This Saturday, I will be attending a seminar given by one of the leading dog trainers in the USA, Jean Donaldson. Very exciting. Jean is also the founder of the “San Francisco SPCA Dog Training Academy”:http://www.sfspca.org/academy/, which is an incredible training center that is world renowned for its programs and humane training theories. Recently, when I realized that animal behavior and training is a passion that I really want to pursue, I went to “Dogwise.com”:http://dogwise.com and happily blew a portion of my paycheck to start my dog training library. It took me just a few weeks to eat those books up cover to cover.

One of the books was “The Culture Clash”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=ourstory-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=1888047054%2526tag=ourstory-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/1888047054%25253FSubscriptionId=0EMV44A9A5YT1RVDGZ82, by Jean Donaldson. Every few pages, I found myself nodding my head in agreement, or enthusiatically interrupting my poor husband to read him some blurb about dog behavior. It was one of the most down to earth and approachable training books I have read. I really enjoyed how Jean unabashedly dispelled our cultural doggie myths while still maintaining a true love for the real dogs that we share our lives with. For example:

We are obviously fascinated by the idea that dogs might, just might, be really, really smart. When will we see there is so much that’s truly fascinating about about dogs, it makes intelligene a red herring? The discriminative ability of dogs in operant and classical conditioning, the awe inspiring power of their noses, their formidable ability to deal with a complex social environment, and their feelings and bonding are all mind-bogglingly vast topics, yet we keep harping on intelligence. It makes as much sense as evaluating humans on our ability to sniff for bombs or echo-locate. …

As soon as you bestow intelligence and morality, you bestow the respoinsibility that goes along with them. In other words, if the dog knows it’s wrong to destroy the furniture yet deliberatley and maliciously does it, remembers the wrong he did and feels guilt, it feels like he merits a punishment, doesn’t it? That’s just what dogs have been getting — a lot of punishment …

The myth gives problems to dogs they cannot solve and then punishes them for failing.

I see people falling prey to pre-concieved anthropomorphisms daily at my work as a vet-tech. I guess that’s one of the reasons this book resonated with me so much.

And now I can get it autographed. :)