But At Least Regarding Behavior, We Can Rely On Professionals Like Veterinarians and Vet Techs?​

Particularly disconcerting, at least to me, is when the otherwise admirable professions of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Registered Veterinary Technician, when asked and when not asked, provide companion puppy and dog training advice.

I find this disconcerting because almost without exception, neither profession includes in their formal education anything specific to animal behavior and especially canine behavior as it applies to science related to uncontrolled settings. The advice is seldom based on legitimately related science. It is instead is based on what they are now incorrectly being taught in school. Highly cherry-picked to support ideologies born of the ‘R+/All Positive/Purely Positive/Force-Free/Never Say No/Skinner Meant Two Quadrants Not Four/Everyone Gets A Trophy/Don’t Wreck The Dog’s Self-Esteem/Sit Down And Talk About Our Feelings’ approach to dog training.

Ironically, in the clinic setting, not a single veterinarian or vet tech can say that a single day of practice has passed where they practiced what they are taught to preach. Examining a recalcitrant dog or cat typically more often than not involves some element of, ‘I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.’ But take the dog back to your own home, and their clients are supposed to embrace a model for teaching tricks. In spite of the shear reams of science supports and millions of years of evolution that say otherwise. The loving authority figures of all higher-order social species (dogs, wolves, apes, humans, etc.) use a very different approach to teach life-skills.

Imagine if our parents took our veterinarian’s and vet techs ‘New and Improved Humane’ Behavior Modification’ advice in our rearing,? Most of us would end up dead or in jail. It’s no wonder that most dogs are mostly living lives of house-arrest. 

It should be noted that, at best, education-wise, related to behavior and never species-specific, veterinarians and RVTs typically have been exposed to 3 hours during their schooling. I have examined the veterinary curriculum offered by several universities and colleges teaching veterinary technicians. The very minimal that is being taught with regard to behavior is more ideology and not science if the context that it is to be applied is taken into consideration. It’s excellent for teaching tricks but not life-skills.

It’s worth repeating. Not a single higher-order social species embraces the minimalist view currently being taught to our veterinarians and vet techs. No research supports what they are taught and advising clients when it comes to the real-world settings of the average companion dog owner. Left out of their curriculum is science related to ethology, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, etc.

This lack and misdirection in their education are to a certain extent due to the insidious cancel culture influence of ‘R+/All Positive/Purely Positive/Force-Free/Never Say No/Skinner Meant Two Quadrants Not Four/Everyone Gets A Trophy/Don’t Wreck The Dog’s Self-Esteem/Sit Down And Talk About Our Feelings’ dog training. These ideologists will simply not allow real-science to be taught to the very people that could do so much good were they better equipped.

As a result, it has become close to impossible to find a veterinarian, vet tech, dog trainer, (any of the ‘experts’) that now know how to implement the concept of ‘No!’, when training a puppy or dog in a manner that is tailored to the dog’s maturity, personality such that the puppy or dog comes away understanding, ‘Oh! So, I’m not bad. You’re not bad. But, that behavior is bad.’