No Cookie For You!

What’s it say about dog training, when I write an article about dogs meditating, it gets a few hundred views, and a couple of shares.

But, when I write about choke chains, it gets more views than anything else I’ve written. It gets shared to tons of places. Gets discussed all over the place. And not in a good way. In a “look what this asshole said” way.

It’s just like when you’re training dogs. You do something to have one result, and end up causing something entirely different.

You chastise your dog for being sketchy towards a person because you don’t want them doing it again…..

And they like people less, because they keep getting in trouble when they come around.

Boom….. Cobra Effect.

(I know, I did that too.)

I know that the people that respond with such vitriol are trying to change the world of dog training for the better. They are sticking up for the humaneness. The kindness. The “positivity”, of the process. They want to get away from all the brutality and dominance they see in the dog training world.

And that’s an amazing gesture. One that I totally support, by the way.

Here’s the rub…..Most people who write want people to read. They (even if subconsciously) write what gets more traffic. Well, all you people that are trying to stamp out the negative methods, are giving people like me the encouragement to write more “negative” stuff.

It’s funny. If only all you “Purely Positive” people could treat writers like me like you treat dogs…..

I’m getting all sticks. and no carrots.

What happened to the principle of ignore what you don’t like, reward what you do?

How come when someone writes a “boo, hiss” response and shares the article 3 times on other forums, driving emails my way, they don’t make sure they respond on the few articles where I may show a glimmer of humanity?

Surely, you can find something I’m saying worth encouraging, no?

Shit a broken clock is right twice a day.

But…..

NO COOKIE FOR JAY!

Nope, I get only punishment. No reward.

Fortunately, I’m not a readership based guy. This blog is for me to form my thoughts, so I just say whatever the hell starts to come out of my brain. (sort of like real life). So, I will continue write the useless, non-readership building, love, kindness, and commitment to dogs stuff (I mean what could be more “fairy farts and rainbows” than a god damn dogs meditating as rehabilitation article?!). In spite of the fact that you people are trying as hard as you can to encourage me to write more “choke chain” type articles.

Next time you want to shit on an article, maybe read the rest of their stuff, and see who they are. Maybe encourage them in the articles that aren’t demonic. Shit you give a dog a cookie for looking toward the placeboard if you’re trying to shape behavior. Maybe throw a “nice article”, “more like this”, or “I knew you had it in you” occasionally. You might have an effect. Or at least closer to the effect you’re looking for.