and the reason behind the growling. You just stop the behavior of growling itself. So the next time the dog is fearful, it won't growl, it will BITE. Growling is a great way for dogs to tell us they don't like what we're doing. If you punish the dog enough that it stops growling, you have a very dangerous dog that won't warn you before it attacks.
If CM were just a TV show, I might agree with you. However, we have veterinary professionals that have no real knowledge of behavior advocating his techniques that have been disproven by sound science (positive reinforcement has science backing it up, not hearsay passed from generation to generation). The problem is also that people see that he gets results (with lots of editing and no follow up to see what happens when the dog is done with "training"), people want to mimic that. It has become the hip and cool thing to do. Humans love to dominate our animals (after all, the real mission of cats and dogs is to take over the world, right? We must dominate them so they cannot achieve this ultimate goal). It makes us feel like we are powerful. That's why so many people take his word as the gospel. I would love to sit down with a CM-based trainer and ask him the science behind his training techniques--they usually are unaware of such things as bridging, reinforcement vs. punishment, positive vs. negative (no, negative does not mean that the dog is doing something bad), or any myriad of other necessities when training.
The fact that the AVMA and the AVSAB have position statements directly refuting his techniques should give you a big clue. What you will
never see on an episode of Victoria Stilwell's It's Me or the Dog is a disclaimer telling you not to try those methods at home. Because, 99% of the time, they're safe for both canine and human. The worst thing that can happen, I like to think, in +R training is that your dog gets a little fat from over-treating (which is a big misconception surrounding the practice, btw). The worst that can happen in +P training is too scary to even think about. Also, why would you want to pin your dog on the ground, tie it to a treadmill, or make it so scared that it urinates, defecates, and expresses his anal glands out of fear? That's not the kind of relationship I want to have with my dog, and I think it's one that many dog owners, if they really thought about it, wouldn't want either.
http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=366
The fact that people take him at face value is scary, frankly. The problem is that people don't question him. If people said, "oh, that's an interesting technique, let me go consult a certified trainer or vet behaviorist to work out my problem and ask them about this," I would have no problem with his show. AT ALL. That is not what happens. And that is why I dislike him.
/End rant.
I'm really passionate about this issue because, working in a shelter, I see many many many of the poor outcomes following his training methods. I'm not saying he is 100% evil, but he doesn't look at science (he said at one point that he doesn't believe in it...????) and that makes him a dangerous individual to the layperson who just sees all the hype and wants to be seen as the macho dog trainer.
There may be some errors in that rant above. My brain is working on no sleep and is coming down with a cold.
PS. I really don't want to turn this into an I hate CM thread. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss this further.
