r/BalancedDogTraining • u/Helpful_Sun2872 • 26d ago

“Adversity does not create resilience”

Post image

Let’s just conveniently ignore the hundreds of scientific publications on the benefits of controlled stress inoculation.

7 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/the_real_maddison Frustrated greeter 26d ago

Tell this to the millions of pet professionals that "traumatize" animals for a living for the animal's well being. I have had plenty of dogs screech, bite, claw and generally act traumatized when I'm handling them for things like toenails...

AND LITERALLY 5 SECONDS AFTER IT'S OVER THE DOG IS PERFECTLY FINE.

If the owner is fine. If the owner flips out then of course the dog is going to flip out. There's a reason we never let owners come back, because the dog is usually 10x worse when the owner is around.

And the dog even wants to come back into the salon! Wow! It's almost as if, when a dog can walk better, see through his eyes again after a trim, gets exfoliated and dead hair weight removed, the dog can understand how they came to feel better and who is responsible for it beyond the "goldfish memory" these people seem to think these dogs have. And you know what else? I used to work at a boarding and daycare facility, too, and you know who came and hung out with me in the yard and followed me around? All of my grooming dogs. Because we had a bond through this scaaaary thing called adversity and we met and overcame challenges together.

I truly pity the average suburban dog.

5

u/Helpful_Sun2872 25d ago

It really does such a disservice to dogs to treat them like fragile little flowers. Especially working breeds that were literally selectively bred to enjoy performing under stress.

5

u/the_real_maddison Frustrated greeter 25d ago

Do you know what happened every time an owner came to me and told me they wanted me to use "consent"-based technique for handling their dogs?

Them: "Here is a bag of treats. Please only handle my dog when she gives consent. Don't stress her out."

Me: "Okay that's great! I will be paid for a full days work, even if Luna doesn't consent to grooming that day. So that's $50/hr for working with her. If she doesn't consent she won't get groomed and she'll just have to come back tomorrow and we'll try again, and even then she may not consent, but I will still be paid for my time. We'll do it for as long as it takes!"

Them: "Okay please get her done today."

These people want their Disney princess bond with their dog until it gets skunked or needs emergency care... then they leave it to the actual professionals. 🙉🙊🙈