I’m not a dog trainer.
And so, many dog guardians – or dog trainers – don’t think that I have anything to teach them.
And they tell me so often enough to warrant an explanation as to why in the world I think it’s a good idea for me to teach about dog training even though I’m *not* a dog trainer.
Actually, I’m also not a horse trainer, but the horse guardians and horse trainers that I come across don’t voice that particular concern – at least not to my face 😉 … but this applies equally to them. And yes, the same also goes for all the other animal species out there.
This blog post could be named Animal training is like brain surgery, and everything that I discuss here is equally relevant to other species too.
Just replace the word “dog” in everything that follows with your preferred species..!
I think that the mistake that people make is that they think that dog training is sort of like driving a car.
And naturally, if you want to learn how to drive, you should learn from an experienced driver. They don’t have to be a mechanic or understand what’s going on underneath the hood, but your driving teacher needs to have personal experience in driving, and that’s simply non-negotiable. Anything else would just be preposterous.
And I totally agree! That makes total sense – when it comes to learning how to drive.
But here’s the thing.
I think that dog training is more like brain surgery than it is like driving a car.
I explain why here:
So, if we lack information on a complex subject, we often don’t realize the number and diversity of skills needed to learn that subject. And incidentally, as the Dunning-Kruger effect illustrates, if we only know a little about that particular topic, we tend to be very confident about our knowledge: we’re on Mount Stupid.
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