Category: Ethics

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Ethics Problem Solving Weathering scepticism

What can we learn from Cesar Millan?

Revised August 2024

Are you ready for a challenge?

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Everybody’s got some valuable knowledge – a “yellow umbrella”. Finding it can be challenging. 
Find the yellow umbrella.

We can learn something from every single person.

That’s a conviction that I have.

My challenge to you is to try to find that something in every single pet owner or animal professional that you meet.

What animal-related piece of knowledge can you gain from that person?

Find the yellow umbrella. The nugget of wisdom that will change how you interact with animals.

Ignore the other, black umbrellas: the ideas, techniques and explanations that don’t fit your paradigm. And here’s the challenge: though you might find these black umbrellas appalling – the task in this exercise is to ignore them rather than allow them to flip your lid.

Rather, pick and choose that which resonates with you. What you find might be an animal-related technique, a piece of knowledge, or merely an idea that you can mold to fit your own framework.

I try to approach animal trainers from all camps with an open heart and mind, knowing that they all have some insight that will help me improve my understanding of the world in general, and animals in particular.

So, which nugget of knowledge do I find with the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan?

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Animal Emotions Ethics Weathering scepticism

Are dogs separated from mom too early?

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In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had influences from two directions that have caused me to consider the age at which dogs are separated from their litter and mom.

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Animal Emotions Ethics

Animal trainers: take animal emotions into consideration!

revised May 2019.

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Is the dog fearful, or crouching? 

Does it matter, when you’re training?

The world of animal trainers is divided, and I find that some trainers avoid the subject of animal emotions altogether.

“There’s no need to factor in and understand emotions, just deal with the observable behaviour”, is the gist of what some trainers and animal professionals say.

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Animal Training Ethics How we learn

Why dog training programs on TV should be entertaining, educational – and ethical

Suppose you were a TV producer charged with launching a new dog training show on your network. Or in this day and age, your medium might not be television but any kind of video streaming service.

How would you go about doing that?

Which criteria would be important in outlining the show?

Some may say: you need to find a charismatic trainer, to serve as host.

TV dog show hosts need to be charismatic.

True.

That’s not all, though. I wouldn’t even start there.

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Animal Emotions Ethics

Why you should behave as if animals have feelings even if you don’t believe that they do.

Do animals have emotions: can they experience the same subjective feelings of fear, rage and joy that humans can?

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A seemingly straightforward question, and one that I recently asked on Facebook.

Here’s what you answered, Facebookers:

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Ethics Weathering scepticism

On the danger of dog collars.

There’s a debate raging in Sweden about whether choke collars are potentially dangerous to dogs.

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Pros and cons of choke collars? Photo: Elf, Wikipedia

Several influential dog coaches on TV use and recommend them, other experienced dog professionals argue against them. It’s currently causing all kinds of shock waves to ripple across social media, which inspired me for a blog post.

Continue reading “On the danger of dog collars.”